playBen SolakOct 27, 2026, 06:40 AM ETCloseBen Solak joined ESPN in 2024 as a national NFL analyst. He previously covered the NFL at The Ringer, Bleeding Green Nation and The Draft Network.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsAre you excited for NFL Week 8? This is our first loaded slate of the season. Ravens at Bills.
Vikings at Lions. Browns at Steelers. Chiefs at Broncos. Bears at Seahawks.
Even the not-so-great games (Falcons at Buccaneers and Colts at Jaguars) mean a lot for divisional standings.Every Tuesday of the NFL season, I’ll turn the page from the previous week to the upcoming one with seven things I think. These aren’t full-scale predictions. They aren’t concrete takeaways from the past week of NFL action, either; those are fired off Sunday or Monday. Instead, these are the uncertain topics.
They are things that might be true, but it’ll probably take the next few games to find out. And at the bottom, you’ll find a few extra half-thoughts … just those little inklings I’m unable to shake.Subscribe: ‘ESPN’s Leaguewide’This week, I’ll start with a prediction/plea for the Chiefs to make a trade for a receiver. Then I’ll put all my hope and joy on the back of a fourth-round rookie. And finally, I’ll admit I can’t do my job.Jump to: Chiefs will make a WR trade Stefanski will be Coach of the Year Goff is a sleeper MVP candidate Coleman could save Broncos’ offense Ravens’ D disqualifies them from contention QB3 Leonard starts for Colts by Week 10 Young is a complicated study Some extra inklingsI think … the Chiefs’ loss to Seattle will bully them into making the trade they need to makeHave you ever gotten embarrassed on national television?
Me neither.The 2026 Chiefs sure have. Kansas City scored three points against the Seahawks on Sunday night, marking only the second time in Patrick Mahomes’ career that his team has been held to three or fewer points. The 11 first downs the Chiefs accumulated were their fewest in 153 Mahomes starts, and this was only his fourth start without a single explosive pass. The offense averaged 4.3 yards per play (148th out of 153), produced minus-0.13 EPA per play (148th) and had a success rate of 34% (152nd).It’s easy to explain this one.
The Seahawks, off a two-game losing streak, were hosting an unbeaten Chiefs team at home — that defense was amped-up for four quarters. The Chiefs were down both starting tackles (Josh Simmons and Jaylon Moore) along with two of three starting receivers (Tyquan Thornton and Rashee Rice), and the passing offense played like it. Even the Chiefs’ ace in the hole — their interior offensive line’s dominance in the running game — was beaten in this game, as they ran into the league-best defensive tackle duo of Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II. I didn’t think it would look as bad as it did, but it’s not too surprising it fell to such dramatic pieces.Let’s also consider the larger context.
Simmons didn’t just miss this game — he has been out all season, and ESPN reported Sunday that Reid and Mahomes had to kick Simmons out of a meeting last Wednesday after frustrations boiled over. He has missed the entire season because of back issues, has recently been placed on injured reserve and missed time last season for personal reasons and a wrist injury. Rice has now missed 27 of the 43 games he could have played since the start of the 2024 season for injury or suspension. It’s not just that the Chiefs’ star receiver and early-drafted left tackle missed this past week — it’s that they’ve proven to be consistently unavailable.
Meanwhile, Chiefs’ first-round receiver Xavier Worthy dropped another pass in Week 7 as he continues to be unusable on most downfield routes.This was a one-off in that the Chiefs were dramatically outmanned and should get some of these players back from the medical tent soon. But this was not a one-off in the sense that Rice, Simmons and Worthy are just unreliable players.The Chiefs should clearly consider drastic measures. Undrafted rookie Kahlil Benson has played well enough in Simmons’ absence that there’s no need to make a big trade for a left tackle. But the need for a three-down receiver who can endure a large target volume and succeed at all three levels of the field is glaring.
Worthy isn’t even the best speed receiver on the team when Thornton is healthy, so I think Worthy should be dangled in trade packages as well — he has more value in theory right now than he does in practice.Whether the Chiefs actually will consider a big deadline trade is less clear. General manager Brett Veach has typically been active around the deadline, executing at least one in-season trade in five consecutive seasons from 2020 to 2024 before going quiet in 2025. The biggest such deal was the future third-round pick traded for Kadarius Toney in 2022. The Chiefs had just traded Tyreek Hill in the 2022 offseason and were looking for speed on offense.
Toney didn’t hit as a receiver, but he provided a big punt return in the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory that season.This Chiefs team (5-1) is as well suited for a postseason run as that Chiefs team (5-2 at the time of the trade). Through seven weeks of the 2026 season, the Chiefs are fifth in offensive EPA per play and fourth in defensive EPA per play. They are ninth in offensive points per drive and third in defensive points per drive. With an actual running game well in hand and a reinvigorated defense, this is as balanced of a Chiefs team as I can remember.
They just need some more juice on offense.play2:03Do the Chiefs need to trade for a WR to fix their offense?ESPN’s Adam Schefter has reported as such. From “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday: “They have been calling around, and I don’t think it would be a surprise to see them continue to attempt to add a wide receiver before the trade deadline.”I have five deadline deals for a receiver in mind. These are not sourced and were first written down on the back of a napkin. It’s very likely the other teams in these hypotheticals would not even listen to deals for their wideouts.
Do not yell at me on the internet about these trade proposals.1. Send Worthy and a 2027 third-round pick to the Jaguars for Brian Thomas Jr. Jacksonville benched Thomas in the second half of its Week 6 game. The only value the Jaguars were getting from him was theoretical field stretching — Worthy can do much the same, and Mahomes and the Chiefs can give Thomas a chance to rediscover his 2024 form in a new zip code.2.
Send a 2027 third-round pick and 2028 conditional fifth-round pick to the Cowboys for George Pickens. The Cowboys have 2025 trade acquisition Pickens and 2026 trade acquisition Joey Porter Jr. playing on contract years, and it’s hard to imagine they extend both ex-Steelers at market rates. If Pickens would recoup a third-round compensatory pick in free agency, the Chiefs can sweeten the pot with a future pick conditional on production levels and give the Cowboys their third-round comp pick without having to manipulate the formula this offseason. How the Cowboys play in Weeks 8 and 9 (vs.
Cardinals, at Colts) will have a big impact here.3. Send a 2027 fourth-round pick to the Eagles for Dontayvion Wicks. If I were the Chiefs, I’d be putting a first and then some on the table for DeVonta Smith. It absolutely would not work — Eagles GM Howie Roseman isn’t going to trade both A.J.
Brown and Smith in the same season — but you have to try as the Eagles stare down the barrel of a rebuild in 2027. In lieu of Smith, Wicks has all the traits of a three-level receiver — ball tracking, ability to catch away from his frame, burst, size — without any of the route or hands consistency. Grab him for a Day 3 pick and hope to run hot!4. Send Worthy and a 2027 seventh-round pick to the Saints for Devaughn Vele and a 2027 sixth-round pick.Before you laugh, that’s tied-for-22nd-in-total-receptions Devaughn Vele to you!
Vele is an entirely unexciting target, but he is also basically what the Chiefs need. He’s a
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