The Kansas City Chiefs are the class of the AFC here in the 2022 NFL season. As a matter of fact, even though they have one more loss than the Philadelphia Eagles, you’d probably be able to convince a lot of NFL fans that the Chiefs are currently the best team in the entire NFL. On the field, they are winning. Five straight, as a matter of fact. Off the field? Well, the Kansas City Chiefs are winning there, too.
Early on this week, the Chiefs added a couple of former division rivals to their practice squad, signing running back Melvin Gordon — formerly of the Denver Broncos — and wide receiver Bryan Edwards, a 2020 third-round pick by the Las Vegas Raiders. On the surface, these moves seem rather harmless. They are practice squad additions and the Chiefs have guys ahead of them on the depth chart already playing well.
What makes these moves intriguing is the fact that the Chiefs are deliberately going after a couple of their division rivals here, signing players who didn’t work out for the Broncos and Raiders, and adding them to their program. Whether or not we end up seeing Gordon or Edwards on the field for Kansas City is irrelevant. This is a brilliant pair of moves by general manager Brett Veach for a couple of reasons.
First and foremost, you are taking an opportunity to step on the neck of two division rivals. Once again, it doesn’t matter if these two guys never play or barely play for Kansas City. Imagine if the Chiefs end the season by winning a Super Bowl. Guess who’s going to get a ring?
Second, these are low-risk, potentially high-reward moves. The Chiefs have a comfortable enough lead in the division right now that they could afford if these players come in and don’t play well enough to stick around. At least they gave it a shot. Kansas City is maximizing not only its 53-man roster but manipulating the NFL’s new rules allowing you to keep veteran players on the practice squad.
By adding Melvin Gordon and Bryan Edwards to the practice squad, the Chiefs have bought themselves three risk-free looks at both guys for the remainder of the season before they would have to promote either of them to the active roster.
Melvin Gordon was cut by the Denver Broncos because of a fumbling problem, and Edwards was traded by the Raiders in the offseason to the Atlanta Falcons, where he couldn’t catch on.
Although Gordon is certainly a risk to go back to old habits at his new destination, he was also a pretty consistent source of offense for the Broncos as a runner, receiver, and pass protector. He had 20 touchdowns for them in his first two seasons with the team. Playing in the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense, the odds seem relatively high that Gordon is going to do much better there than he did recently in Denver.
The same could be said for Bryan Edwards catching passes from Patrick Mahomes in a high-volume passing attack compared to scraping and clawing for targets in Atlanta.
These are just practice squad moves, but they are really great moves by the Chiefs to upgrade the bottom end of their roster and prepare for a deep playoff run.