Kansas City Chiefs signed the NFL’s fastest player to a futures deal
Nobody covets speed at the offensive skill positions more than Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs. The way Reid has been able to utilize speedy skill players, especially in recent years, has led to the Chiefs ultimately having one of the most dominant offensive attacks in the game, and multiple Super Bowl victories.
As far as roster building is concerned, the Chiefs run a master class when it comes to taking chances on players and seeing if their talent can work within the confines of what Reid likes to do. Some of them work out tremendously (Jerick McKinnon) while others don’t (Josh Gordon). The point is, sometimes the juice is worth the squeeze and you might be able to get significant contributions from certain players who are former high draft picks or big-money free agents but have fallen out of favor for whatever variety of reasons.
The Chiefs, fresh off of a Super Bowl win, have announced that they’ve signed a handful of players to reserve/futures contracts. These players will officially be part of the Chiefs’ 90-man roster when the new league year calendar turns over later this month. One of the players the Chiefs inked to a futures contract is former Cincinnati Bengals first-round pick John Ross.
Ross, of course, is the fastest man in the NFL, at least in terms of players who have run the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Kansas City Chiefs taking a shot on John Ross in 2023
Ross just turned 27 last November, so it’s not like this is the Chiefs taking a shot on Josh Gordon, who is over the age of 30. He last played in the NFL in 2021 with the New York Giants where he averaged 20.4 yards per reception, albeit on only 11 receptions and 20 total targets.
Getting a healthy John Ross would be a positive for the Chiefs, but in a one-year window, this is a really fun move. Even just to see Ross briefly working in an offense engineered by Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid would be a lot of fun. Not for opposing defenses, but for fans of high-flying offense.
This isn’t some big-name free agent signing, to be clear. John Ross was a first-round pick in 2017 and has struggled with injuries throughout his NFL career. He’s never been able to really establish himself as a consistent playmaker because he can’t stay on the field consistently, but the way the Chiefs got him is just another huge “W” for their front office.
Getting an upside lottery ticket like Ross for the price of a reserve/futures contract? That’s just Brett Veach doing great work. The Chiefs, again, take chances like this all the time. There’s no guarantee that anything is going to work but if it does?
Just like we saw with Jerick McKinnon, perhaps someone like John Ross ends up playing a major role for the Chiefs at some point, even if he only plays in a handful of games. I absolutely love this move by Veach, Reid, and the Kansas City Chiefs.