3 players the Kansas City Chiefs gave up on way too soon

2. Joe Horn, wide receiver

Before he pulled out a cell phone in one of the most famous touchdown celebrations in NFL history, wide receiver Joe Horn was a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. We need players to bring back fun celebrations like that again, by the way.

But believe it or not, you could see Joe Horn running routes for the Kansas City Chiefs for the first four years of his NFL career, and they obviously weren’t the most memorable. In four seasons with the Chiefs, Joe Horn caught 53 passes for 879 yards. Most of that production came in his final season in Kansas City, which prompted the New Orleans Saints to offer Horn a pretty lucrative deal in free agency.

He signed with the Saints for four years, $9.9 million. On that four-year contract, Joe Horn became a big-time star in the NFL.

In his first four seasons with the Saints, Joe Horn had 4,890 receiving yards and 34 touchdowns on 343 receptions. He would go on to start 100 games for the Saints in total where he would become one of the best receivers in franchise history, catching 523 passes for 7,622 yards and 50 touchdowns.

In the early 2000s, Joe Horn was that dude.

He was a four-time Pro Bowl selection for the Saints and became their 4th all-time leading receiver.

Given his production over the course of his first four seasons with the Chiefs, it’s understandable that Kansas City let him hit free agency. But maybe it was the Chiefs Joe Horn was calling during that touchdown celebration to let them know what they were missing.