An influx of reciever talent is headed to the Kansas City Chiefs offense, as the team agreed to terms with the Indianapolis Colts on a trade for wide receiver Josh Downs. According to ESPN, the Chiefs will receive Downs and a 2027 seventh-round pick and send a 2027 fourth-rounder and fifth-rounder back to Indianapolis.
The Chiefs land an immediate-impact upgrade for their passing offense, which lacks depth and has become more one-dimensional than at any point in the Patrick Mahomes era. Mahomes now has another weapon to throw to alongside Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy and his stable of tight ends which includes Travis Kelce.
Kansas City owns the 10th-best passing offense in the NFL but is more reliant on yards after the catch than any team in football. The downfield attack is not nearly as prolific as it was during the height of the Chiefs’ offensive dominance. Downs was not much of a field-stretcher during his time with the Colts, seeing just 21 targets of 20-plus yards over the last three seasons in Indianapolis per NFL Next Gen Stats, but perhaps his arrival will either come with an expansion of his role or allow the existing receivers to run deeper routes.
Chiefs wide receivers accounted for just 46.0% of the team’s receiving yards through Week 9, which marked the second-lowest rate of any team, ahead of only the Las Vegas Raiders at 36.8%, according to Next Gen Stats.
The concerning state of Kansas City’s passing game also led to a reliance on running back Kenneth Walker III as both a ballcarrier and a receiver. He is the league’s second-leading rusher and last week against the New York Jets recorded his first career games with multiple receiving touchdowns. Any addition to the receiving unit should help reduce some of the strain on the Chiefs’ prized running back while also potentially opening up greater opportunities for him in the run game as defenses respect the pass to a greater extent.
Downs is the second Colts receiver to be moved in the hours leading up to the NFL trade deadline and follows Keenan Allen (who is headed to the San Francisco 49ers) as another casualty of the franchise’s commitment to a rebuild. The Colts emerged as the biggest sellers of the deadline following a two-win start to the season.
Indianapolis parted with four players who are on expiring contracts and thus secured draft capital for standouts who were likely to leave in free agency anyway. Quenton Nelson, DeForest Buckner, Allen and Downs netted the Colts a plethora of picks for them to use as they reconstruct their roster from the ground up under a new general manager who has yet to be hired.
The fire sale leaves the Colts’ wide receiver group barren. There are only five healthy receivers on the roster, including Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, who the team signed from its practice squad in the midst of its deadline day trade flurry. Those active receivers are as follows:
Standout field-stretcher Alec Pierce is expected to return from injured reserve at some point this season, but the Colts have no reason to rush him back into action as they barrel toward a lost campaign.
You can follow the latest in trade deadline news via the CBS Sports live blog.
