BREAKING: Chiefs make MULTIPLE moves... Major Updates | Kansas City Chiefs News

We have some breaking news. The Kansas City Chiefs have just made multiple moves and following a very exciting trade deadline by acquiring Josh Downs, they have made some very interesting moves, including one that has many Chiefs fans intrigued to say the least. We're gonna break down these brand new moves, discuss what it means going forward, as well as some more updates surrounding the Josh Downs trade as the truth has been revealed behind why Kansas City wanted Downs so bad. There is a lot to go over today, but before we get into it, a quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. Let's start by diving into the moves that they made, and there was actually quite a few of them, but let's start with Jack Pyburn. He was claimed by the Chiefs in August, made the 53-man roster, and then he was just officially waived by the Chiefs. That happened last night, and then we also just got breaking news that Nico Rahimio went out the door with him, so he was also waived, which, again, two moves to make room for Josh Downs, but these have a bit more implications than a lot of fans think. Let's start with Jack Pyburn. Of course, his story is quite the strange one. He went undrafted out of LSU at 22 years old, then had four sacks for Tampa Bay in the preseason. And at LSU last season, he had 52 tackles and two sacks in 12 games, and the Bucs liked him enough to keep him throughout camp. He was even suing the NCAA for another year of college eligibility, and he dropped it once the Chiefs claimed him so he could stay in the league. Tampa cut him, the Chiefs picked Picked him up a day later, and now... The Chiefs cut him once again, and he was a healthy scratch for all eight Chiefs games. If he does clear waivers, the Chiefs could bring him back on the practice squads. This might not be a goodbye, but it is the interesting story. And a lot of fans are talking about it because they could have. I mean, the only reason that he dropped his, I guess, law thing or dropped the intent to sue college is because the Chiefs picked him up. And then guess what happened? The Chiefs decided to cut him as well. But the bigger one here is Rahimio. He has been officially cut, and I think this is the one fans will notice more. Obviously, Dave Tobe has been in his corner since 2024, and this year, he made the team as the punt returner. In eight games, he played two snaps on offense and 55 on special teams. He hasn't been targeted once all year, and that's what made him the easiest receiver to move. Now, he did have a very impressive punt return wiped out by a holding call. I think it was last week or the week before, but other than that, it's been a pretty quiet season for Rahimio. He was also in the medical tent during the Jets game, which was the same game that Worthy left. But at the end of the day, folks, for Rahimio, I think a lot of fans are happy that he's let go. Hasn't really done a lot at the NFL level. Was taking up a roster spot. And let's not forget that the Chiefs did waive him once before in August of 2024. And he did work his way back onto the team. So I wouldn't necessarily rule out a return here either. But at the end of the day, swapping a returner with zero targets for a starting receiver in Josh Downs, it was an easy call. Obviously, paying for him was a little bit, you know. They had to pay for Josh Downs, which was fine. Very, very respectable amount they gave up. But yeah, Raheem Rico and Pryburn are both gone. But they made another move that is actually pretty intriguing in its own right. Let's dive into it. Before the deadline, the Chiefs were about $2.7 million under the cap, which is not enough room to really do anything without getting creative. And it got announced today that Nick Bolton, who was carrying a $19.25 million cap hit this year, which was one of the biggest in the defense, has had his contract restructured. Now, he re-signed in March of 2025 for three years, $45 million, with $30 million guaranteed. The Chiefs took $6.76 million of his salary and paid it to him as a signing bonus instead, which means the signing bonus gets spread across the years left in the deal, and Bolton has two left, which means now that takes $3.38 million off of this year and moves the other $3.38 million onto next year. So they restructured his signing bonus, which means with the extra $3.38 million, they managed to squeeze a trade through a window that was almost shut. So Bolton gets the same money just basically sooner and the catches a 2027 hit which climbs at 22.63 million and obviously none of this is a knock on him he's playing pretty solid but they're basically just restructuring the contract to make the trade work which we've seen before Mahomes got restructured Chris Jones got restructured in 2025 and Andy Reid said the week before that Brett Veach doesn't miss a beat and if he can make things happen he'll make things happen and he did so once again today making multiple moves in order to get Josh Downs on the actual team and again it was down to the wire though like it was less than 20 minutes until a trade deadline yesterday when it became official they were pulling off the Josh Downs trade that I think tons of people are excited about. Let's dive into why this is even more exciting than a lot of people realize. Now, there's been a mixed bag, I think, on Twitter, on Reddit, and kind of just among Chiefs land here surrounding Josh Downs. Again, they got him for a fourth. They got him for a fifth. We had now 24 hours or so, but less than that, to kind of marinate in about 18 hours. And it's very clear why the Chiefs went out and got Josh Downs. One, he really wants to be here. He really wants to play for Patrick Mahomes. But two, He gets open. Fantasy points data charts every route and grades whether the receiver actually got open on it. It doesn't care how many yards you get. It only asks one question. Was there space between you and the defender when the ball came your way? And a week before the deadline, he was third in the NFL in that score. So that's basically a separation grade. And he's still fifth of 104. So people who say that the Chiefs already had a guy like Josh Downs, they didn't. His specialty is literally getting open and creating separation, which is what this team desperately needed. And they got it. For a fourth and a fifth, that's a top five skill at a mid-round price. This isn't just one hot month either. He was 20th last season. He's been in the top 32 years running. Now, this obviously isn't a, this isn't the gospel, right? This is just a stat. But at the end of the day here, he wins routes and he creates separation. Speaking of winning routes, Downs wins 13.7% of his routes. Worthy wins about 10.6% and Rice wins 6.4%. You put him next to the Chiefs' own top receiver and the scale isn't even close. Now, the one Chiefs receiver beating that number was Tyquan Thornton, who, guess what, was the Chiefs' arguably best receiver for when he was healthy at creating separation. And Mahomes absolutely loved throwing to him. You see the correlation there? Guys who create and actually beat their opponent on the routes and winning the routes. That's who gets the ball from Mahomes when a defense plays man and takes away the first read Mahomes finally has someone who beats his guy and that is what Josh Downs is going to do now when you look at where he fits it's pretty obvious Kansas City obviously being six and two after beating the Jets passing game runs through Kelsey right now the running game of course runs through Kenneth Walker but each of the receivers right now do something fairly well right we know Kelsey's gonna do we know what Worthy is supposed to do though he hasn't really done it well and we know what Rasheed Rice does each of them does something well but Worthy and Neither of them were winning off of the line. Downs is getting around 20% of the Colts' targets and 25% of their air yards, which is right in line with Worthy and Kelsey, so he walks in as a real option here, and he also lives in the slot. This year, his outside routes have hit a career high, and that's still only about 15% of them. So Rice can move outside on the snaps, Downs takes inside, and then of course Kelsey gets one less safety sitting on him, and ESPN's open score had him tied for 14th among receivers last season. So this isn't just an opinion, this is a fact at this point. Why did they actually go out and make this trade now? One of the reasons is, of course, when, I mean, the Colts played the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football this year. Josh Downs looked really good. They saw up close and personal what he could do. Caught seven of his nine targets. Good for 72 yards. He was carving up the same secondary that he now is going to be practicing against. And with the injuries to Xavier Worthy and even just kind of Rasheed Rice not being 100% or at least not looking 100%. You needed to get a wide receiver, and the best part is not only can Josh Downs win routes and create separation, he can get open really, really fast. And for a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes, who, depending on this injury, wants to get the ball out fast, this is a very, very good move. Even as a rookie, he had 63 catches, and then over the past two seasons, 140 catches. We look at all the potential options here, and you can argue that Josh Downs is a significantly more reliable wide receiver right now compared to a guy like Brian Thomas Jr. that many fans initially wanted. Now, of course, Downs isn't going to have that offensive upside and ceiling. In theory, of a guy like Brian Thomas Jr., but there's already speculation that with Patrick Mahomes, there's a good chance that Josh Downs could go out and have a Zay Flowers type run, and to be honest with you, if he plays on Sunday in Atlanta, which we don't know at this point because there is a chance, of course, that he... Still has to learn the playbook. I'm really, really excited to see what he actually does. I do, before I wrap up, want to dive into kind of the one catch, I guess, if there's one negative of this, and it's that catching the ball. He's not the best at actually catching it, which sounds kind of hilarious, but Downs has caught 57.9% of his targets this season, which is 59th of 67 out of receivers and tight ends with at least 40 targets. For context, Worthy's at 72.2%. Rice is at 78.1%. He has five drops and some Colt fans think that asking for a trade got to his head. So, I mean, the difference here would be that in Indianapolis, he was catching passes from Daniel Jones in Kansas City. It's going to be Patrick Mahomes, but there's also the problem of downs having the eighth lowest average depth of target in the league. So I think at the end of the day, there's obviously he's not a WR1, though he's probably going to be thrown into being the Chiefs WR1. If he can kind of just work in his hands, I think a lot of it got to his head with the trade, with the Colts, and when you're not engaged, we've seen it across the NFL for years now, your numbers will severely suffer. When you put guys like Josh Downs and Rice head-to-head and you split kind of the categories, you can see why this may work as a pair. Josh Downs against man will be really good. Rice against zone will be really good. Kelsey in the middle. And it's not a huge risk here. It's a one-year deal. At the end of this, it expires. If it plays well, he hits free agency after his fourth season. And you can, of course, go out and extend him. If he doesn't play well, the Chiefs can just let him go. And that's the bet that Brett Veach is making. Folks, let me know down below what your thoughts are on these moves. Familiar face in Rahimio getting let go, of course, to restructuring a bunch of contracts. Brett Veach remains very, very active. I'm sure we'll hear some updates in practice today surrounding Patrick Mahomes and a lot of other names and stuff like that. So if you want to stay up to date with all the latest, make sure to hit that subscribe button because, folks, there is tons of news coming. There's tons of reports. There's just stuff flying all around the board. And this is the place to be. Thank you guys for watching. See you later.