A.J. Brown Says Chiefs Tried to Trade for Him Last Offseason

Philly's Pro Bowl wideout reveals that KC tried to acquire him via trade an offseason ago.

The Kansas City Chiefs' 2022 offseason went down as one known for the Tyreek Hill trade but apparently, it could've been accompanied by something else as well.

When Hill was shipped to the Miami Dolphins in late March, the state of the Chiefs' wide receiver room was in limbo. Missing veteran leadership and top-shelf talent to begin with, the team ultimately settled on a group headlined by JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling for the subsequent season. Mecole Hardman, Kadarius Toney, Justin Watson and Skyy Moore helped insulate the group, which turned out to be a unit that helped bring the Lombardi Trophy back to Kansas City.

There's an alternate universe in which things don't necessarily pan out the exact same way as far as pass-catchers are concerned, though. In a recent appearance on the Raw Room podcast, Philadelphia Eagles wideout A.J. Brown said that when teams were lining up to acquire his services via trade last offseason, the Chiefs were one of them: 

"My agent called me and was like, 'Hey, Philly's gonna try to, like, really push for you. They're trying to push for you,' or whatever. I'd been getting a couple of teams. The Chiefs tried to get me, a couple of other teams — the Jets and all of that stuff — but Philly's making a strong push like, 'We're going to see what happens.' I'm like, 'alright,' but you know what I want to do. I'm telling him, 'You know what I want to do.'"

It makes sense that (according to Brown) Kansas City was on the hunt for a top-flight receiver like him, especially in the aftermath of Hill's departure. In his first three seasons in the league prior to the trade, Brown hauled in 185 passes for nearly 3,000 yards with 24 touchdowns to boot. He then turned in the best year of his career in 2022, recording 88 receptions for 1,496 yards and 11 touchdowns while finishing ninth in MVP voting and making both a Pro Bowl and All-Pro team. That production easily cleared what the Chiefs got out of any one of their offseason additions, although putting all of their eggs in one basket likely would've altered that in a big way.

Brown wasn't traded until over a month later than Hill, netting the Tennessee Titans pick Nos. 18 and 101 on the first night of the 2022 NFL Draft. A hefty contract extension followed the trade, landing Brown a four-year commitment worth $100 million. No one will ever know what an extension would've looked like in Kansas City, but financials were one of the main reasons why Hill sought out a trade in the first place. Hindsight is 20/20, though, and it's safe to say that both Brown and the Chiefs are mostly fine with how things did — or didn't — turn out.

Read More: Chiefs WR Mecole Hardman Undergoing Offseason Surgery