NFL Rumors: Chiefs Trade Marcus Peters To Rams For Draft Picks

The NFL’s league year, in which trades can actually become official, does not start until March 14. However, backroom dealing has been happening for weeks, and on Friday, the league was shaken up by the Kansas City Chiefs’ second blockbuster trade since their playoff loss to the Tennessee Titans in January.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Pro Bowl cornerback Marcus Peters is headed west, to the Los Angeles Rams.

The return the Chiefs got for Peters had not been confirmed at the time of writing. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweeted that the Chiefs would only get a bundle of draft picks and not a player, though they were apparently pushing for Rams defensive end Robert Quinn at one point.

The rumor mill started turning in the week or so prior to the trade going down. According to media scuttlebutt, the Chiefs had grown tired of Peters’s proclivity for generating headlines for reasons other than his talent on the football field. Peters was one of many NFL players over the past two seasons to routinely not stand during the pre-game national anthem. Despite finishing with a strong grade from Pro Football Focus, Peters was also one of the most penalized cornerbacks in the league in 2017.

However, it was an incident in the Chiefs’ 38-31 loss to the New York Jets that put perhaps the most negative attention on Peters last year. Peters reacted to a penalty in the Chiefs’ secondary by picking up the flag, throwing it into the stands, leaving the field because he thought he had been ejected and then eventually returning to the game.

This was the second step the Chiefs had taken to rebuilding their roster in the wake of yet another embarrassing home playoff defeat in which they once led by 18 points. In January, the Chiefs traded Pro Bowl quarterback Alex Smith to Washington in exchange for draft picks and young, talented cornerback Kendall Fuller. The expectation, at least for a while, was that Fuller would be paired with Peters to improve the secondary.

Now, the Chiefs will have to find a replacement for Peters, who led the NFL in interceptions after he came into the league in 2015. They could target former Rams corner and free agent Trumaine Johnson, who Peters is expected to replace. Broncos corner Aqib Talib may also hit the open market.