While all 32 NFL teams are primarily banking on their internal candidates to either sustain momentum or help turn things around, there's still time to acquire some assistance from the outside. For clubs like the Kansas City Chiefs, a trade might be what makes or breaks the season.
As the calendar flips from October to November, the NFL trade deadline (November 10, 3:00 p.m. CT) is rapidly approaching. With needs at wide receiver and potentially elsewhere, could general manager Brett Veach make any moves to improve the roster?
If not, what about recouping some NFL Draft capital for the future and shedding a bit of weight in the process? Chiefs On SI has singled out five Kansas City players who might be appealing to other organizations for various reasons ahead of the cutoff.
When the Chiefs first signed cornerback Kristian Fulton to a two-year deal in the 2025 offseason, this couldn't have been the path they envisioned. The former Los Angeles Chargers standout was hurt coming into the year and spent most of the season buried on the bench, only to show flashes at the end of the campaign and leave just as many questions as answers entering the spring and summer.
Seven weeks into the 2026-27 regular season, has Fulton managed to clear anything up? It's complicated. He's been available for 135 defensive snaps - 40% of those possible - and has surrendered just four completions on eight targets for 18 yards ( Pro Football Reference ). He's served primarily as depth, although L'Jarius Sneed's struggles and rookie Mansoor Delane's fluctuating health might make Fulton someone to keep around.
Still, per Spotrac , Fulton only has $5.42 million remaining on his deal and could be an intriguing pickup for any corner-needy club. He easily makes the most sense as a trade chip, in this writer's view.
Update: Sneed has since been placed on the injured reserve list , further emphasizing the potential need for Fulton.
Considering that quarterback Justin Fields has played only one regular-season snap as a Chief, any team acquiring him would be doing so strictly out of circumstance or approval of his past performance. The last time we saw the former first-round pick for an extended stretch was this preseason, when he went 13-for-16 passing for 105 yards. Prior to that, it was a nine-game starting stint with the New York Jets that saw him own an 89.5 passer rating.
Still, Fields remains a mobile dual-threat signal-caller with experience in a multitude of offenses. If there's a franchise out there with an injured starter or a pressing need for a backup, making a swap like this is sensible. He's a free agent in the spring, so this wouldn't net anything more than a very late draft pick.
It's hard to see Fields being dealt twice in one calendar year, but weirder things have happened.
For one reason or another, the Chiefs' original fourth-round selection of tight end Jared Wiley in 2024 hasn't panned out. The former TCU product battled injury earlier in his Kansas City tenure, and he's been primarily a warm body in the position room in 2026. Entering Week 8's showdown with the Denver Broncos, Wiley's appeared in one game, playing seven snaps on special teams and two on offense.
Is there a team out there that thinks it can unlock something with Wiley? He turns 26 two days after the publication of this story and has one year remaining on his deal after 2026. Perhaps an offensive coaching staff is optimistic it can harness whatever's left of his athletic profile and make him a decidely rosterable player.
I personally don't believe Wiley has any trade value, but again, it's hard to completely rule out.
The case of safety Jaden Hicks, another 2024 fourth-rounder, is curious. As a rookie, he looked like a budding star at the position, yet he's been anything but that ever since. Last year was a rough one for him, although he went on to produce some highlights this preseason and got a vote of confidence from defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo in the process.
Hicks' workload is at a career-high 69% mark by snap share, although it's down to 41.6% over his last three games. Pro Football Focus credits him with nine "stops" in six contests, paired with a healthy 77.5 tackling grade, although his coverage chops are still questionable at best.
Given that Chamarri Conner is slated to become a free agent in March, it may not be too wise an idea for Kansas City to give up on Hicks right now. Should an opposing executive come with a surprising offer, however, Veach would have to at least consider it.
This one seems like the most difficult needle to thread in terms of likelihood. Not only can defensive back Chris Roland-Wallace do a bit of everything in the secondary, but he's a Spagnuolo favorite and also plays for Dave Toub's special teams unit. Add in that he's entering restricted free agency in the spring, and it makes more sense for the Chiefs to retain those rights and leave it up to the market than move him in 2026.
For all the play-related reasons, though, Roland-Wallace might appeal to another front office. This season, in particular, he's been a heat-seeking missile on screen passes and is always a threat to crash downhill with reckless abandon. He's lined up 48 times in the box, 40 in the slot and 12 along the edge of the defensive line. Last year, he had 60 reps as a traditional free safety as well.
Finding a cost-effective jack of all trades is infinitely easier said than done.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/chiefs/onsi as Ranking the Chiefs Players Most Likely to Be Traded Before the Deadline .
