The Kansas City Chiefs added a couple of key pieces to their offense in the 2025 NFL Draft, constantly looking to upgrade the talent available to Patrick Mahomes. However, one addition could mean the end for a veteran playmaker.

Kansas City Chiefs Primary Trade Candidate in 2025

Mahomes and the Chiefs dealt with several injuries in the 2024 season. Two of those were to primary pass catchers, Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown.

Brown had worked into the Chiefs’ offense throughout training camp, only to suffer a shoulder injury in the opening game of the preseason. The injury cost him the first 15 weeks of the season, and he only featured in two games as a result.

Rice’s injury was caused by Mahomes, who’d gone low in an attempt to make a tackle following an interception against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 4. As he went down, he missed the ball carrier, only to end up slamming his body weight into Rice’s knee. Rice tore the LCL in his knee and was out for the rest of the season.

In their absence, rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy stepped into a more demanding role than the team was perhaps expecting. Kansas City knows they can count on their 2024 first-round pick, and with the addition of another receiver in the 2025 class, one of their veterans could now be expendable.

Brown only caught nine passes in a Chiefs uniform in the 2024 regular season, having played two games on a one-year, $7 million contract. He re-signed this offseason on the same-sized deal.

PFSN’s Sterling Xie believes the 27-year-old could now be the primary trade candidate in Kansas City. PFSN marked Brown as the No. 1 trade option pre-draft, and now that the franchise has added rookie Jalen Royals, that potential for a trade is only amplified further.

“There’s a scenario where Royals adds a vertical contested catch element that Brown can’t replicate, squeezing Hollywood out of the rotation yet again. He’s likely the No. 4 target right now anyway with Rice, Worthy, and Travis Kelce ahead of Brown in the pecking order,” Xie said.

The Chiefs opted to cover a need on the offensive line in the first round of the draft, selecting Josh Simmons out of Ohio State. They didn’t take a pass catcher until the fourth round, but the one they selected could easily cover the role occupied by Brown.

Their fourth-round selection, Royals, had a major breakout year at Utah State in 2023. He went from zero catches as a freshman to 70 his sophomore year, totaling 1,084 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns. He was having an even more impressive year in 2024, before a foot injury took him out for the latter half of the college football season.

At the time of the Week 8 injury, Royals was on a four-game hot streak, totaling 666 yards and five touchdowns, including a 211-yard, two-touchdown performance against Boise State.

On a rookie contract, his services are significantly cheaper than Brown’s, which could spell the end for the veteran clinging to a one-year deal.