The Kansas City Chiefs added another veteran ahead of the trade deadline while the New England Patriots might have made their first of multiple moves before Nov. 5.
Edge rusher Joshua Uche was traded from the Patriots to the Chiefs for a sixth-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. The move ends Uche’s tenure with the Patriots after five seasons and the Chiefs get some more depth at an important position.
Let’s take a further look at the trade and dish out grades for each team.
Chiefs grade for Joshua Uche trade
Uche might not be one of the core players for Kansas City’s defense moving forward, but he could help it around the margins. The Chiefs have dealt with injuries along their front recently, with starting edge rusher Mike Danna being the most notable player in the group to miss time. Danna has missed the Chiefs’ last two games due to a pectoral injury.
But even when Danna was healthy, he was probably one of the weaker starters on the Chiefs’ defense so far this season. He only had a half sack and nine pressures in the four games he’s played in. He also has a measly four percent pass rush win rate this season.
Uche hasn’t been much more productive than Danna, recording just two sacks and 13 total tackles through seven games. However, he has 13 pressures in just 96 pass-rush snaps this season, per Pro Football Focus. He also has a 24 percent pass rush win rate this season.
Now, there is a reason why Uche has only played 162 total snaps through the first seven games. He’s never been good enough in the run game to be a three-down player, with Anfernee Jennings and others notably playing along the edge instead of Uche on run downs. But Kansas City has the third-best run defense in the league, so it already has the personnel in place to allow it to rotate Uche in on passing downs.
So, this is really a low-risk move for the Chiefs that has some upside.
Grade: B+
Patriots grade for Joshua Uche trade
The Patriots said goodbye to a player who once showed great promise for them, but was never able to capture it for a sustained period of time.
Uche had a quiet first couple of seasons in the NFL after the Patriots took him in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft as he was buried on the depth chart and also battled some injuries. But he emerged as one of the best situational pass rushers in the league in 2022, recording 11.5 sacks and 56 pressures that season.
The 26-year-old was never able to replicate that success. He only had three sacks and 37 pressures over 15 games last season, failing to step up as the pass rusher the Patriots needed when Matthew Judon suffered a season-ending injury in Week 4.
Even though Uche wasn’t as productive as many Patriots fans hoped he would’ve been, it’s still hard not to feel sad that this trade closes the book on a player who once looked promising for the franchise. Sure, it was unlikely that Uche might have ever turned into something. But he was a good character guy for the team as he signed a one-year deal over the offseason, taking less money to remain in New England.
With the way this season has gone, it felt inevitable that Uche was going to leave either during the season or in the offseason. So, it’s a good thing that they got some compensation for him. But a sixth-round pick in a draft over a year from now is nearly next to nothing.
Grade: C
