New general manager Brett Veach is putting his mark on the Kansas City Chiefs. A couple of weeks ago he traded Special Teams standout and Pro Bowler, D.J. Alexander, to the ILB Seattle Seahawks for Kevin Pierre-Lewis. Today he made a trade with the Buffalo Bills for ILB Reggie Ragland in exchange for a 2019 4th round pick. To make room on the already jammed packed roster, the Chiefs released ILB Josh Mauga.
Reggie Ragland was the 41st pick in last year’s draft but was considered by many to be a first round value. He suffered an ACL injury last August and missed his entire rookie season. This year, Buffalo is going from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4 and are also dealing with new leadership. Ragland was working with the third team and became expendable. Some critics of the trade are saying that Ragland was going to get cut anyway so why tie up a 4th round pick for him. I don’t agree with that assessment. I think Buffalo was impatient and were also playing a numbers game at ILB with Ragland left hanging high and dry. In any normal rookie year — which is what this essentially is for him — he would be working with the second team. The fact that he was on the third team is not that big a stretch to understand.
Josh Mauga was a starter with the Chiefs at ILB in 2015 and sat out last year with an injury. He was cut earlier this year and brought back in June. His long standing relationship with DC Bob Sutton comes to an end.
As for Reggie Ragland, he’s got star potential written all over him. He’s 6-foot-2 and weighs 252 and packs a wallop when he hits. He played four years for Alabama at ILB, had 93 tackles as a Junior and 102 tackles as a Senior. He was a Consensus All-American in 2015 and the Consensus All-SEC Defensive Player of the year in 2015. You can understand why Dorsey… err… I mean Veach… likes Ragland so much when you consider that he also has a basketball background. When he was a sophomore in High School, he played small forward on a basketball team that won the 2009–10 AHSAA Class 6A Championship in Alabama, and along with Levi Randolph, was named the MVP.
So, now we know that Ragland moves well. That’s what those athletic basketbally-types can do. However, I don’t expect to see Ragland in the Chiefs starting line-up any time soon. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them move him to the IR… and slowly work with him… and show the patience that Buffalo could not. After all, the Chiefs still have a boat load of ILBs on the roster to deal with this year.
What do you think Chiefs fans? Are you a fan of this trade… or do you feel betrayed by the dastardly Ghost of Dorsey (Veach).
Please enjoy :43 seconds of a Reggie Ragland hit! The way the game should be played.
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