Fantasy Impact: Alex Smith traded to Washington

The Deal

Tuesday night the Kansas City Chiefs traded quarterback Alex Smith to the team from Washington for reportedly a third round pick and a player. And there was much chaos.

For starters, the player was reportedly cornerback Kendall Fuller but he (on Twitter) denied that he was traded. So either he’s right and he wasn’t traded or Dan Snyder is a dick and isn’t telling Fuller until he’s boarded the plane. Personally, I’ll go with the latter.

Fantasy Impact

Oh baby this impacts SO much. Let’s start with the Chiefs. All signs pointed to Kansas City moving on from Smith and starting their first round pick in 2017—and their FUTURE—Pat Mahomes this coming season so I wouldn’t say I was stunned to hear Smith was gone. However I’m quite impressed at the haul the Chiefs were able to get. If it is indeed Fuller going to KC, that’s a starting cornerback and a third the Chiefs got for a 33 year old quarterback who has been made fun of for his inability to make big time plays. Good work Andy Reid!

Fantasy wise, starting hyping up Pat Mahomes to me everyone. Kareem Hunt’s ADP is currently residing with the stars.

In Washington, you were worried that if the team wasn’t able—or for whatever reason didn’t want to (which is clearly the case, though I don’t know why)—keep Kirk Cousins, they wouldn’t be able to find a serviceable signal caller. Who in the fantasy world would this have impacted? Obviously with a bad QB, or just a leser one, that would’ve sucked for Jordan Reed (when healthy), Jamison Crowder, Josh Doctson, Samaje Perine (because a good quarterback helps you run the football) and Chris Thompson. Don’t forget about Chris Thompson people. But now, you have Alex Smith undercenter and so I don’t really think their fantasy value takes a hit right now. Call it evens in the District of Columbia.

Now, the biggest domino to fall to the ground after this trade is the Captain himself. Kirk Cousins is now certainly not playing in Washington and CERTAINLY about to get paid a crap ton of money (especially given that Smith was just handed a 4-year $94 million deal with $71 million guaranteed). So where will Kirk go? Right off the bat, I want to say that I think Cousins is a good quarterback and a better quarterback than Alex Smith. Cousins, like Smith, needs help around him to be good, but he’s by no means a bad quarterback.

I have a few favorite landing spots. First: Jacksonville Jaguars. I know some people in the Jags organization have said Blake Bortles is their guy but no he’s clearly not, stop lying to me. I watched the AFC Championship game. You can’t tell me that the quarterback you didn’t let play in the second half is your guy. Bold faced lie right there. Cousins >>>>>>>>>> Bortles. That shouldn’t comes as a shock to anyone.

Last week on the RB1 podcast, Jordan Smith talked about how the Vikings make a ton of sense for Cousins and he’s one hundred percent right. The Vikings have cap space and a need at quarterback. They could just decide that Teddy Bridgewater, while an amazing guy, isn’t their future and go out and get Cousins. Cousins would step into a loaded offense with a top 2 defense and a team that is set to push for the Super Bowl year in and year out (or for as long as that defense can hold together).

There’s also the Browns. Can’t mention where a quarterback might go without talking the Browns. Please, no. I want the Browns to succeed but I truly don’t believe they know how to have a quarterback. Maybe they should just run Wild Cat all game long and have a running back behind center instead.