NFL insiders kill speculation of Chiefs as potential trade destination for Raiders WR Davante Adams

After news broke the Las Vegas Raiders were warming up to the idea of trading WR Davante Adams , speculation began to run rampant that their AFC West rival Kansas City Chiefs could make a bid. This, of course, stems from the uncertainty surrounding the status of WR Rashee Rice . We still don't know if he has a season-ending knee injury or something he could eventually return from this season.

As for a potential trade for Adams, NFL insiders didn't even give it a day to marinate before they shut it down. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported this morning that the New Orleans Saints and the New York Jets are on Adams' wishlist of trade destinations . In a follow-up report, Schefter said both the Saints and Jets are interested in Adams, but he also named a team that "is not expected to be an option."

There are plenty of reasons why Kansas City probably isn't an option, Chief among them is that they're the Raiders' sworn enemy in the AFC West division. If that message from Schefter wasn't clear enough, another one from The Athletic's Dianna Russini mimicked my message on social media yesterday .

The Chiefs simply cannot afford Adams' contract.

The Chiefs would have to come up with between $13.5 million (if they traded for him today) and $8 million (if they traded for him at the deadline) in usable salary cap space. Right now, the team has just $4.9 million in salary cap space and they need some of that for procedural moves for the remainder of the 2024 NFL season.

Russini says the Chiefs are not and can't go full throttle to land Adams, which isn't entirely accurate. Kansas City can convert money in a few contracts to create salary cap space fairly easily, but it hasn't been the Chiefs' modus operandi to do so. Each time the team has made a trade at the deadline (Mecole Hardman, Kadarius Toney, and Melvin Ingram) they've sought out players within their financial means without having to create salary cap space.

This doesn't mean Brett Veach won't make a trade for a receiver, it just means he might be looking at a different group of players that the team can actually afford.

Related: Latest Chiefs depth chart finalizes key roster changes on offense ahead of Week 5 tilt with Saints