A superior offseason has the Rams in a stronger position than the Chiefs

Positioned next to one another atop most major pre-Week 5 power polls, the Rams and Chiefs arrived at these destinations differently.

Los Angeles moved aggressively this offseason, forming a team most expected to vie for the NFC’s slot in Super Bowl LIII. Kansas City seemed to be gearing up for 2019 and beyond. Yet, the Chiefs are either well-ahead of schedule — armed with the MVP favorite through four games — or this is a higher-end version of their 2017 start/tease.

Both teams should be taken seriously as contenders. Each has an elite offensive mind running the show, and both franchises appear to have found quarterbacks who are in line to carry them well into (and perhaps through) the 2020s.

It’s just harder to view the Chiefs as a surefire threat to advance deep into January, given their recent history and what happened between the former Missouri co-inhabitants this year.

Kansas City shipped its top (healthy) defender to Los Angeles for a return so modest it should have forced the Chiefs to break off talks. Marcus Peters is not quite a top-five cornerback, though that status could be in the ballhawk’s future. But he was an impact player for this deal's seller — a team devoid of many long-term defensive answers.

Predictably, taking an All-Pro defender off the roster hasn’t improved Kansas City’s defense. The Chiefs are 4-0 despite ranking last in total yards allowed (451.8 per game) and 31st against the pass (328.5). They're also tied in the league’s basement for 20-yard pass plays surrendered (20).

This isn’t to say the Chiefs would carry a strong pass defense had they not traded their best cornerback prospect in at least 25 years — one with two years remaining on a rookie contract — but a team with serious contention aspirations doesn’t jettison this kind of asset for such a mediocre return. As volatile as Peters was, the 2016 first-team All-Pro significantly affected opposing coaches' game plans. The current Chiefs’ corner contingent doesn’t have a comparable deterrent.

While the Alex Smith trade points to Andy Reid and Brett Veach knowing full well Patrick Mahomes was a probable long-term answer to the quarterback issue the franchise spent the past 30 years repeatedly patching up, stripping a roster's weakest unit of its top cost-controlled commodity seems to indicate Chiefs brass didn’t expect the 2018 team to vie for a championship.

Instead of devoting the Smith cap savings toward a reeling defense (No. 31 in 2017 DVOA), the Chiefs allocated most of those freed-up funds toward the outlandish Sammy Watkins contract.

While the Chiefs did invest in their defense this year — namely in Kendall Fuller, Anthony Hitchens and multiple Day 2 draft picks — their top expenditure went to a superfluous cog on an already-strong offense. Watkins has been an understandable upgrade (though he's 73rd in receiving yards per game) as Kansas City’s No. 2 wide receiver. But giving an offense’s No. 4 option $16 million annually and $30 million guaranteed was reckless.

A Peters return and some of the Watkins money being spent on more pressing needs, rather than paying a non-top-20 wideout top-five money, would have the Chiefs' defense better-equipped to support the Mahomes-enhanced offense. Eric Berry’s return from another severe injury will have to be nothing short of majestic for Kansas City’s defense to raise its ceiling to “slightly below average.” 

The Rams acquiring Peters for at least the next two years shows the confidence they had in the current nucleus' championship potential this season. Intent on capitalizing on this rare opportunity, the buyers in the Peters swap didn’t hedge or take backward steps like the Chiefs did.

Knowing their window with Jared Goff’s rookie deal is closing, the Rams added impact talent on both sides of the ball. The difference between what they paid to acquire Brandin Cooks in his contract year (2018's No. 23 overall pick) and what they gave the Bills for a walk-year Watkins (a package highlighted by what became this year's No. 56 selection) in 2017 illustrates the deep-threat upgrade they believe they now possess. The Patriots received top value for renting Cooks (no Pro Bowls); the Chiefs settled for a middling proposal, in a cold market, for a two-time Pro Bowler in whom they invested three years.

The Rams had a clearer plan. 

Trades for Peters and Aqib Talib, and the re-signing of slot man Nickell Robey-Coleman, provided clear-cut secondary roles. Conversely, the Chiefs are trying to get by with slot defenders (Fuller, Steven Nelson and Orlando Scandrick) at every cornerback spot. Los Angeles also paid its No. 1 wide receiver No. 1 money (just $200,000 more per year than Watkins), whereas the contract the Chiefs gave their No. 2 man will cause Tyreek Hill to justifiably demand to exceed it next year. (No team has two wideouts making $12M AAV, let alone $16M, so that will be a fun negotiation for Veach.)

The Chiefs acknowledged the opening their cheap-labor quarterback has created, but their Watkins-centered stockpiling effort did not exactly resemble the impact moves the Eagles, Rams or Bears made to take advantage of their rookie-deal passers’ salaries.

Peters hasn’t been quite what the Rams envisioned yet, at least in Pro Football Focus’ view. PFF places the 25-year-old talent as the No. 88 corner through an injury-slowed four games. But his body of work (an unmatched 24 forced turnovers from 2015-17) and place in a Wade Phillips-run defense make it difficult to predict he’ll struggle for too long in L.A. 

With the No. 1 DVOA offense and No. 9 defense, the Rams have a greater margin for error on both sides of the ball. The Chiefs (third and 31st, respectively, in DVOA), in turn, may be retracing their defensively challenged steps of the early 2000s. Those efforts generated elite offensive numbers for five years, but repeated defensive letdowns ended the Dick Vermeil era with one playoff berth and no postseason wins.

Granted, the AFC of that time was tougher than what the Reid-Mahomes Chiefs are navigating. But last year’s result — when Smith was an MVP candidate after the Chiefs' 5-0 start, which came against better competition than this team's opposition — doesn’t inspire much confidence that this offense-only run will last without Mahomes continuing his 1987 John Elway/1995 Brett Favre fusion act throughout the season.

However, with Mahomes looking demonstrably better than most imagined, the Chiefs' call to deprive their defense of Peters looks even stranger. They may have to trade for defensive help now, which they apparently already tried to do prior to Earl Thomas' injury. 

The Rams don't have the same problem, thanks to a more deliberate offseason than the confusing Chiefs blueprint. Their front-runner status is a better bet to hold up as a result.