When the NFL held an expansion draft for the Houston Texans ahead of the 2002 NFL season, the Kansas City Chiefs were one of the teams that didn't have a player selected. Chiefs GM Carl Peterson put up DB Taje Allen, WR Derrick Alexander, DT Nate Hobgood-Chittick, WR Larry Parker, and DB Bracy Walker for selection in the expansion draft. Still, other players were more enticing to the fledgling NFL club.
A to Z Sports' own Wendell Ferreira recently explored what a hypothetical expansion draft would look like should the NFL choose to expand with a 33rd NFL team. In this case, the Chiefs get a brand new rival right down I-70 with the St. Louis Arches.
Which Chiefs players were made eligible for this fictional expansion draft?
This particular expansion draft, unlike the NFL's 2002 expansion draft, had some different eligibility rules. Here's a quick rundown of those rules:
- Each current NFL team has to leave 12 players unprotected.
- Players with 0 or 1 accrued seasons are automatically protected and cannot be added to the list. Players with no-trade clauses can also not be added.
- If the player is taken, the expansion team will absorb both his future salaries and signing bonus prorations, so it can be a useful tool to unload veteran contracts.
- The list is final, meaning that teams can't withdraw a player after another one has been selected.
- The expansion team can get a maximum of two players from each NFL team, and a maximum of 40 players.
Which players did I, playing the role of Chiefs GM Brett Veach, leave unprotected? It was actually a lot harder than you think to find players given the accrued season rules. Here's the list of players I left unprotected:
- QB Bailey Zappe
- OG Tremayne Anchrum
- WR Skyy Moore
- WR Justyn Ross
- TE Robert Tonyan
- DE Malik Herring
- DE Janarius Robinson
- CB Nazeeh Johnson
- S Deon Bush
- DT Marlon Tuipulotu
- LB Cole Christiansen
- LB Cam Jones
Skyy Moore becomes a villain in the new I-70 rivalry as the only Chiefs player selected by Arches
Former 2022 second-round draft pick Skyy Moore was the lone Chiefs player selected in the expansion draft. The move would see the Arches absorb his remaining $2.052 million salary for the final year of his rookie contract during 2025.
To this point in his NFL career, Moore has been unable to take advantage of his opportunities. Some of that has simply been bad injury luck, but his back is up against the wall heading into the 2025 NFL season. He'll face the most competition of his career heading into a season in Kansas City.
A change of scenery makes the most sense for him if he wants to have a successful NFL career. That is true for reality and the hypothetical expansion team in St. Louis. But there's no denying that if Moore had even the smallest measure of success in the hypothetical scenario, it would be the perfect way to spark a rivalry with a new club just down I-70.
