The Chiefs signed former Cowboys linebacker Anthony Hitchens to a five-year contract this offseason, but Kansas City had made attempts to acquire Hitchens previously. According to Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star, the Chiefs actually tried to trade for Hitchens during the summer of 2017.
The Cowboys declined to deal Hitchens — originally a fourth-round pick in the 2014 draft — and he went on to play on 500 or more defensive snaps for the fourth consecutive season. In total, 2017 marked one of the best campaigns of Hitchens’ career, as he appeared in 12 games (all starts) and posted 55 tackles, two passes defensed, and one forced fumble, all while grading as the NFL’s No. 18 linebacker, per Pro Football Focus.
“We’re sitting there on the free-agency board, and the guy that we made our first call to back in August about his availability, he’s a free agent,” Chiefs general manager Brett Veach told Worthy. “We knew we were going to go in a different direction with Derrick [Johnson]. It just made sense. We spent a lot of time on him with the work we did back in August. Here we’ve come full circle now. Now, we’re right back where we originally started, which is pursuing Anthony Hitchens.”
Hitchens, 26, ultimately landed a five-year, $45MM deal with the Chiefs that makes him the league’s seventh-highest paid inside linebacker on an annual basis. That pact also contains $21.29MM in fully guaranteed money, second to only Luke Kuechly among inside ‘backers. During the upcoming campaign, Hitchens will collect a base salary of $790K and count for $3.6MM against Kansas City’s salary cap before his cap charge nearly triples in 2019.
With the Chiefs, Hitchens will start next to Reggie Ragland — whom Kansas City acquired from the Bills last year — in defensive coordinator Bob Sutton‘s 3-4 scheme. Johnson, whom the Chiefs opted not to re-sign after he spent 13 seasons with the club, was regularly playing more than 800 defensive snaps per year, so Hitchens will need to increase his playtime percentage as he transitions to a new team.