Chiefs trade DJ Alexander to Seahawks for LB Kevin Pierre-Louis

TRADE! The Kansas City Chiefs have cleaned up their inside linebacker logjam by trading away special teams ace DJ Alexander to the Seattle Seahawks, according to an announcement from the Chiefs. They acquired LB Kevin Pierre-Louis from the Seahawks in the trade.

More Chiefs-Seahawks trade coverage

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• What the NFL world is saying about the trade
• The Chiefs new LB can backflip
• DJ Alexander says thank you and goodbye

This is the first big move for Chiefs new GM Brett Veach. I looked at the inside linebackers today and realized the Chiefs were going to have to cut a good player. They also drafted another inside linebacker, Ukeme Eligwe, in the fifth round this year and re-signed Josh Mauga recently.

This is a little surprising because Alexander was a special teams Pro Bowler last year. However, he had little to no role on defense. The Chiefs have an excellent special teams group so maybe they feel they have the talent (and coaching - hi, Dave Toub) to replace him there.

Pierre-Louis was a 2014 fourth round pick by the Seahawks. He has very few career stats so I don’t know much about him. Here’s what Field Gulls says:

As for Pierre-Louis, it’s just never worked out for him in Seattle. Drafted in round four back in 2014, KPL failed to establish himself with the coaching staff as worth consistently inserting into the team’s defensive rotation. His lone start came in 2015 when Bobby Wagner was injured and couldn’t play in the team’s home loss to the Panthers. Otherwise most of his snaps have been on special teams, and unfortunately this (sketchy) penalty against him in the playoff defeat to Atlanta last season, thus wiping out a huge Devin Hester punt return, proved to be an enormous game-changing infraction.

I figured Alexander was going to make the team so I would hope the guy the Chiefs traded him for can crack the 53-man roster. I hope he’s either very strong on special teams or can contribute on defense. If not, I’m not sure the reasoning here. The Chiefs first training camp practice is this afternoon.