Could the Chiefs make a move before Tuesday’s trade deadline?

The NFL trade deadline is at 3 p.m. (Arrowhead Time) on Tuesday. After that time, NFL teams are prohibited from making trades through the rest of the season.

Also: beginning on Wednesday, every player released by a team will be available to other teams through the waiver wire. Through the trade deadline, vested veterans (that is, those with at least four previous pension-credited seasons) immediately become free agents when a team releases them. But after the trade deadline, they become free agents only after clearing waivers. This will also last through the rest of the season.

As of this writing, there is no credible reporting that the Chiefs have any kind of trade in the works. When asked on Monday, Andy Reid acknowledged that the circumstances of this season have created special challenges for the trade market, but that hasn’t prevented conversations from taking place.

“It’s unique,” said the Chiefs head coach, “but there’s been movement. I don’t know what takes place over the next couple of days — either here or anywhere else — but there has been movement. I guess it’s somewhat unique just from the testing standpoint — which you have to get done before the player can actually be on the field — but we’ll see how it goes the next day or so.”

But even though we have had no reporting that any kind of deal is in the works, there has been speculation about what the Chiefs could (or might) do; as the deadline approaches, every NFL writer feels obligated to make guesses about where each player rumored to be on the trade block might end up — and sometimes, the Chiefs have been mentioned.

Like any team, the Chiefs have roster needs — and they do have draft capital available. They will have at least six picks available to them in the 2021 draft — and perhaps as many as nine. But they are short on salary-cap space; we currently estimate that the team only has about $5.6 million available under the cap.

So we don’t know if the Chiefs will make a move. But they could make one.

We’ll keep you updated.