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The Kansas City Chiefs have agreed to a trade with the Minnesota Vikings for cornerback Mike Hughes, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Chiefs traded for CB Mike Hughes, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 13, 2021
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer was first with the details on the swap — with the Chiefs getting Hughes and the Vikings’ 2022 seventh-rounder in exchange for their 2022 sixth-round pick.
Hughes, 24, first entered the NFL as the 30th overall pick made by the Vikings in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft. As a member of the Vikings over the past three seasons, Hughes appeared in 24 games with seven starts. Hughes tore his ACL after six games his rookie season and his season ended in Week 17 of 2019 due to a cracked vertebra. Hughes only played four games in 2020 before a neck injury landed him on injured reserve, though the Vikings have said that the 2019 and 2020 injuries were unrelated.
In March, Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Hughes is fully healthy, though the Vikings declined to exercise his fifth-year option in early May. The Vikings added three-time first-team All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson this offseason.
Hughes has played on both the inside and outside, and he may compete for both with the Chiefs. Kansas City has wanted to potentially move second-year cornerback L’Jarius Sneed primarily to the outside, so Hughes locking up the nickel role would allow them to do that. Hughes has also participated in all four special teams units.
In addition to Sneed, the Chiefs’ cornerback room is made up of Charvarius Ward, Deandre Baker, Rashad Fenton, Alex Brown, BoPete Keyes and undrafted rookies Dicaprio Bootle and Marlon Character. Bashaud Breeland is still an unrestricted free agent at the time of this writing.
Hughes played one year of college football at North Carolina before transferring to the University of Central Florida, where he was named first-team All-ACC and a second-team All-American during the program’s undefeated national championship season.
Over his 24 NFL regular-season games, he has 80 career tackles (67 solo), 13 passes defensed, three forced fumbles (including one on Mecole Hardman), three fumble recoveries and two interceptions.