LB Drue Tranquill spurns Chargers, signs 1-year deal with Chiefs

After a breakout season, Tranquill is headed to an AFC West rival.

Unlike the Donald Parham deal that came to be earlier on Friday, the Chargers will not end up re-signing with the team. Instead, he’s taking his talents to an AFC West rival in the Chiefs on a one-year deal worth $5 million.

Like Parham, Tranquill and his camp wanted to test the market after he refused a previous deal offered by the Bolts at the start of the legal tampering window. After the linebacker market played out over the past four days, it looks as if Tranquill took a deal with less money for the opportunity to win more games despite likely coming off the bench in Kansas City.

As it stands, Willie Gay and Nick Bolton are the Chiefs’ starting linebackers with second-year player Leo Chenal also waiting in the wings.

Was this move brought about by some bad blood between Tranquill and the Chargers? This team needed to reinforce the linebacker spot even after they signed Eric Kendricks and I highly doubt the Chargers offered him less than $5 million per year and his deal with the Chargers would obviously have been for multiple years.

Either way, it’s the end of another promising era for a young linebacker with the Chargers.