Chiefs: Trent Williams reveals how close he came to signing in Kansas City

Trent Williams confirmed that he was very close to signing with the Kansas City Chiefs this offseason.

If there were teams in need of a starting left tackle, all eyes were on Trent Williams. The expectation was that the San Francisco 49ers would find a way to retain the blindside tackle, but it got really close this offseason. In fact, a report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler indicated that the Kansas City Chiefs were very close to signing Williams this offseason before the 49ers put their offer over the edge.

On Monday, Williams confirmed that he believed he was set on signing with the Chiefs before 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan arrived to save the day for the Bay Area fanbase.

Chiefs: Kansas City were extremely close to signing Trent Williams

Can you imagine if the Chiefs, after releasing starting tackles Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz, found a way to secure Williams’ services with their freed up cap space? The NFL world would not be able to handle it.

Williams was San Francisco’s huge offseason acquisition last year after they acquired him from the Washington Football Team on the final day of the NFL Draft. Less than a year later, the 49ers made him the highest-paid offensive tackle in league history after signing him to a six-year, $138.1 million contract.

Even though the Chiefs lost out on Williams, they did pretty well to start off the new league year. Chiefs general manger Brett Veach signed former New England Patriots offensive guard Joe Thuney to a five-year, $80 million contract and signed guard Kyle Long out of retirement on a one-year, $1.5 million deal. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes was, as expected, pleased by these additions.

The 49ers saw the competition growing for Williams’ services, and decided to throw some extra coin his way to keep him under contract for the next six seasons. While they no doubt planned to keep him, the 49ers were pushed to finalize a deal by the team that defeated them in Super Bowl 54.