So why would they need to trade a 7th round pick or anything for McCoy when they already had a very good sense that he will want to sign with them?
If another team traded for McCoy then they are on the hook for his previous contract.
If they thought he was really good they'd have been worried that another team would trade for him. They knew at least one team was on the market for a rb trade because they traded with them.
The Texans lost a running back, they did have the cap space and they did trade for a running back. And the chiefs knew all of this because they were talking. It's very possible that the Texans were also talking to buffalo during all of this.
The Texans weren't the only team who might be interested. Tampa seemed likely. The Patriots add good veterans all the time, love versatile older rbs, and just made a trade with the bills for a lineman. The 49ers just put McKinnon on IR. There were other potential suitos.
So we know some objective facts. We know that the chiefs didn't consider McCoy a bargain at 6 million and change because they didn't trade for him to make sure they got him. We know they liked him better than hyde because they traded hyde and added McCoy for basically the same money. And we. Know that they don't like him so much more than Williams that they'd start McCoy week 1. They might think McCoy was better, but we at least know it wasn't an emergency situation where they had to improve on Williams. We know that they ultimately paid McCourt almost the exact same money they were giving to hyde, and we know that they had previously planned to have jude behind Williams on the depth chart even after paying him that much. All of that gives us a rough idea of how they see him.
I've said since day 1 that hyde was a bad fit in kc. He isn't a scheme fit, he doesn't catch the ball well, he's a worse goal line back than Williams, and his numbers had been declining. But they signed him immediately when he became available despite better 'fits' being available, and planned to use him as their rb2. So they clearly wanted a veteran backup.
We know Veach called Williams a borderline starter when they first added him as their rb3 a year ago. We know they extended him immediately after he looked good last December. We know Williams was a 12 rush 5 catch guy while hyde was about 14 rush 4 catch. We know Williams has never carried the ball more than 85 times although they did give him 25 carries in one game, including two 4th and 1 carries in a playoff game, and watch him have an even better game the following week. We know they named Williams the starter after that, didn't draft a rb early, but did draft a back and sign another for depth. And we know that Williams has gotten first team reps after a brief hamstring injury, has looked good in practice, and looked as good as he could possibly have looked in his only preseason action. So we have a rough idea of how they viewed Williams.
It seems like they view Williams as a 12 rush 5 catch back, they want a veteran rb, they got a guy they're more comfortable with than hyde, they didn't prioritize a "better" back then hyde or McCoy and they didn't even prioritize McCoy that highly. We know McCoy dropped from 5.4 to 4.0 to 3.2 per carry at ages 28, 29 and 30, respectively, but that he also still looked good on a handful of preseason carries. And, again, we know that they didn't immediately name McCoy the starter.
All of that suggests that they see McCoy in a 1b/backup role. None of that suggests that they don't want Williams to get his 12 carries and 5 catches. I think people who hoped Williams might become a 15 carry guy might be disappointed, but they shouldn't be.
I think Williams will get 180 to 210 rushes and 50 plus receptions with 10 plus touchdowns, McCoy about 100 to 150 rushes and Thompson about 20 to 40, barring injuries. Those are wider ranges but i think it's fair - it's 320 to 420, while bthe chiefs have had over 400 rush attempts every season under Reid except last year with 387. And that leaves room for any of those backs to exceed my expectations.
So I'm still aggressively trying to add Williams and sell McCoy right now.