The Kansas City Chiefs made an addition to their defense on Monday by acquiring edge rusher Joshua Uche in a trade with the New England Patriots.
Here are five things to know about the newest member of the team.
1. Uche has racked up 106 pressures and 16.5 sacks over the last three seasons.
The 26-year-old Uche has been a productive player during his young career, logging 106 total pressures, 23 quarterback hits and 16.5 sacks since 2022.
For context, his 13 pressures this season now rank fourth on the Chiefs, and looking at last year, his 37 pressures also would have ranked fourth on the team behind only defensive lineman Chris Jones (75), defensive end George Karlaftis (64) and defensive end Mike Danna (41).
2. He owns a pass-rush "win rate" of 17.2% this season.
Uche has two sacks this year in seven games, but the traditional statistics don't tell the full story. In fact, his pass-rush "win rate" of 17.2 percent, as calculated by Pro Football Focus, ranks 14th in the NFL among edge rushers with 90+ pass-rushing snaps.
He now immediately leads all Chiefs edge rushers in that category, and overall, only Chris Jones (18.5%) has a higher "win rate" than Uche on Kansas City's defense.
3. His top statistical season was in 2022.
The 6-foot-1, 240-pound Uche was among the most productive pass-rushers in the NFL during the 2022 campaign. He piled up 56 pressures (20th in the NFL) and 11.5 sacks (12th in the NFL) that year, tallying all of those sacks over the course of the Patriots' final 10 games of the season.
His pass-rush "win rate" that season was 19.2 percent, which ranked fifth among all players (regardless of position) among those with 250+ pass-rushing snaps.
4. Uche originally entered the NFL as a second-round pick in 2020.
Uche was the No. 60 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, making him the No. 28 pick of the second round. He was the seventh edge-rusher selected that year.
Prior to the draft, he was considered the No. 5 edge rusher available by The Athletic's Dane Brugler. Here's what Brugler wrote about Uche in his draft guide:
"Uche is a speedy, loose-hipped athlete with functional length to rush the passer and the range to chase down ball carriers vs. the run…Overall, Uche will require a patient coaching staff as he learns to be a more polished and instinctive player, but his twitched-up athleticism and edge speed are difference-making traits, projecting as an NFL nickel rusher and eventual starter."
5. He played his college ball at the University of Michigan.
Uche appeared in 26 games as a rotational player during his first three years with the Wolverines before playing over half of Michigan's snaps as a senior in 2019 (while starting nine games).
He tallied 20.5 tackles-for-loss and 16.5 sacks during his career in Ann Arbor, earning Michigan "Defensive Player of the Year" honors as voted on by his teammates.
Uche's talents caught the eye of the Patriots, and now all these years later, he's headed to Kansas City as a member of the back-to-back defending Super Bowl champions.
