A month ago, cornerback Marcus Peters and quarterback Alex Smith were teammates on the Kansas City Chiefs. Now, after two blockbuster trades in the past month, neither Peters nor Smith reside in Kansas City. Smith is the Redskins' new quarterback while Peters is the Rams' new top cornerback. 

On Monday, Peters appeared on NFL Network's "NFL Total Access." There, he was asked about the Chiefs' trade of Smith. This shouldn't come as a huge surprise given Peters was just traded by the Chiefs (he's not exactly a neutral third party), but he doesn't agree with their decision to trade away Smith.

"No," he said, via NFL.com. "Man, Alex, Alex don't get enough respect. And they need to start putting some respect on that man's name. Because I've seen that man get thrown under the bus too many times and he took it as a man. And he never complained about it. He don't turn over the ball. And he know how to win."

Peters has a point, though. Smith has often been mocked by many (including me) because of his conservative playing style, which can lead to a frustrating viewing experience. Heck, Football Outsiders even named an advanced statistic after him (Air Less EXpected), which "measures the average difference between how far a quarterback threw a pass (air yards) and how many yards he needed for a first down." 

But to Peters' point, Smith has won pretty consistently since he arrived in Kansas City. From 2013-17, Smith posted a 50-26 record as a starter, completed 65.1 percent of his passes, threw 102 touchdowns and 33 interceptions, and accumulated a 94.8 passer rating. Tons of teams would kill for numbers like that out of their own quarterback. Impressively, Smith posted the league's highest passer rating (131.4) on throws that traveled 20 yards downfield in 2017, according to Pro Football Focus.

Unfortunately, Smith hasn't been able to lead the Chiefs to much postseason success, going 1-4 as the starter in the playoffs. In his final playoff start with the team, the Chiefs blew a 18-point halftime lead to the Titans. Just before the Super Bowl, Kansas City -- which drafted Patrick Mahomes in the first round of the 2017 Draft -- sent Smith to Washington. Now, he will be tasked with leading the Redskins to playoff success, which eluded Kirk Cousins during his time in Washington. 

"That was our fault for messing up the playoffs," Peters said. "That was our fault."

As for Peters, he's one of the best cornerbacks in football, having notched a league-high 19 interceptions since entering the league in 2015. Even still, with off-the-field concerns clearly factoring in, the Chiefs shopped him around after the season and eventually sent him to the Rams for a pretty underwhelming haul. Peters shouldn't be too upset, as he's going from one playoff team to another. Neither should Smith, who knew ever since the selection of Mahomes that he didn't factor into the Chiefs' long-term plans. He avoided a destination like Cleveland and got a new contract from Washington. And the Chiefs are probably happy to move on from Peters and get a solid return for Smith (a third-round pick and cornerback Kendall Fuller) when they have the future of their franchise already on their roster.

Technically, Peters and Smith are still members of the Chiefs because the trades can't be finalized until mid March, but they're both as good as gone. Meanwhile, the Chiefs are set to enter the 2018 season with a new quarterback and without their top playmaker on defense. Most importantly, the Chiefs helped get us through the dead portion of the NFL calendar in February by making two huge trades. We all owe them for that.