KANSAS CITY — The trick play was nice and all, but Mark Bradley has walked that road. He wants to talk about catches and what that means for the present in Kansas City, and — if he’s not being too forward — his future here, too.

This is a wide receiver whose career path had turned rocky until last month, when the Chiefs signed Bradley after Chicago cut him a week earlier. Bradley expected the Bears to release him after an icy relationship formed between him and the staff before the regular season began.

Then again . . ..

“That’s the past,” he said, changing the subject.

So is Bradley’s role in one of Kansas City’s most thrilling plays of the season. It was the second quarter of last Sunday’s overtime loss to Tampa Bay.

Bradley took a pitch from running back Jamaal Charles, bobbled and got control of the ball, and fired a missile to quarterback Tyler Thigpen in the end zone. Thigpen had lined up at wide receiver, Charles at quarterback. Bradley was the triggerman, and he nailed it.

But Bradley knows his time with the Chiefs depends on doing what he’s done the last three games: be the No. 2 wide receiver Kansas City has been searching for all season.

That means catching passes. That means giving Thigpen an additional weapon when receiver Dwayne Bowe and tight end Tony Gonzalez are covered.

Bradley has 10 catches in three games. That’s one fewer than receivers Devard Darling, Jeff Webb and Will Franklin have combined in more than twice as many games. The team hoped one of those receivers would emerge during training camp or the preseason or even the regular season, but none did.

They were at the mercy sometimes of a chaotic quarterback rotation, and other times the receivers couldn’t stand out in what was a boring, wounded and ineffective offense.

The Chiefs were paying attention when Chicago cut its 2005 second-round pick, a wide receiver who was supposed to succeed the departed Muhsin Muhammad as the Bears’ top playmaker. Instead, Bradley, 26, kept battling injuries, and he never seemed to fit into Chicago’s plans. He had zero catches in two games this season with the Bears.

He was released in late September, which didn’t come as a surprise to Bradley. He was out of work a week before the Chiefs signed him to a two-year deal.

“People still ask me to this day what happened in Chicago,” he said, “but it doesn’t matter what happened in Chicago. The fact is, I was there, I’m gone, and now I’m a Kansas City Chief.

“I look at it this way: When you’re out there on the field, you’re not just playing for your club. If that team is not having you in their plans for the future, you’re playing for 31 other teams. Kansas City was one of those teams.”

Chiefs coach Herm Edwards said Thursday that he met with Bradley after his team workout, and they discussed Bradley’s future. The Chiefs needed that second receiver, and Bradley needed a team. His stock had flatlined in Chicago, but Kansas City was willing to offer a second chance.

“We sat down,” Edwards said, “had a good talk and kind of told him where he’s at right now with his career. I told him he’s going to get an opportunity.”

Edwards said Bradley took quickly to Kansas City’s offense, even knowing that there were times Bradley, the son of a former college quarterback, would have to pass.

Edwards said Bradley stayed after practice, watching tape with receivers coach Eric Price. Within two weeks of Bradley signing with the Chiefs, he was in the starting lineup.

“Their second opportunity, sometimes, is the one where the light comes on,” Edwards said. “And it’s come on so far.”

The Chiefs just want Bradley to keep doing what he’s doing. They like that he’s 6 feet 2 and young. They like that he solved a problem the Chiefs jousted with for weeks before Chicago let him go.

They don’t mind his arm, either. The way he threw that pass to Thigpen last Sunday, that’s the kind of play that’ll stick in coaches’ minds. Bradley said it’s important to not be forgotten. He’s been in that predicament before.

“This is the best possible situation I could be in,” he said, “and it’s turning out perfect.”