by David Bell | May 19, 2019
Ready to Get Aboard?
Or are you dragging your feet?
I do think this much about what is happening in Free Agent signings before the draft, the draft and then signings after the draft: Brett Veach has done a masterful job of acquiring talent for both sides of the ball but most importantly in my mind is all that has occurred since his first draft in 2018. Maybe some of you don’t see it as a contiguous effort but I think Veach had a vision of how he wanted to build a team before he ever took over the reigns from John Dorsey.
There is more to building this team than just has occurred in 2019’s effort thus far. It started when the Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes under Dorsey but continued from there. I see the 2018 draft as a positioning draft and the 2019 effort as filling in the blanks.
It was just 22 months ago that Tamba Hali departed. 15 months ago, DJ played his last game for the Chiefs. This year, Dee Ford and Justin Houston are no longer with us, nor is Eric Berry.
The Chiefs, under the tutelage of Brett Veach, hired a 43 DC in Steve Spagnuolo and his team, which is a geared up and aggressive bunch of 43 base defense coaches. It seems to me that the shift was beginning before Houston and Ford left. I wrote about it at the time in terms of Breeland Speaks being drafted as a top player who would be tried outside as a 34 OLB, but he certainly fit the bill to be a 43 base defender on the edge. Derrick Nnadi said the same thing about himself – that he thought he fit better in a 4-3 defensive scheme. So, here we are with two players first hired with a team that used the 34 base defense and they are now being fitted to the new world of the Spag’s controlled chaos defense. I like that.
Was Brett Veach planning this move to a 43 when he drafted in 2018? That would be saying that he foresaw a move from Sutton to a new DC and a potential switch to the 43 base defense long before we got to the post season of 2018. Was this something he cooked up with HC Andy Reid?
I am writing this again: I believe Brett Veach went after two good players who could fit well with the 43 in his first draft in 2018.
It is my view that Veach had a vision in his mindseye as to the type of players, the aggressiveness, the attitude, the persona, and he began selecting players based on that.
At the same time he began acquiring players in trades and free agency that fit the same persona to build the team chemistry of like-oriented players. He has a view of how to go after players who were high draft picks and who had fallen on difficult times due to ill fit’s with teams or coaches, or schemes or who had an early injury and he brought these former high draft picks to the Chiefs roster and it has paid huge dividends: for example on the Offensive Line.
I now firmly believe that Brett Veach has his finger on the pulse of players and teams and schemes and if the right player suddenly is thrust to availability Veach is ready to culminate that vision by acquiring that player. I am thinking directly of Derron Lee, a LB that fits much of what the Chiefs need in one of the weak areas left to address.
This acquisition was masterful as others have been before it. Here is something to think about as well. That is just the latest because I see the same even in the Hill “emergency” that arose due to something no one could have foreseen, Veach took it in stride, and drafted as the first pick out of the gate a top player as a WR who had the speed to burn other teams very quickly and still, even with that pick he obtained defensive players that fit the needs view of the team and fit in the positions of the draft where there were selected and very close to where the rankings had the players listed…
… and then, you know, I am looking at Nick Allegretti a 7th round draft pick who appears to me now to be the type of pick that you stumble on late in the draft who will excel out of the gate for you and this having been missed by most evaluators.
I think Nick A will start at Center… now. Or it might be he starts at the left guard, leaving Austin Reiter as center and using Cam Erving as a Swing Tackle/Guard, jack-of-all-trades offensive lineman. Whatever happens, it’s going to be good stuff. I think here too we are going to see a strength by addition from last season with Andrew Wylie.
What do I really think? I think Brett Veach is a visionary type GM, plus that is aiding the Chiefs team building that is going on… on the fly. There’s more to be done in 2019 and at least one more major acquisition will be occurring along with several additions that are minor but, necessary to build a strong, deep roster for a long season.
There is more to be done and at least one more move will be made that is crucially important while taking care of normal endeavors in the course of business – and part of that is extending contracts: such as Chris Jones… managing the Hill fiasco… paying for rookies… and finding opportunities such as that of acquiring Derron Lee for a 6th round pick for heaven’s sake!
The Chiefs have the right type of man for the business at hand and I am totally on board with this GM and he could not have come at a better time for the Kingdom. Why? Because we need a Lombardi Trophy or two, after 50+ years of waiting.
It’s true. I am an optimist. I am not eternally so, but since 2013 I see no reason to be pessimistic. That, to me would be delusional thinking, especially in view of what has happened since Dorsey and Reid first arrived after the 2-14 season. That stuff is firmly in the rear view mirror.
It’s time the rest of us got on board with the real deal GM and visionary Wizard of the West – Brett Veach!
David Bell –- Arrowhead One
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