Brett Veach: Looking Back to Look Forward

Let’s take a look at what Brett Veach has done over the past four offseasons and we may be better able to get a fix on what he’s about to do. First, let’s take a look at who Brett Veach is as a person, because every decision is informed by who is really is. The first aspect of his personality that stands out is, he’s a “people person” and I would suggest that as much as anything else, that’s the reason the Kansas City Chiefs moved on from John Dorsey in early July of 2017 and hired Brett Veach to be the General Manager in the first place.

In 2015, Veach said,

“I think whatever you do in life, everything is a people business. It’s all about establishing your relationships. I think the ability to go out on the road, meet new people, talk football, learn a little bit about the different areas and cultures and traditions, that’s a really cool thing.”

David Bell and I have often lamented that the one aspect of the Chiefs evaluation process of prospects — under Andy Reid and Brett Veach — that we admit to knowing very little about is: the personal relationship aspect. While David takes copious notes on potential draft picks for the Chiefs during this time of year, we don’t really know just how well a coach, or evaluator, has hit it off with a prospect. In any event, we know that Veach bases a lot of his evaluation upon the idea that a prospect, loves the game and is smart and relatable. Those traits usually guarantee that a player will be the right fit for the locker room… as well as a great performer.

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Origin of the Species

Brett Veach was born in December of 1977 (differing accounts say he was born in 1978) and raised in the small town of Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania (shown above) and is 88 miles NW of Philadelphia. From his close knit community upbringing is presumably where he got his penchant for the intimate and individual attention he pays to each person. What many have missed out on when it comes to Brett Veach is, that “Champion” is part of his DNA as his high school won five state championships from 1994 to 2002.

Veach went on to star in college as a running back, but also played wide receiver and played special teams in college at the University of Delaware located in Newark, Delaware from 1998 to 2001. As you can see, from the picture (on the left), Veach didn’t travel far from home when he decided which college to attend and perhaps more importantly, he went from one small town community, to another. Then when he chose a career in professional football he didn’t travel far from home either by taking a coaching internship with the Eagles, and Andy Reid, in Philadelphia in 2004.

After that, his football portfolio became diversified as he developed as a coaching assistant before moving to their scouting department in 2010. In 2013, he followed Andy Reid to K.C. and was hired as a pro and college personnel analyst, before taking over as co-director of player personnel in 2015. Two years later, he was given the reigns as General Manger and hasn’t looked back.

Brett Veach once said,

“I was very fortunate to grow up in a small

town where football meant everything.”

Veach-Mahomes: Connecting the Dots

For those who are tired of hearing the story of how Brett Veach was responsible for helping to bring Patrick Mahomes to Kansas City, you may want to skip this section. Veach was so obsessed with Mahomes and alerting John Dorsey and Andy Reid’s about Mahomes, that Reid once said:

“All right, just stop.”

The point is that when Veach targets a prospect… he gets his man.

Bull’s Eyes For the Franchise

It’s well documented that the first real GM draft choice Brett Veach made was to take Breeland Speaks with the second round pick at #46 overall. While that was a bust of a pick, Veach has only gotten better ever since.

The Chiefs 2018 Offseason

However, let’s start with that 2018 offseason. Here’s the draft:

Brett Veach and Company were busy beavers making trades left and right when it comes to the draft as well. Here’s a breakdown of his moves that year:

1. Veach/Dorsey traded the Chiefs 1st round pick in 2018 — No. 22 overall — along with the Chiefs 2017 1st and 3rd round picks to BUF for their 2017 1st-round pick — 10th overall
2. Veach received a 3rd round pick –No. 78 overall — and CB Kendall Fuller from WFT for QB Alex Smith
3. Veach traded a 5th round pick — 159th overall — to CLE for Cameron Erving
4. Veach traded a 7th round pick — 240th overall — to SF for Kenneth Acker
5. Veach got back a 7th round draft pick — 233rd overall — from the Cards for CB Marcus Cooper
6. Veach traded CB Marcus Peters and the 6th round pick — 209th overall, a compensatory pick, to LAR for their 4th round pick — 124th overall — plus their 2nd round pick in 2019
7. Veach got back a 7th round pick — 243rd overall — from TEN for DE David King.
8. Veach got back a 2nd round pick — 46th overall — and a 3rd round pick — 100th overall — from CIN for Chiefs 2nd round pick — 54th overall — plus 3rd round pick — 78th overall
9. Veach got back a 3rd round pick — 75th overall — from BAL for their 3rd round pick –86th overall — and their 4th round pick — 122nd overall
10. Veach got back a 6th round pick — 198th overall — from the Pats in exchange for two 7th round picks — 233rd and 243rd overall

This is the first good example of just how busy Brett Veach and his band of merry men are in the offseason.

This was the season the Chiefs went 12-and-4, and hosted the AFC Championship game only to lose to the New England Patriots and many fans blame that on OLB Dee Ford lining up offseason on a play where CB Charvarious Ward intercepted Tom Brady, That’s the play — many assume — if it stood, the Chiefs would have won the game. In the offseason, Veach had traded away Marcus Peters for which many fans were upset, but he also traded away QB Alex Smith that year and got back CB Kendall Fuller in the process.

This was the last year for Safety Eric Berry. He also became famous amongst Chiefs fans for being “day-to-day-to-day-to-day-to-day” ad nauseam.

The Chiefs 2019 Offseason

Here’s what the draft looked like that year:

This was the season the Chiefs not only went 12-and-4 again but they won the Super Bowl this time. So, we may want to pay extra careful attention to this offseason. This was the offseason when Brett Veach released long time favorite Eric Berry but then turned around and fixed the Safety position by signing Tyrann Mathieu to a 3-year deal and drafting Juan Thornhill in the second round.

Veach and his buddies were busy again making trades at draft time and those deals look like this:

1. Veach got back a 6th round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and a 2nd round pick in 2019 for CB Marcus Peters and a 4th round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
2. Veach traded a fourth round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft in exchange for linebacker Reggie Ragland.
3. Veach traded WR Rod Streater and a 7th round pick in 2019 to the 49ers for their 7th round pick in 2019.
4. Veach traded his 1st round pick — 29th overall — in 2019, his 3rd round pick — 92nd overall — in the 2019, plus a 2nd round pick in 2020 to the Seattle… for DE Frank Clark and the Seahawks 3rd pick — 84th overall — in the 2019.
5. Veach traded a 2nd round pick — 61st overall — and their 5th round pick — 167th overall — to the Rams for their 2nd pick — 56th overall

Much as Veach did this year by bringing in Melvin Ingram during the season, in 2019, he brought in Terrell Suggs and he helped win the Super Bowl. During he 2019 offseason Veach also made trades for DE Emmanuel Ogbah, who turned into a good DE, and Darron Lee, who didn’t turn out to be good at all, and he traded away Dee Ford getting back a 2nd round pick in 2020. It’s notable that 5 out of 6 of the draft picks Veach made that year are still on the active roster, and Darwin Thompson was on the roster later in the season as well.

The Chiefs 2020 Season

Here’s what the draft looked like:

The first thing that jumps out at me about the 2020 draft is that every player is still on the team (except BoPete Keyes) and getting plenty of snaps, starter snaps in most cases. That shows me that Veach is getting better and better in his offseason approach. Some will say that the first round RB pick was a mistake — mostly me — but CEH is still the #1 RB in a good group of RBs and he has yet to hit his prime.

Brett Veach and his team were busy once again making trades at draft time:

1. Veach traded linebacker Dee Ford to the 49ers (the previous year) in exchange for their 2nd round draft pick — 63rd overall
2. Veach traded the 2nd pick — 64th overall — in addition to 2019 draft picks, to SEA for DE Frank Clark and a 2019 draft pick
3. Veach traded a 6th round pick — 211th overall — to NYJ for Darron Lee
4. Veach traded a 7th round pick — 246th overall — to MIA for Jordan Lucas
5. Veach traded his 6th round pick in 2021 NFL Draft to TEN for their 237th pick in 2020

This was also the year Veach corrected his first mistake by cutting DE Breeland Speaks. While CB Bashaud Breeland and DT Mike Pennel had helped K.C. win the Super Bowl the previous year, their contributions tailed off dramatically and it was the last time they wore the red and gold. Veach brought in RB Le’Veon Bell during the year similarly to bringing in RB LeSean McCoy in 2019, but Bell was a bust for K.C. in 2020. A 14-and-2 record in 2020 was nothing to sneeze at but they Chiefs failed to bring home a Lombardi trophy and so the season was considered a failure, by some.

The Chiefs 2021 Season

Here’s what the 2021 draft looked like last year:

While Brett Veach was faced with replacing the whole offensive line, basically, to come away with Orlando Brown, signing Joe Thuney in Free Agency, Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith in the draft as well as getting Lucas Niang back from Covid, he should be given a medal. When you throw Nick Bolton in on top of that incredible offseason of moves, you have maybe the best draft the Chiefs have ever had… since the 1960s. The trades Veach had going on last year helped the team immeasurably.

1. Veach traded a 6th-round pick — 213th overall — to TEN for a 7th-round selection in 2020 (from last year)
2. Veach got back a 6th-round pick — 207th overall — from MIA for a 7th-round pick — 258th overall — and RB DeAndre Washington
3. Veach traded the 1st-round pick — 31st overall — 3rd-round pick — 94th overall –a 4th-round pick — 136th overall — and a 5th-round pick in 2022… to BAL, for OT Orlando Brown Jr., plus a 2nd-round pick — 58th overall — in 2021 draft, and a 6th-round pick in 2022
4. Veach traded the 4th-round pick — 175th overall — plus the 6th-round pick — 207th overall — to the NYJ for their 4th-round pick — 162nd overall — and their 6th-round pick — 226th overall

If you’re doing the math with me, that’s a total of 23 trades Veach and company have made in the offseason — mostly related to the draft — over a four year period. That works out to 5.75 trades per year on average. So, one thing we can count on Brett Veach doing during this offseason, and especially around draft day, is make trades… and more than just one or two. In fact, since Veach has traded the Chiefs #1 draft bpick for a very good player, twice already (50% of the time), before the draft… don’t count on that being out of the realm of possibilities.

Summary

Here’s who Veach drafted round by round in the past four years.

Many GMs like to move up or back on the big board come draft day so they can, “Get their man” and that has a lot to do with maximizing their draft boards ranking/value of a prospect. Meaning, if a prospect is ranked by your team as being the 50th best player in the draft, you certainly don’t want to draft him at the 30th position in the draft. So, you either move up to chose another prospect you want even more, or you trade back to the range where you can get your guy at the value you, and your team, have slotted him for.

Here are the positions Veach has drafted in the past four years:

Let’s not forget that the past four AFC Championship games hosted in a row were under the watchful eye of Brett Veach. No, I don’t give him all the credit, but he deserves his fair share. Now, it should be more apparent what he’s done… as well as some of his patterns. Patterns we can now use to predict some of his future moves. Are there are things you’ve learned about Brett Veach and his offseason habits? If so, please share.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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