Chiefs Camp: Miami Fleeced, The Feast Increased, High Priest and Beast, Roster is Veach Pieced, NFL: Owned or Leased

Laddie Morse

With the Kansas City Chiefs moving indoors for training camp practice on Wednesday morning, what better time for a review of the team and league’s many different issues. All of them are Chiefs related issues of course.

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When the Kansas City Chiefs traded with Miami this spring and sent them Tyreek Hill for five draft picks (a 2022 first-round pick (No. 29), second-round pick (No. 50) and fourth-round pick, plus fourth- and sixth-round picks in the 2023 draft), many, many many, a pundit was claiming that it was the Chiefs who had been fleeced. I’m not so sure about that.

CBSsports.com gave the Dolphins an A- on the trade while giving the Chiefs a B-. The obvious question is: why? Sure, Hill is one of the best WRs in the league, and one of the NFL’s faster players: ever. Bryan DeArdo of CBS Sports says:

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“… as it currently stands, it’s safe to say that parting ways with Hill has put the Chiefs’ odds at hosting a fifth consecutive AFC Championship Game in serious jeopardy.”

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That was on March 23rd. Now, having drafted Skyy Moore, and signing JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, the Chiefs look set for years to come and more importantly, it looks like K.C. has diversified their assets. This may be the strongest WR group the Chiefs have ever had, and when you throw in TE’s Travis Kelce and Jody Fortson, the cupboard is nowhere near to bare. Instead, it looks like the Chiefs have a bear market when it comes to WR options. Options made much better by the man playing quarterback.

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When it comes to re-rejuvenating the roster, we should look no further than what New England has been able to do: trade away top players while they can still bring a hefty trade value. That’s exactly what Brett Veach did here, for a player who turns 29 next March and maybe has three good years left, tops. Also, we have no idea just how well Hill will do catching passes from what has been described as the “noodle-armed” Tua Tagovailoa.

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Andy Reid’s offense has been described as many things over his years in K.C., so after the team traded away one of their best players and dumped one of the best Safeties in the league, we were all wondering if the feast was over. This training camp has shown that the offense has flourished. Safety Justin Reid has been stellar and QB Patrick Mahomes now…

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… has more legitimately talented targets to throw to as well as the RB core group also looks well stocked with receiving options.

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Patrick Mahomes II has long been the best QB in the league… and yet he’s still 26 years young. Since his rookie season, he’s represented a clear and present danger to defenses everywhere.

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When NFL scholars and historians get together years from now, they will claim that the Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach did a masterful job of pooling all the pieces of the roster puzzle together.

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Our own David Bell pointed out that the current Chiefs roster has 15 players left from the 2019 team (our Super Bowl winning team).

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“There has been a lot of change in player personnel since 2019 – only 15 players remain from that roster. In the case of the Mahomes-led offense, a massive shift is also occurring.”

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I have to wonder if this NFL we’ve all come to know and love is more like a recess game of lining your classmates up and then choosing sides each year, than it is a game of loyalty and honor, because players used to stick with one team and then stay there the length of their whole careers. IOW, what are we really looking at? JuJu Smith-Schuster was with the Pittsburgh Steelers for five straight season before he became a “free” agent and then signed with the Chiefs. I have to wonder, is the current free agent system really freedom for all? Well, certainly not the fans.

In an article called, “The History of NFL Free Agency” the following era’s of Club ownership and player selectivity have evolved to give us the league we follow now:

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“The Reserve Rule (1920-1946)

The reserve rule gave teams the right to re-sign its players in perpetuity. This rule bound a player to one team indefinitely.

The One Year Option Rule (1947-1962)

In 1947, the NFL replaced the reserve rule with the “one year option” rule, which allowed teams to use a reserve clause one time after the expiration of a player’s contract. The option year could not contain the reserve clause, which gave players the ability to negotiate and enter a contract with any team. Players became free agents, free to sign anywhere, for the first time.

The Rozelle Rule (1963-1976)

The rule allowed the Commissioner, at his discretion, the right to award compensation from a team signing a free agent to the team losing the free agent, unless the teams agreed on a compensation prior to signing.

The Right of First Refusal and Compensation (1977-1988)

A free agent’s original team held the right of first refusal, enabling it to retain a player by matching any contract offer made by another team.

Plan B Free Agency (1989-1992)

This gave teams the right to protect 37 of its players (when the league had 47-man rosters) from becoming free agents…Unprotected players were not subject to right of first refusal or draft compensation rules. They were free to negotiate and sign with any team.

NFL Free Agency (1993-Present)

Any veteran with at least five years of experience (eventually lowered to four after certain thresholds were met) would become an unrestricted free agent. However, it allowed teams to name its most valuable player as a “Franchise” player, and in the first and final two years of the CBA, it could name a “Transition” player (two players in the first year of the agreement), each of which restricted their movement on the market…. Players with three or four seasons of experience were subject to the same right of first refusal/compensation system as before, essentially what we know today as restricted free agency (3 seasons in 2020).”

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It may be freedom for the players, but it is certainly not freedom for the fans.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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