Chiefs GM Was Hiding Cards
At the Trade Deadline…
His Pied Piper Plan
by Laddie Morse
Kansas City Chiefs General Manager, Brett Veach, may have been sucker punching all the other GM’s this week by not making a trade at the trade deadline. Allow me to repeat that… he fooled all the other GMs by NOT making a trade, and he had a good reason to do so because… the Chiefs Brett Veach was hiding cards at the trade deadline… his Pied Piper plan.
Now, I am someone who was calling for a trade — from the rooftops — so, that’s a considerable admission on my part considering just how badly I wanted the Chiefs to broker a deal. After all, when you’re 31st in the NFL in defense… uh, no need to finish that sentence.
So, what’s this reason Veach has for NOT coughing up some draft picks for a player who could help right now?”
While I want to see the Chiefs go all out and win a Super Bowl this year, there are those who have reminded me that it would be even better to create, an environment in this organization — like the New England Patriots of the past 17 years — one which is contending for Super Bowls annually. Plural: Super Bowl(s).
The sucker punch comes into play because Veach knows (knew) he had (has) a plan with leverage in his breast pocket. A sure fire trading chip, a Pied Piper, which will also come to be known as, the “Patrick Mahomes Magnet Effect.”
The Patrick Mahomes magnet effect? Yes, the Patrick Mahomes magnet effect. Mahomes is on a record pace for TDs in a season and he’s already thrown as many TDs this season as the Chiefs threw in all of 2017. This is not just about records… but all about the greatness that is… and will be… Patrick Mahomes. Now, who doesn’t want to play with a guy like that? Right?
“You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
Not that we want the Chiefs to catch flies — that’s the Royals — but this offseason should be a quantum jump better than last offseason in the team’s ability to attract free agents, just because everyone wants to play with an elite QB who has the ability to get them to the mountaintop… again and again. That’s exactly what Patrick Mahomes will offer to potential free agents who are considering K.C. as a landing pad.
The other “half” of that deal is playing for a player’s coach like Andy Reid. Reid is not only known across the league as a player’s coach, one that, every player who’s played for him, wants to keep in touch with him (case in point: CB Marcus Peters, who Reid traded away, still loves Andy Reid. Go figure.) However, he’s also a coaches coach. His coaching tree is one of the best ever having spawned multiple other (2) head coaches who went on to win a Super Bowl. Seven current NFL head coaches have coached under Andy Reid, including:
- Matt Nagy, Chicago Bears.
- Doug Pederson, Philadelphia Eagles
- John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens
- Ron Rivera, Carolina Panthers
- Todd Bowles, New York Jets
- Sean McDermott, Buffalo Bills
- Pat Shurmur, New York Giants
Plus, Reid is proving all over again this season that he’s an OG (offensive genius) as well as a QB Whisperererer. Yes, I’m well aware that I may have gotten a few too many “er” sounds in there — and just like Tony the Tiger — it happens sometimes.
There are those who think that Brett Veach should have made a deal at any price to make this team better, and if you believe that… then I have some swamp land I’d like to sell you, at a premium price of course. So, on one hand, Brett Veach was backing away from a deal that was no good for his team (or any team for that matter) and he was unwilling to play the role of, chief officer of desperation, who gets talked into a bum deal.
In the meantime, he knows he has a Golden Goose in QB Patrick Mahomes, to sell free agents on when they come calling this coming offseason… and for the next decade… because as Veach puts it, “He’s one of the best players I’ve ever seen.” That assertion is proving to be true for the rest of us as well.
One of the measuring sticks, or blueprints, if you will, that I have used for the 2018 Chiefs squad is… the 2003 Chiefs who ended up with a 13-3 record. The big difference here is that in 2003, QB Trent Green was already 32 years old. Besides that, he was not the focal point of that offense: that designation would go to RB Priest Holmes or more likely, TE Tony Gonzalez.
Three years later, Green was gone. Four years later, Priest was out of the league. Five years and Gonzo was on his way to Atlanta. Well, five years from now, in 2023,… we could possibly see all of the Chiefs major players on offense, still producing at a high level for the Chiefs… especially QB Patrick Mahomes.
For some reason(s), a team like the Dallas Cowboys (Jerry Jones, ei-ei-oh-crap) were willing to plank out the ultimate in draft capital, a first round pick, for a WR that many believed to be compromised and not worth the 4th overall selections that the Oakland Raiders gave for him in the 2015 NFL Draft.
It appears Jones’ “over-payment,” may eventually have had an effect on their division rival, Giants, as they tried to trade their Safety Landon Collins. However, that’s where the over-payment at the NFL Trade Deadline basically stopped:
- The Jags traded away DE Dante Fowler to the Rams for – a 2019 third-round pick, and a 2020 fifth-round pick
- The Packers traded away RB Ty Montgomery to the Ravens for – a 2020 seventh-round pick
- The Broncos traded away WR Demaryius Thomas and a 2019 seventh-round pick to the Texans for – a 2019 fourth-round pick; and a 2019 seventh-round pick
- The Lions traded away WR Golden Tate to the Eagles for – a 2019 third-round pick
- The Giants traded away DT Damon Harrison to the Lions for – a 2019 fifth-round draft pick
- The Giants traded away CB Eli Apple to the Saints for – a 2019 fourth-round draft pick; and a 2019 seventh-round draft pick
- The Browns traded away RB Carlos Hyde to the Jags for – a 2019 fifth-round draft pick
- The Browns traded away WR Josh Gordon to the Pats for – a 2019 fifth-round draft pick.
Take note of how all of those players were traded for 3rd through 7th round picks. Oddly enough, the Giants were willing to take, a 5th rounder, a 4th rounder, and a 7th rounder, in their other trades but… were pressing Veach to give more for Safety Landon Collins.
Multiple teams were hot for S Landon Collins on trade deadline day, but they couldn't quite meet the Giants' high asking price … https://t.co/8QrvH3TbvJ pic.twitter.com/xVhGpXT228
— Ralph Vacchiano (@RVacchianoSNY) October 31, 2018
Anytime there are multiple teams caught in a bidding war for a player, it’s a good idea to back away unless you’ve got something they can’t live without. Which, Veach didn’t have. He had draft capital. So did the other teams. Everyone was caught in a vortex-stalemate and unwilling to get sucked into the Giants black hole of hopeful greed.
I know. I know. I was the one going crazy online after the trading deadline had passed so there’s a bit of backtracking involved here on my part. Be that as it may, coming to the discovery that Brett Veach knew he had magic beans in his pocket, beans which could grow a towering stalk all the up to the stars… well, it was worth all the ranting and raving.
Sure, this doesn’t help the Chiefs this season. I get that. However, as David Bell has so clearly pointed out in his recent pieces here at ArrowheadOne, the return of other Chiefs players, currently on IR, as the season progresses may be exactly what the doctor has ordered and could strengthen the defense enough to make a legitimate Super Bowl run. This year.
What do you think? Are you convinced, as am I, that the Chiefs will hold prime real estate this coming offseason for free agents and that Brett Veach will be playing with a Royal flush: location, location, location. Or… Mahomes, Mahomes, Mahomes.
If you are viewing this in Apple News and would like to join the Discussion, [GO HERE.](http://arrowheadone.com/chiefs-gm-was-hiding-cards-at-the-trade-deadline-his-pied-piper-plan/#disqus_thread)
…