Chiefs Grind Prix

Chiefs Grind Prix – the Kansas City Chiefs know how to grind. From Clark Hunt on down the line, every single employee can grind. The Grand Prix reference is apropos because this team is so incredibly fast as well. However, the Chiefs Grind Prix is about the organization, an era, a standard, a willingness to get-er-dun.

”It’s one of those things that you work so hard to get there. Then, you get there and win it, and it’s like, it’s pretty cool, I want to do it again.  So, you just start back up again. It’s a grind man. It’s a fricking’ grind man, it never stops.” – Brett Veach on the yearlong process of creating a championship team.

First of all, you need to know that the word “Prix” means “price” in French. Now, that’s exactly what the Kansas City Chiefs organization is willing to pay, Le Prix.

With the two day Flirtation period of Free Agency ready to begin at noon today (ET), the rudimental aspect of prospects which is most obscured from the view of fans – the character and the drive of a player – is something the current Chiefs staff is vigilantly focusing on.

Ryan Pole, Chiefs Assistant Director of Player Personnel said recently,

“When we get together in training camp, we really set the tone, of what we want to achieve. Obviously, it’s always going to be a championship.”

Striving for a championship, that’s the goal of every team, or it should be. So, there’s not much to report there. However, the hiring of Mike Bradway in the spring of 2018, may have helped to bring about more of the right changes needed to point the Chiefs in the right direction:

Remember, it was in February of that same year that the Eagles had won their first ever Lombardi. Mike Bradway, the Chiefs co-Assistant Director of Player Personnel, said following Super Bowl LIV:

“You can either handle it two ways, you can either be complacent and take your foot off the gass a little bit, or this can motivate you and I think for our guys [area scouts and those on the prospect evaluation team], I think we’re hungrier. We want to work harder. We want to go that extra mile, because it’s not easy to get back there. I don’t think we’re going to settle for anything less. The standard’s been set. So, we’re just really excited for the future.”

“Le broyage a commencé” : Translation – the grinding has begun.

Tim Terry, the Chiefs other Director of Pro Player Personnel, said during this most recent combine,

“Not every player can play every place. Not everybody can be in the Kansas City Chiefs Kingdom. We’ve been fortunate to find guys who are good culture fits. Good young men, and good players.”

That seems to be a bit of a shift from even just a few years ago – “the good young men who are good culture fits” part of the equation. Mike Bradway goes on to explain how the Chiefs staff gathers that information about college prospects:

“We spend most of our time on incidents that may have happened in college: you know, get their version of it. [Also], we’ll have a 10, 12, play cut-up [tape] from their season. We want them to be teachers. Teach us how they [college coaches] taught you.”

The mocks I create online each year usually get going full steam ahead in January. Since the team didn’t finish up until February, that process has been delayed to a degree. I’ve created about 70 mocks so far this year and I like to average about one per day. The mocking process is my way of beginning to evaluate who I think would be a good fit for the Chiefs and allows me to dig into tape each day. Oddly enough, I may know more about a prospect in January than Andy Reid does because the coaches are so focused on the season at hand. Trey Koziol, a western National Scout for the Chiefs stated at the combine: 

“So, it’s the first chances our coaches may have, to get one-on-one board work and film work, with the players. So, the mental side of things that you can’t see on tape.”

While I love doing mock drafts, I became aware years ago that it is a bit of folly. No amount of time online studying tape can measure: the heart, desire, love of football, or character… of a prospect.

In 2015, when the Chiefs had just drafted Marcus Peters at #18, Steven Nelson at #98, and DJ Alexander at #172… Trey Koziel, the team’s western area scout, gave a press conference in which he did not once mention character issues about any of the players he was seemingly responsible for recommending to the Chiefs brass. He only addressed on-field performance.

Then… last year, he helped evaluate Darwin Thompson and bring him to the Kingdom and here’s part of what he had to say about DTrain:

“You know, this is an outstanding person first and foremost. This is a really, really, really driven kid…. You know he’s a really hungry, driven, kid. I think those are the kind of guys you like having because he’s on a mission. A mission to succeed, and they [his college coaches] raved about the kid. Sometimes you get kids, through various reasons that, aren’t always focused when they come into college…. but the kid was very mature beyond his years…. He’s not somebody you worry about when he’s off the field.”

I cut off part of what Trey Koziol had to say about Thompson’s character too because he went on. So, it looks like the Chiefs have changed their focus in the past 5 years to one that pays as much attention to the devotion and temperament of a prospect as they do that players on-field performance. It worked. Right? Right!

After all, the Kansas City Chiefs are the Super Bowl Champions (I never get tired of finding reasons for saying that).

While I’m happy that the Chiefs superiors are paying extra attention to those positive personal traits, it is also an aspect of those prospects which we fans can’t account for, and aren’t privy to… while amassing mountains of mocks.

Although the Chiefs appear to have added a new level of scouting to the process of bringing a player to the Kingdom a year ago, let’s not forget what Brett Veach did to help the Chiefs accomplish a Super Bowl victory. As outlined by the K.C Star and the Chicago Tribune, there were “3 priorities that guided Chiefs GM Veach in making a good situation even better,”

• 1. SUPPORT PATRICK MAHOMES. If the Chiefs had just one rule, this would be it: Do whatever is best for Patrick Mahomes. 
  2. BUILD THE BEST AND DEEPEST PASS RUSH POSSIBLE. Here, the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles are instructive. 
  3. OVERHAUL THE SAFETIES.

Obviously, bringing in Tyrann Mathieu at the Safety position and drafting Juan Thornhill was instrumental in taking care of #3.

Trading for Frank Clark, signing Alex Okafor, Emmanuel Ogbah and Mike Pennel (plus Terrell Suggs in December), then drafting Khalen Saunders made the D-line a strength of the 2019 Chiefs. Using the 2017 Super Bowl winning Philadelphia Eagles as a template was a wise move.

Adding the speedy receiver, Mecole Hardman, helped give Patrick Mahomes another weapon to attack with. Veach also signed OG, Stefen Wisniewski during the season to strengthen the OL.  

Note: an aspect of studying what GM Brett Veach and his staff does, that has amazed and flabbergasted me is: they not only rank every college prospect but every player in the NFL, in the event that they ever become a Free Agent. I can’t imagine the wall that shows that ranking system. It blows my mind just to think on it.

Veach took care of his business last offseason (as well as during the season), and he now deserves to be trusted to take care of business in 2020. The pressure to repeat must be immense for him and his crew. One thing is proven: these Chiefs can grind. That’s the Chiefs Grind Prix!

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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