Chiefs: Never Mind, Rome WAS Built in a Day

We’ve all heard the old saying before, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” No, I haven’t flipped my wig. No, I’m not saying that the Kansas City Chiefs are headed to the Super Bowl… but they could be. That’s what has hit me here… the Chiefs have made so many changes this offseason that the first response is to shake you’re head and ask, “What the heck are they doing?” However, now that the dust has settled… a bit… it looks like they may have pulled off everything that they wanted to pull off this offseason… but we’re just not privy to it.

Literally. Head coach Andy Reid and General Manager Brett Veach sat down together once the season ended and mapped out everything they wanted to do this offseason… and now… it looks like they may have been able to do everything they planned.

• You don’t let a top rated CB in the name of Marcus Peters go in a trade unless you know you have a top rated CB lined up to offset the loss. That’s exactly what they were able to accomplish in their trades with — first Washington — then Los Angeles.
• You don’t trade away your starting QB of five years in the name of Alex Smith unless you have someone who you trust can step in and do the job well (Veach must think Patrick Mahomes is… “one of the best I’ve ever seen”… because that’s exactly what he said).
• You don’t let a good NT walk away  in the name of Bennie Logan, without having someone you have confidence in to replace him. That’s exactly what they did by signing Xavier Williams — X-Man — one week into free agency.
• You don’t allow ILB Derrick Johnson to walk away from the team without having someone in the name of Anthony Hitchens ready to replace him. That’s exactly what the Chiefs were able to accomplish.
• You don’t allow a player of Tamba Hali magnitude to walk out the door without replacing him. That’s exactly what they did with a similar player in Breeland Speaks. Whether or not he’ll ever be as good as Tamba, only time will tell, but the offseason plan was one of “replacement” and not “re-building” according to Veach.
• You don’t allow a starting Safety to walk without having a starter to replace him. That’s exactly what the Chiefs have done by letting Ron Parker walk once they knew Eric Berry would return. That’s like trading apples for an entire feast.

When Brett Veach signed one of the better wide receivers in the NFL, in the name of Sammy Watkins, to a 3-year, $48M deal, he wasn’t replacing anyone. He was essentially moving the offense from good… to perhaps one of the best in the league. Ransom Hawthorne wrote a piece explaining that Veach may have created a team of a-few-over-paid-player-plus-mostly-young-players-paid-the-minimum situation but, by doing so, it’s hard to argue with what appears to be a much improved offense, while the defense has readily filled some holes.

When the NFL draft was finished, Veach had also addressed, at a minimum: 1) a rotational OLB/DE in Breeland Speaks, 2) a rotational NT in Derrick Nnadi, 3) a rotational Safety in Armani Watts (plus Dorian O’Daniel who can serve as an in-the-box Safety but he’s speedy and can also cover as well). Oh, by the way, I can’t get enough of Armani Watts! Please excuse me for going gif-cray-cray. I just love making gifs!

Did the Chiefs get younger this offseason? Decidedly so. While Brett Veach has stated that he wanted the Chiefs to get tougher, they have also gotten younger, much younger… especially on defense. If these youngsters turn out to be tougher as well, then Brett Veach has just set the team up for several years.

It’s natural to be bummed when some of your favorite players leave the team. Derrick Johnson was/is the Chief all-time leading tackler (1,154 tackles), Tamba Hali was/is the Chiefs third all-time leader in sacks (89.5 sacks), Ron Parker was just an all-round good guy who played well in his 5 years here (9.0 INTs and 7.0 sacks), and Marcus Peters was a ball-hawking-turnover machine for 3 years. The wife of famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, who wrote the now all too famous “Frankenstein” once penned, “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” Hopefully, by the time the season begins, or at least by training camp, enough fans will embrace the “changes” that Brett Veach has brought about.

I can share the concern that many may have about the Chiefs run defense and how it was rated near the bottom of the league that past two seasons. However, with Reggie Ragland and Anthony Hitchens now manning the inside, even if the holes still exist between defensive tackles large enough for opposing RBs to wriggle through, I can envision a much, much better outcome that will be incredibly entertaining and involve some delicious-pernicious-collisions as well.

Do the Chiefs still need more changing? Absolutely. I say yes. Not only in the personnel department, but by making one more coaching change… and that is to take playcalling away from Andy Reid. Sure, he likes to wean his offensive coordinator off of him but that usually takes a season or two. We could see immediate results if rookie-OC Eric Bieniemy were given the keys to the car. Reid does baby his coaches while he could treat them like they’re closer to driving age. I completely understand the “structuring for success” idea and have utilized that approach in the classroom for decades now. However, I also recognize when a leader isn’t allowing those he works with to be leaders too. This is that situation. Here’s a great example of what Bieniemy could be doing right away if Reid were to empower him to do it:

I normally don’t like to talk about Bill Belichick but here he is talking about an adjustment that his OC made. Not him. His OC. How many times does he reference his OC Josh Daniels? Belichick is the best in the game at “fostering” by “freeing” his coaches to coach so they can do their jobs. Reid could be doing this… and he has a personal need to learn to “let go” but either won’t or can’t see this need. If he ever does… whoa watch out! He could go on a run like we’ve never seen before. I know he has one of the best coaching trees in the game but it’s one thing to have a coaching tree where your underlings have won Super Bowls… and quite another thing to win the Super Bowl yourself. I believe that for Andy Reid to win it… he’ll have to let go. It’s odd really… he lets all these underlings “go”… to other teams where they flourish… so why wait until they go to other teams?

It’s an exciting time to be a Kansas City Chiefs fan. No, Brett Veach probably didn’t build his “Rome” in one offseason, but he did an excellent job of covering his bases. Wait… hold on a sec… this just in: he said he’s not done making changes.

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