Laddie Morse
Many of us have been wondering what the Kansas City Chiefs plan was from the beginning of the offseason. While that’s a question that could never be easily answered — because HC Andy Reid and GM Brett Veach would never outright answer it — the moves made so far in the offseason reveal the plan that none of the leaders of the team might even hint at. So far, the offseason plan for the Chiefs seems to be: “Run It Back Plus… Fix the Offense.” That’s an interesting 2024 policy since this draft is often referred to as a “Decidedly Offensive” draft.
Jordan Dajani wrote an article for CBSSports.com called, “2024 NFL Draft: First round likely to set record for number of offensive players taken” in which he says:
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“Most mock drafts don’t have a defensive player being selected until No. 8 overall, where the Atlanta Falcons currently reside. Over at Caesars Sportsbook, the Over/Under for total offensive players drafted in the first round is set at 21.5. So even Vegas is expecting the record for most offensive players selected in the first round to be broken.”
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One of the very first moves that Brett Veach made was to re-sign LB Drue Tranquill to a three-year deal. Maybe that should have been a clue to what was about to happen. Tranquill came to K.C. last offseason on a one-year deal and everyone was a bit surprised he was made available by the Chargers. While it may appear that the Chiefs plan was to once again focus on the defense like they did last offseason, this move by Veach to re-sign Tranquill came as more of a move to reconcile the defense with the previous season’s efforts and then when he re-signed DT Chris Jones to a monster deal it was clear that the plan was to run it back on defense then repair the offense… at any cost.
Never mind that the contract with Stone Cold was the stone cold deal of the century… Veach made it clear with that deal that he was going to keep the (defensive) band together while making moves to fix the offense… moves like signing Hollywood Brown. It’s my contention that the Chiefs just got better on offense by releasing Marquez Valdes-Scantling (MVS) and then signing Hollywood to a one-year deal. [BTW, I won’t be at all surprised to see Veach come back and extend a deal with Hollywood long before the next offseason begins.]
The plan became noticeably apparent when Veach released MVS and signed Hollywood Brown. Instantly the offense was better. Boom. Done.
We should also be made aware of the offseason plan when the Chiefs almost immediately after their Super Bowl win, re-signed DC Steve Spagnuolo then followed that up by re-signing their Assistant Head Coach and special Special Teams coach Dave Toub! Since those moves were done within the echos of the Super Bowl den, we should have known K.C was about to Run-It-Back on Defense… which left them the whole offseason to address their offensive needs.
“The Plan” that has the Chiefs attempting to repeat three times in a row… is not as easy as you might guess. Not when so many underclassmen are staying in school. In a piece for spectrumnews1.com called, “This year’s NFL draft has lowest number of early entrants since 2011.” That trend figures to continue and they claim that:
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“The lure of starting a pro career early apparently isn’t quite as tempting for underclassmen now as it was in the days before college stars could profit off their name, image and likeness. This month’s draft features 58 early entrants, the lowest number of players to enter the draft with college eligibility remaining since 2011. That includes 54 underclassmen who were granted special eligibility by the NFL and four others (Miami defensive back Kamren Kinchens, Alabama defensive back Kool-Aid McKinstry, Texas defensive tackle Byron Murphy and Clemson running back Will Shipley) who earned their degrees in three years.”
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“That represents a dramatic shift, considering at least 100 underclassmen entered the draft every year from 2016 to 2022. The 2021 draft had a record 100 underclassmen selected.”
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Does that make Brett Veach and his team’s job a harder one? You would think so. It’s the law of supply and demand:
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“If a product has a high demand and
low supply, the price will increase.”
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The price increasing will not only apply to the trades teams make, but the amount they will be asking for their trade (draft capital). While we have heard that Veach has had a more difficult time this year arranging possible trades or even those teams who will answer his calls… it has supposedly been because the Chiefs have won it all two years running and who wants to help a team that’s in the midst of a dynasty? However, a big reason might be that the demand for a trade has made the price go up… way up. In fact, it might now be so high that Veach and his team will refuse to make deals.
We’ve already seen a reduced amount offered for one of the best Corners in the game in L’Jarius Sneed. While Sneed signed a huge deal with the Titans for 4-years and $76M, Tennessee only sent a 3rd-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft to K.C. and a swap of 7th-round picks in this year’s draft.
The change is due to the change in NIL rules for college players. NIL, which stands for –> Name, Image, Likeness… and is a legal term that college students can now use to make money while remaining in school: “money earned by college athletes for use of their fame or celebrity, either their name, their image or a likeness of who they are” (Washington Post; subscription required).
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According to Jordan Foote, who wrote a piece for si.com called, “Phase One of KC Chiefs’ 2024 Offseason Program Launches on Monday” he says:
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“According to the league, Phase One of the offseason program makes up the first two weeks. During this window, activities are “limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only.” This is a low-stakes period for players to get reacclimated a bit and set the tone for the remainder of the offseason.”
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We’ll know a lot more once draft weekend has finalized. We will also know more as Phase One and Phase Two get under way. David Bell wrote a piece this week called: “The Chiefs Best Free Agent Signings, Thus Far” and while he spells out the best signings for the Chiefs so far this year, he doesn’t address the Chiefs plan to Run It Back… directly. However, Bell does say:
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“It appears to me that the defensive front will be solid and the missing piece for which no move has been made is signing a free-agent CB to replace L’Jarius Sneed. I am unsure that such a move will be made, but the Chiefs have CB coach Dave Merritt and decent depth for the role, as it is.”
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Bell alludes to it here, but a big part of the Chiefs plan is to lean on their coaches… heavily. That’s exactly how CB L’Jarius Sneed became the kind of player who could go from being a fourth-round pick at #138 over all –> to signing a four-year deal for $76.4M with a $20M signing Bonus and $55M Guaranteed. We can call it the deductive interpretation of Veach and his team… or we can call it super rad teaching and directing by the coaches. Somewhere in there the players bring an excellence in learning to the table. I think all of that comes into play.
While we may not know from being told, exactly what the Chiefs were planning this offseason, or exactly how they might spell it out, we do know that coaching and high quality scouting are all a part of the process. So, in a sense, the plan is that process… and boy oh boy, it’s hard to beat excellence in intuition, insight and experience.
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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