Laddie Morse
It’s amazing to me that the Kansas City Chiefs General Manager gets so much flack from Kingdom fans. I not only think he’s one of the best GMs in the National Football League, but I think he’s quickly become one of the best General Managers in any Sports league… world wide. So, for now, let’s take a look at Brett Veach’s top 5 reason I think we should all love him.
.
Putting Together a
Super Bowl Team in 2023
From heavy.com:
.
“The Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach is working hard this offseason to set the team up for a Super Bowl three-peat. Before free agency started, Veach reflected on the “wild ride” of this past season.”
.
.
Signing of Hollywood
Brown This Offseason
One of the reasons I love Brett Veach is his ability to sign the right players prior to the draft to make it look like he has next to no team needs. Alex, who run a Kodiak Youtube channel, says:
.
“Chiefs just got a massive upgrade
to their Wide Receiving core.”
-referring, to Hollywood Brown
.
This is another great example of Veach filling all the holes in the roster prior to the time the Draft takes place so it looks like he has no holes and can draft the BPA – Best Player Available. If the Chief are indeed going to “three-peat”… they’ll need to draft players who can contribute right away.
.
Plus, Kay Adams, who was once part of Good Morning Football — GMFB — says that the Chiefs have had the best offseason so far and I believe much of that is due to Veach signing Hollywood Brown… well, that may also include Chris Jones, Drue Tranquill and putting L’Jarius Sneed on the franchise tag (1:39):
.
.
Putting Together a
Super Bowl Team in 2022
When the offseason rolled around in 2022, the Chiefs were coming off of a 12-and-5 regular season. Plus K.C. had a huge win in the divisional round at Arrowhead vs the Buffalo Bill in what many have called, “The Best Game Ever Played” 42-to-36. I’ll refresh your memory by calling it the “13 Second Game”… aka, the “Grim Reaper Game.” When a game is that good, it has multiple names and this one was no different. The problem was… the Chiefs lost the very next week to the Cincinnati Bengals in OT 27-to-24. So, who won the Lamar Hunt trophy that year? It wasn’t the Chiefs. BTW, the Bengals went on to lose to the Rams in Super Bowl LVI.
Consequently, heading into the 2022 offseason GM Brett Veach had some difficult decisions to make. Primarily, to keep wonder boy WR Tyreek Hill, or not. Veach decided to trade Hill, who was drafted by Brett Veach’s predecessor, John Dorsey, and that’s exactly what Veach did, trade him for grand compensation. Dorsey, in the meantime, drafted some valuable players, but players with a history, nonetheless:
.
.
Josh Webb is attempting to make a point about Brett Veach: that he hasn’t drafted any players with problems off the field. Veach went on that offseason to trade away Tyreek Hill and along with him, his speed and quickness and he’d also become one of the best WRs in the league. James Dator wrote a piece called, “Tyreek Hill’s trade from Chiefs to Dolphins, reexamined and explained” in which he said:
.
“Patrick Mahomes’ connection with Tyreek Hill on the Kansas City Chiefs was destined to become one of the NFL’s legendary quarterback-receiver tandems. With 6,630 yards and 56 touchdowns in six years, the duo was on pace to eclipse Steve Young and Jerry Rice, with Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison’s Colts within striking distance as well.”
.
While the Mahomes-to-Hill connection was on pace to set all time records, the trade compensation helped K.C. win back-to-back Super Bowls. Also from Dator’s article he spells out the compensation for K.C.:
.
.
While the pick of Skyy Moore and the trade for Kadarius Toney have yet to reap regular contributions, they still could. Plus, the Trent McDuffie pick has helped the Chiefs put forth a pair of the best corners in the league the past two years. It’s that pairing which has ultimately helped K.C. win back-to-back championships. That also may be why so many Kingdom fans are wanting to see L’Jarius Sneed — the other half of this scary pair — return for the Chiefs attempt at a sweet-three-peat.
It may be important to some to note that James Dator of SBNation, grades the trade — upon reexamination — as an A for the Chiefs and an A+ for the Dolphins. However, I’m sure that if Toney or Moore ball out this year, that would change. Also, I’m sold on McDuffie guarding Hill (0:25):
.
.
.
The Re-signing of
DT Chris Jones
With the record being what it is for the 2023 season and DT Chris Jones sitting out game one, the season opener in Arrowhead Stadium, while Stone Cold sat and watched his teammates lose, it was enough to see him sign an incentive laden deal and play the very next week. While I was highly disappointed in CJ all during last offseason, including game one — and BTW, so was David Bell — he came through no only with a huge effort during the season but he delivered the most decisive play in OT by forcing 49ers QB Brock Purdy to release the ball early and basically throw it away.
The holdout last year gave me an upset stomach and made me think we were in for another long drawn out negotiation between Brett Veach and Chris Jones’ team to make a contract work. At least that was the worry right away. Then, 2 weeks ago, on March 11, Jones signed a 5-year, $158.75M contract to stay with K.C. for the remainder of his career. Jones will turn 30 on July 3rd this year so fireworks will be appropriate. Veach said prior to the time he singed Chris Jones to a lifetime deal, that he wanted to make sure he could retire in a Chiefs uniform. He succeeded. Majorly.
.
Brett Veach’s Role in Bringing
Patrick Mahomes to K.C.
Everyone knows that John Dorsey pulled the strings on drafting Patrick Mahomes. There is no denying that. However, it was Brett Veach who brought Patrick Mahomes to the attention of HC Andy Reid and ultimately, GM — at the time — John Dorsey. Brt Veach can be quoted as saying:
.
“[Patrick Mahomes] He’s one of
the best players I’ve ever seen.”
.
Veach clarifies (0:33):
.
.
Brett Veach brings that up to date with his comments following the AFC Championship game in Baltimore (0:36):
.
.
.
Although Veach may have been largely responsible for Patrick Mahomes ending up in K.C., Mahomes revealed that he had studied the plays prior to his meeting Andy Reid. IOW, he had a “cheat code” as he explains it. From an article by Jordan Foote for SI.com Patrick says:
.
“The first day that I met coach Reid was at the facility — we have the meetings, [the top-30 visits]. That was the first time I really met him. At that time, there was no time limit, so I was in there for like five hours. He’s just going through plays.
I’m going to just give you all the inside scoop.
Matt Nagy… was our offensive coordinator then. He really liked me, so he gave me the plays they were going to go over –> the night before. So, of course, I crushed the meeting [with Reid]. I stayed up all night studying those plays. The rest was history, man. I met coach Reid, he went over the plays, we went and had some lunch. He had a couple of cheeseburgers and then we went back and I looked back on the board and I had seen that I was a guru, in a sense, because I knew every single play and every check.”
.
So, as much as I’d like to believe that Brett Veach had a lion’s share of the responsibility for bringing Mahomes to the Chiefs… in reality, it may have been Mahomes himself.
.
Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
.