Chiefs Top Priorities for Late May, IOW, Now!

“There’s no time like the present.” My mother’s famous words forever echoing in my memory. The same is true for Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach. David Bell gave us a view to the current situation yesterday with his piece called, “Bashaud Breeland Wants to Return to Chiefs? Reading the Tea Leaves, a No Brainer” (take a look if you haven’t already) and while I agree with him, the Chiefs do need to re-sign Bashaud Breeland so the same thing doesn’t happen to the Chiefs corners in 2021, as what happened to their OL in the Super Bowl. Finding a balance is the key.

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So, the Chiefs must place a priority on what has to get done first. David Bell also sent this to me yesterday:

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Priority 1: Extend Tyrann Mathieu
Priority 2: Get Breeland aboard if possible. He wants a multi-year deal and deserves it. Figure it out, and if possible,
Priority 3: Get DE Melvin Ingram aboard, let’s figure that out too!

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Those are my thoughts as well, and I’d rather not see Tyrann Mathieu doubting how much he means to the Chiefs and Chiefs Kingdom. He’s been rather feisty on Twitter lately. Mathieu has also called out Pro Football Focus last year on their “elite” ranking of players on each team… because they erroneously left him off their list.

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Is it PFF… or pff…. As sure as we are that Patrick Mahomes is the Chiefs leader of the offense on the field, Tyrann Mathieu is the leader of the defense for K.C. as well. Period. End of discussion. He has to be the number one priority for Veach over the next few weeks and then… then and only then… should Veach be thinking about bringing in corner help. I’m glad to see that my old stomping ground agrees with me:

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While K.C. has loaded up on OL this offseason — as well they should — there’s no excuse for not securing a long-term deal, for the best FA signing Veach has ever made: Tyrann Mathieu, in March of 2019, just a little over two years ago. Let’s tie him up for the rest of his NFL career.

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Cornering a CB

There’s more to be done and that includes making sure the CBs are a deep group. However, so far: Sneed, Ward, Fenton, Keyes and Mike Hughes are just one injury away from going up in flames and then putting Veach in a desperate position to go out and find help, in the middle of the season no less. Remember, the OL had more than four injuries to their group of starters. That took K.C. down a path they obviously never intend to go down again, as we can tell from watching how they’ve signed, drafted and traded for, every living stud who could play OL this offseason. Don’t forget, both Ward and Sneed spent time on the sidelines with injuries in 2020. It can happen in the best of years. Bringing in more corner help needs to be a high priority if the defense is going to take a step up from last year.

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If Breeland does return, I could still see Veach adding even more help for this group. Sam Madison and Dave Merritt are both Dumbledores of the Chiefs coaches, but they need to have real wands to work with if they’re going to fashion a strong potion for their CB newbies. Sometimes you can’t make lemonade out of lemons… simply because you don’t have enough lemons to work with. The reason Merritt and Madison won’t have a repeat year, like the one they had with L’Jarius Sneed last year is, Veach didn’t draft a CB. The trade for Mike Hughes notwithstanding.

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Jumping on Ingram

David Bell would like to see the Chiefs still add DE Melvin Ingram, and he and I are on the same page there. Ingram may be 32 years old, and his sack totals have sagged the past four years, from: 10.5-to-7.0-to-7.0-to-0.0, but his name is good enough to force OCs across the league to have to come up with a plan to defend him. Not only that, but Ingram had a hurt knee last year and has not only recovered from that, but he should be very good one-on-one. If he can get pressure on the QB, it means OCs will have to throw some double-teams his way, which also means… Jarran Reed or Chris Jones or Frank Clark will then be lined up one-on-one. It’s clearly a pick your poison situation for coordinators… a ruinous necrosis prognosis diagnosis, for them… if you know what I mean?!

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While some may believe that the signing of Ingram would give K.C. an unstoppable force along to the front four, I’m a little less optimistic, but still think Ingram would make everyone around him better, including Taco Charlton, whom Ingram would likely be rotating with. Taco would either have to, step up his game, which would be a plus, or, he takes advantage of fewer snaps in a rotation that sees him used in specialty situations. Either way, the Chiefs would be improved along the front four, and front seven, for that matter.

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The Chiefs may not have enough cap space to add both Breeland and Ingram after re-structuring Mathieu. On the other hand, I’ve also heard that a new deal for Tyrann is supposed to give K.C. more cap space this year, not less, while pushing off the fulfilling of his pay to future years.

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Trades as a Solution

David Bell and I have talked about the possibility of Brett Veach taking advantage of a loaded OL crew by trading away one of those players for the opportunity to add to the CB room. If that’s another Veach solution, I’m sure the team will be improved by another one of his marvelous maneuvers.

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Do you see any other priorities that Mr. Veach needs to address right away? WR Julio Jones anyone?

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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