Chiefs: Veach Plays Aces High

Chiefs: Veach Plays Aces High – David Bell and Laddie Morse – Yesterday, the Kansas City Chiefs GM, Brett Veach, signed Free Agent Guard/Tackle Joe Thuney. Veach had said previously that he would not be a player on day one of Free Agency so it looks like he’s bamboozled us again. Now, is there any Chiefs fan out there that feels slighted in the least bit? I doubt it. The Chiefs are in the process of building a powerful but flexible offensive line, for the future, as well as for the 2021 season. Consequently, the signing of Joe Thuney should be seen as a step in the right direction and he should not be considered a bridge acquisition.

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David Bell wrote, “Brett “The Maverick” Veach continues his fine work with the acquisition of Joe Thuney!!!!” David offers this projected view of the Chiefs starters, as well as backup players, along the OL:

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David shares:

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“Posited depth players, re-signing Kilgore as #2 C/or draft pick. Tender Mike Remmers for SW/T. Penciled in: Yasir Durant LOG#2: LOG#2 – again logical. Chiefs like to take collegiate OT’s and move them inside. Penciled in: Martinas Rankin(OT) ROG#2 – again logical. Chiefs like to take collegiate OT’s and move them inside. Signing Thuney probably means that Kelechi Osemele is not going to garner an offer or is not considered by Chiefs staff to be a logical solution due to age, injuries and surgery.”

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With Kyle Long scheduled to meet with the Chiefs today, there’s a chance the OT hole along the OL will be filled. However, if K.C. does sign Long, he’ll only be a bridge player. Veach could give him a two-year deal, but he’s not going to be a long term answer as he’ll turn 33 years old in December. I’m not necessarily in favor of signing Long, as he has some injury history and only started 21 games in his last three seasons of play (48 games), from 2014-through-2018.

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As we move closer to the draft, “The Offseason Plan” of Brett Veach and Andy Reid will continue to come into focus. Of course, when they started out, there were so many unknowns, so there was no way they could foresee signing Joe Thuney, right? In any event, it was likely known that they could create “X” number of dollars in cap space by taking “Y” specific moves. Consequently, they could anticipate — but not know for sure — that being flush with cap money, they’d have an idea of what could be accomplished with those dollars. Signing Thuney to a 5-year, $80M deal seems outlandish in some respects, but if you’re going to be a player on day one of free agency, it’s the price you must pay to get better at a position of real, as well as, perceived, weakness. The point is, by giving Thuney a big payday, they now have less to work with and will probably go for a bridge player, which should cost them much less in the process.

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The cap has become a malleable moving target in the NFL. Even in a down year for the cap, K.C. still finds ways to come up with extra cap space to sign very good players.

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There’s been a misconception that NFL teams were not going to be able to afford high dollar free agents this year. However, by not only moving cap around and restructuring their own players, but by backloading deals to next year, the year after, and even the year after that, to years when teams already know the cap is going to spike upwards considerably, they can sign the players they want now, and simply pay them the bulk of their new contracts later.

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That indecision that is an overriding theme every offseason, seems to be where Brett Veach lives comfortably. “The Plan” has been in place with Veach for quite awhile now, but even before Eric Fisher and Mitch Schwartz were released, Veach knew he had a tough road to go. From Charles Goldman at ChiefsWire Veach revealed,

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“Certainly, every year is different because of your cap situation and what you have and what you need to do. We always have a couple of different roadmaps to get us to where we want to be. We’ll certainly have some tough decisions to make in regards to trying to keep as many players on this team intact. Every year is different, every year is unique. There will be new challenges that we face this year as opposed to last year.”

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“The Roadmap”… “The Plan”… whatever you wish to call it, the Chiefs are on their way to putting together a very good offensive line… this year… and while it may take three offseasons to fully re-make their OL, getting one of the best OGs in the game in Thuney, is a great step.

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I’m still convinced Veach will draft an Offensive Tackle in round one or two of this draft, but he always makes sure he can’t be backed into a corner, or become predictable, on draft day. Staying unpredictable? That’s sounds like a true Maverick to me! Plus, we haven’t seen all the cards he’s going to play this offseason… not nearly.

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Go Chiefs!

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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