Hail to the Chief

Shawn Sorter

It’s a well known fact that the Kansas City Chiefs turnaround — from our pre-2012 nightmare — began when Clark Hunt gobbled up Andy Reid, as I wrote about in our Thanksgiving Special. Picking up a winner in Alex Smith to be the quarterback led to several years of winning, but only once was more than a first round exit in the playoffs, from 2013-to-2017. The long term sustainment of excellence came when the Chiefs parted ways with John Dorsey, who had a nice eye for talent, but seemed to struggle with salary cap management. Then, the Chiefs promoted little known Brett Veach. 

Prior to Veach becoming the Chiefs General Manager he had his largest impact. He had scouted a strong armed quarterback named Patrick Mahomes from Texas Tech who seemed raw and a long shot at the time to become elite. Veach pounded the table for Mahomes and became a thorn in the side of Andy Reid and John Dorsey, insisting they take this guy claiming he was the best player Veach had ever seen. Yes, John Dorsey made the final decision and pick, but everyone in Kansas City knows the brains and passion behind this pick was Brett Veach.

Because of what the Chiefs gave up in the trade to move up to the 10th spot in the draft to take Mahomes, the first draft Veach had in 2018 had no first round pick. Matter of fact he only has had one first round pick in that time, also acquiring Frank Clark and Orlando Brown Jr. by giving up 2 more 1st rounders. The lone 1st round pick was Clyde Edwards-Helaire. The jury is still out on this pick as Helaire has had a couple of injuries that have taken time from him and the skill set that observers thought would make this pick a home run for the Chiefs, and his pass catching, has for some reason not been utilized.

It’s not conventional wisdom to take a back in the 1st round, but when your star quarterback signs off on it, when you bring back nearly every starter from a title team, and when it appears to be one of the only weaknesses, position wise, on your team, at the time the move looked solid. Time will tell, and it’s not really fair to evaluate draft classes without also considering trades.

Trades

It’s very possible the Chiefs don’t win the Super Bowl without Frank Clark who Veach made a trade for. We know where the Chiefs would still be without trading for Patrick Mahomes. Recently, Veach aggressively went after LT Trent Williams with what would have been a monster deal, but he gave up a 1st rounder to get a Pro Bowl left tackle in Orlando Brown Jr. that has nicely shored up that side of the line. So, for the most part Veach has been working with non-1st round picks to complete his draft classes. 

In 2018 in the 3rd round Veach added DT Derrick Nnadi. While not a star, he has been a valuable contributor on the defensive line. His 3rd and 4th rounders in Dorian O’Daniel and Armani Watts have never been big contributors on the defense, but have been special teams regulars. 2018 was Veach’s weakest draft, but in August of 2018 Veach acquired Charvarius Ward from the Cowboys for peanuts.

Update: Parker Ehinger is on his sixth team counting K.C..

Ward has been an excellent Cornerback and I was especially pleased to see him close the first half in the Chiefs last game by intercepting Dak Prescott.

Key free agent signings included Anthony Hitchens and Sammy Watkins, two players instrumental in our Super Bowl title. 

Prior to the 2019 season Brett Veach recognized the defense as being the biggest weakness of the team. He acquired a 2nd round pick by dealing Dee Ford, a player that will always be remembered in Kansas City for all the wrong reasons.

A small sidebar: I see players line up that same way all the time and it’s literally never called. Micah Parsons, in the past 2 Cowboys games, did it a number of times.

… but I digress. Veach also went out and signed an impact Safety in Tyrann Matthieu and traded for Frank Clark in the same offseason, then signed CB Bashaud Breeland and DE Alex Okafor. In one offseason he was able to make one of the worst defenses in football into a top 10 unit. In that year’s draft he also picked up WR Mecole Hardman and Safety Juan Thornhill in the 2nd round. Most Chiefs fans wanted DK Metcalf and missing there hurt a little, but Hardman has had some solid moments, mixed in with a bunch of poo. Part of this season’s defensive turnaround was inserting Thornhill into the starting lineup. Thornhill is one of the Chiefs top ranked players according to PFF. 3rd round pick Khalen Saunders has been a nice rotational piece. 6th rounder, CB Rashad Fenton, is currently the 2nd ranked player at his position according to PFF. 

In addition to Clyde Edwards-Helaire in the 2020 draft, 2nd round pick Willie Gay Jr. is starting to show why Veach loved him.

This guy goes sideline to sideline and is another huge reason for our defensive turnaround this year. Injuries have postponed him showing what he can do, but he’s looking like a home run pick. 3rd round pick Lucas Niang is a solid Right Tackle and may end up being a long term solution there after sitting out his first year due to Covid. 4th round pick CB L’Jarius Sneed has been a super find. He has all the makings of a future superstar. He can cover, and boy can he hit. 5th round pick DE Mike Danna has been a solid backup and has gotten to the quarterback when needed. 

However, Brett Veach may have saved his best for last. The 2021 draft seems to have given us 3 players that should rank between very good… to… superstar status. 2nd round Linebacker Nick Bolton leads the team in tackles, but has not played near as much as other players. He makes frequent impact plays behind the line of scrimmage. Here’s one of those plays:

Another 2nd round pick came in the form of Center Creed Humphrey. He has quickly become the anchor of our line and has spent most of the year rated as the number one Offensive Center by PFF. The steal of the draft came in the 6th round as most teams passed on Guard Trey Smith due to some medical concerns, but he is already one of the best lineman in the league.

Having these 3 young players on rookie deals will give the team so much flexibility going forward. Add in free agent guard Joe Thuney and Veach essentially reconstructed the entire offensive line in one offseason. A recent trade for Melvin Ingram also moves the needle. His arrival allowed Chris Jones to go back more full time to Defensive Tackle and has freed up other members of the defensive line to get pressure on the Quarterback. He has also brought some positive leadership to the locker room. 

Brett Veach has put a team together that can compete for years to come. The creative way the Mahomes contract was worked should give the team cap flexibility long term. He has brought in a lot of young affordable talent. He’s one of the reasons why the Chiefs are the most televised NFL team in Germany, as well as other places in the world. People want to watch a winner, and Brett Veach has helped to give Kansas City a true winner. Hail to the Chief.  

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Shawn Sorter — ArrowheadOne

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