The Future of the Chiefs: Morris, Rice and Veach

Laddie Morse

I know we need to be focusing on the next game with the Buffalo Bills coming to town this Sunday, but I can’t stop thinking about the future of the team and 2024. When I say “Veach” in the title of this piece, I obviously don’t mean he’ll don a jersey and play a position. It’s more about the decisions he will make.

A couple of weeks ago, I said to David Bell in one of our many phone conversations that I thought Wanya Morris would be the permanent LT in the coming season. With Donovan Smith’s injury in the last game, that permanency may be coming sooner than any of us thought. I’m not saying Donovan Smith has been playing poorly, but he hasn’t been playing lights out either.

OT, Wanya Morris

When Wanya Morris entered the game this past week, his first play wasn’t so good, but then he got better, much better. The decision to play Wanya at LT frees up a lot of cap dollars for 2024. That may be one of the reason they drafted him in the first place. Although David Bell and I both thought Anton Harrison (an Oklahoma teammate of Morris’) would be the best fit at LT, he ultimately was drafted by the Jags at #27 and Donovan Smith was signed by Veach. If Morris can take over and play good ball at LT, that is one less position the Chiefs will need to worry about for next season.

Morris stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 307 lbs. and played his college ball for Tennessee and then Oklahoma. He played Right Tackle in college and had an average PFF score of 76.6 last year. HIs high score was 84.7 vs Nebraska and his low score for the year was vs Iowa State at 57.4. Oliver Hodgkinson wrote a piece two years ago, the summer before Morris last year at Oklahoma, the piece was called: “Wanya Morris, Oklahoma OT | NFL Draft Scouting Report” and he said this of Morris:

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“Wanya Morris [powerful and athletic] may have the credentials to be one of the top offensive tackles in the 2022 NFL Draft. Furthermore, the opportunity to spend a season working with the nation’s top offensive line coach following his transfer to Oklahoma should only enhance the former Tennessee OT’s stock. While his size and athletic profile are alluring, our scouting report reveals Morris has some development to go through before he can ascend the upper reaches of the 2022 NFL Draft class.”

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“Our scouting report reveals Morris has some development to go through”… that’s exactly what Morris has had time to do this year… develop. Given another offseason to build up his strength, agility, and familiarity with the Chiefs system, he should be an excellent LT who can hold down the fort for the next few years with Patrick Mahomes running the show at QB.

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WR, Rashee Rice

Many have projected the Chiefs need for a talented wide receiver, including myself. However, the progress Rashee Rice has shown this year… already… means that he’s going to continue to grow and make strides as a pass catcher for Patrick Mahomes. Whether or not the Chiefs make it to the Super Bowl, Rice weighs heavily in their plans for the future, and fans should count on his presence moving forward.

While drops have been a bug-a-boo for the Chiefs receivers overall, including Rashee Rice, this season his score from PFF is 84.2 which is good enough to make him an almost all-star in his rookie season. On the other hand, Rice has 52 receptions out of 65 targets for an 80% average and that’s not too, too bad. Especially for a rookie. At ChiefsWire.com John Dillon wrote a piece called, “Chiefs WR Rashee Rice grades out as NFL’s fourth-best rookie, according to PFF” in which he said:

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“Rookie receiver Rashee Rice has been a revelation for the Kansas City Chiefs offense in 2023, and his stellar play certainly seems to have caught the attention of the experts at Pro Football Focus, who have him graded as the NFL’s fourth-best rookie….”

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That may have been over the first nine weeks, but Rice hasn’t gotten any worse since then, in fact, he’s gotten better and even had a 107 receiving yards performance against the Raiders in Las Vegas two weeks ago. Since the 2023 Chiefs are the defending Super Bowl Champions, many of us have gotten unrealistic expectations for their play up to this point. If the Chiefs don’t make it back to Super Bowl LVIII it will be considered a failure of a season by many… even if they make it back there then lose it.

Many fans need a reality check.

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GM, Brett Veach

While Steve Spagnuolo or Matt Nagy may be headed back to a Head Coaching position sometime in their futures, a change of venues is not likely for Brett Veach as he likes his situation with Andy Reid far too much. Last offseason, Brett Veach changed out the Left Tackle position with Donovan Smith for Orlando Brown Jr. as well as the Right Tackle position with Jawaan Taylor for Andrew Wylie and that’s not all he changed. He drafted WR Rashee Rice with the 55th overall pick in that draft and added OT Wanya Morris with the 92nd pick.

In an article in October, Stacy D. Smith said of the Rice selection:

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“In fairness to you, Brett, it appears your 2023 second-round draft pick Rashee Rice is the real deal. He’s been a revelation through six weeks. Last Thursday night, he posted a season-high 72 receiving yards and looked like the YAC merchant we expected coming out of Southern Methodist University.”

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This coming offseason — which hopefully doesn’t begin until after the Super Bowl — the Chiefs and Brett Veach, will have a lot of decisions to make concerning who to keep and who to allow to walk away in free agency.

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Here’s the Chiefs Salary Cap Breakdown which was mostly taken from SporTrac.com for 2023 and 2024:

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The Chiefs may be saving money by not keeping a Fullback, but you have to question if their play has suffered for it? While the Chiefs will have just over $50M in cap space ready for the 2024 season, they have a boat load of their own Free Agents to get signed long before the season opens in September. According to overthecap.com the Base Salary Cap is going to be $224,800,000.

Of course, DE Felix Anudike-Uzomah, figures into the Chiefs future plans, and Spags spoke about him recently. However, this isn’t about FAU… at this point.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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