If I were Brett Veach, Part 2: Free Agency
Looking at how I'd handle free agency if I were the Chiefs GM.
Every year I place myself in the shoes of the Chiefs’ general manager and make a plan for the offseason. It’s a multi-part series that is always a lot of fun. In Part 1, I looked at some salary cap savings steps I would take and then talked about how I’d approach in-house free agents. Today, in Part 2, I’ll look at what players I’d look into signing in free agency if I were Veach.
The age of shiny new toys is almost here!
Free agency is one of the most fun times of the offseason for NFL fans (though at times losing good players can hurt), as it involves bringing in proven veterans to hopefully improve on weaknesses and compound strengths. And of course, it gives me a bunch of new film reviews to do, which is always a blast.
As I wrote about earlier this week, last offseason Brett Veach absolutely crushed free agency with low-key but wildly important signing signings in Charles Omenihu, Drue Tranquill, and Mike Edwards, while wisely letting Juju Smith-Schuster depart rather than paying him a decent-sized contract.
As free agency approaches this year (the official start of free agency is Wednesday, March 13th at 3 PM Arrowhead Time, but the the “tampering window” starting Monday at 11 AM is when the news starts to break), the Chiefs are in something of a limbo at the moment with their two biggest questions.
Is Chris Jones going to get extended?
What is going to happen with the franchise-tagged L’Jarius Sneed?
I wrote about some big swings the Chiefs could make in a trade with Sneed on Thursday, and I think a trade at some point is by far the most likely outcome in his case (I’ll get into that momentarily) at this point. But Jones remains an unknown, despite his continued cryptic tweets.
Given the size of Jones’ potential cap hit (and his role on the team), what happens with him is a massive fork in the road for what free agency would look like for Kansas City.
With that in mind, we’re going to have something of a “sliding doors” edition of “If I were Brett Veach” today. I’ll do a scenario in which they keep Chris Jones, and one in which he pursues “greener” pastures elsewhere. The former is of course my preferred outcome, as there just aren’t other players like Jones, but the possibilities are interesting if the Chiefs find themselves more flush with cap space and cash than they anticipated.
Keep in mind that I treat free agency as a “gap filler.” What I mean by that is I like for the draft to be the long-term building mechanism for the team, with free agency to be used at times to build but more often to shore up weak spots to prevent drafting for need. In other words, my aim in free agency is always intentional towards where I see gaps in the roster. So in the current case for the Chiefs, it’s WR, DL, and OT (arguably) where my attention primarily goes.
Let’s talk about what I would do in free agency if I were Brett Veach.