The Chiefs common manger supplied his ideas on a number of offseason matters throughout Tuesday’s NFL mix.
As the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs have loads of work to do as they put together to defend their title this upcoming season. With the NFL Combine starting this week, Chiefs common supervisor Brett Veach previewed the staff’s method to a number of key offseason occasions whereas discussing the challenges that include the constant success that has adopted the staff lately.
“I think when you have the GM blue book, it kind of says smart in free agency and build through the draft,” Veach advised reporters on Tuesday. “I’ve learned over the years, as you have more and more success, that becomes more difficult because the players cost more and you’re picking late in the draft. Last year, we really had to slam dunk this thing from start to finish, and it was one of those years a GM dreams of. Just everything seemed like it worked out.”
As Veach talked about, the Chiefs hit house runs in each free company and the draft as final 12 months’s offseason additions performed essential roles within the staff’s postseason success. A key part to that success is the analysis course of that takes place yearly in the course of the Senior Bowl.
Kansas City has had great success figuring out expertise in the course of the Senior Bowl week — an occasion that Veach calls one of many staff’s larger precedence weeks of the 12 months.
Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Images
“I mean the Senior Bowl is certainly a very high priority list for us in regard to how we go about our process,” Veach famous. “You know, (executive director of the Reese’s Senior Bowl) Jim Nagy, he’s worked in the league for a long time, and he does a great job of reaching out to GMs, reaching out to scouting directors to make sure that game is run the way that it needs to be. I think if you just look at our roster – Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith, Noah Gray, Kadarius Toney, the two corners last year – I think if you just looked at our roster, I think it kind of tells the story of how important the Senior Bowl is for us.”
As for the precise draft itself, Kansas City has been profitable in going with the traditional “best player available” route. With the centerpiece of the staff in quarterback Patrick Mahomes already in place for a few years to come back, Veach says the Chiefs can deal with filling the roster with gifted soccer gamers as a substitute of prioritizing want — more often than not.
“We’re looking for good football players and we’re also looking for a room fit, a cultural fit, and how they fit with our coaching staff,” Veach responded when requested what the staff considers earlier than drafting a participant. “There are so many issues that we think about. Every 12 months, when you could have these drafts and also you see whether or not it’s a mock draft or guys listed on the board, I feel folks are inclined to overlook that there’s plenty of dialogue. It’s not like, ‘Chiefs like smaller receivers.’
“We like good football players, but do they pass the medicals? Do they pass the interviews with our coaches, with our offensive coordinator, with our receiver coach, with our head coach? Is the chemistry there? Do they feel like it’ll be a good blend in our locker room with our current receiving group? So, there are a lot of things that factor into it.”
When it involves free company, the Chiefs could have a number of robust roster choices to make as they try and get underneath the wage cap. Fortunately, for Kansas City, Veach is assured that the staff can be high-quality because of the continuity they’ve as a corporation. This means everybody from administration all the way down to the teaching workers is on the identical web page relating to what the staff wants and which gamers can match these wants as they navigate by way of a difficult free company course of.
“You have to just have a plan, stick to it and knock it out of the park,” Veach defined. “And if the plan doesn’t work, you need to transfer on rapidly. And I simply suppose the extent of communication that we now have with our teaching workers — since you do clearly should hit on the draft and when you could have the rapport that we now have with my workers and our teaching workers, I feel it simply helps in that course of.
“You know the scheme and the vision and the fit. I mean we’re all on the same page and I just think the fact that coach (Andy Reid) and I have worked together for so long and even [defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo] and I have been together for a long time now, I think that continuity is something that has really helped us transition to our second part of Pat’s contract where it is difficult.”
Read extra
