There is nothing better than a bright red autumn day at Arrowhead Stadium. The smell of BBQ fills the air, music blasts hours before kickoff, and, of course, the team on the field. Whenever a big play or a big situation comes about the crowd roars, as well as when the Chiefs put six on the scoreboard. While the gameday atmosphere and on-field performance are what fans see and what most pay their close attention to, it is only a piece of what happens.
We all saw the Chiefs win the Super Bowl in February but the planning and preparation go back much further than that. Andy Reid had plans and plays drawn up weeks in advance. Yet we should look further back than that to the front office. General Manager, Brett Veach, and his scouting staff are responsible for finding players that can succeed in the system that Reid and his coaches have installed.
Finding players is no easy task. Entering his third season as General Manager of the Kansas City Chiefs, Brett Veach has firmly cemented himself as one of the best General Managers in Kansas City Chiefs’ history, but also one of the top GM’s in the NFL today. The man who was credited with discovering phenom, Patrick Mahomes, has also firmly put his imprint on the makeup of the Chiefs roster. Veach has been working for teams that have been coached by Andy Reid, rising from being a scouting assistant for the Philadelphia Eagles to the GM in KC. It is very apparent that Veach and Reid see eye to eye on most issues regarding player personnel. As a result, we have started to see certain player “types,” as well as similar patterns from players drafted to those on the current roster. Also, there are similarities in acquisitions. For example, Veach’s first draft pick in Kansas City was defensive tackle, Derrick Nnadi, a stout run-stuffing defender with the ability to take on and win double teams. Since then, the team has acquired Mike Pennel in free agency and Khalen Saunders in the draft. Both fit the bill for stout run-stuffing DT’s who can take on double teams as either a one technique or a three technique.
What this series will look to examine is the trends in player acquisition as well as look to predict future moves that the Chiefs could possibly make. It will look at future personnel situations as well as player fits and player comparisons. The salary cap and cap space situations, as well as their impact on the roster will also be examined. There is no way to know for certain what it is that Veach, Reid, and their staffs will want to do with the state of the roster. Yet, by using the clues from the current roster and past moves it will create a picture for what the future of the Chiefs might look like.
