Brett Veach on ‘Fine Line’ Chiefs Face with Draft and Free Agency Spending

As the Chiefs chase a three-peat of championships, Brett Veach outlined the team's current challenges and what could be in store next offseason.

Feb 27, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach talks to the media at the 2024 NFL Combine at Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

While the Kansas City Chiefs make it look easy sometimes, there's nothing simple about how they've strung together their current run of success. Every playoff run is the byproduct of investment, development and maintenance at all parts of the NFL calendar.

The players on the field oftentimes get credit for performing, but coaches and front office staff help serve as pillars of an organization. General manager Brett Veach, for example, is given the blessing and the curse of keeping football's next big dynasty rolling. Kansas City is off to a perfect 9-0 start to the season, largely due to a willingness and ability to adapt.

A multitude of injuries have threatened to throw the Chiefs off their path, but Veach and Co. made adjustments at the scheme and player personnel level. The latter is the executive's forte, with the club's trade for wideout DeAndre Hopkins being a prime example. Hopkins figures to play a major role in Kansas City's pursuit of a record third Super Bowl in a row; getting him in-season is a big-time pickup for the reigning champs.

Everything comes at a cost, though, as Veach points out. On a recent appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show," he expanded on the balancing act the Chiefs have between an all-in approach now and keeping options open for the future with veteran players.

"I think, in general, most players want to be here," Veach said. "Typically when you get to different points of this season, whether that be in the offseason or at the trade deadline, I think we do hear a lot of, 'If everything is equal, he would love to play in Kansas City.' Listen, I think that playing for Coach Reid and playing with Pat Mahomes and Travis Kelce and Chris Jones, I think it would certainly be a destination for any player that had a chance to potentially move on and go somewhere else.

"It is difficult, though, just because when you do have a lot of these higher-paid contracts, we only have so much flexibility and wiggle room. It's a little tricky too because when you have a player like Pat Mahomes and your goal every year is to make the playoffs and compete, there's that fine line of being aggressive but also understanding how you're going to put this team together in the future."

Veach looks to March and April's free agency and NFL Draft periods as team-building opportunities that make being "mindful of what's on the horizon" a priority right now. That's concurrent, of course, with chasing another ring.

"For example, we have a pretty good roster," Veach said. "Again, a lot of football left and we'll see how the season plays out. Hopefully, we can stay healthy and have a shot toward the end. Looking forward to the offseason, we're going to have some really good players that are free agents. You talk about Trey Smith, Nick Bolton and Justin Reid, just to name a few. The reality of it is it'll be hard to retain all of those guys – hopefully we have a chance to retain a couple. With that being said, it will be hard to navigate a free agency class, if you will, because you won't have that kind of money because it's tied up into current players and, hopefully, players you can keep and retain.

"The bulk of your acquisitions are going to come from the draft. It's that fine line of older players wanting to come here but also knowing they come with a contract and also, you're going to have to pay a draft pick to get them there and also know you might not have money in free agency to spend next year and you're going to be relying on those draft picks."

Entering Sunday's play, Kansas City is projected to have the eighth-least salary cap space in all of football in 2025. That alone is a reminder of how hard it is to sustain success in the league. Factoring in multiple internal free agents (Smith and Bolton could both command nice chunks of change on the open market), external candidates on the veteran front and draft opportunities, the picture is clouded even more. After that, consider that a fourth- or fifth-round conditional pick was given up for Hopkins.

The horizon Veach refers to can sometimes be disguised as a cliff, just waiting for NFL teams to fall off it. Recent history suggests the Chiefs won't experience such a drop, however, which is a testament to being well aware of the aforementioned fine line.

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