Brett Veach Should Shoulder Some Blame for KC's Slow Start

The man who put the finishing touches on the Super Bowl-winning Chiefs squad has his share of blame in the Chiefs' struggles right now.

Any time a team fields a bottom-three defense in the NFL, there has been an organizational failure.

While there is plenty of blame to go around for the Kansas City Chiefs' defensive failures this year, general manager Brett Veach should take responsibility for his role in the deterioration of the defense and roster as a whole.

How exactly have the Chiefs gotten here, to a bloated roster that does not feature a ton of talent? A lot of it was by Veach's design with how he approached building the team the past few years — and by how that failed.

Back in March, I wrote about how Veach was a general manager who loved to take huge swings and how that was detrimental to the team at times. Well, Veach obviously did not read that article because he traded the Chiefs' first-round pick (among other picks) for Orlando Brown Jr. a month later, shortly before the NFL Draft.

The moves for Brown and offensive line companion Joe Thuney this offseason continued a four-year trend for Veach; he likes to be aggressive, has little regard for draft capital, and is not averse to big contracts. Being aggressive is not necessarily bad, but Veach has been aggressive in pursuing high-risk acquisitions. This trend of aggression for high-risk acquisitions is a large reason the Chiefs are in the predicament they are in now.

Looking back to the 2021 free agency period, pursuing left tackle Trent Williams and offering him a big contract made sense. Williams was a proven elite tackle in the NFL and the only question with Williams was if he could stay healthy. If the Chiefs had signed him, there are very few scenarios where he is not at least a top-10 left tackle in the NFL, which is incredibly valuable.

Brown, however, didn't have that pedigree. He didn't even play one full season at left tackle. Brown was also one of the worst athletes to come out of college at offensive tackle, which starkly contrasted to former left tackle Eric Fisher, who was a great athlete at the position. Brown’s fit in the Chiefs offense really did seem shaky, but the Chiefs’ belief that it could work out seems like it might have been misplaced. On top of all of that, Brown cost draft capital while Williams did not.

With Brown’s up-and-down play so far this year, it seems like he is playing more like a middle-of-the-pack left tackle in the league. His playstyle also seems to be meshing poorly with Patrick Mahomes. When Mahomes drifts back in the pocket, as he has a habit to do, it makes Brown’s job very hard. That is not quite the return one would want from the Brown trade. The situation around the Brown trade will only get murkier if Brown still desires an expensive extension after this year.

Moves like the Brown trade is how the Chiefs found themselves at this point.

Moves like paying Anthony Hitchens a top contract for a linebacker, despite only one noteworthy season with the Dallas Cowboys in which he only played half of the defensive snaps.

Moves like handing Frank Clark a $100 million contract despite his production with the Seattle Seahawks never getting to the point of deserving a top NFL contract. Then turning around and restructuring his contract the next year to make him even harder to cut.

Moves like the drafting of Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Veach’s only first-round pick, which signaled that Veach thought the roster was so complete it did not matter that the Chiefs took a running back in the first round. A complete win-now move with no thought to the future or about positional value.

Even moves like signing guard Joe Thuney, who has played great this year, is an example of Veach being overly aggressive. Thuney’s contract blew away every other guard contract in the NFL. While Thuney has been impressive, it is hard to stomach his salary cap hits after this year which balloon to rival the top tackle contracts in the league, let alone guard contracts. In an effort to completely fix the Chiefs' offensive line in one season, what did it cost the Chiefs’ overall roster?

This is the issue with Veach so far in his Chiefs tenure. He overpays, is overly aggressive, and it is hard to say he has hit more than he has missed.

Some of Veach’s aggressive moves, like trading for Brown, can be explained and the explanation can even be convincing. Who wouldn’t want to make sure the best left tackle you can acquire is protecting Patrick Mahomes? The issue is that desperation causes mistakes at an alarming rate in the NFL. The Chiefs have been desperate a lot the last few years to maximize Mahomes’ rookie contract, and they are paying for that right now.

How exactly are the Chiefs paying for it? On the margins. Going after Jarran Reed because the Chiefs believed they could move Jones to defensive end led to them losing out on Melvin Ingram. Spending the draft capital over the years in trades or on less-valuable positions has led to a severe lack of talent at wide receiver and defensive end. The losses in the margins have coincided with some poor drafts to lead the Chiefs to where they are now; a defense with below-average talent and an offense where Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce are still the only true weapons.

The reality is that if Veach drafted well the last four years, none of this would have mattered. Great talent on cheap rookie deals will make general managers right more often than not. Veach’s drafts have not been up to snuff. There is not a single, proven Pro Bowl player in Veach’s last four drafts so far. The draft that has the best chance to produce a Pro Bowler is his most recent draft, but it is still too early to crown players like Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith just yet. Imagine if the Chiefs had hit on one edge rusher or one wide receiver in the last four years. The situation around the Chiefs' roster would be much, much brighter.

Should all of this lead to the Chiefs moving on from Brett Veach at the end of the year? No, not yet.

The rub is that while this year is an indictment on how Veach has run the team the last four years, it is hard not to think this offseason was potentially his best with the Chiefs. Thuney, despite being expensive, has been very good. Brown is still a fine tackle and the fact that Veach did not overpay for Brown in the trade with the Ravens and has not signed Brown to a long-term deal yet shows he is learning from his mistake with Clark. Pairing those moves with the Chiefs’ promising 2021 draft class, it's hard to make a final ruling on Veach already.

What this year should mean, however, is that Veach should be under heavier scrutiny and he himself needs to do a bit of self-scouting. This upcoming offseason is the first offseason where he is able to correct his own mistakes, Clark and Hitchens chief among them, and try to retool the roster. With Clark and Hitchens off the books, the Chiefs will have salary cap room to play with so he can try and rebuild this roster.

Any and every move Veach makes next offseason will be vital, probably more vital than any offseason before, to the Chiefs' future. He needs to start finding more value in the contracts he hands out and he needs to start finding value in the draft picks he makes. The 2021 draft haul of Creed Humphrey, Nick Bolton and Trey Smith was a great start. Those are three starters on rookie contracts that the Chiefs desperately needed.

However, Veach needs to hit on valuable positions now too. Those valuable positions being the ones that affect the passing game: cornerback, wide receiver, tackle, and edge rusher. The closest he has gotten is L’Jarius Sneed who, after a promising rookie year, is allowing a 145 quarterback rating when targeted this year. If Veach can add some difference-makers at valuable positions and find more value in free agency, the Chiefs can start rebuilding the roster for Mahomes’ prime.

As the calls for various people in the Chiefs organization to be fired start ringing from the rafters in Arrowhead Stadium, Veach’s part in this season does deserve to be called out. He is not the primary reason for this season going south, though, and deserves the chance to own his mistakes and build the Chiefs into a long-term contender instead of all-in sort-term contender. It will be up to him to change his tendencies this offseason, or his time with the Chiefs might be up sooner than many envisioned.

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