The Chiefs Offseason Agenda

We are now solidly in the offseason, as the Chiefs victory in Super Bowl 57 is becoming more distant and the so-called legal tampering window date of March 13th is drawing ever closer. So let’s take a moment and think about what the Chiefs might do this offseason to build a team that can defend a Super Bowl championship for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Restructure: Mahomes and Frank Clark

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As I explained back when he signed the deal, Mahomes’ contract is set up in a way where the Chiefs should restructure it every offseason, pushing back the cap hit indefinitely so that we can maximize the teams around Mahomes while we can. In fact, it was one of the major reasons I labeled last season as a rebuilding year (a framing I’m proud to say I was one of the first to realize and everybody else slowly realized later. I’m not Peggy Hill’ing it I promise.)

With the rebuilding year ending in wild success, it’s now time to take advantage of the extra cap space, so we really should restructure Mahomes this year. This would create $33.5 million in space, which will come in handy.

As for Clark, his is more of a pay cut as he’s failed to live up to his massive contract. Originally this wasn’t going to be a cut to gain $21 million in space, but in my mind it makes more sense to keep him around one more year at a lower rate than to try and bring in a free agent. Anybody much better will also be more expensive, and we should be focusing our spending elsewhere.

Franchise Tag: Orlando Brown

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There’s already rumors swirling around him, and with the window already open for tagging players it’s possible that this has already happened by the time you read this.

But tagging him simply makes more sense than signing him to the big time extension that he’s looking for given his inconsistent play. If he can establish himself as a dominant left tackle then maybe we can talk a big contract. Otherwise, a franchise tag of $20 million dollars is hard to argue against as it buys us time to potentially find a replacement.

Re-sign: Juan Thornhill and Shane Buechele

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I’m going to focus on the bigger names here. Whether they decide to bring back or churn through role players like Blake Bell and Darius Harris doesn’t really matter.

Anyway, Thornhill is the one free agent the Chiefs should bring back no matter the price. He has done a good job solidifying the secondary and finding an adequate replacement would be tough. He will command a decent number, so this will be one of our splurge players.

Despite having a list of potential backups I’d like to bring in, it just doesn’t make much sense to spend our limited resources on a top-end backup. One of my favorite NFL anecdotes is when a Colts coach said Manning got all the practice reps because if he went down the were fucked, and they don’t practice fucked.

That philosophy can be a bit questionable, as we just saw the value of having a backup who can step in for a drive or two and be somewhat competent. But I also think we’re better off making sure the team around Mahomes is as good as possible, as if he goes down for an entire game in the playoffs we’d have little chance of winning no matter who was backing him up. Better to go cheap with Buechele and spend the money elsewhere.

Re-sign (If The Price Is Right): JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mecole Hardman

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The Chiefs took a receiver-by-committee approach after trading Tyreek Hill, and it proved to be effective as Mahomes won his second MVP award. While it’s tempting to then conclude that we need to bring the gang back, it should instead lead the team to conclude that Mahomes can make even mediocre receivers look good.

If Smith-Schuster and Hardman are willing to come back on reasonable deals, then I see no reason to refuse to bring them back. But if they’re demanding too much, there are plenty of equivalent guys out there who we can replace them with. Hardman especially has never seemed to had chemistry with Mahomes, and Toney can fill his role as the screen and reverse runner.

Bring In: The Best Right Tackle Available

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Andrew Wylie has filled in admirably at right tackle, but he should be more of a high-level backup than a true starter. The Chiefs obviously expected to have Lucas Niang available to start, but injuries have kept him off the field forcing Wylie into action.

Maybe the team is confident that Niang is still the long term answer there (he did look solid when he played), but given his injury history I’d rather have him as the swing backup and use our cap space to swing for the fences at the position.

Who that top right tackle will be is still up in the air. Right now the consensus seems to be Mike McGlinchey, but you never know if the 49ers will franchise tag him or re-sign him before he hits the open market. Regardless, whoever that top tackle available ends up being he needs to be wearing an arrowhead on his helmet next season.

Draft: Trade Up And Best Player Available (NO 1ST ROUND RUNNING BACKS!)

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With the roster as constructed above, it should give the Chiefs freedom to truly draft the best player available. Other than positions like quarterback and offensive line, any rookie is going to be able to get significant playing time if they’re good enough. At the same time, there’s no position where we’d feel like we’d absolutely need to get an immediate starter in the draft.

That being said, we are going into the draft with 12 draft picks (judging by comp pick projections), just like in 2022. But these picks are significantly worse than 2022. Heading into last year’s draft, we had 2 picks in each of the first 4 rounds. In 2023, we are going into the draft with 6 of the 12 picks in the 6th and 7th rounds, with the only other extra pick being in the 4th round. In 2022 we ended up with 10 picks after trades, and 2023 should see even more picks used to trade up.

The reality is that there just isn’t enough roster spots available for half a dozen late round picks who are likely going to be special teamers and fringe roster players. It makes more sense to use them to trade up in earlier rounds to make sure we get our guys. We should expect to come out of the draft with 8 or 9 new players.

And, this should really go without saying, don’t draft a running back in the first round! Hopefully Veach learned his mistake from Clyde Edwards-Helaire, but I’ve seen a number of mock drafts having us wasting our pick on a running back, so it bears repeating.

Tony Sommer

@Tony_Sommer

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