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Would I be the most hated man on this board if I said this was a fairly underwhelming offseason? It wasn't bad, but it was.. meh.
Veach absolutely nailed one thing: he bodied out the EDGE position.
The tackle position, which started the season with a question mark, is still a massive question mark. The WR position, which started the season as a question mark, is still a massive question mark. The DT position, which started the position as a question mark, is still a massive question mark.
He pushed more Mahomes money down the road, although not that much. And it sounds like the Chiefs haven't even engaged in extending Chris Jones. They may have even entertained conversations in trading him, which is why Jones tweeted that he wouldn't play anywhere else, in order to kill the trade market for him.
I really loved the Chiefs first two draft picks, but I strongly feel the Chiefs will regret Wanya Morris. They've now got two third round draft picks to play right tackle, and neither is ready now, nor perhaps will they be in the coming year. The late rounders all felt like special teamers, which, fine. The team needs core special teamers. Coburn was a good pick, however, and I'm enjoying the word of mouth leaking out of camp and from film-watchers on Nic Jones. FAU was a good draft pick, and is going to make the team better immediately and in the long run. But the refusal to trade up for the players they really wanted may end up biting them in the end. (Of course, I have my own suspicions for all that, but we don't need to relitigate that.)
I do think the biggest issue with Veach's offseason is that all his swings at WR failed to work out. And of course, the biggest gamble at all, in letting OBJ walk to the Bengals for basically $6m/year less than what we were offering, in order to sign a right tackle and hand the left tackle to a guy we signed in May for $4m, is sketchy at best, and disastrous at worst.
This all being said, Reid is going to figure this out. By December, my speculation is that Donovan Smith will probably not be on the field, Taylor will be at LT, and the team will make do with Niang at RT. Mahomes is operating at Prime Mahomes levels right now and will somehow make this weirdo WR room look far better than they are. The team's run game will slow down a lot due to the downgrade at runblocking at the tackle positions, but Mahomes is going to materialize wins and keep the Chiefs in the hunt. I believe they will be in the AFCCG again.
The problem is the path to get there. It's going to take a lot of bruises, and some losses, to get this team into its final form. And that may mean sacrificing home field advantage in the playoffs. The Bengals didn't collapse this offseason, the Bills are barely under the cap and will have Von Miller back, and the Jets are my sleeper team.
But so long as Mahomes is healthy, I cannot bet against him in the playoffs (except against an absolutely jacked Eagles team). I just feel like they could have surrounded him with a better team entering the season than the one we currently have.
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