The Kansas City Chiefs added speedy Wide Receiver Marquise Brown late Thursday night, and the Chiefs Kingdom exploded with euphoria. Even though it’s a one-year deal, Brett Veach continues to bend the salary cap in his favor.
If I were Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach and I spent time on social media reading the criticism he receives each year at the onset of free agency, I’d put my hands up in disbelief.
With cap limitations after placing the franchise tag on L’Jarius Sneed and giving Chris Jones a mega-monster contract, funds are limited. However, in agreeing to a one-year $11 million deal with free agent Wide Receiver Marquise Brown, he’ll count just $7 million against the 2024 salary cap.
After resigning several defenders to one-year deals and signing Brown, I’d say the Chiefs have roughly $5 million in cap space. They’ve yet to announce any contract extensions that would give them more funds if Veach has other free-agent targets.
The fact Veach is such a master manipulator of the Salary Cap has gone underrated by most Chiefs fans. Being the hunted, generally picking last in the first round, and with other NFL teams wanting to avoid trading draft capital or players to his squad, Veach must go into full sales mode to retain players and sign free agents.
The mastery of that balance lies in his ability to present the right amount of money and the opportunity to join a Championship team. After all, he’s built three Super Bowl Champions with three different roster over the last five years.
If you heard Veach’s speech at the Super Bowl parade, it was an epic rant of reality. It also served notice that winning Super Bowls remains possible and probable even with a down year, with little cap space, and rebuilding one section of his football team at a time.
As fans, it is easy to be upset when other teams, at the onset of free agency, spend heavily in desperation to chase the Chiefs. That’s what the other 31 teams are doing, and Veach has the discipline to strike when the time is right for his football team.
Hollywood Brown is an electric playmaker with Tyreek Hill’s speed. He can stretch the field as a target or a decoy. That means the shell coverages the Chiefs faced stopping Travis Kelce won’t be able to cheat toward the middle of the field; they’ll need to respect Brown’s speed.
To be clear, I’m not saying Brown can put up Hill numbers, but he doesn’t have to do that for the Chiefs offense to be remarkable.
Veach understood that he was fortunate last season. Rashee Rice’s emergence bailed out the Chiefs’ receivers, and his development allowed Mahomes to steady the ship offensively.
In the postseason, we saw the evolution of an offense that needed more playmakers. It is a marvel how they won four straight postseason games to win back-to-back Super Bowls. Granted, some of the struggling receivers made plays in crucial moments in January and February, but if this team is going to Three-Peat, they need better play from the receivers.
Despite the misses on Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney, Veach kept swinging and remained true to his board; he would find more playmakers for Mahomes.
It’s only day five of free agency, and Veach understands that this is a marathon and not a sprint. However, in consecutive days, he signed a backup tight end (Irv Smith, Jr.) for Travis Kelce and a playmaker (Marquise Brown) for Mahomes.
The bottom line is that Veach knows what he’s doing, and all the Internet GMs need to relax and let the man do his job.
