OPENING STATEMENT: “Appreciate you guys for hopping on the Zoom. First want to start off by congratulating Travis Kelce on his contract adjustment. We just signed it here a few minutes ago. It’s hard to put into words what Travis means to this organization, this city. It was certainly a priority to adjust his contract for us, and it was something that was important for (Chairman and CEO) Clark (Hunt). (It’s) very fitting that Travis is now the highest paid tight end (in the NFL) in these two years. I want to thank his agents Michael (Simon) and Greg (Diulus) for all their hard work. Chris Shea (Vice President of Football Operations/Team Counsel) and (Football Administration Coordinator) Jack Wolov on our side, appreciate them for all their hard work. Again, just a really special day and moment for this organization to once again recognize arguably one of the greatest tight ends to ever do it. Additionally, we certainly have a lot of draft stuff to talk about, really proud of the work that my staff did this weekend in conjunction with our coaching staff to bring seven new additions to this organization. We have some verbals (agreements) with some (college) free agents we’re really excited about, those won’t be official until Friday. Certainly, a lot to talk about, and with that I’ll take your questions.”
Q: You have some other players that will be up for contracts in the near future, so what went into getting Travis Kelce’s deal done now?
VEACH: “We do have some younger guys coming up. Like always, once the draft settles down, we’ll have a chance to address all those players and work through that. Travis (Kelce) is an outlier here. I think we all know that. When you talk about Travis and his career and his legacy here, this is something we wanted to knock right out of the park early on. Then, like you mentioned, shift our focus to some of the guys coming up. We’ll have a long runway now until the preseason starts – I know the OTAs have started now – but we’ll have a little runway here until we get to St. Joe (for training camp), and we’ll spend our time working – I’ll work with (Vice President of Football Operations/Team Counsel) Chris (Shea) and (Football Administration Coordinator) Jack (Wolov) on our side and work with these guys and their agents.”
Q: How long do you see Travis Kelce being able to play at this level for the Chiefs?
VEACH: “Every now and then you have one of these guys that are outliers – and certainly Travis (Kelce) is one of those players. It’s funny, it’s not even May yet and today we had a chance to get out there in phase two and guys were out there running around. Travis was the first guy in line, and he looked like he was 28 years old. Again, the odds of someone playing this far into their 30s is very low, but it does happen, and it happens with unicorns in the profession and Travis is one of those. We’ll certainly celebrate this with him and hopefully we can ride this thing even longer. We’ll just have to wait and see, but he’s shown no signs of slowing down. Everyone notices the kind of postseason he had; he just found an extra gear. These special players are always able to find that extra gear and again if anybody can do it, Travis can.”
Q: Now that the draft is over what needs, if any, do you feel like you still need to address in free agency?
VEACH: “We accomplished a lot between the free agency period and the draft. Now, I think we’ll have a chance to really evaluate these young guys and evaluate these new players we brought in on our 90-man (roster) signings right after the season and the undrafted free agent guys we got. We’ll have a chance to evaluate this team– I think we spoke about this over the weekend, I don’t think you’re ever satisfied with what you have as a roster, there’s always ways to improve. The important thing is just to make sure we have competition and battles at every position group going into St. Joe (for training camp). Now we get to spend the few weeks watching these guys and seeing how they move out there. It’s a good gage to predict how these competitions will go. Once we get through the next few phases of these OTAs, we’ll huddle up as a staff both personnel and coaches and see if we have enough competition at all the positions. If we need to go in a different direction before training camp, we will, but I think we’re excited with where the roster is and look forward to the final OTA periods.”
Q: What intrigued you most about Jared Wiley?
VEACH: “Every now and then, especially with where we pick in the draft, the tight ends – it just seems to me the last few years it’s harder to find tight ends in the draft than it had been in the past. I think you do get a chance – depending on where you pick – to select a receiving tight end or a blocking tight end, but these combo tight ends are hard to find. I think the thing that intrigued us about (Jared) Wiley is the fact that he is a big kid, a former quarterback, is athletic, can run, a guy that can certainly hold up in line and will get better as a blocker, can block, will block and then that receiving skillset he has. I think it’s unique to add a true combo tight end on this roster so certainly excited about that prospect there. We had guys in the past like Blake Bell and some other guys down the line. I just think Travis (Kelce) is the best at what he does, and Noah Gray has done some really outstanding stuff for us the last few years. Noah plays a ton of reps on special teams. Having another big body, (to) be interchangeable with those two players is really important for us.”
Q: Where did you have Kingsley Suamataia on your board and which side will he play on?
VEACH: “We had him up there obviously really high. (You) have to be prepared for all types of scenarios. Depending on how the draft unfolded, you never know. I think we had a pretty good indication with the number or quarterbacks this year and the number of other offensive linemen that there would be a chance that a player like Xavier (Worthy) might slide to where we picked. But he (Kingsley Suamataia) was certainly in one of those top 25-40 considerations. He was potentially a consideration at number 32, and he was potentially a consideration had we traded down. To have the draft unfold like it did and be able to select him at 63, we feel very fortunate and lucky. As far as position, he’s played both left and right tackle. I think plans are to throw him right there at left tackle and let him compete and battle with Wanya (Morris). We’ll see how it goes. I mentioned before the draft that we certainly like some of the things we saw out of Wanya last year, and it was our job to bring in competition. I think those guys will be excited to compete with each other. We look forward to that battle at training camp. We also know that Kingsley has played on the right side too, so I think there is a lot of versatility and value there.”
Q: Where do you see Hunter Nourzad fitting in?
VEACH: “Well really when you lose a guy like (Commanders G) Nick Allegretti, I mean those guys are hard to replace and we like some of the things Mike Caliendo did last year. These are long seasons and week in, and week out there is a physical toll these guys have to undertake. It’s one of those things where it’s always comforting to know you have a guy like Nick Allegretti who, if needed, or pressed into service like he was last year in the playoffs can come in, can play center, can play guard and can get you out of a game there. When you look at Hunter (Nourzad) and his career the kid started out playing tackle. Then he transferred to Penn State, played guard, played center. Extremely smart kid, I think he had a mechanical engineering degree. One of those guys that we feel has a tremendous amount of upside but also almost see in that Nick Allegretti role where we think he can come and certainly will compete like the rest of the guys do. I think we have a high amount of confidence in him, knowing his background, knowing how smart he is, that he can come in and play quality reps and provide quality starts if needed.”
Q: You drafted three offensive linemen, was this a priority or were there just good opportunities presented? What do you expect your offensive line to look like this season?
VEACH: “We lost a few guys in the offseason. Donovan Smith was a free agent, we lost (Nick) Allegretti. Just depth wise it’s one of those things, I think every GM would say the same – when you go to training camp, you’re always looking at your backup line and you’re looking to make sure you have eight, nine, 10 that you feel really good about. Certainly, mentioning Wanya (Morris) and his development last year, I mean there were five guys, and (Mike) Caliendo played a little bit, six. We still have Lucas (Niang) who has every year come back better with that injury. Again, there’s been many years where we carry 10 offensive linemen, I think the last couple of years it may have been nine. (We) always want to shoot for that number there, and I thought just looking at our roster not only are we wanting to provide competitions at that left tackle position, swing type of position – but we also needed some depth in that interior offensive line, players that had experience both at center and guard. You can’t have enough of those, and every team carries around 10. I think for the most part of my GM tenure, I believe we were close to 10 and some years I think we even had 11 when we had guys that weren’t counting against the 53, I think we snuck in 11 one year. We’re always trying to look for 10 linemen, some years it’s nine, just wanted to make sure that we had enough competition to compete for those eight, nine, 10, 11 spots.”
Q: Are the wide receiver and tackle position still in high demand for your roster?
VEACH: “We’ll use this OTA period to assess that. I think we feel good right now, a lot of these guys were playing college football last year. I think how they do it here in the meetings and how they do with just kind of absorbing the information and can they translate it out on the field is a big deal. We don’t have pads on, so some of it may tail into St. Joe, into training camp but I think for right now we’re going to let these young guys go out there and see what they can do and how much they can absorb. If we feel good about it, this will be kind of where we go from St. Joe and then we’ll be able to adapt and adjust if needed, but I don’t think anything would be imminent.”
Q: Of your seven draft picks, is there a specific trait that made you like them more than other prospects?
VEACH: “Many of them were captains of their team but I would just say the intelligence. We’re always looking for athletic players, versatility, and intelligence right after athleticism is always a priority for us and I think all these guys really from Xavier (Worthy) all the way down to C.J. (Hanson). These are guys that are really smart and can adapt and adjust, we feel, to the pro game very quickly. Height, weight, speed and athletic ability will be number one but a close second will be versatility and intelligence and we feel like all of these guys fit that bill.”
Q: How do you feel about the running back position after your all of the new additions you added in this offseason?
VEACH: “Keaontay Ingram is a guy we like too, we got him late last year and it’s hard when guys come in into the middle of the season, we added him into our practice squad late, but I think we were a fan of his when he was at USC. I think that’s going to be one of those positions just like the left tackle, starting position, just like the tail end positions at corner, that running back position will be a battle and usually it comes down to special teams and pass protector as a number three here, so I think all these guys have traits we like and now it’s just a matter of a couple of those guys putting together a solid training camp. That’s from the mental side of things and from a special teams side of things. I do think though we have some guys that all have ability and now it’s just a matter of those guys going out there and earning a position. From a talent perspective, as you mentioned with (Emani) Bailey and (Carson) Steele we brought in and then last year (Deneric) Prince and Keaontay Ingram, all of those guys have talent and ability to play in this league, now it’s just a matter of who can put together a solid training camp and earn the position.”
Q: What do you like about Jaden Hicks, Kamal Hadden and C.J. Hanson and how do you see them fitting in?
VEACH: “(Jaden) Hicks, just the value was too great there, this is where you just want to stay true to your board and just take the best player available, and he’s one of those players that you look left to right on your board and you have needs at receiver and o-line, d-line and corner and then all of a sudden you get to your pick and you have a player that is at the safety position and we have some really good safeties here on this team but just from a talent perspective and long-term planning perspective it was just too good of a player to pass up. He’s a guy that you can do a lot of different things with. He’s a big kid. He has good range. He’s physical. He can play down low in the box. He can play in the back end and another really smart, intense player and with the special teams roles. Imagining him on special teams, I’m sure (Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Dave) Toub is going to have a blast with him. It was just one of those situations where when we got to our pick, we just wanted to stay true to our board and take the best player available, and he was by far the best player available. (Kamal) Hadden was a guy that we kind of targeted there day three, tough physical kid, think he has a good press skillset and just like the way he plays and again. The one thing that we prioritize in the defensive back field is not just the size but physicality and (we) think he’ll certainly bring that. (C.J.) Hanson, he was a kid that (we) really heard a lot of things about him during the fall. He showed up at the East-West (Shrine Bowl) game and kind of took us by surprise, super athletic kid. He has a high ceiling and one of those guys that (Offensive Line) Coach (Andy) Heck was excited to work with and was surprised that he was still there in the seventh (round). Usually those guys that have success at smaller levels but go to an all-star game and excel and show out, usually those guys get nabbed up there in the fifth or sixth round so when we were sitting there in the seventh round, we did have some other needs but again, like Hicks, was just a player and at a position that those guys are hard to find. They’re hard to bring in as free agents. There’s usually bidding wars and every team is after them. Just think he’s another guy like Hunter (Nourzad) that has guard/center flexibility, played tackle at Holy Cross there but showed up and played well at guard at the East-West game but also think he has center flexibility too. Coach Heck will do a great job with both Hunter and Hanson in regards to getting both those guys reps at guard and center and the more versatility we have, the more important you become. I think both of those guys can handle – and mentally both of those guys are smart, so don’t think that will be an issue for either of those players.”