KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach recently visited with the media about the upcoming NFL draft.
OPENING STATEMENT: “I do appreciate everyone hopping on this webchat today. I hope everyone and their families are staying healthy. Certainly, this terrible virus has affected everyone in the country, but our thoughts and prayers go to those individuals and families who have been more directly affected and impacted. Before we begin, I certainly want to thank, on behalf of our entire organization, all of the people in the medical fields, the doctors, nurses, emergency first care providers. Those people are really the true heroes in this whole thing and none of this is possible without them, so I certainly want to thank them. As we transition to the draft, we’re excited about this setup. I’m sure you guys have a lot of questions about the setup, but it gives me a chance to really thank all of the people behind this. Every year I get a chance to come up here and thank our great scouting staff and I’ve said this time and time again I’m truly blessed and fortunate to have such a talented staff. But I think during this process here some of the people that sometimes get overlooked their ability has really come to the forefront. Certainly, Ted Crews and his PR staff getting us set up every day with our media obligations. Kevin Higgins and the people in IT, Pat Brazil and our video crew, Allen Wright, Rick Burkholder, Rocco Mazzella and the facilities staff kind of helping me transform my basement into a draft room. Those guys have been outstanding so I can’t thank them enough. With that I will turn it over to Brad Gee and hear your questions.”
Q: I just want to make sure everything is okay with you and your family. Can you talk a little bit about the challenges of preparing for a draft in this environment?
VEACH: “Well first thank you for asking that question and we’re doing well. The hard part I think with the young kids is keeping them occupied and hopefully the weather cooperates more as we transition into spring. I think it’s kind of been an evolution. When we got wind of an all virtual draft, I think there was a lot of questions in how things were going to run. But quite honestly the last two or three weeks everything has been virtual. Our ability to communicate with players, coaches, go through stats, go through certain situations throughout the draft it’s almost becoming commonplace now where we just wake up, come down and we have the ability to record all of the players that we interview. So there’s a lot of times where I’m jumping on these chats live and interacting and there’s a lot of times where I’m working through some video and I’m working through some other stuff where I can come back in the morning and just click on yesterday’s videos and watch that. There are certainly unique challenges, but those challenges are the same for all 32 teams and I think we’re prepared. And again, it’s almost the norm right now.”
Q: Typically some general managers around the NFL like to have anywhere between 180-220 players or prospects on their draft board. Given what you’ve experienced this offseason how much has that altered your draft board? Is the number larger or smaller compared to past years?
VEACH: “We try not to deviate. We want to keep things as similar to the past. I would say the number has maybe decreased a few just because the reality of this environment we’re working in and just getting updated hands on information, medical in-house visits. I would say the number is slightly decreased, but nothing that is going to dramatically alter how we go about the draft. It’s certainly a good question.”
Q: The idea of staying at 32 or moving up or moving back, as you go through the process do you feel like you guys are targeting a certain prospect or certain spot that you feel, based on how you anticipate the first round going, there are good positions to move up or move back? Or is 32 still a plausible firm idea moving forward?
VEACH: “I think, obviously, it’s good to have the 32nd pick in the draft knowing that you’re Super Bowl Champs but when you’re sitting at 32 we all look at the mock drafts and we all do our own mock drafts and the only issue with that is there are just so many variables. There’s always a couple twists and turns in the draft and the further down you are there’s going to be more twists and turns and by the time you get down to 32 as opposed to 10. If you’re sitting there at 10 there’s only so many things that could happen that is out of left field, but by the time you get to 32 there could be two or three scenarios. Not that we wouldn’t anticipate because I feel like over the last three or four days we went through every scenario possible. There are certain positions where we feel pretty good in the first two or three rounds and there is certain positions that aren’t as deep. But I think you guys have kind of seen our approach with free agency and just being able to always stick to the best player available philosophy and we’re trying to build this thing out not just for next year but for the next 5-10 years. So to sit here and say a certain position isn’t in need we don’t really look at it like that because we’re looking at the rosters two or three years from now and knowing these guys will be under five-year contracts or four-year contracts if drafted after the first. We’re just looking to add high level talent and stick to that best player available philosophy.”
Q: You’ve come into this draft the last couple of years with more picks and you’ve been able to use that to package them and move up. You’ve only got five in this one. We’ve talked to you before about how you like to be aggressive in that spot, does this alter how you’d like to do things with the five picks? With that Super Bowl trophy that you just mentioned do you look at it and now you shift gears and go the other direction and try to get more picks?
VEACH: “Obviously the more picks the more flexibility you have in every draft in regards to be able to position yourself for guys that you want. I think that when you look at this draft, I would say that you never want to go into a draft and pigeonhole yourself in saying ‘We’re definitely moving down’ or ‘We’re definitely just going to stay there’. Like you mentioned only having five picks you want to add as much talent around Pat Mahomes on the offensive side and the Badger (S Tyrann Mathieu) and the crew on defense. Certainly, the more picks the better. We want to continue to add depth and to add talent. It would be unlikely that we would try to make a big bold move up there but wouldn’t want to rule it out. Certainly I think that we’re going to assess the board and after we get closer to our pick there could be a scenario where there’s a guy that we just did not anticipate being there that we get excited about and there also could be scenarios where we have a pocket of players that we like and if teams fall in love with a player that they want at 32 we’ll certainly field phone calls and be open to all sorts of options.”
Q: You have 20 of 22 starters from your Super Bowl team. How much of that is because they were great, you liked them and how much of that if because of the climate and limited access to free agents this offseason?
VEACH: “I think it turned out like that. Our intentions before this terrible epidemic unfolded was that we were really going to focus on the draft, and we have five picks, we’re going to make the most of them. And in free agency, we’re going to look to maintain the players that we have on our team, and it worked out. Being able to reduce Sammy’s (Watkins) deal and bring Demarcus (Robinson) back and Sherm (Anthony Sherman) back and Mike Pennel back. We were certainly hopeful that would be an outcome. I’m not going to sit here and lie and think that all these guys we were certain they’d come back, but that was our goal. Again, before this panned out, we were going to focus on the draft and look to retain players here because inevitably when you start dabbling into free agency, you have to overpay. That’s just the price of doing business. We understand that. Everybody understands it. We were really just focused in on our picks and retaining our players. We’re very fortunate that we were able to get a bulk of those guys back.”
Q: In the current work environment, do you feel you’re getting more work done or less work done? How much of an advantage is continuity right now with the offseason being disrupted?
VEACH: “The first part of your question, I think when it first started there was that phase of two or three days where it didn’t feel like you were getting the production you wanted just because you were transitioning, but really it goes back to Kevin Higgins and our IT department, Pat Brazil and our Video department. Once you work out the kinks after the first two or three days, it honestly felt like I was at the office. Instead of me talking to my guys right there, they were just on the video screen. The first two or three days, it was a little ‘this isn’t working,’ and ‘I’m getting a slow feed.’ I think it’s one of those deals that had the league just dropped it on us this week – virtual draft – that you’d be really worried about a lot of things, but I think the fact that we have so much time to work through all the issues that may come up, we’ve gone through different scenarios and we’ve had a little time now to work through some of the technical stuff, but like you said, the first few days, it was a little challenging. But again, everybody was on the same format and had the same issues, but really the last week and a half, two weeks, it’s been rather smooth. And continuity is good in any year, but certainly this year with having limits during OTAs and additional practice times. The more guys around that are familiar with how we do things, the playbook, what’s expected of them is certainly beneficial. I think it’s kind of like the question Mick (Shaffer – KSHB) asked before, this kind of played out for us. I don’t think it was our intention to have this. We didn’t get this and then say ‘Ok, let’s just go after our guys and establish continuity.’ Our intention was ‘let’s retain our guys and keep continuity.’ And then the format, which is now real, it just happened to fall in line with being a very workable format for us.”
Q: What are the actual logistics of location, timing and how you’re actually going to conduct this draft, and what are the challenges of doing it virtually?
VEACH: “Everyone’s going to be at their homes per the letter from the league. We’re all set up. Coach will be at his house. Me, and our directors will be at their homes and working out of their homes. The league allows an IT person to be present at your house and a security guy there just in case people don’t like your picks, they’re not knocking on your door or ringing the doorbell. Every person is allowed a security person, an IT person. Everyone else will be at home. We’ll have monitors and some will be allocated for Clark (Hunt, Andy (Reid) and myself. And then other monitors will be for our personnel staff. I have a guy, Ryan Poles who has done a tremendous job at taking the lead on this. He’s been able to kind of like control who comes in and who comes out of the room, so if I say ‘Ryan, grab me Rick (Burkholder).’ He can bring Rick into a chatroom. If I say, ‘Ryan, grab me an area scout,’ he could bring one in. The things that I want to maintain is just that ability. I don’t want to be sitting there pulling people into the draft rooms, calling people. I think we have a plan where we have a computer dedicated to Clark and Mark (Donovan) and Andy and we can talk through some big picture stuff. And then Ryan Poles has the ability to bring in coordinators, bring in coaches, bring in medical very quickly. So, I think we have a plan. I think it’s going to be smooth, and we’re excited about it. One thing that I think every team is most concerned about is just the flow and the effectiveness of communication if you’re on the clock and you’re working through your scenarios, then you finally come up with, ‘OK, we like this guy. We don’t like any of these trades. Or, we like this trade, and we want to do this trade.’ Be that as it may, I think the scenario that we’re all kind of playing through our mind is when you’re on the clock and you’re about to turn a card in and then with 45 seconds left, a team comes in and presents a really interesting trade. When you’re in the office, you can look to a guy. Just making sure that we don’t have a slow connection at 45 seconds. So, that’s a little bit of a concern, just that last-minute trade that you get the phone call on the clock. But again, the league has done a great job of just making sure that if anything crazy happens with technical difficulties, just call them and they’re going to be understanding. I don’t think they’re trying to have teams be in a compromised position where they’re losing picks or teams are jumping up ahead of them. So, I think that’s the big scenario. Just being on the clock with little time and a last second trade comes in. We’re going to do some trials of that. We’ve had a mock trial with the league on Tuesday. We have another one today with the league. And then we have another one on the 20th, so we’ve been kind of doing some mock drafts and throwing some crazy scenarios just to be prepared. But, you really won’t know until the lights come on as to how that’s all going to work.”
Q: At the Combine you talked about quarterbacks and receivers being deep in this draft. Wondering about linebacking corps, and if there are any other position groups that have kind of come to the forefront over the last few weeks?
VEACH: “Yeah, I’m kind of looking right here, I have names and tags and stuff written all over my basement wall here. The linebacking corps, there’s a lot of intriguing prospects. There’s a lot of good athletes, a lot of guys that can really make a difference in space in the coverage game early on. I can’t sit here and say it’s as deep as the wideout position. I think the offensive line is a group that is pretty good, I think we’re really excited about the depth of the offensive line, really rounds one through four. Receiver seems like there’s depth throughout the draft. I would say the cornerback position is fairly deep, offensive line and receivers are probably the three positions that there’s a lot of depth that we’re excited about.”
Q: You guys have been selective about your activity in free agency. What are some of the things that you liked about each of the guys that you brought in during free agency?
VEACH: “(Antonio) Hamilton is an interesting guy because he’s a guy – every year at the cut-down day, Director of Pro Personnel Tim Terry and Director of Football Operations Mike Borgonzi do a great job of really identifying young guys that we think are developmental talent guys – and at the trade/cut-down day last year, we identified Alex Brown and Antonio Hamilton as two guys that we thought we’d like to add if not to our active roster, to our practice squad. Hamilton ended up making a team but Alex Brown, we were able to get on the practice squad. And Alex did a good job for us and was active late in the season for our Super Bowl run. So, Antonio was a guy, he was on the bubble and he made the team, but we monitored him throughout the season in case they had a roster crunch where they had to cut him, but they never did. But we certainly kept that in our back pocket for free agency. When the window for negotiation opened up, if we liked him back then and we wanted to add him back then, we may be able to do it, it makes sense for him and for us. We’re excited about him. You can never have enough depth. Certainly, losing Kendall Fuller, bringing Bashaud (Breeland) back, having (Charvarius) Ward and (Rashad) Fenton, and now Hamilton, gives us four corners that we think can help us on the field. Alex has done a great job on special teams and Antonio, as you know, is a good special teams player. So that really went all the way back to last year at the cut-down day. (Mike) Remmers was a guy that when you’re looking at veteran offensive linemen, depth, versatility, experience – you know, (Stefen) Wisniewski had the chance to go home to PA to play in Pittsburgh – but this was a very comparable player. He has a little different versatility where Wisniewski was more of a center-guard, Remmers gives you more of a tackle-guard. And Cam (Erving) not being on the roster, now we have a guy that is experienced and gives us a little bit different versatility in regard to tackle and guard. He’s played a lot of football. He’s smart and tough and we think he’ll fit right in. We’re excited about him. When you look at Ricky Seals-Jones, it was a similar scenario to when we went through the Blake Bell signing last year. We were looking for a young guy with some upside that had a good receiving skillset. (Tight Ends Coach) Tom Melvin did a great job working with Blake. We actually feel that at this stage in his career that Ricky may be a little ahead of the curve in regard to the pass game. So, we’re excited to work with a young guy with a receiving skillset and a nice complement to Travis (Kelce). And then with the running back (DeAndré Washington, that one just kind of worked out where the more patient you are, sometimes people fall back to you. DeAndré Washington was a guy we liked coming out. We were being cognizant of our cap and making sure we had enough flexibility to do things we wanted to do. But with running backs, that position last year, Damien Williams was hurt early in the season. Then (LeSean) McCoy got nicked up. Then Darrel Williams had his hamstring. Then we signed Spencer Ware and he got hurt. We had four running backs get hurt last year. You can never have enough of those guys that have talent and experience. The fact that he played with Pat (Mahomes) obviously didn’t hurt. But he’s a guy that can run, can catch, smart, great worker. Again, just that experience we went through last year losing so many guys, we had an opportunity to add a player that is proven in this league and we jumped at that opportunity. I think I covered them all there. If I missed anybody, chime in. But that was kind of our thought process.”
Q: Where are you at in conversations with Chris Jones and do you think it’s likely to get a deal done before the season so you can change that cap number?
VEACH: “Yeah, we’ve had a lot of discussions with Chris and the Katz brothers and we continue to have that. We’ve got a lot of time. Certainly, it’s a unique environment we’re working with and we were able to navigate the free agency period and retain some guys. We’re going to work through the draft and we’re going to continue dialogue, but we know how talented Chris is, I think the franchise tag speaks for it. We also have a lot of time. I think the deadline to get a deal done is July 15. So, there’s a lot of time to continue the dialogue and to work on something with Chris, but we certainly are going to work to retain him, not just for next year, but for the future.”
Q: What’s your comfort level with proceeding with the draft while so many things are shut down and how are you conducting your medical exams during this time?
VEACH: “Yeah, both are good questions. Really just to echo what the league says, there’s nothing more important and nothing more at the forefront of our thoughts than the people who are struggling. We’ve all been affected by this, some more directly than others. If there’s any way that we can work safely from our homes and isolate ourselves and give the people something to tune into and get their minds on something else. The fans are great here and the fans are great throughout the country and any role that we can play in helping the recovery process, I think we’re all for. The medical, that’s been a little tricky. The league, and we certainly fall in line with this, we don’t want healthy players who we might want a second MRI on taking up valuable hospital space and medical space. I feel very fortunate that we have a great training staff, Rick Burkholder and I have worked a long time together. It’s just going to rely on those guys doing some extra phone calls, emailing and scanning images, and relying on their connections and their networks throughout the country. That’s been a little bit of a difficult process just because we’re so used to having things and flying players in and working through them. Again, we certainly don’t want those players flying or we don’t want them in medical space that should be intended for people that really need it. We’re just going to rely on our medical staff. I think the cool thing about our position is that we’ve all worked together for so long and there’s a high trust level, whether it be with Coach and I, or with Rick Burkholder or the IT department, we’re just going to put our faith and trust in those guys and let those guys make phone calls, email images and work just like we are here. But I think we’ll be prepared, and we’ll be confident in our approach.”
Q: Are you guys going to start Phase I on Monday? Or the following Monday?
VEACH: "We have a lot of stuff going on here, but Phase I, I believe starts on Monday, which is a virtual Phase I. That will go on for three weeks and then from there we will be in contact with the league and defer to their guidance. It is a fluid process here, we’re all aware that some of the stuff can change. From the dialogue I’ve had with coach and our executives is that we have a virtual Phase I starting, it will be there in place for our players to log on and go through their video chat sessions with their coaches for the next three weeks. Then we’ll be in constant contact with the league and work off of that format.”
Q: You’ve signed a lot of one-year deals, is that about making room for Patrick Mahomes contract or are there other things that have gone into that?
VEACH: "Every one is different. Sometimes it is about us allowing ourselves flexibility. A lot of times the players want that. The players don’t get a market they want, they don’t want to tie themselves into a two or three-year deal. Sometimes it’s a combination of us providing ourselves flexibility and sometimes a player requests it. Certainly, there could have been a handful of players we would have done more than one, like a Hamilton, but I think Hamilton is betting on himself and wants to come here on a one-year deal, doesn’t want to tie himself into a multi-year deal. In the computers it looks like it’s one thing, but the reality of it is sometimes it’s a combination of, maybe that was our intent with one guy, but for a different guy, they want to do a one-year deal.”
Q: Where are you in contract discussions with quarterback Patrick Mahomes and how realistic is the fifth-year option on him with that deadline coming up next month?
VEACH: "Again, Pat is a priority, the way we look at it now with all that is going on, we’re going to have a lot of time to work with. Again, Pat, his agents Chris and Leigh Steinberg, they know that Pat is a priority, Pat isn’t going anywhere, he’s going to be here a long time. I can never sit here and speak in definitives, so I can’t say that the fifth-year won’t be an option or anything like that. It would be hard for me to see that we’d have to use that. We feel that it’s a priority when you have a great player, and that great player is a priority, things get done. It’s just hard to put a timetable on exactly when and how that will all work out. But we know and I’m sure he knows that it will get done and it will be taken care of.”
Q: Where are you cap wise? Do you have enough space for the draft picks and free agents? Also, with the current situation, do you have to do more framework ahead of time with teams while considering trades?
VEACH: "First part of your question as to where we are cap-wise, obviously some of the sites the fans use, they’re good sites, but they are not always accurate. They’re close, but it takes anywhere from 3-5 million to sign picks and depending on what you look at, you may say, well shoot, they don’t have enough to sign a draft prospect. The cap is flexible and what we are able to do is flexible. There is an array of moving parts that we feel confident in. As far as doing some business from here to the season, or signing our draft picks, we have a plan that we’ve been working off of all along and we feel confident in that. The numbers may say one thing, there are just so many different things that you can do to get yourself to where you need to be. It’s hard, unless you’re sitting in our rooms here to know what we are thinking, but suffice to say that we are aware of what it cost to sign our draft picks. To your point, there are some things that we’ve talked about and we are prepared to do a number of different things. We’ve been working off of this blueprint the entire time, so that’s a good question. And then your second question, in regards to the draft dialogue, I think what is hard for us is, if you’re picking in the top-10 or the top-15 I think you could have substantial discussions right now and you can maybe not do a deal, but get to the point where if this player is on the board, they feel good about where they would be for compensation. I think you saw the Eagles with Carson Wentz, they made that trade weeks before the draft and I think certainly if you’re in that top-10, there is a lot of room for really meaningful dialogue of trades right now. We’re certainly going to have our phones and be willing to make calls, but if you make a call right now, picking at 32, we’ll wait and see. We have no idea and I think it will all come down to teams that are picking in the second round and if they fall in love with a player, and let’s just say they have a top-15 pick and they’re debating between one player and another, went with one player and all the sudden the other player is still there. Certainly a part of that is how we feel about a player, but if you do run into that scenario, that’s what it will come down to if that player that another team couldn’t pick in the second round and all the sudden they are there, phones will start to heat up. It’s just hard because there are so many variables, obviously the variable combination from one to 10 is exponentially different than the combination from one to 32. It will be exciting. I think the way this draft sets up, any time you have a draft with four quarterbacks and four premium tackles, expect a lot of curveballs. I think there are going to be a lot of players that maybe the public didn’t think would be there late first round. That will be good for us from a both-day draft perspective and potential trade down perspective.”