KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill and opted not to re-sign Tyrann Mathieu. They have some seemingly obvious holes on their roster just a few days before the 2022 NFL draft.
General manager Brett Veach still resisted the idea the Chiefs are in any kind of rebuilding effort.
“When you have Pat Mahomes, we’ll be wired to go after it every year,” Veach said. “Even though you may make moves and you may trade really good players, it doesn’t mean [there won’t] be another counterpunch and that we [won’t] try to be aggressive in another way. You just have to be smart and flexible in what you do. What’s needed to do that is draft resources and cap space.
“Just because you trade away a great player doesn’t mean we’re in a rebuilding mode by any means. It just means we’re going to find a new set of resources and we’re going to try to be aggressive.”
The Chiefs after losing Hill, Mathieu and starting cornerback Charvarius Ward look to need help at wide receiver and in the secondary. They also need edge rushers to improve a pass rush that was 29th in the league last season in sacks.
The Chiefs did sign wide receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling and safety Justin Reid. But after losing Hill and two of last season’s other top receivers, and being without Mathieu, Ward and one of last season’s top defensive backs in terms of playing time in Daniel Sorensen, the Chiefs could still use help.
They have a league-high 12 draft picks, including two in each of the first four rounds.
As for replacing Hill, Veach said, “On one end, it’s very hard to replicate a talent like Tyreek Hill. But I also think there’s a mindset or idea forgetting how good a coach Andy Reid is. He’s won with all types of quarterback and all different types of offensive schemes.
“Our staff is very dynamic and, look, we had Tyreek Hill and we were able to implement a lot of RPO stuff and a lot of vertical attack stuff, but it doesn’t mean when you have a talent like Pat Mahomes and a Hall of Fame coach like Andy that you can’t rewire and retweak your offense and how you do things. There are multiple ways we scored points over the years.
“Would you like to find someone like Tyreek? Yeah, but I think every team would. If you don’t, there are many ways to win games. Our offense is I think extremely flexible, a lot more flexible than what people think. For us and what we do, we’re going to go out there and collect good players. They might not be 4.2 guys but if they’re good football players, we’re going to put them into position to make plays and win a lot of games.”