The future of the Kansas City Chiefs organization is in a state of transition. The next general manager hired will have a difficult role to fill.
One thing is clear as time rolls on in the Chiefs search for their next GM: the Chiefs have an astoundingly good group of candidates for what may be the worst time of year to hire a new General Manager. They include the in-house favorite Brett Veach, the seasoned West Coast executive in Scott Fitterer, the Tennessee young gun in Ryan Cowden and the prolific media analyst in Louis Riddick.
The role of the Kansas City Chiefs GM is a strategic one at its core, but no aspect of the job is more important than protecting Andy Reid from himself. When Reid had control of the roster in Philadelphia things fell apart quickly and drastically. The real question is for the long-term health of the organization… is the best candidate for the general manager position someone with long ties to Reid, someone who’s cut their teeth in another organization, or a bit of both?
Cowden offers recent success. He has done an admirable job in helping build the Tennessee Titans, particularly along the offensive line. Fitterer offers long-standing experience within a successful and adaptive organization in the Seattle Seahawks.
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Brett Veach offers the Kansas City Chiefs familiarity with what Andy Reid is looking for on both sides of the ball as well as a talent evaluator that will stomp up and down for a player he believes in. Fletcher Cox was one such player in Philadelphia who has now validated Veach’s effort. The question for Veach will be: can he be an effective counterpoint to Andy Reid after mentoring under Reid for a decade?
The balance may come in the form of ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, who has to this point not been officially interviewed for the position. Riddick offers Kansas City a voice that has experience and familiarity with Andy Reid as well as other organizations within the NFL. In recent years as an analyst at ESPN, he also had a unique perspective on the league as a whole and could provide the long-range strategy that can help both the Reid regime as well as the Chiefs organization for a long time to come.
All of these candidates offer some advantages over the others. The selection will come down to what Clark Hunt thinks is best for the next decade of the Kansas City Chiefs.
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