A.J. McCarron decision shows Brett Veach’s timing with Alex Smith was perfect

Now that A.J. McCarron has won his freedom and will enter free agency, it only proves Brett Veach’s timing to trade Alex Smith was perfect.

A.J. McCarron is a free man. That’s also about as much as we care to comment on the latest entrant into the quarterback market.

Columns (upon columns) will be written about McCarron over the next few days. The former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback won a grievance he filed against the team saying he was improperly placed on an injury list that kept him from accruing enough time on the roster to be a free agent (in so many words). The Bengals disagreed, but an arbitrator did not.

Here’s why this matters to Chiefs Kingdom: McCarron is another option on the market. A group that already includes free agents like Kirk Cousins, Case Keenum, Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Bradford and plenty of first round rookies now gets slightly more competitive with the addition of the former ‘Bama star. Looking back, it seems even more impressive now that Brett Veach traded Alex Smith when he did.

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No one, of course, was going to pit McCarron versus Alex Smith. The primary difference is one has been sitting for years while the other won 50 regular season games. However, Brett Veach had all offseason to trade his Pro Bowl quarterback. He could have waited until the draft for a team to panic that their prospect was gone. He could wait until the preseason when an injury hits (a la the Bradford to Vikings deal). Instead he dealt Smith to the Washington Redskins as soon as possible.

The timing of the Smith trade shocked everyone in the league, but it spoke volumes about Veach’s approach: don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. If you like something, jump on it. The opposite could have been a nightmare, a game of musical chairs in which Veach is left holding a depreciating asset in an aging quarterback earning far too much money and who will not be starting in six months.

Could the Chiefs have garnered a second round pick instead of a third? Maybe. It’s also possible that if Veach had played hardball, other options would suddenly look a bit more enticing. At the time that Veach decided to deal Smith, there was no McCarron on the market, the Vikings still held three of the aforementioned quarterbacks and teams still needed a couple months to completely fall in love with a rookie. It was the perfect time to strike.

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For those of us in Chiefs Kingdom wondering how the first-time GM will handle the timing and pace of free agency and the draft, the swift nature of the Smith trades lets us know that he’s likely got a good read on the pulse of the offseason. Timing is everything, they say, and Veach seems to understand that well.