Kansas City Chiefs get unfairly slammed for free agency approach

John Breech of CBS Sports has the Chiefs ranked No. 29 out of 32 NFL teams as he analyzes who did the best and worst in free agency.

John Dorsey and the Cleveland Browns continue to garner rave reviews. Dave Gettleman and the New York Giants continue to get blasted. Unfortunately for the Kansas City Chiefs, they’re not too far from the blast radius of the last place Giants in John Breech’s rankings of NFL free agency.

Breech, a writer for CBS Sports, recently wrote a column listing every NFL team from one to 32 on the basis of how they fared in free agency. The Chiefs landed at No. 29 overall, with only the Cincinnati Bengals, Washington Redskins and Giants between them and last place overall.

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Even on something as superfluous as a free agency analysis in mid-March, it’s not exactly heartening. The list of talented players who have walked through the exit door is long and that’s largely from a defense that among the league’s worst. Breech writes:

"The Chiefs had one of the worst defenses in the NFL last season and it doesn’t seem like there’s any way it’s going to get much better with the team losing Dee Ford, Eric Berry, Justin Houston, and Steven Nelson since the beginning of the month. The Chiefs signed multiple defensive players to make up for their losses, but it’s starting to feel like 2019 could turn out a lot like 2018 in Kansas City: Patrick Mahomes is going to have to put up 70 points per game for the Chiefs to compete."

It’s easy to throw an opinion like this out the window for its timeliness (again, offseason analysis), but the outsider opinion holds true. In short, Breech is parroting what’s easily said by those outside of Arrowhead Stadium. It does look bad.

Two of the team’s best pass rushers are gone. Their best cornerback is a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Their best safety has been released. For a defense in transition, the Chiefs suddenly not only lack performers but also leaders. The youth movement feels like it should have been ushered in before or during Patrick Mahomes’ own development. When you have the reigning MVP, it’s not exactly a ripe time for experimentation on the other side of the ball.

Then again, Breech’s exercise is intended to serve as a superficial overview, as if team performance in the NFL is weighed by a simple scale with “Stats Outgoing” on one side and “Stats Incoming” on the other side. A guy like Breech is looking at Dee Ford’s outbound 13 sacks and waiting for the Chiefs to sign someone (or a group of someones) who had totals adding up to 13 last year. It’s reductionistic. It’s also wrong.

The reality is that the defense was broken last year. A brand new defensive mindset is being brought to bear on the organization, and the Chiefs are restocking the shelves via free agency and the draft to go with last year’s largely redshirted rookie class and talented enough holdovers to make the transition. It’s going to look ugly because it’s a complete gutting of a rehab. Imagine someone grading your construction efforts the moment you ripped out the kitchen cabinets.

In free agency analysis, grades are given based on each individual transaction. “The Chiefs signed this single player? That gets a B-.” It’s silly. While it’s possible to appreciate parts of the individual, we’re better served reserving any real judgment until the whole can be appreciated. Even without further acquisitions, there are reasons to believe the Chiefs are already better off defensively in some ways than last year.

Brett Veach has given glimpses in his talks that the front office plans years in advance, which means this offseason has been plotted and planned for some time. It might not look so nice on the surface, but the Chiefs have a long, long time until they need to stage furniture and invite the public inside.

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