Kansas City Chiefs focus is clearly on offensive interior

If the Chiefs just missed out on Andrus Peat, then it’s clear that the team is willing to find the dollars to make a move to strengthen the line.

For the first few days of free agency, Chiefs Kingdom was left wondering.

While every other team in the NFL signed at least one player outside of their own rosters to import early in the new league year, only the last two teams standing, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, were yet to make a move as of Wednesday of this week. Even then, the Niners had traded for a mid-first round pick in the DeForest Buckner trade.

In short, outside of handling the obvious matters when it comes to Chris Jones and/or Sammy Watkins, no one was quite sure what the Chiefs were going to want to do this offseason.

The general public got their answer on Friday with word from Herbie Teope that the Chiefs were in on free agent Andrus Peat until the end. This is the same Andrus Peat who was able to earn $33 million guaranteed on a five-year deal by returning to the New Orleans Saints.

While the Chiefs missed out, the realization that Brett Veach was in on Peat at all at that price tag signals a major insight into the plans at Arrowhead Stadium this offseason. The offensive interior has been identified for some time as a spot on the roster that could use some improvement. However, the same could be said for cornerback, wide receiver, linebacker, running back and, of course, the trenches can never have enough depth.

Here, however, we get a sense of the Chiefs offseason focus. They were willing to spend big, big money to get better at left guard.

That narrative is bolstered even more by the fact that Stefen Wisniewski, a player the Chiefs reportedly wanted back in 2020, left in free agency to play in his hometown for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The total cost to bring him was under $3 million on a two-year deal. While Wisniewski might have given a hometown discount to some degree, it’s also just as likely that the Chiefs were honest with Wisniewski about making him fight for a starting role.

Right now, the offensive interior between the bookends would likely be Andrew Wylie at left guard, Austin Reiter at center and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif at right guard. Injuries played a major role in the season’s narratives for both Wylie and LDT, but there’s also a potential ceiling here on performance that Veach is looking at. If the Chiefs are to get better and keep Patrick Mahomes upright, there are very real concerns inside.

Right now the Chiefs sit in a prime position to grab one of the best young interior maulers at the bottom of the first round of the draft. They might be able to significantly upgrade a guard or center position with the right pick there. However, if they could have locked up Peat, for example, then that would potentially free up that pick to help with another position (e.g. to grab Kristian Fulton or Jaylon Johnson or Noah Igbinoghene at corner).

Maybe now the Chiefs turn their attention to another top target elsewhere, but it’s also possible the team finds a Plan B. Other free agents of interest could be familiar faces from rivals like Michael Schofield or Ronald Leary or elsewhere like Mike Iupati. Either way, it’s clear Veach is willing to create some money for someone despite appearances on the surface that the Chiefs have cap concerns.