KC Chiefs: The biggest swings Brett Veach can take at left tackle

Re-sign Orlando Brown Jr. to an extension

Of all of the scenarios before the Chiefs, this seems the most likely and it remains a big swing to make. After all, you don’t sign a long-term deal with a left tackle these days without it taking up considerable space against the salary cap.

While Brown might be hitting free agency, the good news here for the Chiefs is that there seems to be some good will here and that can go a long way in negotiations. By all accounts, Brown has said he wants to stay here and protect Patrick Mahomes. Chiefs leaders have also iterated the same.

And despite what a considerable portion of Chiefs Kingdom might believe Brown’s performance, the truth is that he played very, very well for Kansas City down the stretch of the regular season and through the entire postseason. The back up the eye test on this, and it stands to reason that Brown’s own holdout might have altered his early season readiness—which would have added to the narrative that he was not the answer.

Here’s the other truth at work here: the top player available at any position in free agency is likely going to reset the market at that very position. There are years where some positions are lacking and that’s not true, but there’s a reason why a player is hardly ever the highest-paid at his position for anything longer than 12 months.

Brown is not the prototypical tackle for this Chiefs offense in any way, but few teams have the capability of molding the player they’d like to have from scratch at every position. The truth is that he’s a reliable performer who doesn’t miss a game and showed outstanding protection in the biggest games of the year. Is that worth it?

Why they wouldn’t do this: Do you want to pay premium money for a player who is not so premium?