Buy-low trade candidates for Chiefs’ Brett Veach this offseason
General manager Brett Veach has proven highly adept at acquiring talented players on the outs with current teams and seeing them turn around in KC.
Throughout his tenure as the general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs, Brett Veach has developed a reputation of being excellent at the art of the deal. Specifically, of taking formerly high draft pick / potential players from the proverbial scrap heaps of other teams, either via trade or free agency and seeing them turn into productive contributors on the field. Players like cornerback Mike Hughes, linebacker Darron Lee, defensive lineman Emmanuel Ogbah and most recently wide receiver Kadarius Toney.
The now veteran GM faces another pivotal offseason with a need to ensure the team is prepared to enter the 2023 season with a solid plan moving forward at offensive tackle position, that the wide receiver room is fully stocked, and that the defensive line remains a strength of the defense. The other half of this equation is that the Chiefs have nine draft picks and if looking objectively at the roster, do not have room to add nine bodies to the roster this Spring. That means that Veach has plenty of ammunition to pull off a trade if the opportunity arises.
With those position groups and that draft capital in mind, let’s look at some buy-low candidates that Kansas City might look at to fortify the roster as they pursue back-to-back World Championships.
Mekhi Becton
Both of the Chiefs’ starting tackles from the Super Bowl LVII roster are free agents, with Orlando Brown, Jr. seemingly unable to come to an agreement with Chiefs’ decision makers, and Andrew Wylie set to hit free agency for the first time with ample, quality starting tape to drive up his salary demands. While it’s possible that either or both could find their way back to the roster, those odds seem pretty long to say the least.
When surveying the league for potential tackles with upside, the most popular name is former New York Jet first-round pick Mekhi Becton. Becton flashed elite athleticism and upside as a senior at Louisville and then further at the 2020 NFL Combine. Those flashes led the Jets to make him the 11th overall selection in the draft that year, and to say he’s underperformed would be an understatement. While he started 13 games as a rookie, he played in just one in 2021 before playing in zero games in 2022, landing on the Injured Reserve list in both. Now, there is rampant speculation that he will not play another snap for the Jets.
Enter Brett Veach to offer a mid-level conditional draft pick (think a fourth from Miami in the Tyreek Hill trade) and secure Becton. Maybe the 6’7″, 350+ pound project is not ready to start in 2023, but it could give them the flexibility to plug in a veteran on a one-year deal—like former Tennessee Titan Taylor Lewan—while Becton gets up to speed.