The past seven years have been the Golden Age of the Kansas City Chiefs. They've won three Super Bowls, appeared in five, and have made seven straight AFC Championship Games. Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach has consistently assembled teams that compete for titles while managing the cap and re-signing key players to record-setting deals. That means he has to fill other positions with much cheaper options. This season, defensive tackle was one of those positions.
To Veach's credit, he has done a great job of finding a balance between high-priced stars and a mix of rookie contracts and veteran discount options. You can't argue with the results, and Veach has earned his reputation as one of the NFL's best GMs. That doesn't mean he's going to hit 100% of the time, and there are definitely reasons to wonder if defensive tackle may have been a miss this offseason.
Veach's plans at defensive tackle this season haven't panned out—yet
One of the biggest surprises of roster cutdowns this year was the release of veteran Mike Pennel. Meanwhile, Veach did a late-round pick swap with the New York Jets to bring back Derrick Nnadi. Pennel then signed with the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday.
Veach also signed a couple of defensive tackles and former third-round draft picks (Brodric Martin and Zacch Pickens) to the practice squad and admitted that they pursued a trade for Jowon Briggs, who was eventually dealt to the Jets.
In an interview with Chiefs Digest's Matt Derrick, Veach admitted, "That's just a position that we're kind of hyper-focused on and trying to get that competition better and get more consistency."
Translation: The guys we entered training camp with weren't giving us the results we hoped for.
The Chiefs let Tershawn Wharton and Derrick Nnadi walk in free agency this offseason and replaced them with free agent Jerry Tillery and draft pick Omarr Norman-Lott. Tillery has been pretty quiet throughout camp and the preseason, and Norman-Lott has been limited by injuries after getting some early run with the first-string defense.
If Veach felt great about those two additions being reliable, starting-caliber pieces of the Chiefs' defense, he wouldn't be "hyper-focused" on "trying to get that competition better and get more consistency." The fact that so far his only solution is to replace Mike Pennel with Derrick Nnadi and sign a couple of former third-round busts to the practice squad doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.
The Pennel-for-Nnadi move is especially head-scratching. Yes, Nnadi is a younger player and has experience in KC's system, but the Chiefs liked Pennel better last season. How do we know that? Because they played him more often (320 snaps to 221). Maybe Nnadi wasn't 100% last season and we just didn't know it, but it's hard to sell Nnadi as an upgrade over what they got from Pennel last season when KC's actions show they liked Pennel better. Pro Football Focus agreed, giving Pennel a 62.4 grade vs. the run compared to a 45.7 for Nnadi.
Tillery was often seen as a replacement for Wharton with his tall and slender build. Most thought Omarr Norman-Lott was a pass-rushing addition as well, playing at a lighter weight as a rotational rusher in college. However, KC apparently had him bulk up before camp, but never really got to see how well that would work because of nagging injuries limiting him.
So now the Chiefs enter Week 1 of the regular season with Chris Jones and a cast of question marks at defensive tackle.
Can Derrick Nnadi even be an average run defender to pair with Jones on early downs and short-yardage situations? Can Jerry Tillery give them some pass-rush upside next to Jones on passing downs? Can Omarr Norman-Lott stay healthy enough and be effective at a higher weight? Can the Chiefs get anything out of a pair of former third-round busts?
Brett Veach is a great general manager and has done his part to earn the three Super Bowl rings that he now owns. However, that doesn't mean that everything he does is beyond questioning, and right now he has given Chiefs fans a lot more questions at defensive tackle than he has answers.