Dear Brett Veach: It's okay to admit to your own mistakes

Dear Brett Veach,

You've come a long way over the past 20 years. You began your NFL career inauspiciously as a coaching intern for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004. After becoming a scout in 2010, you only required seven years to ascend to your current role as general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs. These days, you're one of the league's top executives and perhaps the toast of the early part of the 2023 season having assembled one of the NFL's top defenses—almost exclusively through the draft. For the most part, it's summertime and the living is easy at One Arrowhead Drive. That's why it baffles the mind that such an accomplished man can't come to terms with the few areas where his work has been unsatisfactory.

In fairness to you, Brett, it appears your 2023 second-round draft pick Rashee Rice is the real deal. He's been a revelation through six weeks. Last Thursday night, he posted a season-high 72 receiving yards and looked like the YAC merchant we expected coming out of Southern Methodist University. We're a couple of weeks shy of Halloween, and he may well be the team's best receiver right now. Unfortunately, that's also the bad news. With all grace to you, Mr. Veach, you're partly responsible for the rest of that underachieving wide receiver room.

Just last year, you invested another Day 2 selection into Western Michigan product Skyy Moore. To make matters worse, you laid heavy money on him taking a big step forward in 2023. It's mid-October and the returns simply aren't there yet. Moore has four games this season with fewer than 22 receiving yards. In two of those games, he was held without a catch. From the looks of it, there are still moments when he's unclear about where to line up and he's apparently not much closer to being on the same page with his quarterback. It's definitely too early to close the book on Moore, but it's now evident that the receiver depth chart should've been less reliant upon his maturation in Year Two.

You certainly made a splash last year near the NFL trade deadline when you traded a 2023 compensatory third and a sixth-round pick to acquire the services of one Kadarius Toney. He flashed in spots and was instrumental to the Chiefs winning SBLVII over the Philadelphia Eagles. That kind of move mid-season typically doesn't pay off, but you came out on the winning end of that transaction. Kudos to you for rescuing a former No. 1 from an organization in disarray (the New York Giants).

I'd be remiss if I didn't question why you trusted Toney to be a centerpiece in 2023. As gifted as he is as a player, he's never been healthy in the National Football League. Since being drafted in 2021, he's played 10 or fewer games in each season. Perhaps you expected a clean bill of health in 2023, but Toney would go on to injure himself in the team's first training camp practice. That injury required surgery before the start of the regular season. He's been nicked up fairly consistently since that time. It should also be noted that even when healthy, he's been relatively ineffective. Toney has three games in 2023 with nine or fewer receiving yards.

Sitting at 5-1, no one wants to confront the inconvenient truths about the Kansas City Chiefs. John Madden once said that winning is a great deodorant. It helps mask the smell of the problem areas that plague a team. Given this organization's recent success, we know that your staff isn't just looking to play well in the regular season. It's the long trajectory that ultimately matters in Kansas City.

It's fair to wonder if this receiver room will be sufficient when the stakes are highest in January and February. Fortunately for you, it doesn't have to stay this way. You can add reinforcements to that room, Brett. Several teams are rumored to be active near the trade deadline and there will be wide receiver help available. Players like Darnell Mooney, "Hollywood" Brown, Hunter Renfrow, and Darius Slayton could be had—in some cases, for modest draft pick compensation.

Patrick Mahomes is in his prime. You've assembled a Top 5 defense in 2023. The AFC looks more wide open than it did in 2022. This is the time to strike and bolster the wide receiver room. With the way this defense is playing, if the offense can get in gear, a successful title defense is within arm's reach. Don't let the opportunity pass to improve the offensive side of the football. Get Mahomes some help.

Talk soon, Brett. Good luck with the Chargers.