Let the Kansas City Chiefs’ golden rule guide you through the 2021 NFL offseason
The best the Chiefs have ever been isn’t good enough, because in the NFL it’s never good enough, and so the league’s best team over the last two years faces the following task:
Get better, and do it in an offseason that begins with them some $20 million over the salary cap, with a draft in which they won’t pick until 31st, and in a reality in which they can’t yet know whether their starting tackles will be healthy.
You can lose a week trying to work through the particulars: should they swing big with a thin class of free agent tackles, or hope the right prospect falls to them and ride with a rookie? But they also need a wide receiver, though not as bad as they could use another pass rusher, and the secondary is about to get a little thinner and, well, it can feel overwhelming.
So, we offer some advice. General manager Brett Veach and his staff are paid for the evaluations; Brandt Tilis and Chris Shea are paid to manage the cap. Let them do that, and you can follow along with more insight than your friends if you are guided by the Chiefs’ golden rule:
Do what’s best for Patrick Mahomes.
Literally everything the Chiefs do is with this in mind. If it’s best for Patrick, do it. If it’s not, throw it in the garbage and light a match.
This is not an exaggeration. This is not a cute line to build a column around. This is the Chiefs’ mantra, has been since the 2017 draft, and if things go right will remain until today’s kindergartners are choosing colleges.
You can understand the Chiefs much better by evaluating everything through this lens.
They signed Tyrann Mathieu and Frank Clark and remade the defense to make sure Mahomes’ Chiefs teams would not be like his Texas Tech teams. They paid airport prices for Sammy Watkins in free agency to maximize Mahomes’ weapons.
They used their first pick last year on Clyde Edwards-Helaire not because Mahomes suggested it — that’s a funny anecdote, but come on — but because it could help the offense be less predictable.
Andy Reid has adjusted the way he evaluates fourth down decisions because of Mahomes. The front office has prioritized pass rushers, largely because they expect opposing offenses to be in passing situations because of Mahomes. They made sure Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill were signed long-term, and saw Mecole Hardman as a fit earlier in the draft than other teams because Mahomes’ arm strength matched with Hardman’s speed.
And so it is that we can understand how the Chiefs will approach this offseason.
They are determined to make sure Mahomes never again has to play a football game like he’s on the hardest level of Frogger.
For each of Mahomes’ three NFL seasons, the Chiefs have deployed the same general strategy across the line. They have invested in the tackles and tried to make it work with cheaper and athletic interior linemen.
The strategy is well-considered, because when the tackles can be (mostly) trusted one-on-one the job of the guards and center simplifies. The Chiefs have had problems blocking stunts, but for the most part healthy tackles mean Mahomes will not be overwhelmed with pressure the way he was in the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs also have two more advantages: Andy Reid is a former line coach and one of the best in the league at designing screens and other calls to throw off pass rush, and if all else fails Mahomes is often at his most dangerous when scrambling.
That plan rattled when right tackle Mitchell Schwartz’s back went out in week 6, and became flattened with bugs circling when Eric Fisher’s Achilles tendon tore in the AFC Championship Game.
We saw the result. The Chiefs know that cannot be allowed to happen again, and if they achieve nothing else this offseason they know they can be Super Bowl favorites again by simply improving Mahomes’ protection.
Whatever is best for Mahomes. That is what the Chiefs will do.
The trick here is the moving parts. The Chiefs — and this is surprising — project Fisher to be on the field by training camp. Same with Schwartz.
But they can’t be sure about either. A 32-year-old offensive lineman coming off back surgery is at best a tenuous bet. Achilles rehab is brutal, long, and uncertain in the long-term.
There is a better than 50-50 chance that in five years or so we will see the Chiefs offensive line through a prism of before Super Bowl LV and after.
In the best case scenario the Chiefs will have five starting-caliber linemen who were unavailable for the Super Bowl when the 2021 season begins: Fisher, Schwartz, Kelechi Osemele, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Lucas Niang.
They also operate with the benefit of offensive tackle being perhaps this draft class’ deepest position.
The particulars will be worked out, though it seems the best plan could be to invest in a thin but top-heavy free agent class, draft a tackle high, and hope you have more linemen than you’ll need a year after not having enough. But, again: the particulars are why Veach, Tilis and Shea can take nice vacations in the summer.
The Chiefs’ worldview of every decision being based on what’s best for Mahomes is about more than his obvious talent. He is the NFL’s ultimate force multiplier.
Reid and Kelce have become Hall of Fame locks with Mahomes. Hill would be good anywhere, but is a uniquely good fit with Mahomes, who is also the centerpiece of the Chiefs’ pitch to free agents.
The defensive players know they’ll be put in position to succeed in big games and the business side knows they can shoot a little higher and charge a little more for sponsorships.
Mahomes is the well from which everyone else drinks. But in order for it to work, he needs to be given a fair chance. That’s the way this offseason should be judged.
If the Chiefs give Mahomes a fair chance, they will again be Super Bowl favorites.
If not, they risk wasting a year of his prime and creating bigger problems soon.
This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 5:00 AM.