Chiefs coach Andy Reid places faith in GM Brett Veach. There’s a reason for that
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Reid said he makes himself a 'spectator' in the draft war room, not overall.
- Veach rose from Reid’s 2004–05 camp intern to become Kansas City’s general manager.
- Veach’s evaluations, including pushing for Patrick Mahomes in 2017, shaped Chiefs success.
As Chiefs coach Andy Reid often is apt to do, especially but not limited to around the NFL Draft, this week he lavished praise on general manager Brett Veach. So much so that he makes himself sound like just another fan when it comes to personnel decisions.
Echoing his typical “Brett handles all that” stance, Reid referred to himself as a mere “spectator” when talking about being in Kansas City’s so-called war room for the Thursday-Saturday draft.
He spoke of how much he enjoyed watching Veach’s “mind churn”— a notion made nearly tangible as Veach sometimes even thinks out loud. At one point, he went as far as to say Veach sometimes “lets me get involved” with some evaluations as “another resource” or voice.
Yes, Reid is understating his profound influence over it all, whether that’s directly through frequent conversations with Veach or via what’s simply understood between them by now.
But there also is no doubt he has conviction about the broader matter.
“In Veach We Trust” has been a mantra of some fans about ever since Veach had the vision to swarm and cajole Reid and then-GM John Dorsey into making Patrick Mahomes worth trading up for in 2017.
It might as well be a motto of Reid’s, too, as the Chiefs enter one of the most pivotal drafts of the Reid era as they come off a 6-11 season.
That faith stems from Veach’s fundamental role in the Chiefs’ rise to five Super Bowls in six seasons and three triumphs. Along the way, Reid has become the fourth-winningest coach in NFL history and is tied for the third-most Super Bowl victories.
So while Reid admires and appreciates all of that about Veach, maybe nothing he said the other day summed up the mind-meld between them more than when Reid said how much in harmony he is with Veach’s “great eye” for talent.
“We’re not off by very much, ever,” he said. “I normally agree with how he’s seeing it. I’ve got a lot of trust in him on that.”
That’s been time-tested and well-earned from improbable roots.
What emerged as one of the great tandems in NFL history began with Veach in 2004 and 2005 serving as a training camp intern for Reid’s Eagles.
While he had little direct contact with Reid, his hustle with such duties as setting up beds, stocking refrigerators, laminating practice scripts and carting coaches around made an impression on James Urban — who was then Reid’s personal assistant.
So much so that when Urban was promoted he advocated for Veach as his replacement. Reid was so readily convinced that he called Veach to offer him the job without so much as a formal interview.
It was unglamorous grunt work, to be sure, starting with being at Reid’s disposal for anything. But Veach thought of it not so much as personal assistant, but as “assistant to the head coach,” he told me a few years ago with a laugh, because that looked better on a business card.
Largely gofer chores or not, Reid saw those jobs as gateways into the league. Several of his former personal assistants, most notably future (and now former) Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott and current Chiefs assistant special teams coach Porter Ellett. But Reid believed the job also should open a portal into the personnel side.
“At that time, I was working more with the personnel side than I am now (as well as the) coaching side,” Reid said Monday. “So, I always gave that position an opportunity to go either direction, whatever they chose to do.”
The more they watched hours and hours of tape together, the more Veach found himself gravitating in that direction … and the more Reid could see his aptitude.
“He had a real knack,” Reid said. “I’d give him guys to look at, and he’d come back, and I thought he was spot on. Now it’s my opinion with his opinion, but it seemed like he was spot on.”
Before Veach even was promoted to scout, in fact, he was instrumental in some key Eagles evaluations.
Leading up to the 2008 NFL Draft, Reid assigned Veach to evaluate receivers. Veach became a devout believer in undersized DeSean Jackson of the Cal Bears, for whome friends say he literally pounded the table.
The Eagles made Jackson the 49th overall selection, and he went on to amass 379 catches for 6,512 yards with 38 touchdowns in six seasons with the Eagles.
Still in his capacity as Reid’s personal assistant in 2009, Veach was tasked with cross-checking running backs and pushed for the University of Pittsburgh’s LeSean McCoy with similar enthusiasm and results: Also as a second-round pick, McCoy rushed for 6,792 yards and scored 54 touchdowns in six seasons in Philly.
“He stood up on the table for these guys, and all of a sudden I was, like, ‘Wow,’” Reid said. “I saw it early, but not like that.”
Veach officially became a scout in 2010, and he rose through the ranks here after the Chiefs hired Reid in 2013 shortly after he was fired in Philadelphia.
In the fall of 2016, Veach became obsessed with Mahomes. To the point where Reid shushed him down at times. But Veach was seeing the future in a way most others had not.
And after Mahomes was drafted, Reid said with a smile the other day, “the rest is kind of history.”
Certainly, it reset the direction of Chiefs’ history and Reid’s trajectory: In Mahomes’ first season as QB1, the Chiefs went to the Super Bowl — and won it — for the first time in half a century.
A dynasty was born.
But it’s a what-have-you-done-for-me lately business, Veach acknowledged last week.
Whether last season was a blip or the end remains to be seen, as does the Chiefs’ capacity to create a second grand act of the Mahomes-Reid Era. And while Veach has presided over several great drafts, including 2022, he’s also orchestrated some less fruitful ones.
But even if Reid is underselling his role and at least implied input in what’s to come, it’s also clear why he trusts Veach as he does.
And why there’s ample reason to believe the Chiefs will have the sort of draft they need to reboot in 2026.