The Kansas City Chiefs could return as many as 20 of the 22 players who started for them in Super Bowl LIV and 16 of the 24 backups and special-teams players.
General manager Brett Veach said Thursday he believes this continuity will give the Chiefs an advantage in a season that could be disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Continuity is good in any year, especially this year with having limited or no [offseason practice] and additional practice time,” Veach said. “The more guys you have around that are familiar with how we do things, the playbook, what’s expected of them, certainly that’s beneficial.
“This kind of played out, I think, working out for us. I don’t think it was our intention to … get this [pandemic] and then say, ‘All right, let’s just go after our guys and [have] continuity.’ Our intention was ‘Let’s retain our guys, let’s keep continuity’ and then this format, which is now real, just happened to fall into line with being a very workable format for us.”
As Veach suggested, this wasn’t necessarily the plan for the Chiefs as they prepare to defend their Super Bowl championship. But they were going to be limited by the salary cap in how much they could accomplish early in free agency after making defensive tackle Chris Jones their franchise player at a cost of $16.1 million.
At the time, it looked like the Chiefs might have to shed wide receiver Sammy Watkins, who was costing $21 million against the cap, and lose players they would have preferred to keep, like starting cornerback Bashaud Breeland, wide receiver Demarcus Robinson and defensive lineman Mike Pennel.
But the Chiefs retained Watkins after he agreed to a restructured contract that cuts his salary-cap number by $5 million and re-signed Breeland, Robinson and Pennel along with others after they didn’t find suitable offers in free agency.
The Chiefs are keeping the band together for another run.
“Our intention before this terrible epidemic unfolded was that we’re going to really focus on the draft,” Veach said. “We have five picks, and we’re really going to make the most of them. In free agency, we’re going to look to maintain the players we have on our team and it worked out. Being able to redo Sammy’s deal and bring Demarcus back and [fullback Anthony Sherman] back and Mike Pennel back, we were certainly hopeful that would be an outcome. I’m not going to sit here and lie and say all these guys, we were certain they would come back, but that was our goal before this [virus] broke out.”
One player the Chiefs have yet to reach a deal with this offseason is quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who has one season left on the contract he signed in 2017 as the team’s first-round draft pick. The Chiefs can extend the contract through the 2021 season by exercising their fifth-year option.
“Pat is a priority,” Veach said. “Pat isn’t going anywhere. He’s going to be here for a long time. I can never sit here and speak in [certainty], so I can’t say the fifth-year [option] won’t be an option or anything like that. It would be hard for me to say that. We [could] have to use that.
“It’s a priority. When you have a great player and that great player is a priority, things get done. It’s just hard to put a timetable on exactly when and how all of that will work out. But we know and I’m sure he knows it will get done and it will be taken care of.”
Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt suggested a few days before the Super Bowl that the team may wait until next year to pursue a new contract with Mahomes.
“There will be a right time sometime in the next 12 to 15 months to extend Patrick, and when I say right time, I mean right time for both the player and the club,” Hunt said. “I don’t want to say necessarily it has to be this offseason, but I will say that it’s a priority to get him done. I hope Patrick is here for his entire career, and that’s going to be our goal.”
Source : ESPN
