Kansas City Chiefs

With Mahomes, Chiefs look to restock in draft, not rebuild

Updated Apr. 25, 2022 12:39 p.m. ET

The Kansas City Chiefs are not in the midst of any kind of rebuilding effort despite losing key players, such as Tyreek Hill, Tyrann Mathieu and Charvarius Ward this offseason, general manager Brett Veach said.

"When you have [Patrick] Mahomes, we'll be wired to go after it every year,'' Veach said. "Even though you may make moves, and you may trade really good players, it doesn't mean [there won't] be another counterpunch and that we [won't] try to be aggressive in another way. You just have to be smart and flexible in what you do. What's needed to do that is draft resources and cap space.

"Just because you trade away a great player doesn't mean we're in a rebuilding mode by any means. It just means we're going to find a new set of resources, and we're going to try to be aggressive.''

The Chiefs have a league-high 12 draft picks, including two in each of the first four rounds, in the upcoming 2022 NFL Draft, which begins Thursday.

K.C. signed receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and running back Ronald Jones in the offseason to fill out its offensive. The Chiefs also added safety Justin Reid to help beef up the secondary.

They're also in the market for edge rushers to improve a pass rush that was the fourth-worst in the league last season in sacks, per ESPN.

"It's very hard to replicate a talent like Tyreek Hill, but I also think there's a mindset or idea forgetting how good a coach Andy Reid is," Veach added. "He's won with all types of quarterbacks and all different types of offensive schemes. Our staff is very dynamic and, look, we had Tyreek Hill, and we were able to implement a lot of RPO stuff and a lot of vertical attack stuff, but it doesn't mean when you have a talent like Pat Mahomes and a Hall of Fame coach like Andy that you can't rewire and re-tweak your offense and how you do things. There are multiple ways we scored points over the years."

"Would you like to find someone like Tyreek? Yeah, but I think every team would. If you don't, there are many ways to win games. Our offense is I think extremely flexible, a lot more flexible than what people think. For us and what we do, we're going to go out there and collect good players. They might not be 4.2 guys but if they're good football players, we're going to put them into position to make plays and win a lot of games."