Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach spoke with media members for the first time this offseason for his pre-draft press conference.
While the focus remains on the 2023 NFL draft, it was the first opportunity that reporters had to ask Veach about the acquisitions he made in free agency. The team added four players on both sides of the ball early in the process, with OT Jawaan Taylor, DE Charles Omenihu, LB Drue Tranquill and S Mike Edwards.
“I think all four of those guys made sense for us and I think they’ll be really key additions,” Veach said of the free agent quartet.
What led to the decision to sign each of these players? Veach explained further in-depth during the course of his presser.
Jawaan Taylor
Apparently, the Chiefs had their eye on Taylor since his days at the University of Florida. Beyond that, they seem to feel that he is a player who has the flexibility to switch to left tackle, despite playing primarily the right tackle position during his college and professional career.
“Starting off first with Jawaan Taylor, (he’s) a guy that we liked from his days in college at Florida,” Veach said. “(He’s) a really, really athletic player. As we all know, he played right tackle at Florida, predominantly – he had some snaps at left tackle (but) played right tackle in the NFL. But he’s a guy athletically – I mean he’s long, quick feet, a really, really efficient pass protector and I think it wasn’t a secret that once free agency started, a tackle was at the top of that list and I think we have great flexibility with him. He certainly wants the opportunity to play left, but if we were to draft a left tackle, I mean, we know what Jawaan’s tape looks like at right tackle, so (we were) excited to get him.”
The way that both Andy Reid and Veach talk about Taylor, they’re certainly not dead set on him playing the left tackle spot. They seem confident that he can play there, but they seem to be leaving their options open in the 2023 NFL draft. If they were to land a player with strict experience at left tackle, it seems like they won’t hesitate to let Taylor play on the right side.
Charles Omenihu
The appeal of adding Omenihu appears to be his inside/outside versatility. This should come as no surprise after hearing Veach explain the premium the team puts on versatility with draft prospects. It’s only reasonable that the same is expected of free agents.
“With Charles (Omenihu), having our roster set up where we were losing some guys at the time, you know, we’ll see if some of those guys are still out there, but like Frank (Clark), Carlos (Dunlap) and Khalen (Saunders), we were a little depleted on the defensive line,” Veach said. “So I think Charles was a guy that really made a lot of sense for us. He can play a lot of base end on early run downs but I think the thing that really appealed to us was his inside pass-rush ability. He’s long, he’s athletic and again, we just feel like pairing him with Chris Jones inside on third down is something that will be really beneficial for us.”
Steve Spagnuolo loves his NASCAR packages where he can get four pass-rushing defensive linemen on the field at once. I suspect we’ll see a lot of those featuring George Karlaftis, Charles Omenihu, Chris Jones and Mike Danna.
Mike Edwards
The decision to bring on Mike Edwards fell somewhere between familiarity and need at the position. If you’ve been a long-time reader of Chiefs Wire, you’ll already know about Edwards’ connection to former Chiefs LB coach Matt House. The team also had a need for a safety with Juan Thornhill stepping out to join the Cleveland Browns in free agency.
“Then you get to Mike Edwards,” Veach continued. “Mike Edwards was a guy that we actually have a lot of familiarity with. A couple of years ago, when (former Linebackers Coach and current LSU Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach) Matt House was here, we brought him from Kentucky – he was a DC (Defensive Coordinator) at Kentucky (and) he coached Mike Edwards and since then – Matt’s now down at LSU (Louisiana State University). Once we started this free agency process, we talked to Matt and (we were) recalling his days at Kentucky (and) just the scheme fit here and even though (Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) Spags doesn’t run exactly what Matt did in Kentucky, there’s a lot of carry over. From an X and O’s standpoint that just fit the bill with (Browns S) Juan (Thornhill) leaving here (and) we wanted a third safety. It made a lot of sense.”
Veach specifically locking Edwards in as the “third safety” is certainly interesting, especially with the team’s decision to bring back Deon Bush. It sounds like they have a very specific role in mind for him.
Drue Tranquill
The story of how Tranquill landed in Kansas City is certainly an interesting one. Need wasn’t exactly at the forefront of the team’s thinking here. It lands somewhere between the intersection of maintaining a good relationship with an NFL agent and the Chiefs liking the player.
“And then the last one, sometimes it’s just really good value with Drue Tranquill,” Veach explained. “I don’t know if we went into free agency saying linebacker was a super high priority – I think we probably focused on the O- and D-line, predominantly. But then as free agency goes, there’s always some guys that for some reason they’re just out there and they’re really good players and we just picked up communication because Drue Tranquill actually has the same agent as (Patriots WR) JuJu (Smith-Schuster).
“So when we were trying to work through that JuJu situation (and) once we congratulated JuJu’s crew and his team of agents, we we’re made aware that Drue Tranquill was still out there and having had a lot of experience playing against him (we) knew how good he was. (He’s) a guy that can play all three (linebacker) positions. He can play MIKE, he can wear the green dot and back up (Nick) Bolton, he can play some WILL and he can play some on the line of scrimmage. (He’s) a great blitzer (and) great in pass coverage.”
Acquiring good players should always be at the forefront of the plan, even if they aren’t necessarily at a position of need.
