It's mid-April, a month after the initial wave of free agency in the NFL, and the Chiefs could still use another wide receiver.
And a cornerback.
And an edge rusher.
Or maybe two.
The roster has more needs than at any point in the Patrick Mahomes era, which, by the way, is not a coincidence. We'll get to that.
There is, however, one key opportunity through which the Chiefs can still address all their needs, even this late in the offseason.
The NFL Draft.
Sure, it's not quite as comfortable to enter the draft hoping to fill needs rather than stacking luxuries, but Mahomes' salary does not fit as comfortably under the cap as it once did. The days of those freedoms are long gone. In turn, the most important job of this front office — the way its legacy will be sealed years from now — is making sound picks. Because the Chiefs cannot afford to miss.
Mahomes' contract is set to eat about 17.06% of the salary cap in 2022, using figures from Over The Cap. In his initial four seasons as the Chiefs' starting quarterback, Mahomes' rookie contract occupied 2.1%, 2.4%, 2.4% and 4.0% of the team's annual cap.
A new era has arrived this offseason. The Mahomes contract extension is its driver, the NFL Draft its annual passenger.
Can they fit it neatly together?
Their predecessors haven't made it work. The Chiefs are attempting to break league convention. No quarterback in NFL history has occupied such a high percentage of his team's salary cap and hoisted the Lombardi Trophy at season's end. The current record belongs to Tom Brady, whose salary consumed 12.6% of the cap when he led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the title against the Chiefs in February 2021.
That's the highest dot on the graph, and the Chiefs are soaring past it. While they put mechanisms in place to potentially reduce the single-year cost of Mahomes' contract in any particular season (as there were for this season, even), the solution is the same.
Say it again: the NFL Draft.
Whether you like it or not, you had better get accustomed to the Chiefs entering the draft needing to hit on their picks and needing to have those picks made an immediate impact. That's the trade-off for having a superstar quarterback who's playing on his second contract — a trade-off, mind you, that's still worth making.
But the best (only?) way to ensure it all works is to pair that enormous contract with not just cheap labor, but quality cheap labor.
Which, relatedly, brings us back to the Tyreek Hill trade for a moment. In exchange for the final year of Hill's deal, the Chiefs last month added five picks from Miami over the next two drafts, including the 29th overall selection this month. It's good business and now required business. Some talent is going to depart in a salary-cap league. What can you receive in return before it does?
The answer reveals the Chiefs' path forward as Mahomes' record-setting deal takes effect. In losing one of the game's best playmakers (Hill), they acquired exclusively picks, as opposed to a combination of players and picks. In essence, they bolstered their principal method of roster-building for the foreseeable future. They have stockpiled enough picks this month — the draft is April 28-30 in Las Vegas — that if they want to make a move for a specific player they like, they can indulge.
The Chiefs own eight of the draft's first 135 selections. Perhaps they'll keep them all — and, hey, if you hit on more than half, you've got a heck of a class.
But these aren't luxuries. They aren't hopes. They are necessities.
Indeed, the draft is the No. 1 piece of any team's future. Well, any good team's future. That's part of the reason the Chiefs are in this position in the first place — their own draft picks have made such an impact that they required raises. But it will also be a required part of the present here, and a significant one at that.
A year ago, the Chiefs were able to address their top priorities before the draft even arrived. General manager Brett Veach had publicly promised an overhaul of the offensive line, and then the team signed Joe Thuney to the richest agreement for a guard in league history and shipped a first-rounder to Baltimore as part of a trade for left tackle Orlando Brown. They made key changes even before drafting two more linemen later in the spring. They were afforded that option.
It's quite a contrast now. This year, the Chiefs promised a makeover for the defensive line, but with Mahomes' escalating contract number, their margin thinned. To date, they've added a grand total of one player to their defensive line: defensive tackle Taylor Stallworth, on an inexpensive one-year deal.
That leaves the draft as Plan A. It becomes the primary tool, no longer supplemental, for the rebuild of the defensive line position group.
We've talked a lot in this space about the Seattle Seahawks as a warning. A potential perennial contender for championships finished with just one before trading star quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos this offseason.
How do you avoid that happening here in Kansas City?
You compile drafts like the Chiefs did a season ago. They plucked Nick Bolton, Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith, among others, in last year's class. All three are potential Pro Bowl players now. They will make $3.4 million in 2022 — combined.
That's the way of the future. Forget the high-dollar free agents. Get used to watching those players move from team to team in March, while the Chiefs sit and wait on free-agency's second wave, and then the college kids.
Look, it's a lot to ask for the Chiefs to repeat that kind of draft success year after year after year. But they own double the ammunition this year than they did in 2021 — they've put themselves in an intriguing position to repeat their overall success, even if they hit on a lower percentage of their picks.
But I'm not the one asking anyway.
The quarterback's contract is demanding it.
