Plankton
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You think that the Jones Boys do this type of thinking when it comes to their players?
https://www.si.com/nfl/2023/02/06/chiefs-built-team-around-patrick-mahomes-very-early
It was July 2017, and, after the surprise summer firing of John Dorsey, new Chiefs GM Brett Veach was holding one of his first meetings, scrambling to adjust to the job after a wild month. This one was focused specifically on defining Kansas City’s principles.
What are our principles? What are we going to be doing for the next year? What are we mapping out in terms of long-term planning?
How are we going to do this?
Veach’s director of football administration, Brandt Tilis, raised his hand.
“Look, we just drafted a quarterback in the first round,” the lead negotiator said. “So we need to start thinking about his next contract—like right now—and start planning for him to be great.”
That quarterback was still 14 months from settling in as the Chiefs’ starter, with a redshirt year behind Alex Smith ahead, and the personnel department, rocked by the Dorsey news just a few weeks later, was still figuring out how to move forward. But even then, they had an idea of what the kid they drafted tenth could become. More than just that, they knew the challenges that lied ahead if he fulfilled all that promise.
In a way, the 2022 Chiefs came to life that day, in that room.
We all know now what Mahomes would become. He won the MVP in his first year as a starter, will likely win another one this week, has gotten to five AFC title games in the interim, and will play in his third Super Bowl and for his second Lombardi Trophy on Sunday. But even if the Chiefs thought all that was possible in 2017—and they were very high on their draft pick out of Texas Tech—they knew it couldn’t just be him.
And Tilis’s point to the room underscored that there would be a time that’d come when it’d be harder than making it about more than just him, because of the contract he’d sign if he lived up to his potential (like they hoped he would). So they started planning then for what they’d have in his rookie-deal years, and for the landscape thereafter—when the margins would be thinner, a time that’s now come for the best player in pro football.
“There’s a pressure of not wanting to let him down, or fail him,” Veach said Saturday, before traveling to Arizona for Super Bowl LVII. “He can play any type of football, so you feel like you have a little bit more of a window to work with, in regards to what you can bring in here. But at the same time, the expectations are so high, there’s the pressure of you can’t miss anything and you gotta do whatever you can.
“And maybe you don’t have $30 million to throw at a wideout, but you better get good wideouts because you can’t provide him with nothing. So it’s a double-edged sword.”
Six years after they first talked about it, it’s a sword the Chiefs have used to cut a path few in this era have—by setting themselves up for sustained success after giving a quarterback a top-of-the-market deal. And it’s put Mahomes in position to be more dangerous than he’s ever been before, as he prepares to go hunting for another ring.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2023/02/06/chiefs-built-team-around-patrick-mahomes-very-early
It was July 2017, and, after the surprise summer firing of John Dorsey, new Chiefs GM Brett Veach was holding one of his first meetings, scrambling to adjust to the job after a wild month. This one was focused specifically on defining Kansas City’s principles.
What are our principles? What are we going to be doing for the next year? What are we mapping out in terms of long-term planning?
How are we going to do this?
Veach’s director of football administration, Brandt Tilis, raised his hand.
“Look, we just drafted a quarterback in the first round,” the lead negotiator said. “So we need to start thinking about his next contract—like right now—and start planning for him to be great.”
That quarterback was still 14 months from settling in as the Chiefs’ starter, with a redshirt year behind Alex Smith ahead, and the personnel department, rocked by the Dorsey news just a few weeks later, was still figuring out how to move forward. But even then, they had an idea of what the kid they drafted tenth could become. More than just that, they knew the challenges that lied ahead if he fulfilled all that promise.
In a way, the 2022 Chiefs came to life that day, in that room.
We all know now what Mahomes would become. He won the MVP in his first year as a starter, will likely win another one this week, has gotten to five AFC title games in the interim, and will play in his third Super Bowl and for his second Lombardi Trophy on Sunday. But even if the Chiefs thought all that was possible in 2017—and they were very high on their draft pick out of Texas Tech—they knew it couldn’t just be him.
And Tilis’s point to the room underscored that there would be a time that’d come when it’d be harder than making it about more than just him, because of the contract he’d sign if he lived up to his potential (like they hoped he would). So they started planning then for what they’d have in his rookie-deal years, and for the landscape thereafter—when the margins would be thinner, a time that’s now come for the best player in pro football.
“There’s a pressure of not wanting to let him down, or fail him,” Veach said Saturday, before traveling to Arizona for Super Bowl LVII. “He can play any type of football, so you feel like you have a little bit more of a window to work with, in regards to what you can bring in here. But at the same time, the expectations are so high, there’s the pressure of you can’t miss anything and you gotta do whatever you can.
“And maybe you don’t have $30 million to throw at a wideout, but you better get good wideouts because you can’t provide him with nothing. So it’s a double-edged sword.”
Six years after they first talked about it, it’s a sword the Chiefs have used to cut a path few in this era have—by setting themselves up for sustained success after giving a quarterback a top-of-the-market deal. And it’s put Mahomes in position to be more dangerous than he’s ever been before, as he prepares to go hunting for another ring.
