Three bargain bin signings the Chiefs should explore
Tyler Brown
The first and second waves of free agency have come and gone, and now we are in the full-blown player tour stage phase. This is the part where players are taking visits and if teams want to strike a deal, they do not let them leave the building. This is how the New Orleans Saints inked defensive end Chase Young as did the New York Jets with wide receiver Mike Williams.
The tricky part for the Chiefs at this stage in the game is the L’Jarius Sneed situation and how it pertains to the cap space. Currently, Sneed is accounting for nearly $20 million against the cap and Kansas City is at a crossroads where it would be nice to know whether they need to account for that moving forward or if they want to lower it by signing him to an extension or by trading the star cornerback.
Monday morning I discussed the
pros and cons of trading Sneed and I ultimately landed on keeping him, if all they are going to get is a third or fourth-round draft pick. There is not a free agent out there that is going to impact the Chiefs in such a way that will help them three-peat more than Sneed and the way he and Trent McDuffie can lock up a team's passing game.
With Sneed on the books and after the Hollywood Brown signing, the Chiefs stand to have roughly a little less than $8 million in cap space, according to Over the Cap. In order for Kansas City to do anything else in free agency and have the ability to sign their draft class, they will have to make a move on some contracts. That could be by way of trading Sneed or it could be by restructuring left tackle Jawaan Taylor or left guard Joe Thuney.
I am not a contract expert but restructuring Taylor could free up nearly $13 million while doing the same for Thuney would gain a little over $7 million. So, hypothetically, the Chiefs could add $20 million by kicking the can down the road for those two players.
Keeping all of that in mind, the Chiefs cannot do anything drastic at this stage, but there are not any free agents out there that would be worth the Chiefs mortgaging the future for, anyway. Last week I wrote about three free agents the Chiefs should target when they had more cap space in Brown, tackle Jonah Williams and incumbent defensive end Mike Danna.
A week later, the Chiefs signed Brown to a modest deal that is worth $7 million with another $4 million and some change incentives. Williams has since signed with the Arizona Cardinals on a decent-sized deal and Danna is still available with his market not coming to fruition up to this point.
Today, I am going bargain bin shopping, given the Chiefs' cap situation. At this point, Danna might fit into that bargain category and given that he played 74% of the defensive snaps last season, the Chiefs should look at bringing him back. For the sake of this exercise, I am going to look at three different options. Let’s dive in.
Running back, J.K. Dobbins
What J.K. Dobbins has been through, has been tough to witness. The promising young superstar was a backup his rookie season and rushed for an astonishing 805 yards on only 134 carries with the Baltimore Ravens.
In line to start the following season, he tore his ACL in the preseason and the following year was limited to eight games after re-injuring the same knee. He was similarly dominant though, rushing for 520 yards on just 92 carries. In week one of 2023, after touching the ball 10 times and scoring one touchdown, he suffered a torn achilles.
The Chiefs do not need him to be the guy, though. They simply need a change of pace to ride behind bell-cow running back Isiah Pacheco. Pacheco is fast, but he is a bulldozer and a north-and-south type of runner, while Dobbins can reach top speed in an instant, at least pre-injury.
He fits more of the mold the Chiefs have typically used in the past in their zone-running scheme, which would allow head coach Andy Reid to dive deeper into his playbook. Dobbins is no sure thing, but the only running back returning to the Chiefs roster is Pacheco. In other words, the Chiefs do not just need Dobbins, they need to add one or two more tailbacks on top of him. It seems like a high-quality risk worth taking considering Dobbins could come in on a veteran minimum, incentive-laden deal and sign with a winning team that fits his skill set.
Left tackle, Mekhi Becton
Every offseason there is a Brett Veach special, as I like to call it. It is where he signs someone who was a former first-round draft pick who either fizzled out or has not lived up to expectations. Veach already did that to some degree with Hollywood Brown, but Brown is a little more of a proven commodity that has been in poor situations, keeping him from fulfilling the hype.
Left tackle Mekhi Becton on the other hand fits right into the Veach Special. Left tackle Jonah Williams fit into that category a bit too, but he had shown himself enough to get a two-year 30-million dollar contract. Much like Dobbins, Becton has not been able to stay healthy, so it is highly unlikely he will fetch a multi-year deal.
He might get a Tryon Smith type of contract, but to a much lesser degree, given Smith has proven he is a dominant left tackle when healthy. Tyron Smith’s contract has a $6.5 million base with incentives to reach up to $20 million, but I think Becton will get something similar to the contract left tackle Donovan Smith received from the Chiefs last year. Donovan Smith’s base was around $3 million with escalators up to $9 million.
Becton, listed at six-foot-seven, 363 pounds does have a rich injury history, playing one game in 2021 and missing the entirety of the 2022 season, amassing 31 games over his four-year career. He did play in 16 games last season, however. It was not the prettiest season for the left tackle, but it was essentially the first time he had played since his rookie season.
To be frank, he was among the league leaders in penalties, sacks given up and pressures given up, according to PFF. Having said that, in his rookie season, he only allowed pressure on 5 percent of his pass-blocking reps and allowed just seven sacks. To put that in perspective, Donovan Smith allowed pressures on eight percent of his snaps, which does not sound like a lot but that resulted in 19 more pressures in total. Smith only allowed two sacks last season, but in my humble opinion that is because Mahomes is more of a magician more than anything and Smith only played in 12 games.
I am not saying Becton is the answer, but he would provide real talent along the offensive line and someone for second-year left tackle Wanya Morris to compete with. Protecting a quarterback with superior scramble ability would be a great way to get a career on track. Becton is mammoth that offensive line coach Andy Heck could mold, shape and add to his toolbox.
Edge, Calais Campbell
Many view Calais Campbell as both over the hill, and an interior defender based on his age and size, but that could not be further from the truth. Yes, he is 37, but he still fights with the best of them. And yes, he is six-foot-eight and 282 pounds, but he played 447 of his 712 snaps last year lined up outside on the edge.
There are many things to like about Campbell, who is a former Walter Payton Man of the Year, first-team all-pro, two-time second-team all-pro and a six-time pro bowler. The one thing he is missing though is a Super Bowl ring. After spending nine years with the Cardinals, three with the Jacksonville Jaguars, three with the Ravens and one with the Atlanta Falcons, he has never really been on a Super Bowl-caliber team. He already might be a Hall of Famer with his 105.5 sacks, but capping it off with diamonds in Kansas City would be icing on the cake.
Then there is the production and when you think about what the Chiefs need, it is just simply replacing Danna. Kansas City forced plenty of pressure and generated a ton of sacks last season with a guy like Danna starting on the edge. Danna had 6.5 last year and Campbell finished with the exact same amount.
Danna commonly kicks in on obvious passing downs to allow guys like Chris Jones, Charles Omenhiu and George Karlaftis to feast on the outside. Campbell does the same thing, playing 164 snaps in the three-tech last season to go with 84 more in the A and B gaps. With guys like Felix Anudike-Uzomah and B.J. Thompson being exclusively outside guys as well, that will only become more important.
Not only did Campbell finish the season with 6.5 sacks, but he also had a two percent higher pressure rate than Danna. He was the 23rd-ranked edge rusher in PFF grade, but more impressively he was the eighth-ranked against the run. You will not find a bigger Danna supporter than me, but he finished 74th and 77th in those categories, respectively.
Regarding the cost aspect of this, Campbell signed a one-year 7-million dollar deal with the Falcons last season. I’m sure he likes money and I’m not sure he would want to take an incentivized deal, but if he has a desire to win, the two parties may be able to bridge that gap. Campbell has made over $141 million in his career, too.
Bringing back Danna, even former Chief Emmanuel Ogbah or a guy like Campbell is paramount, given Omenihu’s injury status. Campbell has not slowed down yet, but the Chiefs do not need him to be a superstar. He would be great for the locker room and would be a perfect fit for defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and defensive line coach Joe Cullen, who coached Campbell for one season in Baltimore.
If the Chiefs made all three of these moves before the draft, they would have zero glaring holes heading into it, giving them the ability to draft the best player available. The Brown signing gives them the flexibility to add another veteran receiver if they want to, but they can wait till after the draft. These three moves in addition to Brown give them tremendous depth at every position group with the ability to add to it in Detroit next month.
