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The past few offseasons have seen the Kansas City Chiefs work tirelessly to keep a Super Bowl-caliber roster together.
During his press conference at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, general manager Brett Veach appeared resigned that this offseason would see higher roster turnover. One player the team hopes to keep in the fold is cornerback Trent McDuffie.
The team traded up to the 21st overall pick to select McDuffie in the 2022 NFL Draft. While nominally tied to Kansas City for the 2026 season under a fully guaranteed $13 million fifth-year option, McDuffie is widely expected to be traded this spring if the Chiefs cannot hammer out an extension with him.
Veach revealed that those talks have been ongoing and should pick up in Indianapolis.
“We’ve had a lot of dialogue with Trent last spring and last summer,” remarked Veach. “He’s first out of the gate, I think, tomorrow. Looking forward to getting with him. Obviously, Trent’s a great player, and we’ll see what we can do there. We’d certainly love to have Trent back for the long term.”
The Chiefs have a long list of pending free agents — including fellow 2022 draftees in safety Bryan Cook, linebacker Leo Chenal, and cornerback Jaylen Watson. Whether they ultimately return to Kansas City is up in the air and is subject to multiple variables.
“Everything’s kind of a puzzle,” Veach offered. “I think with a lot of our players — I don’t think there’s any one of our free agents we look at and say we don’t want these guys back — they’re really good players. We’ve won a lot of games with them. It’s just a matter of trying to put the puzzle together, what else is going to be out there, their price points, and kind of fitting the whole thing together. What we do is we just kind of remain in contact and keep that dialogue open. All those players you’d mention — the Chenals, the Cooks, the Watsons — all these guys we’re monitoring, and we’re trying to get as many back as we can. Obviously, it’s unrealistic to think you will. But we have to be able to go in different directions.”
While all could be considered likely to find new teams when free agency opens next month, Veach knows that things can change quickly in the NFL personnel world.
“There’s sometimes where you don’t think a guy’s going to come back here,” he explained. “Then, all of the sudden, because you either didn’t execute something or someone else took a different deal, thing open back up. I think you need to remain flexible and fluid during the situation but always have layers of backup plans when you enter this part of the season.”
A major consideration is the NFL’s salary cap. Per Spotrac, Kansas City is about $6.3 million over the expected limit two weeks before the start of the 2026 league year. The Chiefs’ number was almost $9 million further in the red before this week’s release of veteran defensive end Mike Danna.
Veach explained that the reason for moving on early from Danna, a fifth-round selection of the 2020 draft, was respect for the player.
“Mike Danna was a little unique and different,” Veach stated. “Mike Danna was in the building this week. I had a chance to talk to Mike. You guys know Mike. He is as good as it gets — just a tremendous player and person. I have a lot of respect for him, and I wanted him to just have that opportunity, since I saw him this weekend, to just let him go out there and see what his market is. We’ll remain in contact.”
Most expect the Chiefs’ next moves for salary cap compliance to include releasing tackle Jawaan Taylor and possibly veteran linebacker Drue Tranquill. The moves would open a combined $26 million in cap savings.
Veach did not rule out the possibility of moving on from either player. However, the Chiefs’ disciplined approach in recent years does allow for, at least a momentary, shift in philosophy on moving salary cap charges into future seasons. He implied the Chiefs may be more open to maximum restructures of existing contracts than in the past.
“I think with guys like Jawaan and Drue Tranquil, who someone asked me about earlier,” Veach noted, “these guys started for us, and they played a lot of football for us. Our cap situation — I don’t know if we are six or seven [million] over — but I think we have $60 million in convertible contracts too. So, we have many different ways to attack this. I think that’s the one thing we’ve been good at. We don’t do a lot of money pushed down to future years, and I think we run a pretty tight ship there. So, this gives us flexibility to do different things. Again, I think that’s part of the process with all those guys, and we’ll see how the scenarios shake out.”