Chiefs Have Already Had Strong 2023 Offseason Start

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We are roughly one week into free agency and the 2023 NFL league year. In regard to the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, they have already had an impressively strong start to the 2023 offseason. You of course cannot win the Super Bowl in March. But, you can certainly better position yourself.

Kansas City may not have made as many moves as other teams. Plus, the Chiefs have been making simpler additions, rather than grabbing the major headlines in free agency. Because of that, and the tough decisions that the Chiefs had to make, Kansas City has already produced a strong start to the 2023 offseason. How so? Let’s kick it off.

Chiefs Fill Top Positions Of Need

Filling your top positions of need may not seem that difficult at the beginning of the offseason. However, filling them with the correct type of play styles and fresh mindsets is ultra-crucial. As mentioned above, the Chiefs largely did this by making simpler additions that may fly under the radar over the first week of free agency. With those shrewd moves, Kansas City is able to fill multiple roles in a bevy of spots on the roster.

Starting with those so-called smaller additions, the Chiefs were able to add defensive players that offer clear-cut traits. We know that Charles Omenihu can possibly inject juice into the pass rush, while rushing from EDGE or reducing down inside. We know that Drue Tranquill can cover consistently well in space at the linebacker spot. In turn, Tranquill immediately becomes one of the best coverage linebackers on Kansas City’s defense. Finally, the addition of safety Mike Edwards gives the Chiefs a versatile chess piece. Edwards’ ball skills is exactly what KC needed to look for, following the departure of Juan Thornhill to the Cleveland Browns.

Simply put, you know exactly what you are getting from those new defenders on defensive snaps, depending on the situation. Elsewhere, the big-ticket offensive tackle addition of Jawaan Taylor is a perfect fit for the offensive attack. Taylor’s athleticism, improving pass blocking skills and overall hand technique will slide right in for a pass-happy Chiefs offense.

All of these early moves give Kansas City young players that are still improving. More importantly, the Chiefs have made supplementations that only allow them to take steps further, not go backwards.

Roster Flexibility Grows Before More Pending Decisions

Not only did the Chiefs avoid staying stagnant with these roster moves, but they also gave themselves ample roster flexibility. General manager Brett Veach and his staff never like heading into an NFL Draft with a clear and obvious hole to fix. Come to think of it, no general manager probably wants that. Yet, recent history of this Chiefs team has indicated that they want to enter a draft with an option of being able to select the best player available as much as possible.

Entering the NFL Draft, some teams are forced to still fill top needs, while others are simply going with the prospect that they believe is the best available at that moment in time. People can often forget that teams are simply taking the best available, depending on the exact scenario that they are presented. Given the players who are still on the board, Kansas City can pick their poison. That is now further enhanced with these early moves that could be seen as savvy additions for the Chiefs down the line.

Kansas City Stays Ahead Of Curve By Drawing Hard Lines

Once again, the Chiefs did well in free agency so far to find specific traits and play styles. Some of those were not existing on last year’s roster, for example. On the other hand, that added roster flexibility for upcoming pending decisions is a tremendous luxury to have. But most of all, Kansas City did not fall behind by making tough decisions and drawing hard lines for their own pending free agents.

It would have been nice to bring all of JuJu Smith-Schuster, Khalen Saunders, Thornhill and others back. But them moving on to other teams guarantees a couple of major items for the Chiefs going into 2023. For starters, Kansas City appeared to have set a firm price tag that they were willing to meet on players that are seen as good, but not great.

The Chiefs also avoided the “run it back” mantra that many defending champions have clung to lately, to boot. In fact, KC did that themselves after winning Super Bowl LIV, which led to marginalized results, getting older quickly and narrow skill sets remaining on the roster. It is tough to move on from homegrown players. Though, the Chiefs did a solid job of maximizing as much out of those names as possible.

Be on the lookout for more FPC Chiefs articles and analysis throughout this week. For more great sports and NFL content, stay tuned to Full Press Coverage.

– Braden Holecek is the Kansas City Chiefs managing editor for Full Press Coverage. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @ebearcat9//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Follow @FPC_Chiefs//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js and Facebook.