Kansas City Chiefs: Assessing 2019 Offseason

Good Move: Trading for Darron Lee and Emmanuel Ogbah

Brett Veach has a habit of finding former talented players floundering in the current situations and bringing them to Kansas City for cheap. Reggie Ragland and Cam Erving were brought to the Chiefs during Veach’s tenure, and both have been starters on this football team.

Ragland is a former second round pick with Erving being a former first rounder. The compensation to bring them on board? A fourth and fifth round pick, respectively. The Lee and Ogbah situations are no different here.

Ogbah is a former second round pick that looks to add depth and competition to the defensive front. Lee is a former first round pick, who, at times, has shown great ball skills as a coverage linebacker. The price for these two players? Eric Murray (who may not have even made the team) and a sixth(!) round pick. That is outstanding value.

This strategy may be my favorite part of the Veach era in Kansas City. A lot of times good players are put into bad situations on even worse teams. All it takes is a change of scenery to unlock the potential that they have.

This is doubly true with a team like the Chiefs. Kansas City routinely has coordinators and front office members hired away as head coaches and general managers. A good coaching staff in a stable locker room can do wonders for these players.

Cam Erving looked like a turnstile in Cleveland. Did he come to Kansas City and turn into a Pro-Bowl player? No. He did have a ton of quality starts and snaps for the team, though, which was huge when they were devastated with interior offensive line injuries last season.

If you think about it, players like Lee and Ogbah don’t fall to the fifth or sixth round often. Being willing to give up picks in that range to take a chance on these guys has pretty much always paid off for Veach.

The beauty of it also lies in the comp pick system. If Veach trades for these players and they become starters, and then they leave in a few years, the Chiefs get reimbursed through the comp pick formula.

These types of moves are what can be the difference of good and great teams, and I love that Veach is still finding value on the trade market in Year 3.