General manager Brett Veach of the Kansas City Chiefs uses his phone prior to a game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 15, 2024. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)

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Brett Veach of the Kansas City Chiefs is one of the more aggressive general managers in the NFL.

“You know how Brett is wired,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said. “He’s endlessly looking for people and trying to bring people on to make us better. That’s how he goes about it.”

Veach has made trades in the last two first rounds of the NFL draft (moving back for offensive tackle Josh Simmons in 2025 and moving up for wide receiver Xavier Worthy the previous year).

He also has been a wheeler/dealer at the trade deadline, twice bringing in impact receivers in the last four years.

There was even some speculation — given Isiah Pacheco’s recent knee injury and the fact that the New York Jets were having a fire sale — that the Chiefs would trade for running back Breece Hall, a Wichita, Kan., native whose stepfather Jeff Smith played for the Chiefs in 1985 and 1986.

Limited Salary Cap Space and Mike Pennel

But the Chiefs rank 30th in the NFL with only $3,302,488 in cap space this year. Yes, there are ways to creatively move money around, but it does make it more challenging to trade for a player.

Another reason the Chiefs didn’t trade for anyone is they already had made a move to shore up their biggest need — defensive line.

Defensive tackle Mike Pennel, who was on the Chiefs’ training camp roster before being cut before the season, asked for his release from the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Chiefs signed him last week.

“It has been crazy, man,” he said. “Just glad to be back. A lot of trips (and) a lot of stops but glad to be here.”

The Chiefs’ defensive line was having issues even before rookie Omarr Norman-Lott was lost for the season with a knee injury.

In fact, there was such a need for Pennel that he actually played 20 snaps or 30% of the defensive plays against the Buffalo Bills — just days after the Chiefs picked him up.

But Pennel is obviously a less sexy acquisition than last year’s move at the trade deadline.

Previous Trade Deadlines

Having lost Rashee Rice to a season-ending knee injury, the Chiefs wisely traded a 2005 fifth-round pick for DeAndre Hopkins last year.

Though the sure-handed Hopkins only had 41 catches for 437 yards and four touchdowns for Kansas City, it was a wise move to snare a five-time Pro Bowler for such minor draft capital.

Two years earlier the Chiefs traded a 2023 third-round and sixth-round pick for Kadarius Toney. Though many Chiefs fans may remember Toney more for his dropped passes during the 2023 regular season, Kansas City likely doesn’t win the previous Super Bowl without him.

He scored a touchdown in that game and had the longest punt return in Super Bowl history. That 65-yard play in the fourth quarter gave the Chiefs the ball on the Philadelphia Eagles’ five-yard line and put the Chiefs in the driver’s seat for the rest of Super Bowl LVII.

Acquiring Toney was another smart move by Veach, and Chiefs fans should trust his acumen even when no trade is made.