The Kansas City Chiefs are entering one of the most important offseasons of the Brett Veach era, coming off a disastrous 2025 campaign that snapped their playoff streak, produced their first losing record since 2012, and cost them Patrick Mahomes for the stretch run.

Kansas City’s collapse was more than just bad vibes and unlucky bounces; it was a structural failure on multiple fronts, with injuries, cap bloat, thin depth charts, and schematic stagnation all converging at the worst possible time.

Mahomes’ torn ACL and LCL in Week 15 put a grim exclamation point on a season already trending downward, though the organization expects him to be ready for the 2026 opener, keeping the long-term Super Bowl window technically intact.

What makes this offseason so fascinating is the juxtaposition of circumstances: the Chiefs own a top-10 draft pick for the first time since 2013, yet they enter the league year buried at the bottom of the NFL in available salary cap space.

Before any moves, Over The Cap places Kansas City at roughly negative eleven million dollars in cap room, with effective cap space closer to negative nineteen million once a full 51-man offseason roster and projected rookie class are accounted for.

The one bright financial note is dead money, where the Chiefs sit near the league’s best with just over two hundred thousand dollars charged, giving them flexibility to reshuffle the deck through cuts, restructures, and carefully chosen extensions.

From a roster-building perspective, the needs are obvious and urgent: find a long-term answer at running back, rebuild a defensive line that has grown stale, reinforce an undermanned secondary, and add legitimate weapons at wide receiver.

To create breathing room, this blueprint starts with several painful but defensible cuts, headlined by right tackle Jawaan Taylor, whose penalties and inconsistent play make his twenty-seven-million-plus cap figure impossible to justify despite his overall competence.

Defensive back Kristian Fulton, linebacker Drue Tranquill, and edge defender Mike Danna also land on the chopping block in this scenario, a group of veterans whose departures collectively free nearly forty million dollars in cap space despite modest dead-money hits.

Tranquill is arguably the toughest emotional cut, given his reliability over the last three seasons, but the Chiefs need to get younger and cheaper at linebacker, while Danna’s steady but unspectacular production makes him an expendable rotational piece.

With those exits banked, the next lever is restructuring deals for players expected to be foundational pieces through at least 2027, converting base salary into bonuses to spread cap hits and effectively “borrowing” space from future seasons.

Linebacker Nick Bolton, defensive lineman Chris Jones, guard Trey Smith, center Creed Humphrey, and pass-rusher George Karlaftis are prime candidates, with simple restructures projected to generate upwards of twenty-eight million dollars in additional space.

Bolton is the most polarizing name on that list, as some fans see him as replaceable and cuttable after 2026, but defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s admiration suggests Kansas City will likely keep him, restructure carefully, and reassess down the road.

The trick with restructures is not to go overboard; with Mahomes already maxed out for 2026, the Chiefs can afford selective conversions on players who will almost certainly remain core pieces well into the next competitive cycle.

On the extension front, cornerback Trent McDuffie represents the biggest strategic fork in the road, with viable arguments for trading him, playing out the fifth-year option, or handing him a market-setting deal that resets the top of the cornerback market.

This blueprint opts for the aggressive route: a four-year extension worth roughly one hundred twenty-two million dollars, with forty-five million guaranteed, slightly surpassing Sauce Gardner’s annual average and solidifying McDuffie as the long-term face of the secondary.

It is a hefty price, and perhaps not the move every cap analyst would endorse, but letting a blue-chip defensive back walk when the roster already has holes everywhere else is the kind of talent drain a contending team usually regrets.

Once the structural cap work is done, the focus shifts to in-house free agents, starting with low-cost exclusive-rights tenders for depth pieces like Cole Christiansen, Eric Scott, Nikko Remigio, and punter Matt Araiza, all on inexpensive one-year deals.

Next come modest re-signings: quarterback Gardner Minshew as a capable backup insurance policy, long snapper James Winchester as a steady specialist, and guard Mike Caliendo brought back on a cheaper deal than his pricey restricted tender would require.

The headline internal decisions revolve around tight end Travis Kelce, wideout Tyquan Thornton, and linebacker Leo Chenal, with this plan projecting Kelce back on a one-year, ten-million-dollar deal to avoid ending his Chiefs career on a sour note.

Thornton’s flashes in 2025 warrant a one-year, five-million-dollar prove-it contract, while Chenal earns a three-year, twenty-one-million-dollar pact that quietly locks in a physical, ascending linebacker who has been more important to this defense than many outsiders realize.

Free agency then becomes an exercise in targeted strikes rather than splashy fireworks, focusing on mid-tier starters rather than thirty-million-dollar headliners, beginning with running back Travis Etienne Jr. on a three-year, thirty-six-million-dollar deal.

Etienne’s home-run speed and explosive run profile—twenty-plus double-digit yard carries in 2025—would finally give Kansas City the backfield juice it has lacked, pairing nicely with a rookie complement to create a thunder-and-lightning dynamic.

Edge rusher Boye Mafe follows on a three-year, forty-nine-million-dollar contract, instantly upgrading the pass rush alongside Jones and Karlaftis, while depth additions Derek Barnett and David Onyemata bolster a defensive front that has too often relied on replacement-level bodies.

At tight end, Isaiah Likely arrives on a reasonable three-year, twenty-eight-million-dollar deal, giving the Chiefs a succession plan behind Kelce and a two-tight-end look that can stress defenses horizontally and vertically if Likely finally puts everything together.

In the secondary, safety Alohi Gilman provides a cost-effective alternative if Kansas City moves on from Bryan Cook, and cornerback James Pierre offers bargain-bin boundary depth for Spagnuolo’s scheme without forcing the team into cap gymnastics.

With veterans in place, the Chiefs turn to the 2026 NFL Draft, where a top-ten selection allows them to swing big on offense; in this mock, they grab Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate at ninth overall.

Tate brings the size, physicality, and “bully-ball” traits that have so often tormented Kansas City’s secondary in the past, drawing Tee Higgins comparisons and stepping into the lineup as a pro-ready X receiver who doesn’t need a redshirt year.

On Day Two, edge defender Gabe Jacas from Illinois lands at pick forty, matching the Chiefs’ prototype of big, powerful, high-motor defensive ends with legitimate pass-rush upside, even if his run defense still requires refinement and coaching.

Third-round selection Domonique Orange from Iowa State shores up the interior as a stout run-stopping defensive tackle, finally giving Kansas City a true early-down anchor instead of recycling Derrick Nnadi and Mike Pennel for heavy snap counts.

On Day Three, linebacker Taurean York offers instincts and blitz timing in Round Four despite size concerns, Arkansas running back Mike Washington Jr. adds physicality and complementary burst in Round Five, and Washington corner Tacario Davis supplies length on the boundary with developmental upside.

By the time the dust settles, the projected preseason roster features Mahomes backed by Minshew and developmental arms, a backfield headlined by Etienne and Washington, and a receiver room led by Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy, Carnell Tate, and Tyquan Thornton.

Kelce, Likely, and Noah Gray headline a deep tight end group, while the offensive line leans on Humphrey and Smith inside and a committee of younger tackles outside, reflecting a clear philosophical pivot from overpaying middling veterans in the trenches.

Defensively, Jones, Karlaftis, Mafe, Jacas, Orange, Onyemata, and promising 2025 picks like Omarr Norman-Lott and Ashton Gillotte form a much deeper, more athletic front, supported by Bolton, Chenal, York, and a crowded linebacker room built for special-teams versatility.

The secondary revolves around McDuffie as the highly paid CB1, with Pierre, Davis, Christian Roland-Wallace, and others filling out corner, while Gilman, Chamarri Conner, Mike Edwards, and rookie Jaden Hicks handle safety duties in a rotation tailored to matchup flexibility.

Cap-wise, the plan leaves roughly five million dollars in space heading into training camp, enough to sign late-summer veterans, cover in-season emergencies, or absorb small restructures without plunging immediately back into financial crisis.

None of these exact moves will unfold precisely as drawn—Veach lives in realities fans never see—but this blueprint demonstrates a coherent path: clear cap space surgically, invest heavily in the lines, diversify the offensive weaponry, and trust coaching to re-ignite Kansas City’s explosive identity.

If the Chiefs can execute even a version of this plan while Mahomes returns healthy, they will give themselves a realistic shot not just to rejoin the playoff field, but to begin marching again toward the Super Bowl standard they set in years past.