Kansas City Chiefs Maintain Long-Term Strategy Amid Trade Deadline Decisions

NEW ORLEANS -- Shortly before the 2024 trade deadline, the Kansas City Chiefs had a chance to solidify their secondary -- and their bid at becoming the first NFL franchise to win three consecutive Super Bowl championships.

The New Orleans Saints were dangling veteran cornerback Marshon Lattimore in trade talks. The four-time Pro Bowl selection excelled in a position at which the Chiefs had a need.

But the Chiefs weren't the only bidders. The Washington Commanders were in the mix, and as the price for Lattimore climbed, the Chiefs ultimately had to back away.

The Saints eventually sent Lattimore to Washington for a package of picks that included third- and fourth-rounders in the 2025 draft.

Acquiring a player of Lattimore's caliber would have been an immediate roster improvement, but, under general manager Brett Veach's philosophy, trading away early-round draft picks would have been too high of a cost.

Since Veach became the GM in 2017 and Patrick Mahomes became the starting quarterback in 2018, the Chiefs have been steadfast in not going all-in at the expense of ruining their chances to compete for titles in future seasons.

And the philosophy hasn't changed regardless of their chance at a three-peat.

"On one hand, there is the historical aspect of going for a three-peat, but we've operated as if we want to be in a similar scenario next year and compete for a championship,'' Veach said. "There's a point where as an organization, it goes from being aggressive to being risky. We've done a good job of amping the aggressiveness to the edge but not going over the edge."

Getting the three-peat has been a powerful motivator for the Chiefs. They started talking about it the moment they won their second straight Super Bowl last year.

"You can't go in with the mindset of being all-in for one year," Veach said. "We want to find that delicate balance of being cautiously aggressive every year and going for it, but not at the expense of derailing the cap situation or wrecking our draft in future years.''

In this sense, the Chiefs treated their quest for a three-peat as they would their chase for any other championship. They built a roster around Mahomes they felt could win another Super Bowl.

So far, they've been proved right. The Chiefs finished the regular season at 15-2, tied with the Detroit Lions for the NFL's best record. They won a ninth straight AFC West championship, claimed the AFC's top playoff seed and advanced to Super Bowl LIX on Sunday in New Orleans (6:30 p.m. ET, Fox). The Philadelphia Eagles are the final test to cement a Chiefs dynasty and the first three-peat of the Super Bowl era.

"We've tried to be thoughtful about making sure we're giving ourselves the best chance to win this year, but also putting ourselves in a position where we can win next year and the year after that,'' Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said. "We want to put the best team we can on the field every year.''

The Chiefs are the ninth team to win back-to-back Super Bowls, but the first of that bunch to advance as far as a third straight title game. History is on the line, and the Chiefs haven't been shy about their potential place in it.

Defensive tackle Chris Jones led fans in a "three-peat" chant at the team's Super Bowl parade in February. Later at training camp he said it was the theme of the Chiefs' season.

"Chasing history is all part of it,'' Jones said. "When a lot of players retire, they always say they want to leave the game better than when they started. If we can get this three-peat and just continue adding into the legacy of the Kansas City Chiefs, I think that would be a huge accomplishment not only for us but for the NFL."

But the Chiefs got to history's brink by keeping their eye on the longer term. With Mahomes as their quarterback, they have reached the Super Bowl in five of his seven seasons and are 3-1 in those games.

Mahomes signed a contract extension before the 2020 season that keeps him with the Chiefs through 2031. Despite being the NFL's only active quarterback with more than one Super Bowl title, Mahomes is the 12th-highest paid player at his position by average salary.

The 10-year extension Mahomes signed at the time was worth 450 million USD, but the 45 million average has since been passed multiple times. Of the 11 quarterbacks with a larger average-per-season salary, none has won a Super Bowl, and only Joe Burrow, Jared Goff and Jalen Hurts have played in one.

Mahomes, by comparison, will play in his fifth championship game when the Chiefs face the Eagles.

The promise from the Chiefs at the time he signed was implicit. They would take the money they were saving on Mahomes' contract and make every effort to surround him with a championship-caliber roster each season.

"The philosophy was 'Win every year' and we've done a good job of that. ... They're going to do what they feel like is the value of the guy they're trying to get," Mahomes said. "They're going to try and maybe overspend a little bit, but they're not going to go crazy to where you're going to be hurting future seasons. I want to be able to win it every year I'm here.''

Mahomes has talked for years about chasing Tom Brady's records, including his seven Super Bowl rings, the most for a quarterback. Though Mahomes would relish a three-peat, something Brady never accomplished, they all count. He said he's not interested in trading chances to win championships in the future to go all-in on this one or any other.

"It'll be something I look back at the end of my career if we're able to go out there and get that,'' Mahomes said of a three-peat. "But at the same time, you just treat it as one ... Super Bowl run, which is always hard to do.''

Looking toward the 2025 season, Veach said he doesn't foresee the Chiefs being able to be very active in free agency. Their salary cap situation should be tight. The Chiefs are estimated to have about 11 million USD to spend, according to Overthecap.com, but that's before they whittle away at a lengthy list of their own potential free agents. The group includes wide receivers Hollywood Brown, DeAndre Hopkins and JuJu Smith-Schuster, running back Kareem Hunt, guard Trey Smith, linebacker Nick Bolton and defensive lineman Tershawn Wharton.

If the Chiefs are going to be competitive again next season, Veach decided, they had better hold on to their better draft picks and choose wisely.

"We're not going to have a lot of money in free agency,'' he said. "Our free agency next year is going to be our draft. So it's hard to move one of those [better] picks, especially for a one-year rental.''

Navigating injuries presented another challenge for the Chiefs' roster and their spending this season. They went a majority of the season without the players they expected to be their go-to receivers in Rashee Rice (right knee injury in Week 4) and Hollywood Brown (preseason sternoclavicular injury), as well as running back Isiah Pacheco (broken right fibula in Week 2), their leading rusher the past two seasons.

Neither of their two top left tackles, rookie Kingsley Suamataia and second-year player Wanya Morris, proved up to the starting job. Each was benched during the season.

To help address those deficiencies, the Chiefs added veterans Smith-Schuster, Hopkins, Hunt and left tackle D.J. Humphries.

"We tried to be as aggressive as we could,'' Veach said. "None of those moves put us back anything. They didn't cost us [high] draft picks, and they didn't cost us a lot of money.''

The Chiefs traded a fifth-round draft pick for Hopkins. It will become a fourth-round pick if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl. The others were low-money free-agent signings.

Starting cornerback Jaylen Watson also broke his ankle at midseason and sat out the final 11 games in the regular season. But he has been back for the playoffs.

His injury was the biggest reason the Chiefs considered Lattimore. That they declined to meet or exceed the Commanders' offer for him speaks loudly about the Chiefs' philosophy and their conviction to stay the course.

"We were aggressive,'' Veach said. "We were going to trade a pick, a good pick. But when it became multiple picks and higher picks, then it became risky. To go somewhere in trying to three-peat, that would have crossed the barrier from aggressive to really putting the organization at future risk was really something we weren't willing to do.

"With Pat's contract, we feel we have a nice runway here of being able to compete for a championship next season and in future seasons.''

The Chiefs will have four draft picks in the top 100 this year after picking up an extra third-rounder in a trade that sent veteran cornerback L'Jarius Sneed to the Tennessee Titans in the offseason. If the Chiefs draft wisely and make smart decisions with their available free agent money, they might be going for a four-peat next year.

If so, they can give a substantial amount of credit to the moves they made -- and didn't make -- this season.