The Kansas City Chiefs have been on top of the NFL mountain more often than not in recent years. A big part of the success is the duo of Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid but Brett Veach deserves a ton of credit too. Without the right pieces coming in to help Mahomes and Reid, the Chiefs are not the dynasty of the 2020s that they are today.
Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report further proved just how dominant Veach has been since taking over as the Chiefs GM in 2017. When tasked with naming the Chiefs’ worst trade in the last 10 years, Knox crowned the trade for Frank Clark in 2019 as Kansas City’s worst trade.
“Clark was coming off of a 13-sack season with the Seattle Seahawks and had just been given the franchise tag. The Chiefs had a Pro Bowl pass-rusher in Dee Ford but traded him, then decided to trade a 2019 first-round pick and a 2020 conditional second-rounder for Clark—the Chiefs and Seahawks also swapped 2019 third-round selections.
That was a pretty significant price for a good-not-great pass-rusher, especially considering the trade didn’t come with any long-term team control. Kansas City then had to sign him to a five-year, $104 million extension to make it more than a short-term commitment.
Unfortunately, the Chiefs never got a great return on investment. Clark made three Pro Bowls and was a part of two Super Bowl-winning teams, but his production never matched what the Chiefs paid to get and keep him. He only stuck in Kansas City for four seasons and averaged less than six sacks per year with the franchise.”
BR’s criticism of Frank Clark trade is a compliment to Brett Veach
It might seem weird to think how the criticism here could actually prop Veach up even more but let me explain. Most Chiefs fans would argue that, while, yes, the Clark trade wasn’t great, the pass-rusher did enough in the playoffs during his time with the team that made the trade worth it at the end of the day.
Was he worth all the money K.C. invested in him? No, but you know why Chiefs fans don’t complain about it more? Because in 12 playoff starts with the Chiefs, Clark amassed 32 tackles, 14 tackles for loss/QB hits, and 10.5 sacks. He had five sacks alone in the 2019 playoffs, which helped the Chiefs win their first Super Bowl in 50 years.
If trading for a guy who did that kind of damage in the postseason is the Chiefs’ worst trade of the last decade, then, yeah, I’d say that just further vindicates how impressive Veach has been as the general manager.
Knox did mention how it was hard to pick a bad trade here by the Chiefs since they’ve been so successful so it’s hard to blame him too much for going in this direction. To a non-Chiefs fan, if you look at Clark’s numbers, he was pretty disappointing in the regular season. Chiefs fans, however, know how dominant The Shark was in the most important games and that’s why despite this supposedly being a knock on Veach’s résumé, it’s really not.
