What do you get when you cross one of the league's best quarterbacks and one of the league's rising defensive talents?
Offseason priorities A and B for Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach.
As it currently stands, star quarterback and Super Bowl LIV MVP Patrick Mahomes has two years until he can become an unrestricted free agent. Recently franchise-tagged defensive tackle Chris Jones can hit the market next spring.
According to NFL Network's James Palmer, Veach reiterated on Sunday he doesn't intend to let either of those things happen, noting that, while there's still time to strike long-term deals with the two Pro Bowlers, he hopes to lock up both sooner rather than later.
"I would like to think that we're fairly confident, and we have a lot of time," Veach said, via an official team transcript. "(They're) cornerstones in this organization. We do have some time, and now that the draft is over, and the free agency period here with the pandemic and the virtual draft, there was certainly a lot of distractions. But now that this is behind us here, we have a window now that we can kind of reset as an organization."
Regarding a possible timetable for when he would like to get the deals done, Palmer reported that Veach sounded like he hoped to have them done before training camp starts, a change of tune from when the timetable was unclear a few weeks ago.
The likelihood of Mahomes not being with the team for the foreeseable future feels absurdly low. Jones' situation isn't quite as clear-cut.
It's been 10 days since the Chiefs used its non-exclusive tag on Jones. It was on that same day Veach expressed how management is taking its time in working to retain him, "not just for next year, but for the future."
Training camp will likely follow the path of OTAs and end up being delayed, which could impact when Mahomes signs, but the July 15 deadline to sign Jones remains unchanged. Time may be on Veach's side for now but it's getting closer and closer to decision time in K.C.
