Will Chiefs GM Brett Veach make a trade ahead of roster cuts?

Say what you will about Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach, but the man has an incredible history of success when it comes to making trades around the 53-man roster cut deadline. In each of his seasons as GM for the Chiefs, Veach has made at least one trade around this time of year, if not […]

Charles Goldman — NFL Managing Editor

Aug 28, 2023 2:25 PM EDT

Say what you will about Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach, but the man has an incredible history of success when it comes to making trades around the 53-man roster cut deadline.

In each of his seasons as GM for the Chiefs, Veach has made at least one trade around this time of year, if not more. Last year marked the only season where he hadn't made a trade around the roster cut deadline. Sometimes Veach looks to acquire players, other times he looks to trade players away. Most times the trade involves some exchange of players for draft capital, but occasionally you get the rare player-for-player swaps.

Whether he acquired a player to contribute now or draft capital to be used at a later date, some of his best moves during his time as GM have come before roster cuts.

Brett Veach has a history of trade success during roster cuts

When Veach was handed the keys to the Chiefs roster from John Dorsey back in 2017, one of the first things that he did was go out and acquire both Reggie Ragland and Cam Erving. Both provided valuable depth and were good locker-room guys during their tenure in Kansas City. From there, his success with trades around roster cuts would only snowball.

In 2018, Veach traded OL Parker Ehinger to the Cowboys for CB Charvarius Ward, who would become a pivotal piece of the defense from 2018-2021. He'd also send a late-round pick to the Dolphins for S Jordan Lucas that year as well.

In 2020, Veach traded RB DeAndre Washington and a 2021 seventh-round pick for a sixth-round draft pick. That seventh-rounder was used in a draft day trade to acquire the picks used to select TE Noah Gray and RG Trey Smith.

In 2021, Veach traded Yasir Durant to the New England Patriots, getting a 2022 seventh-round draft pick in return. He turned that pick (No. 243 overall) into CB Jaylen Watson, who played a ton of snaps for the Chiefs and singlehandedly delivered a win over the Chargers with a pick-six last season.

Will Chiefs make a trade ahead of 2023 roster cuts?

At this juncture, I think it's more a matter of when Veach will make a trade rather than if he'll make a trade. The clock is ticking ahead of Tuesday's deadline and we've already seen a few player swaps around the league. Ultimately, it takes two teams to tango, but given how active things have been, I'd say it's a good chance that they field some calls.

The Chiefs have a number of position groups where they have a surplus of players (WR, QB, RB, OL, LB, and DB to name a few) who could make other teams. They also have some needs of their own that could be addressed now or in the future.