Chiefs' rather quiet free-agency period will let other AFC West teams catch up

The Kansas City Chiefs truly have not done a whole lot in free agency during the 2024 cycle, which is allowing other teams to play catch up. To an extent, I do think that the Chiefs front office can get too reliant on Patrick Mahomes at times. Now yes, the team has won three Super Bowls over the last five seasons, but there is still quite a bit of football that the team will have left with Mahomes.

The QB will turn 29 this September, so he's still rather young for the position. With many QBs not really seeing a decline until their mid-30s at the earliest, you could argue that the Chiefs may have another seven-ish years of Patrick Mahomes at his best before the inevitable decline happens. In free agency this year, the Chiefs certainly did and still do have some needs.

They have brought back some of their own players. Most notably, they re-signed Chris Jones, which is a logical move. To a much lesser extent, they brought back players like Derrick Nnadi, Tershawn Wharton, Drue Tranquill, Deon Bush, and their long-snapper, James Winchester. They brought in two external free agents on offense in Hollywood Brown and Irv Smith.

And recently, they traded their best defensive back, L'Jarius Sneed, to the Tennessee Titans. Even though the Chiefs had the cap space and reason to have an aggressive and calculated free agency period, they didn't. While the team is surely going to be among the NFL elites yet again in 2024, them not doing much in FA has allowed other AFC teams to play catch up.

The Tennessee Titans flew right out of the game and have signed a plethora of big-name free agents. The Jacksonville Jaguars were again active in free agency, signing players like Gabe Davis, Mitch Morse, and Arik Armstead. And the young but fun Houston Texans went to town in free agency, most notably signing Danielle Hunter on a two-year deal.

The Chiefs also don't have the most valuable draft capital, but that's obviously due to them winning the Super Bowl. KC doesn't seem too concerned that other teams were more aggressive than they were, but they have allowed them to play catch up.