Teams these days are leaning more and more towards building through the draft and we’re starting to see that affect the veteran free agent market in a big way. Nothing solidified the notion of teams wanting to build through the draft more than the pitiful free agent period we saw where guys like Toby Gerhart got first hour contracts and veterans like Jared Allen and Maurice Jones-Drew took weeks to find teams.
The Kansas City Chiefs are a team that wants to build through the draft and their absence in free agency proves this. It’s hard to build through the draft if you have no picks to do so, and that’s why Adam Teicher from ESPN.com notes the Chiefs are looking at trading down to amass more draft picks.
"I’ve been saying this for a while, that trading down makes plenty of sense for the Chiefs. Not having a second-round pick makes things very difficult for a team that wants to build through the draft. … Right now, the Chiefs have one of the top 86 picks. Most, if not all, of their competitors will have a better chance of improving. So moving down to get a second-round choice or even an extra third-rounder would be a good move."
Drafting well is the key to success as even the Denver Broncos got to the Super Bowl thanks to draft picks helping out. The Chiefs need to get better in 2014 and trading down in the first-round of the draft may be the first step.