KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- General manager Brett Veach showed plenty of creativity last season in helping the Kansas City Chiefs return to the Super Bowl. He took a challenging salary cap situation that at one point left the Chiefs with $177 in cap room yet still found a way for the team to re-sign quarterback Patrick Mahomes, defensive tackle Chris Jones and tight end Travis Kelce.
Veach will need to show every bit of that creativity and more to build an offensive line to protect Mahomes this year. The Chiefs released long-time starting tackles Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz in a move that saves the Chiefs more than $18 million against the cap but leaves them short at two key line positions.
The Chiefs may have five new starters on the offensive line in 2021 from last season's opener. Fisher and Schwartz are gone, Kelechi Osemele and Austin Reiter are potential unrestricted free agents and Andrew Wylie is a restricted free agent.
The Chiefs would get some reinforcements if Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Lucas Niang return after opting out of last season because of the coronavirus. That, at best, would only partially solve the Chiefs' tackle issue. Niang could wind up being one of the starting tackles next season, but Duvernay-Tardif is a guard.
The Chiefs had been planning these moves with Fisher and Schwartz for some time and waited until after Wednesday's news that the 2021 salary cap would be $182.5 million before acting. The cap is down more than $15 million per team from last year, leaving the Chiefs with little choice but to make some drastic moves.
Injuries to Fisher and Schwartz made these moves the logical ones. The 30-year-old Fisher had surgery in late January after tearing his Achilles tendon in the AFC Championship Game victory over the Buffalo Bills. Schwartz, 31, missed most of last season because of a back injury and he also recently had surgery.
The Chiefs at this point have no certainty either player will be healthy for next season. Even if they are, would they return as the same caliber of player they were before the injuries?
Releasing them was the easy part. The Chiefs eliminated a large chunk of their salary-cap problems with these moves and they did it with players who have an uncertain future.
Replacing them with players of similar caliber is where this gets tricky. The Chiefs still need to shave a couple of million dollars from their salary cap just to be in compliance with the league maximum. Throw in finding money to tender contracts to prospective restricted free agents like Wylie, Byron Pringle, Charvarius Ward and Darrel Williams and sign their eight eventual draft picks and it's hard to believe the releases of Fisher and Schwartz were a play to sign a big-ticket free agent tackle like Trent Williams.
Veach more likely is going to need to find a way to build an offensive line without further stretching the Chiefs' bloated salary structure. Maybe that means spending several of those eight picks on linemen. Maybe it means signing a lesser free agent or two. Maybe it means re-signing Fisher at a lower cost when he's proved he's ready to play.
Whatever Veach does, the Chiefs have a lot riding on this. They got a glimpse of how Mahomes' skills were neutralized by playing behind a shaky offensive line in the Super Bowl LV loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
If that's the Chiefs' future when it comes to protecting Mahomes, it's hard to see how they will realize their investment on his half-billion dollar contract or how they will reach another Super Bowl any time soon.
Veach needs to get this one right and it may take money and imagination to do it.