NEWS » The Kansas City Chiefs are placing the franchise tag on outs

ide linebacker Dee Ford after the best season of his career Cameron Erving Jersey , though that could be just the first step in their dealings with him.The decision was made on Saturday, a person familiar with it told The Associated Press, three days before the league’s deadline for franchising players. But the Chiefs have discussed signing Ford to a long-term deal, and they are open to trade possibilities as they switch their base defenses.The person spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity because the move was not finalized as the paperwork awaited filing. ESPN.com was first to report the Chiefs had made the decision.The franchise tag for an outside linebacker next season is just over $15.4 million, a number the Chiefs could easily fit under the salary cap. But general manager Brett Veach has made it clear since taking over last year that he is open to making any moves that help the overall club.That could mean a long-term contract — the deadline for doing that with a franchise player is July 15 — or trading away one of the league’s top pass rushers.“He had an outstanding season. He was at the top of his game,” Veach said during his year-end discussion with reporters. “When we drafted Dee a few years ago, all those things that we envisioned for him, he kind of showed that he was that player.”But that also came in former defensive coordinator Bob Sutton’s scheme, which is built around a 3-4 base. The Chiefs fired Sutton after an AFC West-winning season culminated in an overtime loss to the Patriots, and hired Steve Spagnuolo to implement a 4-3 scheme.“The one thing he can do, and we all know this, he is an explosive football player that makes a lot of plays,” Spagnuolo said recently. “He’s had some production and if he is here with us De’Anthony Thomas Jersey , I’ll be excited to have him and be excited to work with him.”Ford was the Chiefs’ first-round pick in 2014 out of Auburn, but he struggled with injuries and the adjustment to the NFL his first couple seasons. He only played in six games with two sacks in 2017, but had a career-best 13 sacks and forced seven fumbles this past season.That performance made the franchise tag a palatable option.“Obviously, Dee is a player that has done so much for us, in particular last year,” Veach said. “We have a special thing brewing here and I think everyone wants to keep this thing rolling.”The Chiefs also have a decision to make with fellow outside linebacker Justin Houston, who had nine sacks in 12 games last season. He carries a salary cap hit of $21.1 million, a number the Chiefs would like to drive down either by restructuring his deal or potentially releasing him.“I would say that he’s under contract for this year and next year,” Veach said at the NFL’s scouting combine this week. “Again, our plan is to play with him and we look forward to having him on our roster. There’s a lot of dialogue and I think everything is fluid for the next few weeks until we get into the start of the league year. We’ll kind of handle that — the information we get, what’s real, what’s not real — and it’s a good problem to have because he’s a great player.” Thursday’s presser shed a little light on where the Chiefs GM thinks the draft has some depth."In last year’s pre-draft press conference, Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach was asked about his propensity for trading up and the aggression that he would show in the draft. Veach responded by specifying that if there is a drop-off in talent Laurent Duvernay-Tardif Jersey , they wouldn’t hesitate to go get their guy.As we know, the Chiefs — lacking a first round pick due to the Patrick Mahomes trade up of 2017 — were aggressive in attacking these pockets. They traded up three times in the 2018 draft for Breeland Speaks, Derrick Nnadi and Khalil McKenzie. Veach saw the players at the bottom of the pockets of value that he wanted and made his move.With this year’s draft less than a week away, Veach once again held his pre-draft press conference. This time, he was asked about those very same “pockets of value” and where he felt the depth was in this class.For those have been following the draft, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. This is a strong defensive line class that contains great defensive ends — Nick Bosa, Josh Allen, Montez Sweat, Brian Burns and Clelin Ferrell — and some stud defensive linemen — Quinnen Williams, Ed Oliver, Jeffery Simmons, Christian Wilkins and Jerry Tillery. Three or four quarterbacks going early won’t surprise anybody. If there’s a quality player at quarterback, an NFL team is going to aggressively pursue that player.What might be surprising to some is the inclusion of four or five offensive tackles early. It’s a strong tackle class overall Ron Parker Jersey , but five players near the top of the draft bode well for the Chiefs at pick No. 29. The Chiefs likely won’t be adding a tackle in round one, so pushing players down at positions of need would be ideal.Veach’s comments about the depth of the wide receiver, tight end and cornerback class should be music to Chiefs’ fans ears. The Chiefs could look to add all three positions in the first two days of the draft, so finding good depth in day two could open the top of the draft up for Veach.These comments in a vacuum look like Veach might be looking at that “early pocket” in this year’s draft of being full of defensive linemen. If quarterbacks and offensive tackles have an early run, we could see a move up to get into that pocket — very similar to how Veach handled the draft last year.At the very least, the comments on the depth at cornerback should indicate that the Chiefs have a good idea of where the pockets are with that position group. On top of that, adding an offensive weapon early in the draft seems like a good bet.It will be interesting to see the strategy this year and where Veach views these “pockets” of players — and whether or not he feels like he needs to aggressively attack them early.KC Draft GuideWant an idea of some of the players in these depth “pockets”? The first-ever edition of the KC Draft Guide can help with that! You can purchase it for only $9.99! We have over 225 prospect write-ups with specifics about how prospects fit the Chiefs. There are more than 300 grades on players, mock drafts, positional rankings and features — all specific to the Chiefs. 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