The best pending free agents almost never become free agents, and that might be the case with Trey Smith.
Smith, 25, is the best offensive lineman without a contract for 2025, something the Kansas City Chiefs are hoping to do something about. On Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach was asked about how high a priority Smith was for the three-time defending AFC champions. Veach didn’t mince words.
“He’s obviously at the top of the list,” Veach said. “We’ve already had some good dialogue with him, and with CAA, Tory [Dandy], and Jimmy [Sexton] and his crew. Obviously a lot to work through but this is the time of year to do that. Again, we’ve already had some initial dialogue and that will continue this week and the days to come before free agency. We’ll certainly do what we can. We feel pretty optimistic about our possibilities.”
Signing Smith appears daunting for the Chiefs, who have approximately $7.9 million in current cap space. But, Kansas City can free up to $38 million by restructuring Patrick Mahomes’s deal, a 10-year contract made to be flexible due to its abnormal length.
Should Smith end up signing something similar to Robert Hunt’s pact of five years and $100 million last year, the cap hit in 2025 will likely be around $7 million depending on structure. By the time Smith’s money kicks in against the cap, there’s a good chance right tackle Jawaan Taylor will be gone, potentially along with All-Pro left guard Joe Thuney, who has one year left on his deal.
While keeping Smith would likely mean market-setting money, the alternative might scare the Chiefs enough into the move.
Without Smith, Kansas City could be looking at second-year man Kingsley Suamataia as its right guard next to Taylor. Suamataia failed at left tackle as a rookie, and now looks to kick inside. Playing him and Taylor could spell disaster for Mahomes, who failed to throw for 4,000 yards for the first time in his career last season.
On Tuesday, Veach spoke about Mahomes and how the Chiefs will continue working to get more explosion out of both the offense at large and their superstar quarterback, who ranked 41st of 43 qualifying quarterbacks in average depth per target last season.
“It’s a combination of everything,” Veach said. “He’s grown and developed so much where coach [Matt] Nagy and I talk about this. He maybe knows too much at this point where he’s seeing things that maybe defenses don’t even do now because he’s so advanced. I think it comes down to setting his feet and him trusting the protection up front. That’s a continual point of emphasis for us. That’s why we always make it a priority to invest in the lines.”
All roads lead to Veach paying Smith before the outset of free agency’s legal tampering period, which starts March 10. Perhaps the better question is whether that’s the only big contract handed out on Kansas City’s offensive line after it surrendered six sacks in Super Bowl LIX to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Titans keeping their options open with No. 1 pick
First-year general manager Mike Borgonzi won’t have a long grace period. In fact, he won’t have one at all.
The Tennessee Titans need a quarterback. Will Levis is entering his third year and hasn’t shown much. In that vein, Borgonzi could use the draft’s top pick on Miami’s Cam Ward or Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, despite very few in league circles seeing them as the best players in this draft (that distinction is widely seen as belonging to Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter).
However, Borgonzi noted the importance of the five men who play in front of whoever lines up under center in Tennessee next. And while most don’t believe LSU’s Will Campbell is a prime candidate to be taken No. 1, he’s a top-10 talent.
If Borgonzi believes Campbell (or another lineman) is the right building block, the Titans could move back and accumulate draft capital in the first 100 selections, something he said Tuesday will always be a goal of Tennessee. And, to that end, it could be the way to essentially fill multiple holes while also getting a left tackle the Titans have been searching for relentlessly.
“You can have Superman back there but if you don’t have the protection up front to protect, to be able to run the football, to be able to create balance in the game, that’s the most important part,” Borgonzi said. “Building through the trenches, offensive and defensive line, that’s going to be a big priority for us.”
Borgonzi also stated he has taken calls about the top pick, but that’s the extent of the conversations to this point.
For Titans fans, the prospect of taking another offensive lineman with a top pick might seem tired. Tennessee has used three of its past five first-round choices on that group, including Peter Skoronski and JC Latham in 2023 and ’24, respectively, along with an all-time bust of Isaiah Wilson in ’20. Wilson played in just one NFL game.
Ultimately, it’s the smart play for Borgonzi if there are avenues to move back.
The Titans aren’t a quarterback away. They need a lot of help. And if Tennessee can find a litany of contributors while buttressing the offensive line for its eventual franchise signal-caller, that’s a recipe for long-term success.
Browns not looking to trade Myles Garrett … or so they say
Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry continued his rhetoric that trading All-Pro edge rusher Myles Garrett is not something he’s planning on doing.
“We can’t imagine a situation where not having Myles as a part of the organization is best for the Browns,” Berry said.
Fair enough, but one wonders whether this is posturing from Berry. Garrett has demanded a trade. He’s 29 years old, one season removed from Defensive Player of the Year honors and signed for two more seasons on cap hits of $19.7 and $20.3 million.
Clearly, it would take a haul to attract Berry’s ear. However, if a team were to come calling with an offer of multiple first-round picks, the Browns will have to listen. And why? Because of their disastrous trade for Deshaun Watson during the 2022 offseason, which saw three first-round choices go to the Houston Texans.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Combine 2025: Chiefs ‘Pretty Optimistic’ About Signing Trey Smith.