Heading into the offseason, one of the biggest questions surrounding the Chiefs was whether or not they'd re-sign safety Tryann Mathieu. Mathieu, who'd been in Kansas City for three seasons at that point, seemed interested in returning, and despite some whispers about the two sides being far apart on contract numbers, a new contract seemed very much like a possibility. Fast forward a few months and Mathieu remains a free agent -- in part because the Chiefs decided to sign former Texans safety Justin Reid instead. Speaking to local media on Friday, Chiefs GM Brett Veach went into some detail about what happened.
"We certainly had broad concept discussions with Tyrann prior to last preseason," Veach said. "And you know, when you have those broad concept discussions, to the kid's defense and credit, those are usually geared toward team-friendly deals and what would make sense for us. And certainly we had a lot of hurdles with the contracts and the players on our team. So when we approached him, our expectations was that it was a long shot for us, but let's see if we can get something done. Totally understand his position and where he was. And then when you go into the season, the player and the organization knows that once it gets into that next phase of evaluation and the process of having guys under contract, and then holding a franchise tag with Orlando Brown, it becomes tricky. And you have to be able to pivot and shift quickly. And we did that. But I certainly can't say enough about Tyrann and how we feel about him."