Chiefs 2021 Center?

[Wilson8]

It seems like a center in the 2021 Draft might be needed.

Chiefs top two 2020 centers will be free agents next year.

Austin Reiter at 29 years old, has served the Chiefs for three years, but his market value may have increased enough that he is no longer a good value for Kansas City. In 2020 Austin made around $3.5 M. Spotrac.com says his market value as a free agent is 3 years, $34 M for an $11.4 M average annual salary. I really don’t think he will get that but his market still might be too high for KC.

Daniel Kilgore will be 33 for next year with 9 seasons but only 3 seasons as a starter. He would probably be an inexpensive signing, but KC could use better.

Some people have proposed Nick Allegretti as the next center, but at Illinois he played mostly guard with a few games at center.

Today the Chiefs brought in Missouri product Justin Britt in for a visit. Justin has played 1 year at RT, 1 year at LG, and 3 ½ season at center for Seattle Seahawks. Justin had a knee injury in 2019.

Former Chiefs Practice Squad center Darryl Williams was also brought back for a visit, so Chiefs may want to sign him for next year.

If we are to draft a center, who would it be and what round?

Landon Dickerson, 6-6, 325, Alabama
Creed Humphrey, 6-5, 320, Oklahoma
Josh Myers, 6-5, 312, Ohio State
Trey Hill, 6-4, 330, Georgia
Drake Jackson, 6-2, 310, Kentucky
Jimmy Morrissey, 6-3, 305, Pittsburgh
Ryan McCollum, 6-5, 300, Texas A&M
Drew Dalman, 6-3, 300, Stanford
Michal Menet, 6-4, 302, Penn State
Connor Olson, 6-5, 305, Minnesota

[Direckshun]

I absolutely think the Chiefs will go center if the value is right. There was plenty of buzz we wanted Cesar Ruiz.

I just know that the Chiefs are starting to go more power than athleticism on the line right now. In that vein, Creed Humphrey seems like the best fit.

[htismaqe]

Some of those guys won't play center in the NFL like Josh Myers. Humphrey is probably the best fit, I agree.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

I absolutely think the Chiefs will go center if the value is right. There was plenty of buzz we wanted Cesar Ruiz.

Good grief, man. The Chiefs weren't taking a Center in the first round, period, let alone during a year in which there were no Minicamps, Rookie Minicamps or OTA's.

It takes time for a Center to develop chemistry with the other offensive lineman and the QB.

Ruiz would have been an epic disaster had they chosen him and there's not a chance in hell they'd be sitting at 15-2.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Good grief, man. The Chiefs weren't taking a Center in the first round, period, let alone during a year in which there were no Minicamps, Rookie Minicamps or OTA's.

It takes time for a Center to develop chemistry with the other offensive lineman and the QB.

Ruiz would have been an epic disaster had they chosen him and there's not a chance in hell they'd be sitting at 15-2.

I don't have any insider info that backs up or contradicts that, so as long as we're shooting from the hip, I'll comfortably say they could have drafted Ruiz with the 1st pick. The buzz was there.

The Chiefs were absolutely looking to fortify the interior. We know they wanted Andrus Peat and offered him a fat contract. Ruiz would have been in character.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

I don't have any insider info that backs up or contradicts that, so as long as we're shooting from the hip, I'll comfortably say they could have drafted Ruiz with the 1st pick. The buzz was there.

That's because you believed it to be true when it wasn't.

Originally Posted by Direckshun

The Chiefs were absolutely looking to fortify the interior. We know they wanted Andrus Peat and offered him a fat contract. Ruiz would have been in character.

https://chiefswire.usatoday.com/2020...terest-report/

It’s not clear how interested the Chiefs were or if Kansas City made an offer to Peat in free agency. They very well could have been competing with the Saints to sign him and were simply outbid for his services. Peat’s five-year contract is worth $57.5 million, which seems a bit out of the Chiefs’ price range.

--------
Maybe they liked him on the cheap but there is absolutely no way they were going to pay him $11 million per.

[Chargem]

$11m per for Reiter? In this economy?

well...bye.gif

[Chris Meck]

also, did you guys see that we signed Justin Britt to the practice squad? He's coming off an ACL, but if he's healthy that's a pretty good player.

*sorry-haven't signed him yet, just worked him out. His ACL was in 2019 though, so he could very well be healthy and 100% for 2021.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Some of those guys won't play center in the NFL like Josh Myers. Humphrey is probably the best fit, I agree.

Wait, why don’t you think Myers will play C in the NFL? I don’t agree with that.

[O.city]

Yeah if Myers is there in the 2nd that’s an easy pick

I’d take him in the first but I know most here don’t agree

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Chargem

$11m per for Reiter? In this economy?

well...bye.gif

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around what Free Agency, or well, any aspect of contract negotiations other than slotted rookies will look like if the cap backs up. You'd think that the demand and subsequent salaries would decline proportionately to the cap.

But I doubt that. Some teams have cap space even with projected declines, and, well, agents are good at their jobs. I'm guessing there will be surprisingly high contracts for some dudes, and there will be bargains. I was surprised at the contracts the last 2 centers got in FA. But I can't imagine any GM would look at a 5 minute highlight reel of the Chiefs and jump up and down wanting guys from our line. Who knows.

The list of Centers also hitting free agency is pretty long. Might be a FA bargain in there somewhere. I don't know much about the guys, but Reid might be able to mine some gold.

https://overthecap.com/position/center/

[Wilson8]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

The list of Centers also hitting free agency is pretty long. Might be a FA bargain in there somewhere. I don't know much about the guys, but Reid might be able to mine some gold.
https://overthecap.com/position/center/

If you take that list from Overthecap.com and sort by free agent year, the free agents come to the top.

Really though, if you look at the list there's really not much to look at. Age or money or just not very good, rules out a lot of them.

28 year old Matt Skura might be interesting. I think he would be inexpensive. He ran into problems this year mid season in Baltimore with bad snaps and got benched. Matt had a bad cut on his hand and that might have been the cause of the bad snaps.

I hadn't really thought about Justin Britt until I saw that the Chiefs had brought him in for a visit.

I am sure that Brett Veach will look at all options.

[mkp785]

If Hill is still there at 64(provided we pick there) I'd be fine with him. Massive guy who has gone against guys like Derrick Brown in college and did well. Also, GA has produced a number of quality linemen recently.

[Chargem]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around what Free Agency, or well, any aspect of contract negotiations other than slotted rookies will look like if the cap backs up. You'd think that the demand and subsequent salaries would decline proportionately to the cap.

But I doubt that. Some teams have cap space even with projected declines, and, well, agents are good at their jobs. I'm guessing there will be surprisingly high contracts for some dudes, and there will be bargains. I was surprised at the contracts the last 2 centers got in FA. But I can't imagine any GM would look at a 5 minute highlight reel of the Chiefs and jump up and down wanting guys from our line. Who knows.

The list of Centers also hitting free agency is pretty long. Might be a FA bargain in there somewhere. I don't know much about the guys, but Reid might be able to mine some gold.

https://overthecap.com/position/center/

I am still not sure I know what is happening with the cap. I saw one story about it going down to 175m, then another saying the league would lock it at its current level to spread the loss over multiple years to make it easier to manage.

The speculation I heard on a podcast was that there wouldn't be many big FA deals this off season, players would take 1 year deals hoping to secure big deals the year after when some normalcy has hopefully returned.

Any which way, 11m per for Reiter just seems insane.

[BryanBusby]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

I don't have any insider info that backs up or contradicts that, so as long as we're shooting from the hip, I'll comfortably say they could have drafted Ruiz with the 1st pick. The buzz was there.

The Chiefs were absolutely looking to fortify the interior. We know they wanted Andrus Peat and offered him a fat contract. Ruiz would have been in character.

I'm not buying it. I think they were genuine when they asked Pat what he wanted and he said Clyde.