Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt has been fairly clear in the last year that he believes the most successful teams in the NFL build primarily through the draft. He points to teams like the New England Patriots that add key veteran via free agency or trades at times but primarily their talent comes from the draft.
That will become even more important this year with the new rules that will likely be in effect for free agency on March 5th.
"It’s going to be very unpredictable," Hunt said according to Adam Teicher of the Kansas City Star.
"We haven’t been through a year like this when we had this set of rules. On the one hand, there’s no salary cap, which would lead you to believe there will be a lot of activity. Logic would tell you that. But there are all these restrictions on who’s a free agent and which teams can participate in free-agency."
The restrictions, for the most part, are players having six years of NFL service, instead of four, to become an unrestricted free agent. Also, there's a rule limiting the year to year pay base salary increase by no more than 30%.
"A lot of teams, the Chiefs included, are having to look at it from a lot of different angles," Hunt continued. "The rules we’ve had don’t apply."
Last season, the Chiefs signed a good amount of free agents all the way into the season but most of them were low-priced. This season, Hunt seemed to indicate that he expects the same because the high-end talent simply won't be there.
"I would think numerically we’ll be very active," Hunt said. "I can’t say specifically we’d sign what’s regarded as a high-priced or high-demand free agent. We’ll certainly look at every one of those players. (General manager Scott Pioli) has my blessing to pursue them if he thinks they’re the right fit for the football team."