The Chiefs’ Super Bowl champion

 The Chiefs’ Super Bowl champion

 roster had just 21 of its 53 spots filled by homegrown players, drafted or undrafted, a reflection of the aggression with which Veach, Borgonzi, Tilis and Shea attacked the rookie-contract window they were in with Mahomes.

Just three years later, that homegrown number, ahead of Super Bowl LVII, has bulged to 32, meaning they’ve gone from 39.6% of their roster being developed in-house to 60.4%.

That’s no mistake. And it doesn’t mean that Mahomes has to be the only expensive guy on the roster. It just means the Chiefs have room for fewer of them. So while Travis Kelce and Chris Jones are still around, Frank Clark took a bit of a pay cut and Tyreek Hill was traded. Nine of the team’s 10 draft picks were active for both of its playoff games, creating a layer of cheap labor on the roster that gives Kansas City flexibility to keep its elite happy.