There is considerable debate amongst the Kansas City Chiefs Kingdom about what General Manager Brett Veach will do in Round One Thursday Night. Some feel he should be aggressive, but others don’t.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ offseason has been efficient and predictable. Focusing on retaining their talent and adding a few free agents, they’ve rebuilt their 2024 roster by filling holes and adding needs.
On Thursday Night, the Chiefs enter the NFL Draft with all but two big questions. One is to find a starting left tackle, and two is to add a talented wide receiver for the offense. As I stated last week, it makes sense for the Chiefs to go Tackle in round one, but a top-flight, game-changing wide receiver might fall to them at the end of round one.
If General Manager Brett Veach intends to make an impact trade, he must find a team willing to dance with the Chiefs. A year ago, when Kansas City was also sitting at 32nd in the first round, no team wanted to trade back so Kansas City could move up.
This year will be the same unless Veach overpays for a prime slot. Eight years ago, this franchise went from 27 to 10, selecting Patrick Mahomes. Though they don’t need a quarterback, they could grab the best offensive tackle out of college since Anthony Munoz in 1980.
Notre Dame standout Joe Alt, the son of former Chiefs Left Tackle John Alt, is the best player in the upcoming NFL draft. He’ll have the longest career of anyone taken this weekend. If he’s anything like his father, who played his entire career with the Chiefs from 1984-1996, Mahomes will have a lockdown left tackle until he retires in 10 years.
Granted, making a trade of this magnitude is aggressive and costly, but Kansas City can afford it. Their core is primarily intact for the next two years. They have some free-agent decisions with Nick Bolton, Creed Humphries, Trey Smith, and Hollywood Brown.
Yet, trading away draft capital for the next two years won’t hurt this team that much if Alt is the prize.
Alt is a game-changer, but the same could be said for one of the top-rated wide receivers. The Chiefs have been linked to Xavier Worthy from Texas. He was a top-of-the-second-round guy at one point, but today, he’s jumped into the mid-first-round conversation.
There are better wide receivers than Worthy, but likely none more exciting. He would add another option for Mahomes. After all, it’s logical to think, even with just the Hollywood Brown addition and the likely suspension of Rashee Rice, that adding Worthy or another talented wide receiver in the first or second round, the Chiefs offense should increase their scoring output by 4-6 points. If they add Alt into the mix, that jumps to 7-9 points.
I’m not sure what Veach has in mind for Thursday, but during his press conference last week, he didn’t rule out trading down far enough to grab the player he built his draft board around since the end of Super Bowl LVIII.
For the Chiefs to draft Alt, they’d need to move into the Top 7. If they go after tight end Brock Bowers from Georgia, they are looking at the top 14.
Both would require giving up a pair of future first—and second-round picks. So, is it worth it?
That’s why Veach gets the big bucks. I’d say it’s probably not worth doing it in an average year. Yet, with a chance to Three-Peat Super Bowl Titles, there is little debate about the path the Chiefs should take.
Will they do it? We’ll find that out on Thursday Night!
