Brett Veach details Chiefs’ perspective of the 2024 NFL Draft

On Friday, the Chiefs’ general manager talked through the team’s draft strategy with less than a week to go.

Every NFL Draft class has its own unique characteristics and qualities that define it; Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach has learned that over the six drafts he has captained for the organization.

For his seventh, he will have to once again map out a plan to attack the draft board while overcoming being the final selection in each round — the cost of being a dynasty. That didn’t stop him from executing past drafts following a title: cornerback L’Jarius Sneed and defensive end Mike Danna were selected in the wake of Super Bowl LIV; last year’s group has already shown a lot of on-field promise with wide receiver Rashee Rice and safety Chamarri Conner.

As Veach projects the flow of this year’s draft, he looks at it from the Chiefs’ perspective at pick 32. During a pre-draft press conference on Friday, he explained how different the class hierarchy can look depending on where you’re slotted in the draft order.

“The general consensus is this is a deep offensive line class, a deep defensive line class; it’s not necessarily true for us,” Veach explained. “For the tackle position, once you get past pick 35 or 40, most of those guys are gone.”

“If you’re picking in the top 10, it’s a great offensive line class; if you’re picking in the top 15, it’s a great offensive line class. If you’re picking 32 and 64, you have a shot, maybe, here or there.”

The lack of solid options at left tackle for a team drafting late on Day 1 is not new this year. Historically, the sturdiest offensive tackles in the NFL are high picks, the best being in the top 10-15 range — as Veach mentioned. It’s hard for Kansas City to ever take a proper swing at the position without a move.

So if the board falls a certain way, presenting the front office with a confident choice to protect quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ blind side for his prime, Veach may pounce — with a call to Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt first.

“I can envision myself,” Veach said of potentially trading up into the top 15. “I’d have to get the owner’s approval on that.”

“Every situation is unique,” Veach pointed out. “We have had conversations in the last few years about guys that we consider top five, top six prospects; if they were to fall to the teens, move up for them. We had Clark and Andy [Reid] involved, but those situations just didn’t work out.”

The temptation may be there with an offensive line class with five tackles in the top 18 of the 2024 Consensus Big Board accumulated by Arif Hasan. Yet, sitting tight at 32 may give the Chiefs a menu of receivers to choose from; between the 29th and 39th position on Hasan’s Board, there are five wide receivers ranked.

All that points to the position being a focal point of Veach’s Day 1 strategy — which could turn into an early Day 2 strategy if it becomes valuable. It depends on how far the Chiefs’ target among the talented receivers gets pushed down the board.

“I think there is a large group of receivers in the first 50 picks that we have great grades on,” Veach noted. “Then I think there’s another pocket right behind that.”

With left tackle and wide receiver feeling like the obvious options early on draft weekend, it’s a good time for a reminder: the obvious doesn’t usually happen during the draft. Veach asked aloud the natural question many in Chiefs Kingdom are asking:

“What other positions are going to provide top-end value, if say an O-lineman or a receiver isn’t there?” Veach pondered. “Do you go corner? Do you go defensive line? I think that there are some interesting pockets there.”

An early pick at either of those two positions could help overcome Sneed moving on — or defensive end Charles Omenihu recovering from injury. The board could be shaped in this way, but there are strong options later in the class based on the Chiefs’ research.

“Corner, there’s some depth middle to later on in the draft,” Veach later elaborated. “I think it’s a better defensive line class than what we’ve seen in the past. I think there’s some good mid-round depth there.”

“Linebacker, running back, is probably a little lighter than years past,” Veach admitted. “O-line, receivers, corners are good hot spots throughout the draft, and that’s a good thing because we could use one of each of those.”

Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

According to the general manager, the Chiefs’ front office will pick from 221 evaluated players. Each has given the staff a reason to consider them a Chief; many will be Day 3 prospects, some with the potential to go undrafted and choose to sign in Kansas City.

That bunch is looking different this year in Veach’s studies, and it stems from the NIL possibilities that now exist in college football.

“You’re starting to see is these fourth, fifth, sixth-round prospects are a little older because they’re staying,” Veach described. “Some of these underclassmen that get third, fourth round grades, they have the opportunity to stay in school.”

I’m not sure if that trend will continue, but Veach points to it playing a factor in his feel that this year’s class lacks depth. It’s the latest point that comes to a simple conclusion about the Chiefs’ draft strategy this year: be aggressive.

In addition to recent draft classes bolstering the roster, the bullet points of this year’s class could lead the Chiefs to sacrifice quantity in draft capital for quality of picks. Look for Veach to maneuver the board and secure prospects he feels strongly about.