ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. offers 4 pivots for Chiefs at No. 32 in NFL Draft

Kiper’s latest mock NFL Draft has Kansas City going with a wide receiver — but there is always a chance it could go in a different direction.

On Wednesday, ESPN senior NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. held a conference call to discuss his latest mock draft. Kiper selected Texas wide receiver Adonai Mitchell for the Kansas City Chiefs at No. 32, calling him as a “rising prospect.”

“With Hollywood [and his signing], I still went receiver there,” said Kiper. “I think you could go with Adonai Mitchell, who has the length. He doesn’t drop any passes. That’s one of the reasons I went with Adonai there, because he came from Georgia to Texas and he just caught everything.

“And that’s what they need; they had a lot of dropped balls last year. Patrick Mahomes, with the drops, still went to the Super Bowl, which tells you how great he is, one of the best ever for that reason. Patrick just finds a way, no matter what’s going on around him. And the dropped balls were a problem — but Adonai Mitchell doesn’t drop passes.”

In reference to Kansas City, Kiper also mentioned Mitchell’s teammate, Xavier Worthy, who broke the Scouting Combine 40-yard dash record (4.21).

“[Worthy] had a couple drops, but that was when he had the broken hand, so those Texas receivers are really good — but Adonai, I had there.”

The pivots

If the Chiefs shifted from the receiver position to focus on other needs, Kiper explained that they could go in a lot of directions.

“If you want to go away from receiver and say, ‘OK, Amarius [Mims] is coming in at tackle.’ They could get another tackle that could maybe help out there and maybe give you an opportunity. Amarius Mims — if he’s there from Georgia. I thought about him, but I gave him to Baltimore.

“Kingsley Suamataia from BYU is a developmental tackle with talent [who] needs a little technique work, but he’s got a ton of talent to work with. Maybe that’s a guy they look at in the late first.

“Roger Rosengarten at Washington — he had a rough national title game but good year overall. He had two solid years at right tackle. If he would have gone back, he would have gone higher. He’s in that late-first, early-second round discussion.

The ultimate pivot

Of course, Kansas City still needs to figure out its situation with cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, who remains on the franchise tag. There have been rumblings that the Chiefs may move Sneed — and if they do, they could go after a defensive back as they did in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft with Trent McDuffie.

“With Sneed, we’ll have to see what his future holds,” said Kiper. “They’ve done well at getting corners at bargain points in the draft that have length, so they have some young corners that are there and have played and have played well.”