The Kansas City Chiefs traded All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams in March, a move reminiscent of the Chiefs trading All-Pro wide receiver Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins in March 2022.
In the 2022 NFL Draft, the Chiefs reloaded with seven players who made an immediate impact as rookies: McDuffie, defensive end George Karlaftis, safety Bryan Cook, linebacker Leo Chenal, cornerback Joshua Williams, cornerback Jaylen Watson, and running back Isiah Pacheco.
That class helped the Chiefs win back-to-back Super Bowls, but now, Karlaftis is the only one remaining in Kansas City. It’s time to reload again.
After finishing last season at 6-11 and trading McDuffie, the pressure was on Chiefs general manager Brett Veach to nail the 2026 NFL Draft as he did the 2022 NFL Draft. He began by trading the Nos. 9, 74, and 148 overall picks to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for the No. 6 overall pick on Thursday night.
The Chiefs selected LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane at No. 6 overall. Veach explained why after the draft.
“We’ve done so many predictive models, and almost every model that we ran, looking at the stack of players, we figured [Texas Tech edge rusher David] Bailey and [Ohio State linebacker Arvell] Reese would go,” Veach told reporters. “We had identified Mansoor Delane early on as a guy we wanted. The predictive model said the Saints were going to be the biggest obstacle.”
New Orleans was slated to pick at No. 8 overall. Like the Chiefs lost McDuffie and Watson, the Saints lost their top two corners in Alontae Taylor and Paulson Adebo.
Veach does have a history of leapfrogging the Saints to get a top guy on their board, as the Chiefs traded up to No. 10 overall to draft quarterback Patrick Mahomes ahead of the Saints at No. 11 overall in the 2017 NFL Draft. Former Saints head coach and current Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton has since confirmed that he planned to draft Mahomes, who went on to become a two-time NFL MVP, three-time Super Bowl MVP, and three-time Super Bowl champion.
“We had Mansoor Delane as a top-five guy on our board, and we just made a decision that if we got in striking distance, let’s just go up there and not leave it to chance,” Veach said.
Veach also disclosed that defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo wanted Delane so badly that he instructed Veach not to bring Delane in for a top-30 visit because he was worried about tipping off other teams. “I’m not so sure Steve wouldn’t have taken him over anybody,” Veach said.
Delane has huge shoes to fill, as McDuffie was the perfect chess piece in Spagnuolo’s scheme, but ESPN’s Matt Miller evaluated McDuffie as Delane’s NFL comp.
Later in the first round, the Chiefs selected Clemson defensive tackle Peter Woods at No. 29 overall, one of the picks they received from the Rams in the McDuffie trade. Veach said he sees “super big upside” in Woods.
“We just want to add numbers and talent across the board [on the defensive line],” Veach said. “We’ve got Omarr [Norman-Lott] coming back now, and now you’ve got Peter Woods, and now you have Chris Jones, and now you have [Khyiris] Tonga. It looks a lot different than it did last year already. We still have some more picks to go, and hopefully, we can keep adding.”
The Chiefs are slated to pick at No. 40 overall on Friday. Due to the Delane trade, they don’t have a third-rounder and won’t pick again on Day 2, barring a trade. On Day 3, they hold the Nos. 109, 169, 176, and 210 overall picks.
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