KANSAS CITY, Mo.–At his annual news conference ahead of next week’s NFL Draft, kansas city chiefs General manager Brett Veach made a bold prediction.
“It should be a fun night,” Veach said Thursday. “There will probably be a lot of trades.”
Throughout this offseason, Veach has shared that this year’s draft class is different than most years. Most analysts only trust one quarterback, Indiana Fernando MendozaWill be selected in the first 10 picks. Veach also said that some top prospects – such as Ohio State linebacker sonny stylesNotre Dame running back jeremiah love and Ohio State Security caleb downs –Do not play one of the league’s major positions. A number of factors, Veach said, could lead teams to engage in and execute more trades than usual.
“I think the fans will be happy next Thursday because I think the grade [on prospects] going to be very close to some of these [offensive] Tackles and D-ends and receivers,” Veach said. “A lot of these guys that are mocked may go down a little bit and a lot of these guys that are mocked down a little bit may go up because I think they’re very close this year. Not that big of a difference and huge decline.
“That’s what a draft is – when you don’t have two or three [high-graded] quarterback and a Will Anderson [Jr.] or a miles garrett –does: It opens the door to a lot of entertainment and a lot of excitement.”
The Chiefs could be one of those teams looking to complete a trade. Since his tenure began, which was July 2017, Veach has made several trades in the days before the draft and during the event. The Chiefs are one of the few teams – including New York JetsThe cleveland brownsThe dallas cowboys and this miami dolphins – There are two first-round picks in this year’s draft. The Chiefs are scheduled to select the ninth and 29th picks.
Last month, the Chiefs traded All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie till Los Angeles Rams For a package of draft picks that had the 29th pick as the centerpiece of the deal.
In fact, the way the Chiefs acquired McDuffie in the 2022 draft was via a trade. new England Patriots. That year Veach moved the Chiefs from the 29th pick to the 21st pick to select McDuffie, who joined the team just weeks after executing a blockbuster trade that sent receiver tyreek hill For the Miami Dolphins.
“I don’t know if I have a blueprint for it,” Veatch said of his history business. “It’s just taking all the information you have about each player, identifying what your team needs, [and] Working with the coaching staff.
“We’re at 215 [prospects on their draft board this year]. You’ll have 10-15 people you really want to get to. It’s just trying to work across the board and figure out how many people you can position yourself to actually get out of the 10-15 people you have on the wanted list.”
