It won’t be long before the Kansas City Chiefs and the rest of the NFL are engaged in an all-virtual 2020 NFL Draft. While they’ll likely be waiting until the end of the draft to make a selection on most days, there are still plenty of opportunities to come out on the other side with the perfect draft haul.
The Chiefs only have five picks in the draft. So the first key to getting the perfect A-plus draft haul is to…
Acquire more picks in trade
General manager Brett Veach has already let us know that his view of this draft class is, “the more picks the better.” He wants to continue to add depth and talent on both sides of the ball, which is a strategy that helped the team win Super Bowl LIV last season. If the Chiefs can manage to trade back in the first or second round and acquire a few extra picks it could certainly help them achieve their goals.
One of their other most important priorities in the draft is to…
Protect Patrick Mahomes aka “The Franchise”
In Week 1 of the NFL season, Mahomes suffered an ankle sprain that hampered him in the early goings of 2019. On Oct. 17, Chiefs fans thought their season was over when Mahomes suffered a fluke kneecap injury. Luckily, the injury appeared worse than it actually turned out to be.
One of the biggest priorities needs to be finding some better pieces on the interior offensive line and perhaps even a swing tackle. If the team can come out of the draft with a starter, that’d be great. But even competitive depth will help reinforce that position group.
Sticking on the offensive side of the ball, it wouldn’t hurt if the Chiefs also…
Found a future replacement for Sammy Watkins or Demarcus Robinson
Kansas City had the good fortune of being able to retain every pass-catcher from their Super Bowl-winning season, but both Watkins and Robinson will become free agents again in 2021. That means the team should look to add a cheap replacement in the draft now, especially with a wide receiver class that is considered to be one of the strongest in ages. This will give the player a season to get up to speed with the NFL game before he needs to truly be relied on as a starter.
While there should be some focus on adding to the offense, the Chiefs shouldn’t forget to…
Continue adding to the defense
A fast and furious rebuild in 2019 helped turn Kansas City into Super Bowl champions. Led by Tyrann Mathieu and Frank Clark, the defensive unit established a newfound attitude and edge to their game. While many contributors on defense are set to return to the Chiefs, they do have a few players who’ve left that unit in free agency. They could serve to add a linebacker that excels at coverage and blitzing. They could use a versatile defensive back that has the ability to play a variety of positions. It wouldn’t hurt to add some depth along the defensive line either.
After the draft is over, the team can still improve their draft class if they…
Get a jump start in undrafted free agency
Given the virtual setting, NFL teams are expecting the undrafted free agency period to be chaotic. The big advantage that the Chiefs have in only having five picks in the draft is that they might be able to get a bit of a headstart on communicating with priority free agent targets. Kansas City only has 70 players under contract, so if they only draft five players, they’ll need to sign at least 15 undrafted free agents in order to fill out their roster.
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