Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes made a promise last season that when the 2023 NFL Draft rolled around, history would be made.
Mahomes promised team officials that when Roger Goodell stepped on stage at Union Station in Kansas City, he would have to say “World champion Kansas City Chiefs” when announcing the team’s first-round pick — marking the first time that a host city was also the defending Super Bowl champs.
Mahomes stayed true to his word as the Chiefs won the Super Bowl last season, and now the Chiefs and Kansas City are ready for the NFL Draft, which begins Thursday night at Union Station.
“I know the entire organization is looking forward to seeing the show that Kansas City is going to put on,” Chiefs GM Brett Veach said. “I’m sure it’ll be a great show, a lot of buzz around the city and a lot of excitement around the building.”
The Chiefs have the 31st pick in the first round and 10 picks overall. Veach said the team could move up in the first round if a player they really like is still available.
“We’ll have a list of guys that we’ll want to be aggressive on,” Veach said. “And if it works out numbers-wise, I think we’ll sit there at 31 and we’ll have a few guys, and if they’re there and we think it’s in range where we’re not giving up a ton — I don’t see us trading up too high in the draft or anything like that — but if there’s a guy that we really like and we’re in that range we’ll potentially make that move.”
Who the Chiefs select remains to be seen, but positions of need include wide receiver and offensive and defensive line. TCU wide receiver Quentin Johnston and Ohio State tackle Dawand Jones could be possibilities if they’re still on the board.
Veach, however, said don’t be surprised if the team adds to their secondary as he believes it is a deep class of corners and safeties.
“I think it’s a good defensive back class,” Veach said. “I think there’s a lot of corners. Every year you go to the combine and you have a group of guys in 1 and a group of guys in 2, and they kind of work themselves up either higher on tier or lower on a tier and it seems like all those guys that went to the second wave of the combine ran a 4.3. The numbers were crazy. These are all big, athletic fast corners.
“I think it’s a really good draft in the defensive backfield. I think there’s depth late in the linebacker position, the tight end class is good. So it’s on how you see the board, and every team will see it differently and I think it may be viewed to some teams as really deep. If you need DB, I think you’ll view it as a really deep class, and if you’re pretty good at that position you might say it’s a thin class. But like every year there’ll be chances and opportunities to get guys in different rounds that make a lot of sense.”
