Only a few hours before he made the Orlando Brown Jr. trade, Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach explained that he felt the 2021 NFL Draft’s “hot zone” sat somewhere between the beginning of round two and the middle of round three. That is where he and his staff would find the most value.
The Chiefs emerged later in the day without a first-round pick but holding second-rounders 58 and 63 overall.
Thursday’s first-round events did not change those “hot zone” feelings, according to Veach. He said the Chiefs never felt the urge to get back into the first round.
“When we made that move for Orlando, that was the guy we wanted and we were happy and content to work with these two twos [Friday],” he said via Zoom late Thursday night.
Veach explained that following the Zoom press conference, he would meet with his personnel staff to discuss the needs of the other 31 teams, especially those that opted to trade back to acquire more picks.
“It may affect some [Friday] just because of the teams that traded, it impacts their needs and what they were if they made some moves that you weren’t expecting and now they filled the need,” he said. “The team trading back, maybe they have a similar need and what have you. So, we’ll work through those scenarios tonight into [Friday] morning and be ready to go. So, I think we’ll know more [Friday] when the dust settles here and we look and we evaluate the trades and then we compare the trades with the team needs or the perceived team needs that we believe those teams have.”
By having addressed the offensive line prior to the draft with the Brown trade, the Chiefs can take the best player available.
“Having 58 and 63, I think we’re going to be in a good spot to get a couple good players and have some flexibility,” added Veach. “As far as the first round, again, I think it was kind of well documented that the quarterbacks were going to go early. There was obviously three really good wideouts and they went early and then it’s kind of just picking at some of those positions that we talked about during this process, the O-Line, D-Line or D-End position, and the cornerback position. There was a run at corners in the early part and then at the end there, there was a couple of corners who went off the board. I think it kind of played out, I mean not exactly, I don’t think it ever plays out exactly as you think, but I think in general from 1,000-foot view I think the players went maybe not in the order that you thought, but I think they all met kind of in those zones you thought they were going to go.
“I think the value here is really this second round into the mid-third and again, excited about having those two twos.”
The draft kicks back up at 6 p.m. Arrowhead Time on Friday, with the Chiefs due to make their first pick of the 2021 NFL Draft in the second round.
