Kansas City Chiefs should prioritize trading up in 2019 NFL Draft
The Kansas City Chiefs are in their Super Bowl window, which means they shouldn’t hesitate to trade up in the 2019 NFL Draft to get an elite player.
In the 2017 NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs recognized their moment of opportunity. Recognizing a need for a future franchise quarterback, they traded their first and third round picks in addition to their 2018 first round selection to move up to No. 10 and nab Patrick Mahomes. After the quarterback won the NFL MVP in his first season as the starter and took Kansas City to the AFC Championship Game, that was clearly a good call.
Shortly after that draft, then general manager John Dorsey and the Chiefs agreed to part ways, putting Brett Veach in charge in Kansas City. Despite the change of personnel in the front office, though, Veach should take a page out of Dorsey’s 2017 playbook in the 2019 NFL Draft and not be afraid to get aggressive to get what they need.
With Mahomes at the helm of Andy Reid’s offense, the Chiefs are clearly in a Super Bowl window right now and have made moves under Veach to pursue that, a la signing Sammy Watkins in 2018 free agency. However, it was the defense that held them back last season, particularly in the playoffs, and that’s likely where their focus will be in the 2019 NFL Draft.
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This offseason, the Chiefs traded Dee Ford and cut Justin Houston, leaving them seemingly at square one in regards to their edge defenders. They have some talent in guys like Tanoh Kpassagnon, but no one that’s proven. Given that and a rich class of edge-rushing talent in the 2019 draft, that presents the opportunity to move up.
While the 2019 class is rich with talent and does have solid depth at edge rusher, there are elite players — Nick Bosa, Josh Allen, Brian Burns — that are likely to come off the board early in the draft. With the Chiefs owning the 29th overall pick, they will be down to the second tier of edge rushers by the time they’d make that selection.
Super Bowl windows can close quickly, though. Mahomes has yet to even enter his prime and is already an elite player, and there is an offensive infrastructure around him that is set up to succeed as long as he’s the signal-caller. Thus, getting the defense up to speed to capitalize on that — especially while Mahomes is on his rookie deal — is of paramount importance.
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Thus, if the opportunity presents itself for the Chiefs to again make a big leap up in the first round to nab a premier pass-rusher, they should take it. In fact, it should be a priority in their war room to try and find such a deal. Adding a player of that caliber would drastically improve the defense and help get Kansas City in a better position to realize their potential in this window.