Identifying the Chiefs’ ideal top 2 NFL Draft picks

On Monday, NFL.com draft analyst Chad Reuter published an interesting analysis of the 2022 NFL Draft.

Rather than do yet another mock draft (we have covered three of his 2022 mocks on these pages), he chose to take a different approach: projecting the “ideal top two picks” for every team.

For some teams, these will be a first and a second-round pick. For others, it might be a second and third-round pick. And for the Kansas City Chiefs, it will be two first-round picks: 29 and 30 overall. (Reuter notes that Kansas City is one of eight teams whose first two picks will be in the first round — which is a record).

Here are his ground rules for the exercise:

First, I kept some semblance of realism in this process, not projecting probable top-10 players into the late first round just because a team would love to have that player. Second, assigning all players just once — that is, none are repeated — means some will be listed at draft slots that are later than their talent portends (this is exactly why trades occur).

And for the Chiefs, Reuter identified a wide receiver and an edge rusher.

Kansas City Chiefs
Round 1: No. 29 overall: WR George Pickens, Georgia
Round 1: No. 30 overall: EDGE Drake Jackson, USC

GM Brett Veach and head coach Andy Reid will probably try to move into the middle part of Round 1 for receivers Jameson Williams or Chris Olave, now that they have two first-round picks (one received from Miami in the Tyreek Hill trade). If they can’t pull that off, though, Pickens will be a nice fit as an outside target for Patrick Mahomes; teams should not overlook the resiliency Pickens showed in returning from a torn ACL in the spring to contribute for the national champs. Kansas City needs depth at defensive end, as well, and Jackson’s get-off from a three-point stance is impressive.

Takeaways

In his first mock on February 14, Reuter had Kansas City take Florida cornerback Kaiir Elam. In his March 25 mock draft, he had the Chiefs take wideout Jameson Williams of Alabama and defensive end George Karlaftis of Purdue. And in his most-recent projection on Friday, he called for Veach to trade both of the team’s first-rounders (and a fourth-round pick) to the Baltimore Ravens for the draft’s 14th overall selection, which was then used to select Williams. So you can see the progression of his thinking regarding Kansas City’s options.

This would be a good haul for the Chiefs, addressing two significant positions of need with high-level players — although one of them could conceivably miss some time early in the season.

It is, however, possible to argue that the class has enough depth at wide receiver that Kansas City might be thinking that a defensive back would be a better use of one of their first-round selections. In this exercise, Reuter identifies the Arizona Cardinals as a team that would consider Elam (whom he has previously mocked to the Chiefs) an ideal selection — but Arizona won’t pick until the 55th selection.