Could Chiefs trade up or down on NFL Draft first day? Here’s what GM Brett Veach said

Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said Thursday KC had the potential to move up or down during the first round of next week’s NFL Draft at Union Station.

But reading his body language and demeanor during a 30-minute Thursday interview session at the team facility, one of those options certainly seemed more likely.

Exactly one week before the start of the April 27-29 draft, Veach spoke extensively and often enthusiastically about the potential to leap up from the team’s current first-round drafting spot — No. 31.

“I think we’ll have a list of guys,” Veach said, “that we’ll feel like we want to be aggressive on.”

Veach listed some caveats soon after. First, the Chiefs wouldn’t necessarily want to overpay in draft capital to go up a few spots. Also, in the next few days, he envisioned his staff gathering to determine how high they’d feel comfortable going with each potential target.

And even with all that planning, Veach knows the Chiefs will have to always remain flexible throughout Thursday night’s proceedings.

“These things change so quickly and so fluidly,” Veach said, “but I don’t think we’d be opposed to being aggressive if we felt the player warranted it.”

The Chiefs weren’t afraid to make a move up in last year’s first round, as they traded pick No. 29 along with third- and fourth-round selections to the New England Patriots to acquire the 21st selection. KC took cornerback Trent McDuffie in that spot.

Veach outlined some of the work that happens before each draft to set up potential trades. For example, early next week, the Chiefs would reach out to roughly 12 teams right in front of them in the first round to gauge how they’d feel about trade compensation.

“Usually, it’s most of the time we spend Mondays and Tuesdays and Wednesdays before the draft, just making sure that teams know that we’re interested either trading up or trading back,” Veach said. “And (so) we know the teams are interested in trading down, and we know exactly what they want and what (draft compensation) board they’re using.”

Veach said much of the preparation work is simply figuring out how each team values each draft pick. There are many draft pick value charts available — like Jimmy Johnson and Rich Hill — so understanding the compensation it might take ahead of time to trade is essential when trying to maneuver quickly on the draft’s opening night.

The next question is whether the Chiefs could trade down and out of the first round altogether. Remember, the draft is in Kansas City, so doing that would potentially leave thousands of Chiefs fans without a Thursday night pick to celebrate at Union Station on Thursday night.

Worth noting as well: Veach quipped last year that Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told him he couldn’t trade the team’s 2023 first-round draft pick because the event’s location would be in KC.

On Thursday, when asked if the Chiefs could trade out of the first round, Veach said, “I don’t think it would be hard at all” before going into more detail.

“I know there was a lot of jokes on last year about Clark saying you can’t trade the pick, and listen, maybe there was some truth to it,” Veach said. “But I think that applies more to in the offseason or like last summer. We’re here (to the draft) now. So a trade down is part of the draft, and it gives people more of a reason to come back on Friday and see us do even more work.

“But we’re at the party now, so it’s all up in the air and I think then, it’s a possibility.”

A possibility, perhaps. One that seems remote at best.

That’s partly because Veach, through a half-hour conversation, talked most about how the Chiefs might make a move up. That probably wouldn’t be getting up to pick 19 or above — “I don’t see us trading too high up in the draft or anything like that,” Veach said — but ... a move to the early- or mid-20s?

That’s something that seems — once again — like it could be a fit for the Chiefs, depending on how the board falls.

“If there’s a guy that we really like, and we’re in that range — we’ll sit here in the next few days here and determine what range we feel is comfortable for us,” Veach said, “we’ll sit there and potentially make that move.”

This story was originally published April 20, 2023 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Could Chiefs trade up or down on NFL Draft first day? Here’s what GM Brett Veach said."

Jesse Newell

The Kansas City Star

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Jesse Newell covered the Chiefs for The Star until August 2025. He won an EPPY for best sports blog and previously was named top beat writer in his circulation by AP’s Sports Editors. His interest in sports analytics comes from his math teacher father, who handed out rulers to Trick-or-Treaters each year.