The Kansas City Chiefs have two first-round picks on Thursday as the NFL draft gets underway, but they'll have company.
One of the more laughable illusions that emerges before many NFL drafts is the idea that teams with more top picks somehow “control” the draft. The concept dates back to the days of Jimmy Johnson when he was coaching the Dallas Cowboys, as Johnson came up with his now-infamous value chart that allows evaluators to put a number to the importance of each pick.
No team will control this year’s draft, though, as the Kansas City Chiefs are now one of six teams with two first-round picks. The latest member of this club is the New York Giants, who picked up their second first-rounder after trading nose tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengal in exchange for Cincy’s top pick. That gave the Giants the No. 5 and the No. 10 pick, according to Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk, so they’ll definitely be a power player in the top ten on Thursday night.
As for the Chiefs, they’re all about flexibility. They’re at No. 9 and No. 29, which means they can make moves at either end of the first round, and they can also package picks if they want to move up or back to select the players they want from their draft board.
Part of the trend toward multiple first-rounders is a product of this particular draft. Ben Volin of the Boston Globe described it as “sleepy” because of the lack of top prospects, which means teams are making moves for star players ahead of draft day.
“First round, there’s definitely a drop off probably midway through the round in terms of talent,” said Baltimore Ravens GM Eric DeCosta, who will be picking 14th.
Draft expert Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network took a deeper description of the talent level.
“Usually, [trade] movement takes place for quarterbacks and edge rushers,” NFL Network draft expert Daniel Jeremiah said. “Well, we’ve got really one quarterback, and we’ve got a plethora of edge rushers, so there’s no pressure on teams to do that. There’s a lot more teams that would prefer to go in reverse than would like to move up in the draft.”
But other executives have offered a different assessment, including GM Brett Veach of the Chiefs. He’s described the edge rusher talent in this class as deep, while the talent at tackle drops off severely toward the end of the draft.
That will make for what Veach has also called “an entertaining night,” and he added that, “There will will probably be a lot of trades.”
The Chiefs could be at the top of the list to make one of those trades, but he’ll have plenty of possible company. Kansas City usually drafts at the back of the first round, but this year will be very different.