The Kansas City Chiefs had a good chance to get Mansoor Delane at No. 9, but another team scrambled their plans.
If you’ve ever wondered how NFL teams make the decision to trade up at the last minute, Jesse Newell of The Athletic provided some insights about how that trade with the Cleveland Browns happened and they ended up drafting cornerback Mansoor Delane of LSU at No. 6.
The Chiefs went into the draft with the No. 9 pick, and they had the Washington Commanders and New Orleans Saints ahead of them at No. 7 and No. 8, respectively. But one thing Brett Veach revealed in his Thursday night press conference was that the Chiefs' probability models showed that the Washington Commanders would select Ohio State receiver Carnell Tate.
That didn’t happen, of course. The curve that stumped the model was thrown by the Tennessee Titans, who took Tate at No. 4, and that domino had a ripple effect that put the Chiefs in no man’s land.
The four prospects in play for Washington were Delane, Tate, Ohio State safety Caleb Downs and Arizona State receiver Jordyn Tyson. If Washington had picked Tate as expected, New Orleans would have been looking at Tyson, Delane and Downs, which would have increased the odds that Delane would have fallen to the Chiefs.
But Tate going early took a candidate off the board for both Washington and New Orleans, according to Newell, which meant that Delane was more likely to rise to the top of both teams’ draft boards.
That led to Veach’s comments about what happened.
“Once Tate left, it solidified our decision to go up there,” the Chiefs GM said.
The other domino that fell in this scenario was more widely known. Top cornerback Jermod McCoy ended up being the one player who always tumbles down the draft board when reports emerged that his knee problems could be a long-term issue, Newell added, and not having McCoy available created a greater sense of urgency for the Chiefs. Hence the deal to make sure they secured Delane.
The other scenario Newell covered was what would have happened if the Browns had decided not to do the last-minute trade with the Chiefs. That would have led to a choice between Downs and Tyson at No. 9, and the Chiefs would have kept the third-round and fifth-round picks they sent to Cleveland.
“I’ve always said this: You do all this work, and you put all this time into this,” Veach said in summing up. “But if you want a guy, you’ve got to go find a way to get him.”
The Chiefs are happy with the player they got, but we’ll never really know what would have happened with those other picks. It’s another great example of how strange-looking moves get made when teams are under pressure and on the clock in the first round of the NFL draft.