Bleeding Green Nation
With the 32nd overall pick in the 2024 Bleeding Green Nation community mock draft, Kansas City Chiefs GM SakPrescott selects ...
Before we get into why McConkey is the choice here, let’s set the stage by talking through the Chiefs’ draft tendencies, their needs heading into the draft, and what options remained after the rest of the league finished pillaging the draft board.
GM Brett Veach is fairly aggressive when it comes to fitting young talent around his star QB and TE. This is evidenced by the fact that he’s had first round picks in only three of his first six drafts, with the first missing pick being traded by his predecessor to jump up to get Patrick Mahomes and the other two used to pull in Frank Clark and Orlando Brown Jr. to shore up major roster gaps. In his first draft, he used that aggression to seemingly target needs, and it resulted in easily his worst draft (the only 2018 pick still with the team is NT Derrick Nnadi). Since then, he’s put a focus on using the pre-draft free agency period to sign young veterans to fill any existing roster gaps, letting him adopt a bit more of a Best Player Available strategy, and this has worked out a lot better for him.
In terms of player evaluation tendencies, it’s clear that Relative Athletic Scores (RAS) are important. Looking at the first two rounds across all of his drafts, Veach has selected a player with an 8+ RAS in 9 of 13 picks. Odds are he’s going to aim for athletically gifted players that he believes can be coached up, a decision made more comfortable knowing that they can muddle through with the veterans he’s signed as needed. There are also some position-specific tendencies, which we’ll talk about next.
So what positions will the Chiefs be looking at this weekend? For a two-time defending champion, it’s a pretty robust list.
Wide Receiver: The 2023 receiver room was largely a collection of mediocrity. The Chiefs dropped 2.6 passes per game, easily worst in the league. Second year WR Skyy Moore failed to progress from his lackluster rookie season and Super Bowl punt return hero Kadarius Toney fell apart. The only bright spot in the receiver room was rookie Rashee Rice who became a driving force in their offense despite leading the team in drops. A year later, they’ve signed Hollywood Brown to be a field stretcher and true outside threat. But the team would be looking to draft someone with downfield skills from this year’s deep receiver crop even if they weren’t monitoring Rice’s uncertain legal situation after his eventful evening on the Dallas Autobahn. Rice will almost certainly miss time, and the real question is how much. The Chiefs will need to evaluate prospects for their ability to help the team both with and without Rice’s strengths (lining up off ball and running those full speed crossing routes underneath) on the field....
