Chiefs GM expecting a lot of trades in first round

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In his annual news conference before the NFL draft next week, Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach made a bold prediction.

"It should be an entertaining night," Veach said Thursday. "There'll probably be a lot of trades."

Throughout this offseason, Veach has shared that this year's draft class is different from most years. Most analysts believe only one quarterback, Indiana's Fernando Mendoza, will be selected in the first 10 picks. Veach also said that some of the top prospects -- such as Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles, Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love and Ohio State safety Caleb Downs -- do not play one of the league's premier positions. A number of factors, Veach said, could lead to teams engaging and executing more trades than usual.

"I think that the fans will be in for a treat next Thursday because I think the grades [on prospects] are going to be so close from some of these [offensive] tackles and D-ends and receivers," Veach said. "A lot of these guys that are mocked high may go a little lower and a lot of these guys that are getting mocked a little lower may go higher because I think they're so close this year. There's not this huge gap and huge fall off.

"That's what a draft like this -- when you don't have two or three [high-graded] quarterbacks and a Will Anderson [Jr.] or a Myles Garrett -- does: It lends itself to open up to a lot of fun and a lot of excitement."

The Chiefs could be one of those teams who want to consummate a trade. Since his tenure began, which was July 2017, Veach has made several deals days before the draft and during the event. The Chiefs are one of few teams -- including the New York Jets, the Cleveland Browns, the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolphins -- that have two first-round selections in this year's draft. The Chiefs are scheduled to pick ninth and 29th.

Last month, the Chiefs traded All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams for a package of draft picks that had the 29th pick as the deal's centerpiece.

In fact, the way the Chiefs acquired McDuffie in the 2022 draft was through a trade with the New England Patriots. Veach that year moved the Chiefs up from 29th pick to the 21st pick to select McDuffie, who joined the team just a few weeks after the team executed a blockbuster trade that sent receiver Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins.

"I don't know if I have a blueprint for that," Veach said of his history trades. "It's just exhausting all the information with each player, identifying your team needs, [and] working with the coaching staff.

"We're at 215 [prospects on their draft board this year]. You're going to have 10-15 guys that you really want to get. It's just trying to work the board and trying to find out how many of those 10-15 guys that you have in that really-want list can you position yourself to get."