Chiefs expected to gain 4th and 5th round compensatory picks in 2021 NFL Draft

The Chiefs are expected to gain two extra Day 3 compensatory picks for the 2021 NFL Draft.

The NFL’s first-year player draft isn’t supposed to bring a bounty of talent to the defending champions. However, the Kansas City Chiefs are not only expected to make a deep postseason run this winter as the odds-on favorites to win Super Bowl LV but their upcoming NFL Draft class is also shaping up to be a good one if quantity means anything.

The Chiefs are heading into the 2021 NFL Draft with not only their original assortment of selections, likely at the bottom of each round (save for the 6th round choice which belongs to Tennessee due to the BoPete Keyes trade last spring), but some additional picks as well. First, the Chiefs third round pick from 2020, TCU offensive tackle Lucas Niang, opted out for his rookie season, which means he’ll really be a rookie in ’21. Second, the Chiefs are expected to land a couple of nice compensatory picks as well.

The NFL’s compensatory formula is a bit of a mystery, but the fine folks at Over the Cap have a good estimator in place to see what a team’s draft class might resemble. As of right now, the Chiefs look as if they will gain an extra pick at the bottom of the fourth and fifth rounds apiece for the free agent losses of cornerback Kendall Fuller and pass rusher Emmanuel Ogbah.

Fuller was the primary return from Washington in the trade for quarterback Alex Smith. After fulfilling his rookie deal in K.C., Fuller decided to return to the nation’s capital on a big-money deal in free agency, which brought back a comp pick to the Chiefs.

As for Ogbah, the Chiefs signed him on the cheap to a one-year contract before the 2019 season. He was an ideal fit as a rotational pass rusher in Steve Spagnuolo’s system and leveraged a solid performance, even amidst injury, for a new two-year contract with the Miami Dolphins. That loss earned the Chiefs a fifth round pick in 2021, according to Over the Cap’s Nick Korte.

Of course, none of this is official until the NFL announces the 2021 draft order shortly after Super Bowl LV. By then, the Chiefs might have earned their second consecutive championship as well as a nice haul of picks in which they will have extra third (Niang), fourth (comp) and fifth (comp) round picks included.