If you are like many of us, you might have found yourself killing time before the 2022 NFL Draft on a number of our favorite online simulators trying to see how things might turn out at the end of the month for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Given that the Chiefs have 12 picks, this draft is already being discussed in historic terms given its potential impact on the future of the team and the cost of reaching that many picks—namely the loss of superstar wide receiver Tyreek Hill. The Chiefs have chosen this offseason to get younger and lay a foundation for the next stage of Patrick Mahomes’ career under center.
Looking at the first round, however, there is one primary team that looks like a significant hurdle for the Chiefs: The Green Bay Packers. With Aaron Rodgers at the helm, the Chiefs and Packers already share some key aspects in common that other teams cannot touch. Both are contenders with offensively creative coaches and the game’s best quarterbacks.
Unfortunately, they also share significant draft needs.
The Green Bay Packers are still blocking the Kansas City Chiefs’ draft path in terms of needs, even after signing wideout Sammy Watkins.
The Chiefs weren’t the only team to have traded away their star wideout. In fact, it’s amazing that both Hill and Davante Adams were traded in the same offseason given their statuses as two of the game’s most dangerous playmakers.
In their attempts to round out their wide receiving corps, the Chiefs also added a few new faces in JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. It’s the latter that only makes the draft hurdle worse for the Chiefs.
The Packers recently signed Sammy Watkins in free agency, a familiar face in Chiefs kingdom, but anyone who thought that might keep the Packers from wanting to grab a wide receiver or even two in the upcoming draft can put that notion to bed. The loss of MVS and Adams is far greater than anything Watkins brings, and the Packers should be eyeing anyone that the Chiefs are in terms of a potential playmaker.
That’s problematic for the Chiefs because the Packers also hold two first-round picks, and both of them come in front of the Chiefs’ own pair of first-round selections at No. 29 and 30 overall. The Packers have eerily similar needs overall to the Chiefs, which makes them a team to watch and potentially leap over in the draft order.
For those who were hoping Watkins might eliminate or even lessen the receiving needs for the Packers, it was a nice thought, but Green Bay is just as great of a draft hurdle as ever for what the Chiefs want to do.