Let’s look at various figures who “won” and “lost” based on the Kansas City Chiefs’ actions over the weekend of the 2023 NFL Draft.
When a championship roster, like the one sported by the Kansas City Chiefs, comes into a draft, like the 2023 NFL Draft that just took place over the weekend, the result is a collision of several new faces challenging veteran ones for the rights to “take another man’s job”, as they say. For the sake of a team, competition is great. Off the field, lives are going to change for better or worse.
A team’s decisions over the course of the NFL Draft can make or break a team’s long-term success more than any other time of year. In-season moves are ultra-focused on the present (e.g. the trade deadline), while the draft serves as the opposite—the potential laying of a long-term foundation or the straying toward frivolous selections.
So who were the biggest winners and losers when it comes to the Chiefs and the 2023 draft? There’s a lot to parse here but a few ideas come to mind.
Losers: Fringe Defensive Backs
The Chiefs already sported one of the youngest backfields in the game of football with a talented batch of cornerbacks and safeties with bright futures ahead of almost every one of them. The competition here was already among the toughest with crowded spots on the depth chart making it hard for anyone new to break in.
Brett Veach could care less about such perceptions.
L’Jarius Sneed is the leader of the secondary and he’s still on his rookie deal. Trent McDuffie is a first-round choice and played the part last year. Jaylen Watson and Josh Williams earned starting reps in their rookie seasons and that’s just on the cornerback side.
Over at safety, there was a bit of turnover with the loss of Juan Thornhill as a four-year starter, but the team knew he was leaving all along and spent a second-round pick a year ago on Bryan Cook to replace him next to Justin Reid. The Chiefs signed Mike Edwards to replace Cook as the third safety and retained Deon Bush for his special teams acumen. A core four from a Super Bowl winning roster.
Then comes draft weekend where Brett Veach spends two of seven total selections made on defensive backs. Chamarri Conner will be Dave Toub’s favorite new player, but he’s also a hard-hitting, versatile player who could give the Chiefs leverage with Sneed in a long-term deal if he shows good instincts. Nic Jones was a seventh-round choice from Ball State, who faces long odds, but so did Watson a year ago.
Surrounding them are some promising yet familiar names in Nazeeh Johnson (last year’s seventh round pick) and DiCaprio Bootle and a slew of new rookie free agents hoping to make a few of these players upset. Some solid players are going to be left out but Veach is not playing around when it comes to the secondary.