For the first time since the 2013 NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs are slated to enter draft night with a top-10 pick. They hold the ninth overall pick after a disappointing and rare losing season and now have plenty of options as to what to do with that high draft pick.
The Chiefs have plenty of directions they can go in so this pick will definitely be put to good use. Will they use it to give Patrick Mahomes help on offense? Or will they look to bolster a defense that has taken a few steps back since leading the charge in the 2023 season?
In the mock drafts floating around right now, analysts appear to be leaning toward the former in that equation. In three of the mocks included for this piece, all of them have K.C. adding help on offense. Two of them linked the Chiefs to Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love, which is something Chiefs fans are all too familiar with at this point.
Patrick Mahomes could get major boost from Chiefs draft move
"Kansas City may be hesitant to make this choice because of how Clyde Edwards-Helaire fared. Jeremiyah Love is a bigger, more explosive player, as well as an impactful pass catcher. Andy Reid may be looking for ways to reinvent himself this year, especially if Travis Kelce moves on with his life. One way to keep defenses on their toes is to have a running back who has to be accounted for and gets defenses moving." - Josh Edwards, CBS Sports
"Patrick Mahomes finally gets an elite back. If defenses continue to play a conservative shell defense against the Chiefs, Love can make them pay." - Daniel Jeremiah, NFL.com
The other mock draft had the Chiefs staying on the offensive side of the ball and adding wide receiver help in the form of Makai Lemon. The USC wide receiver would be a welcomed addition to a Chiefs offense that struggled in 2025.
"After making some improvements to their offensive line over the past couple of drafts, the Chiefs now have a top-10 pick to try to give Patrick Mahomes his best wide receiver since Tyreek Hill. Lemon averaged 3.13 yards per route run and dropped just 2.5% of the catchable targets thrown his way this past season." - Gordon McGuinness, PFF
Love has been a common name that Chiefs fans have seen linked to their team in the draft and there's no debate that he'd help this team immediately. The Notre Dame running back ran for over 1,300 yards and 18 touchdowns and that's precisely the kind of production this team could use.
As for Lemon, he had an electric year for the Trojans, racking up over 1,100 receiving yards and finding the end zone 11 times during the 2025 campaign. The Chiefs' trio of Hollywood Brown, Rashee Rice, and Xavier Worthy did not pan out the way the team intended it to and Lemon would give Mahomes a solid weapon to throw to.
It'll be interesting to see which direction the Chiefs ultimately go in here but either of these guys would undoubtedly help this team improve in 2026.