The Kansas City Chiefs haven't been afraid to move around the draft board under general manager Brett Veach. Recently, we looked into the trades he and his staff have made on draft weekend since Veach assumed his current role. A key trend was that the Chiefs have never traded down on draft weekend under Veach.
Could that finally happen this year? Sure. Yet there are a few reasons why the Chiefs would not surprise fans by trading up in Round One again this week. The way this year's draft class is described, in terms of value and rankings, feels similar across the league. Meanwhile, certain team needs could lead to positional runs at the back half of Round One.
With those notes in mind, here are some tidbits to remember if the Chiefs trade up in Round One of the 2025 NFL Draft. Let's start with a possible trade partner for Kansas City in the first round.
Lack of picks for NFC North squad
One of the possible trade partners for the Chiefs in Round One is the Minnesota Vikings. Many people conducting mock drafts have been willing to have the Vikings trade down. And it is easy to see why. Minnesota enters this week's draft with just four total selections.
After trading up for J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner last year, Minnesota lacks the draft capital that most teams possess in each draft. After picking at 24 overall, the Vikings are currently not slated to pick again until 97 overall. Plus, the only picks the Vikings currently have on Saturday are 139 and 187 overall.
The Chiefs have double the number of selections that Minnesota has right now. Beyond the lack of picks, the Vikings stand as a team that K.C. may view as a solid landing spot, moving up from 31 overall to 24 overall. This would allow Kansas City to leapfrog other teams just ahead of them that may have similar team needs. Namely, Houston (pick 25), Baltimore (pick 27), and Buffalo (pick 30) are AFC contenders that the Chiefs could look to jump ahead of.
The Chiefs have used these cards before
Under Brett Veach, the Chiefs have traded draft picks with teams that are top contenders in the AFC. The Orlando Brown Jr. trade involving the Ravens included many premium draft picks in the deal. The draft-trade history involving Kansas City and Buffalo is well documented for a couple of different reasons. But just last year, it was the Bills who the Chiefs swapped with in order to move up for Xavier Worthy.
The Bills also had a notorious draft war room reaction when Kansas City traded with New England in the first round of 2022. Trent McDuffie was the player the Chiefs moved up for, taking a player from a position of need that was high on Buffalo's board. The Bills took Kaiir Elam two selections after McDuffie. Let's just say those two players worked out extremely differently for their respective AFC teams.
Position runs to monitor near end of Round 1
There are a few different directions that Kansas City could take in round one, as far as the position of the player goes. Many national mock drafts have stuck with the framing of the Chiefs taking an offensive tackle in the first round. While that is still possible, the lack of nuance in those mock drafts has been quite staggering.
Say the Chiefs do want to go with an offensive tackle off the bat—the position run from that group late in the first round will be something to keep in mind. Either Houston or Washington would not surprise people with an offensive tackle selection at pick 25 or pick 29, respectively.
Almost any team currently picking from 21 to 30 overall, before the Chiefs at pick 31, could theoretically choose to go defensive line. With reinforcements necessary at both defensive end and defensive tackle, Kansas City could always look to move up for a defensive lineman. Rather than being left out from one of the top defensive line options, the Chiefs could feel urgency there.