2024 NFL Draft: What would you have done differently?
 

What would you have done differently considering the way the board fell in the draft this year?

Round 1, #28: WR Xavier Worthy
Round 2, #63: OT Kingsley Suamataia
Round 4, #131: TE Jared Wiley
Round 4, #133: S Jaden Hicks
Round 5, #159: OL Hunter Nourzad
Round 6, #211: CB Kamal Hadden
Round 7, #248: IOL C.J. Hanson
B+

Personally, I might've gone with another weapon instead of Hicks at #133 and probably RB Watson at #248 instead of Hanson but I'm no Veach! On second thought, there were some really sexy trade up options in the 4th that I would've liked to see us tap into: Sanders, Franklin, Baker, Walker, Irving, and Wright all went in the 4th and would've been more exciting picks.

I guess MIA is getting roasted a bit in draft circles for trading a 3rd next year to move up in the 4th, so what do I know, but I would've moved up for RB Wright or Irving, maybe Baker, or especially Franklin if I could get that high up! Not too mention BTJ came within reach and I would've preferred him over Worthy, I guess. In a perfect world, maybe a small move up for WR Tahj Washington in the 7th too.

Round 1, #22: WR Brian Thomas Jr (2024 3rd + 2025 3rd)
Round 2, #63: OT Kingsley Suamataia
Round 4, #119: RB Jaylin Wright (+2025 TEN 2025 3rd)
Round 4, #131: TE Jared Wiley
Round 5, #159: OL Hunter Nourzad
Round 6, #211: CB Kamal Hadden
Round 7, #240: WR Tahj Washington (+2025 Late RD Pick Swap)
A+

In Veach We Trust!

Go Chiefs!!

3-Peat!!!

I don’t think Buffalo is willing to trade out of 28 if Thomas is there.

I’m glad they took a DB in the 4th. Once they had two I just really wanted Wiley and whatever DB they liked best.

I meant we'd have to move up further in the 1st, sorry for not clarifying.

Hindsight is 2020 but I'm always curious to hear what people think post draft.

I really like the Wiley, Nourzard, and Hadden picks!

I don't know, honestly...

I loved every pick.

Hicks was a super steal in round 4 in my opinion. Some, like Brugler, had him as a 2nd round pick and their top safety. He and Nubin were neck and neck for me. It would only be an "if Hicks wasn't there" situation, but I would have taken either Kris Abrams-Draine at CB or Ainias Smith at WR in that spot.

Personally, I probably would have taken Cedric Johnson at ER over Kamal Hadden there and I would have absolutely drafted Blake Watson at RB over CJ Hanson. That said, I still really like Hadden and Hanson as prospects so I'm not complaining.

I'm not smart enough to know the prospects like you all but the one point I'll make is that while the OP slate of players might be preferred for some, I'm a fan of the fact that we kept all of our ammo for next year. Looks like you gave up 3 of our picks in your alternative draft above. But as you said, Bart has earned that trust!

Yeah, I like that he was able to maneuver to get the right type of guys at positions of need and hang onto those picks. Took big balls to hold tight and let the guys fall. I couldn't have stayed put for Suamataia, not at all.

I feel like those first 5 picks are absolute nails and I like the last two enough to think they could end up being contributors in the future in some way.

Big time copy out but I really cant argue with anything. Worthy wasn't my favorite but its an A fit on this team I think, I loved getting Kingsley where we did Wiley, Hicks and Norzad feel like A+ fits and picks for the range. I would have liked to get a RB with some upside but we did pretty good with UDFA's there. I wouldn't have minded taking another WR or RB at pick 7 but shit I can easily see a world where Hanson is a developing project similar to what wylie was for us or and allegretti back up. He has starting upside, imagine if we got our two starting guards for 26/27 in this draft where we did?

Other than a RB maybe in the 5th, I have zero complaints.

Would have wanted to add another WR but too lazy to go through each round and pick someone over who we got right now.

I feel the same as kccrow and Dunerdr, I'm struggling to even nitpick.

I didn't like Worthy as much as other options but I have zero doubt he will be well utilized, and I'm completely unconvinced the guys I did like more end up better players.

I was lower on Wiley than others here but after a run on TEs it was the best option and absolutely needed to be done. So pretty happy with that. I wasn't expecting another safety but the Hicks value was too good to pass up and makes sense as an eventual Reid placement.

I reckon in the 7th I'd have gone for a RB like Watson or Shirden. Or I might have got another WR like Rice...but I was never that high on him and there's only so many mouths to feed. I'd like them to see Moore as expendable and work to get him off the roster, but I can see why he's kept for another year.

Maybe Hadden represents a bit of overkill but again I really like the value.

I guess I'm higher on getting DT help for Jones than the Chiefs, but honestly Lovett might be enough to improve our run-stuffing. More pass-rush juice would be nice but it's hardly hurt us.

Yeah, just a really good collection of picks meeting current and future needs. They won't all hit but I've no complaints.

I don't see any other WR available when we picked (including AD Mitchell) helping us more this year.

With respect to Sky Moore, his best chance at doing something worth rostering would be if we went back to a more RPO game. Without that he should be cut.

All of the WR’s went in rd 2 through early 4. Only ones left for us were Cowing and Gould which make no sense considering we drafted Worthy already.

Wanted a RB but the value they got with their day 3 picks was so good. Hicks was Dane Brugler’s #1 rated safety so it’s hard to see any other position trumping that pick.

I really don't have a thing I'd prefer to have done. Maybe double-dip at WR instead of interior OL.

Can't argue with either of the DB picks, as both seem like outstanding fits.

I like the value with both IOL. There are athletic traits there with both of them.

Looking back there isn't a lot I'd have done differently that wouldn't have required a trade up or giving up a player we took that I also like. Veach is a wizard 'arry!

Hard to nitpick too much, I think they did just about as good a job as could be expected given the draft capital they had. I would have liked a DT pick but there was quite the run on DTs early in rd 2 so the value really wasn't there. It looks like we picked up a promising DT prospect in UDFA so that's a plus. Overall this was an excellent draft.

I'd have ended up trading up more.

I'd have been wrong to do it in the 2nd since Kingsley fell to us (who is who I'd have been moving up for) and I'd have likely been stoked to do it to get Jaylin Wright. Let's say I gave up 131 and 159 to get to Seattle's pick at 118 plus 207.

I'd have ended up in that world with Jaylen Wright at 118 and Christian Mahogany at 207 instead of Hicks and Nourzad.

I think I like that outcome better. But there's also a fair amount of hindsight there (I mean maybe I'd have traded up to 111 just to be safe and not gotten that pick in the 6th back).

But I'd have almost certainly moved up for Wright. I just liked him a lot as a complementary back here and in the mid 4th it's an easy call for me.

Hard to complain about much else really. Maybe I'd have gone Newton in the 1st, Kingsley in 2 and then traded up for Franklin at the end of 3 with the Titans third rounder?

Its really just awfully speculative as to what was even possible and any serious change at the beginning throws everything into flux.

I think every pick Veach made was good where the pick was made. I'll just say that.

My only real gripes are that we didn't take a stab at Johnny Wilson and that we didn't secure J Coker as an UDFA. However, I think there was something going on with Wilson given how far he fell that is outside of the public view.

With respect to Coker, given that we clearly scouted Holy Cross games, at least I can feel comfortable that the Chiefs wouldn't have overlooked him given that we scouted and drafted a guard out of the program.

I can't blame the Chiefs if they feel they have a really good on who Worthy is and valued him over other candidates in that spot. The remaining picks were basically A+ value at positions of need where these guys will step in and fill historically critical roles.

Wiley -> Bell
Hicks -> Cook depth, Eventual Reid replacement?
Nourzad -> Allegretti
Hadden -> Outside depth
CJ Hanson -> Caliendo replacement?

I would have preferred Thomas too, but I doubt that trade was there. I don't think Philly would have been willing to move so far back with Mitchell on the board, and even if they were I think we would have had to give up more.

The Dolphins traded a 2025 3rd rounder to move into the 4th round for Wright. I would have done the same thing.

I have a hard time with Jaylin Wright love. I just don't see the appeal there, guys, but people I trust do.

I think it's my disdain for Heupel's system. I think it makes every RB in it look much better than they are.

Correct. I have a go for it mentality around the 3-Peat and wanted to see us push a inch harder, maybe.

Ultimately, I'm stoked about the results though!

Those were two additional names I thought to include in my OP

In the end I agree that Worthy will be optimized best in Andy's system, and I'm happy we got him!

And worthy clearly wanted to come to the Chiefs and he must’ve gotten the Mahomes blessing as I’m pretty sure he worked out with Mahomes. That blessing turned out pretty well with rice last year. No reason to think the same won’t happen again and worthy has skills rice didn’t have.

The only real question is how well and how soon Kingsley will work out at LT. But there wasn’t really a better alternative.

If you look at the off-season process as a whole, I think the only thing we did wrong was Sneed. I personally hoped we could keep him. I guess that turned out not to be the case. And we certainly didn’t get good value for him. Since we must have known, we weren’t going to keep him, instead of gambling that we could trade him for good value, I think we should have tried to trade him right at the start without putting on the tag. (we really couldn’t have gotten much worse value). And if we couldn’t trade him, we should have just cut him right at the start. That probably would have given us the cap space to get Tyrone Smith to sign with KC instead of with the Jets. He has 6.5 million guaranteed with the Jets and 12 against the cap. We probably could’ve handled that at the beginning of the process. I would feel much more comfortable about our left tackle situation instead of bringing back Donovan Smith.

But it is what it is and I think with Smith Kingsley and Morris things will work out.

I think Tahj Washington came after our pick and could absolutely be a better slot/returner than Moore. But as I say I can see why they're sticking with Moore.

I would have drafted Brenden Rice in the 6th round, or I would have drafted Cornelius Johnson in the 7th.

Veach throws numbers at DB when it's a problem, and now he has thrown number at the OL twice. Why not throw numbers at WR?

If we want to continue to pay Mahomes what he deserves, and other star players like CJ max type deals, then Reid is going to have to get over his aversion to playing rookie receivers.

I think Rice is going to be a star. It's absolutely crazy he didn't get picked until the 7th round. I think Cornelius Johnson has the measurables and athletic score for a high upside in a 7th round pick.

Yeah, I'd have drafted Cornelius in the 7th as well. Was my favorite guy left when we made the pick.

But I understand trying to build some IOL depth later in the draft. I just think Johnson has some nice traits that could be coached up.

It's just the speed. I wanted a fast guy that can hit the edge and house one as a complement to Pacheco and as a potentially dynamic 3rd down back if he can learn the protections.

Wright was the best fit at RB in this draft in that regard, IMO. But it was also a fairly weak RB class. For all the "Man, RBs have really fallen off in the draft" stuff, we oughta remember that the FA market certainly bounced back for them. So the league did demonstrate that they still value the position.

I just think it was a pretty poor RB class.

Yeah - Philly wasn't moving off that pick with Mitchell on the board. They BADLY needed CB help and he was, by most accounts, CB1 in this draft. You don't move off that pick for a 3rd rounder and some future capital.

That puts your entire draft at risk because you're almost certainly still looking at CB at 32 and there's no way of knowing if Arnold would've been there by then (Mitchell wouldn't have been). At that point you're looking at DeJean (who they got anyway) who's far better suited for a versatile DB role than he is a pure outside Corner. And they needed that boundary CB.

The Philly trade isn't realistic. But maybe you could've gotten up to 19 if you used the 2025 2nd instead of the Titans 3rd.

I was more than happy to move that pick. And if that option was available to us, that's what I'd have done. We just can't authoritatively state that it was. That's a long way to fall for a team.

Well, I think the counter argument is we won with just Rice last year. If you think Rice will be a star, and Andy + Pat believes Worthy will dangerous weapon, then we probably have what we need when you add that to Hollywood and Kelce.

And I think signing Hollywood and using a 1st round pick on a WR qualifies as 'throwing numbers at it" every bit as much as signing Thuney and using a 2nd and 6th on Creed and Smith.

Moreover, the OL was THE reason we got curb-stomped by TB. Whereas the WR corps found just enough in the post-season, as well as with the emergence of rice, to win a championship.

I wouldn't have minded another WR, to be clear. But I think Veach was still pretty aggressive in attacking it.

Everyone wants "more depth" at WR....which after last year....ok. But they've got 4 guys there now that are atleast good solid players.

And they're not carrying 7. So it's really just a guy who you think may bump Moore from the roster.

Would I like that to be Cornelius Johnson? or Brendan Rice? Sure. Do I think it's terribly likely? No, not really. I can't see a 3rd day pick or UDFA knocking Moore off as a rookie. So if you're looking at a guy you're hoping to sneak onto the PS, well aren't you better served drafting someone that may actually knock Caliendo off and make the 53?

I see their logic in the way they handled it. Just tells me, again, that they like Skyy Moore a LOT more than I do.

Hollywood
Rice
Worthy
Watson
Moore
Toney

Infinitely better than last year.

I mean we started the season with Toney and Moore at the top of the WR room. That's a fairly big change, for sure.

Even if Worthy takes as long or longer to get up to speed than Rice, you still have Brown and (presumably) Rice already in place to keep the WR room at average at least.

Last year's WR room essentially didn't have a floor. I think there was a fair bit of ceiling but essentially none of it worked out. And when that happened that complete lack of a floor killed us. With Brown and Rice, you at least have 'competent if not spectacular' as a solid baseline and even that presumes zero growth from Rice and Brown isn't quick on the uptake in the offense.

Not gonna lie, a 1-yr Ring-Chaser deal with OBJ would really set this WR room up for a 3-peat.

Have not been a fan of pursuing him in the past, but I think there's an argument now that it could make sense.

Yeah - I'd be fine with that.

But I've come to the conclusion that OBJ isn't a ring-chaser. He's closer to Hopkins in this regard.

He's gonna go where he gets paid. He's gonna want $10 million+ to sign somewhere and I'm just not interested at those figures.

OBJ may not even be about the money specifically - it may just be a 'respect' thing for a guy who doesn't realize that he's not the player he was 7 years ago.

He's probably worth that $10m.

My thing is you can't hate on players for wanting $ over a ring. You can't eat that ring, and sports contacts are getting huge in recent years! Would any of us give up several million dollars to join a new company because they were the best in their biz? I wouldn't.

I’d be happy with OBJ for the same exact deal Hollywood got. Sure.

LOL ESPN posted two new articles about their favorite picks in the draft and EVERY SINGLE ONE of our picks was listed if you combine the two LOL

Let's GO!!!

I would have given up more to move up for the 2 players we got.

Seriously. Veach is a cheat code.

If you could tell me (before the draft) that we would trade all of our otger picks to move up to get Worthy AND Kingsley without using any picks from next year…I’d have said to pull the trigger.

The rest of this amazing draft class is just extra icing.

Build the statue.

I think the argument for WR goes beyond this year. Yes it's a pretty crowded room and there's not much space to stash guys. But Holywood is gone next year, we're not taking Toney's 5th year and there's a good chance he's gone, on top of Moore looking awful. It would be as much about double dipping during what looks like, to me, an excellent year for WRs, to future-proof the position.

But like I say, I've no great issue with us not given the picks taken.

Not at all.

The only real problem I have are guys like Hopkins that are just obviously full of shit. Hopkins has ONLY ever cared about money. And I've said it before about him - cool, do your thing man. It's your job, make your money.

But it ain't gonna be here. And don't bitch about not winning when you went to the team most willing to pay you and not the team most ready to win.

If you want to win - go win and don't complain about being underpayed. If you want to make full market value, go get paid and don't complain about not winning.

These are choices you have to make and either of them are defensible. It's the obnoxious hypocrisy that bugs me.

He really is not.

I don't blame him for trying to get every dime he can, I'm just not interesting in KC paying him what he wants (which is about 2x what he's worth).

He's a tolerable WR2 and ideally situated as a WR3 at this point in his career.

Is that worth $10 million? Maybe to some teams. But not us, IMO.

$6 million with some incentives that can take him to/near $10 million? I might be interested in that. But he just doesn't see himself as a WR 2/3. At least he didn't a year ago. And nothing has changed on the field to indicate he's more than that, IMO.

He would help - no question. At least during Rice's possible suspension and Worthy's learning curve. But he's gonna have a learning curve of his own - has he ever played in a system that uses any of the Reid terminology? I can't recall him playing for a coach from the Reid tree.

Technically John Harbaugh is from the Reid tree but that means jack shit to knowing the offense.

Personally, I think he's worth a $7-8m deal and would probably be of more use than MVS was. It's not something we're super likely to consider so kind of a mute point. For this year only, I'd probably be willing to give him a $10m incentive driven deal to secure a stronger WR room for a 3-peat run.

No way I'd pay OBJ that. It's just a waste. You're not getting 10 million in value, so just do something else.

It all depends, I highly doubt Xavier Worthy hits the ground running and is WR 2 or 3 when the year starts.\

He probably has a Rice trajectory where he spends most of the year as a manufactured touch guy.

Go pay Jalen Guyton a million bucks and let him do whatever.

Coach him up, get him in a better position quicker.

Ride Toney and Moore til they break or have mental breakdowns if you need any extra yardage on the side from your 5th WR. Get what you can from Watson.

Don't set 10 million on fire.

Zay Jones or Corey Davis would probably be where I'd look.

Let's say for the first half of the season he managed 400 yards receiving. Nothing exceptional but a pro-rated 800 yard season as WR2/3.

Then the rest of the season he gives you 250 yards (presuming that's when Rice is back and Worthy has caught up). So a 500 yard pro-rated second half of the season at a WR3/4 spot.

So you get 650 yards but it's more heavily weighted to when you needed him. Then in the playoffs he has 1 big game as WR3 where some mismatches underneath make him particularly difficult to deal with.

That's not worth $10 million. But it's probably worth $8 million?

He has value. And could maybe prove to have more value than $8 million if we have another blown tire in the WR room due to inexperience in the offense and Rice's Sammy Hagar moment.

Sure.

I'd still try to bandage up and get that from Moore Toney Watson and save that 10 million.

I see value in that, Chiefs season doesn't start until the playoffs anyway.

But I'd also argue that $10m is chump change if it'll win you a 3-peat.

Rumor from the free agency thread is that Chris Godwin could be a post June 1 cut. Interested? EDIT: wrong thread my bad.

Man, if that's the case, the Bucs will have done him dirty.

For a guy who's meant a lot to that organization and who's bounced back from injury nicely (an injury he suffered right as he was about to enter FA the first time), that's an awfully nasty way to treat him.

If you were gonna cut him, you could've done it prior to FA and then restructured some deals to cover the June 1 split. Or, I believe, you can still do a June 1 designation and let the guy pursue a new deal when there's still money out there to be made.

I just don't think they'd do him like that...

I think he will probably be effective sooner than Rashee Rice was, simply because his skill set should have a more defined roll in this offense.

Reid and Nagy kinda had to figure Rice out last year, and find the way to take advantage of his skills and what he was good at.

Worthy, to me, is a better route runner than Rice, and Andy knows how to use speed like his, and he will probably plug into Tyreek's routes. That should make the transition easier.

Sure!

Godwin will be a lot more expensive than Hunter Renfrew? I think for what we might need renfrew would be the best value.

Good lord Im tired of hearing the Hunter Renfrow shit. He hasn't done shit for what 4 years? He had one good force fed season. Let this washed POS wash the rest of the way out.