Kansas City Chiefs never do what fans expect them to in the first round

Kansas City Chiefs fans always want the team to draft a certain way, but they always throw us for a loop come draft day. 

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the Kansas City Chiefs have drafted good players in the first round. It’s just become very apparent that the Chiefs have their own system and take who they want to with their first rounder, not who the fans want or who the media thinks they’ll go with.

The most recent example of this is a year ago when the team surprised everyone by drafting Clyde Edwards-Helaire with their first-round selection. Edwards-Helaire was a workhorse at LSU in the 2019 collegiate season, but drafting running backs in the first round is something that’s become less popular as the years go by. Not only that, but CEH wasn’t even considered to be one of the top options at running back.

The last time prior to CEH being drafted that the Chiefs had a first-rounder was in 2017 where, once again, fans were at odds with what direction the team would go in. Some desperately wanted the team to draft Alex Smith’s successor while others wanted the team to focus on areas that needed addressing right then and there.

Many mock drafts in 2017 had the top-name quarterbacks falling to Kansas City at pick 27, but fans knew that wasn’t going to happen. When the Chiefs officially moved into the No. 10 spot, many felt it had to be a quarterback that was about to come to KC, but with how often this team has thrown curveballs on draft night, it wasn’t a guarantee.

Fortunately, Patrick Mahomes’ name was called (and again, he was typically projected behind Deshaun Watson, who went two picks later) and it was the best decision made in Chiefs history.

The Kansas City Chiefs always go in a different direction during the first round than what fans are expecting.

Again, this isn’t always a bad thing. There have been times where they made puzzling moves like drafting Jonathan Baldwin in 2011 or Dee Ford in 2014, but those were under different regimes. Since Brett Veach has taken over as the GM, the Chiefs have only had one first-round pick, and that was last year.

I bring this up because while the general consensus seems to be that Kansas City will go with an offensive lineman of some sort in the first round, history has proved that this team doesn’t go with what people think they should do, but what they want to do. If there’s a better player on the board at No. 31, the Chiefs won’t hesitate to take that guy over a tackle prospect.

It can be frustrating at times, but Veach deserves the benefit of the doubt. He’s done great things as the Kansas City Chiefs’ general manager.