While the teams are now postseason rivals, Kansas City’s GM used his Philadelphia roots to make a small trade.
The Kansas City Chiefs seem to make a habit of executing small trades with postseason rivals late in the first round of the NFL Draft.
A year ago, Kansas City made a slight trade-up with the Buffalo Bills to select wide receiver Xavier Worthy with the 28th selection.
This year, general manager Brett Veach traded back a single spot from 31st overall to 32nd with the Philadelphia Eagles. In the team’s media conference following the draft’s first round, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid jokingly recalled giving Veach a “golf clap” in approval for the shrewd move.
Philadelphia would select Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell, while the Chiefs closed the first round by selecting Ohio State offensive tackle Josh Simmons.
Veach discussed the trade on in his Thursday night remarks. Although the Chiefs and Eagles are most recently known for a pair of Super Bowl matchups over the past three seasons, Veach did cite his history as a scout for Philadelphia general manager Howie Roseman when discussing the trade.
“Obviously, I have a good relationship with Howie,” Veach explained. “He does a tremendous job. When you get to these picks late in the draft, they’re eying a particular player they’re certainly worried about maybe getting jumped by another team.”
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Always surprisingly candid during draft season, Veach did answer a frequently asked question: Do teams reveal who they are targeting when trading up? Veach did confirm that some things are known, but the individual player is usually not.
“We’ve done trades like this before,” he recalled. “We just get to the point where it’s ‘Tell me offense or defense. You don’t have to tell me the player.’ Howie mentioned defense, and we’ve done similar trades in the past. ‘Just tell me the side of the football.’
“They got a really good football player in the linebacker from Alabama. I knew he was good for his word. It made sense for us because obviously we were going to take Josh at 31. It was a win-win for them, and we got the guy we wanted. So, that’s kind of how that trade went down.”
The Chiefs currently have eight selections in the draft’s remaining six rounds. Rounds two and three will unfold Friday, starting at 6:00 p.m. Arrowhead time. Rounds four through seven will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
Remaining picks in the NFL Draft (8)
- Round 2 (63)
- Round 3 (66 — from Tennessee)
- Round 3 (95)
- Round 4 (133)
- Round 5 (164 — from Philadelphia, through Cleveland and Detroit)
- Round 7 (226 — from Carolina)
- Round 7 (251 — compensatory)
- Round 7 (257 — compensatory, final selection of draft)