Kansas City’s general manager admits he’s more likely to trade up than trade down.
If you’re expecting Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach to trade back from the first round in next week’s NFL Draft… don’t hold your breath..
It’s not that Veach won’t be open to it. It’s just when you’re picking as late as Kansas City does every year, fewer teams are trying to move up and get your pick.
“I do think in general, the number of calls that you get asking to trade down are lower — at least in my experience,” Veach told reporters on Thursday. “We certainly, I think, do a pretty good job of fielding calls — and it’s not like we’re not answering calls or we’re not making calls.
“You know, a lot of that could have to do with [in] Day 1 and Day 2, your picks are so late, those teams may feel like the last chance to get the guy they want is to move up higher.”
To put it simply, Veach said that when you’re debating these things, the question isn’t whether you should have traded down. More often, it’s whether you could have traded down. For a team in the Chiefs’ position, there usually aren’t many teams willing to make such a deal.
And Veach pushed back on the idea that Kansas City could end up trading back because another team wants to get a first-round quarterback who will be under their control for at least five years.
“I don’t think that’s worked out,” he said. “Those quarterbacks either didn’t go or went higher. Maybe this is the year that happens.”
But it isn’t simply a lack of opportunity.
“I certainly have a tendency to be on the aggressive side,” admitted Veach.
But he also noted that the top end of the 2025 draft is not as deep as in previous years — and the middle of the pack is deeper.
“Probably just from a pure number standpoint,” he explained, “[there’s] more of a likelihood that could happen when you have on the front end numbers — meaning 75 or higher on our grading system being low — but then that next 70 to 65 [in the] grading system, the numbers being higher — I think that from that standpoint, I think that could be in our wheelhouse.”
Veach considers himself lucky that in recent years, there have been players who have slid into a range the Chiefs can reach with a trade. That also adds to his reputation as a GM who likes to trade up.
“I think there’s always — or at least it worked out that way in the last few years — been one guy [we liked],” he noted. “[Xavier] Worthy was one of those guys last year — but we’ll see.”
In Veach’s recent memory, there have been only a few times he has had many early calls about trading back.
“There may have been one draft where we received multiple calls about trading down,” he recalled, “and we didn’t do it. But other than that one year in the last four or five years, I don’t remember getting a ton of calls on Day 1. [There have been] a little bit more on Day 2.”
Later, though, inquiries can pick up.
“You’re gonna get a lot more calls on Day 3,” explained Veach, “just because the grade discrepancies [between teams] are all over the board.”
Soon we’ll know how things will play out. The draft gets underway this coming Thursday at 7 p.m. Arrowhead Time.