Kansas City Chiefs: 9 first-round targets in the 2021 NFL Draft

Drafting second-to-last in the first round, the Kansas City Chiefs have a wide field of prospects they’ll need to scout. Since the No. 31 pick nearly straddles the first two rounds, they’ll need to keep an eye on higher-ranked prospects that might fall in the first round while also sifting through the projected second-rounders to see which ones are good values. Last year the Chiefs were able to use their first-rounder on a gratuitous halfback, as their nigh-perfect roster had just come off a Super Bowl-winning season. But in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Chiefs will need to use their first-rounder to fill a pivotal roster spot that remains open as we sail closer and closer to draft night.

The Chiefs may be drafting for need on Day One of this year’s draft, but that doesn’t mean they need to be locked in on just one or two prospects. It is always better for a team to draft the best player on the board instead of for need, a truism that is proving more and more astute as analytics begin to play a bigger role in roster construction. That being said, they’ll still want to draft a player who fits their needs in the first round, as they have all the pieces in place to make another deep playoff push in 2021.

Finding a Week One starter is never a guarantee, however, so the Chiefs will want to find someone who has a proven track record of achievement. At the same time, Kansas City would be wise to take future roster construction into consideration. With 26 free agents in 2022, general manager Brett Veach will need to weigh the need of finding a player that helps them win now against the needs of the roster next offseason.

This season, the Chiefs are primed to win the AFC West for the sixth season in a row. Kansas City has benefitted from not having another team in the division that has gone above 8-8 the last two seasons. But with ascending teams like the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders in the division,  the Chiefs need to prioritize more than just winning in 2021. Both the Raiders and Chargers have slowly improved their win totals the past two seasons, meaning the Chiefs will need to keep improving as well if they aspire to stay best in the West.

In this article, we’ll briefly address three positions the Chiefs should be targeting on Day One and Day Two of this year’s draft. We’ll examine nine prospects (three for each position) who the Chiefs might be targeting in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. We’ll examine their college records, discuss what they did well on game day and how they will need to improve once in the NFL. Finally, we’ll hypothesize how they would improve the Kansas City roster going into the 2021 season and how they could factor into the team’s broader long-term plans.