5 takeaways from Chiefs GM Brett Veach’s 2022 NFL draft recap
The dust is finally beginning to settle following the 2022 NFL draft.
As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to host their incoming draft class and undrafted free agent signings for rookie minicamp, Brett Veach is still looking for ways to improve his team. The NFL draft is just one step of the rigorous and fluid process that is building an NFL roster. However, it’s an important one and one that Veach and his staff take a lot of pride in.
On Tuesday, Veach had a chance to speak to the media, both recapping the 2022 NFL draft and looking ahead to the future. Here are five things that we’re taking away from what Veach had to say:
First things first
AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann
The NFL draft is an arduous process that involves a ton of moving parts. Veach kicked off his press conference by giving thanks to everyone who helped to make it possible and successful.
“Excited to recap a fun weekend for us,” Veach began. “Just really quick, I want to thank the support staff here, certainly Clark (Hunt), Andy (Reid) and Mark (Donovan) for all the support and trusting in me and my staff. I want to thank the coaches. I know they spend a lot of time when they get back from the last game of the season, they’ll come back and they have a lot of stuff on their plate in regards to putting together the practice plans for OTAs and the training camp coming up, so them taking time out of their day to meet with us and go over these prospects.
“Then our training staff, (it’s the) same deal where they’re in there day in and day out working on players on our roster that need rehab. But for those guys to take time out of their day and to travel to Indy and get the notes and continue to update us as the process goes along with the pro days, they’ve been obviously a huge help in this. And lastly, my staff has just been amazing with the work they’ve done coming into this process with a lot of draft picks, and a lot of different scenarios. Guys were just amazing, and I can’t thank them enough.”
From the coaching staff to the training staff and the rest of the front office, the draft is a true team effort in Kansas City. It’s a rewarding one too when they get a chance to see players recognize their dreams and come into the organization and have success.
Free agency shaped the 2022 NFL draft's emphasis
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Veach has previously mentioned that he knew at halftime of Super Bowl LV that he had to go out and revamp the offensive line the following season. There was some serious emphasis on the defense in the 2022 NFL draft, with 7-of-10 picks coming on the defensive side of the ball.
While Veach felt there was always an idea to get better on the defensive side of the ball this offseason, he didn’t necessarily see it as something on the same scale as the offensive line rebuild a season ago.
“I think it was always at the forefront,” Veach said of improving the defense via the draft. “I don’t know if it was as a dramatic of a mindset as what we experienced in the Super Bowl (with the offensive line). That was just kind of like the perfect storm of guys that have played a lot of football for us, in particular the tackle position, that got hurt. One ended up retiring and we just got really old, really quick, and that was a situation where when you combine that with the best player in the league and a franchise quarterback, that’s kind of like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go.’ This, I mean, you have to have balance on both sides of the football, and we wanted to upgrade the youth, the talent and the depth on the defensive side.”
One reason that the Chiefs focused on the defense a lot during the draft is that they felt like they added a lot of pieces on offense during the 2022 free agency period. Beyond the draft board falling the way it did for them, they plainly had more needs on the defensive side of the ball.
“We also did some stuff offensively in free agency,” Veach continued. “We brought in JuJu (Smith-Schuster), and we brought in MVS (Marquez Valdes-Scantling), and we brought in RoJo (Ronald Jones). We were able to re-sign (Chad) Henne and (Andrew) Wylie, so I think we look at things on both ends, both draft and free agency. Certainly, the draft was geared more toward defense, and I think it’s a combination of us wanting to certainly get better and get deeper and younger, but had we not been able to sign the Smith-Schuster’s and the MVS’s and the RoJo’s, it maybe deviates a little. But I think it’s a combination of both processes.”
Had Kansas City not landed some of the pieces they did during free agency and held onto others, it’s possible that the draft would have been more geared toward improving the offense.
Darian Kinnard is here to play right tackle
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
There has been some question about Kinnard and his role within the Kansas City offense. Some NFL teams viewed him as a guard during the pre-draft process, but not the Chiefs. Veach set the record straight on Tuesday, assuring fans that he’d be competing at right tackle in Kansas City.
“Yeah, I think we do and that was our plan when we drafted him,” Veach said. “There has been a lot of talk about whether he is a guard or a tackle. I think we feel confident that he can play guard, but when you’re talking about a guy who has logged a ton of starts at right tackle, there is some clean-up work he has to do. We have a great coaching staff and there is a great group of guys in that room that are really experienced.”
The team has confidence that his skillset will transfer to the NFL because he played at the highest possible level of college football and had success while doing it.
“I think any time you can go and play right tackle successfully at an SEC level, more often than not, that will translate to the pro level,” Veach said. “It will be a jump just like all of these colleges are when you’re moving to the NFL, so it’s not like it’s going to be easier. I think if there is one conference that gives you a sense of hope and encouragement it’s there. If you can line up at right tackle, we all saw that Georgia defensive line last year, if you can line up and play against that caliber, you’re certainly going to have a shot. It might be rough at the beginning, but I think he’s athletic enough and long enough.”
Another reason the Chiefs believe in Kinnard? They think he’s very coachable and will have success working with Andy Heck.
“We love his length,” Veach continued. “Orlando Brown, people thought he wasn’t athletic enough to play tackle but when you have size, length and you’re wired the right way, you put those guys around the right coaching, I think they can become very successful. That’s kind of where we are going with Darian.”
Lonnie Johnson has been on the Chiefs' radar for a while
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Veach took reporters through the process of trading for Texans CB Lonnie Johnson, which actually started last season around the NFL’s trade deadline.
“Well, I think there was a little bit of dialogue during the trade deadline,” Veach said. “Trade deadlines are tricky because when you’re not with a team in the offseason, during training camp, the playbook and that cohesiveness is not there. It’s a little bit tricky. Melvin Ingram is a bit different because he’s a guy who has been in the league. I think he was a little bit of an outlier, sometimes those guys are.”
The team wasn’t interested in a trade last season because they seemed to doubt that Johnson would be able to pick up their system and contribute. With a full offseason ahead, Veach revisited the idea once the draft ended.
“So I think it kind of picked up there. Once the draft ended, we had just stayed in contact,” Veach explained. “We’ve been in contact with these teams before the draft. We always have the initial phone call, ‘Let us know what you’re thinking of doing, moving up or moving down. Then as the draft goes on let us know if there are any players that you may be willing to move for either a pick this year or next year or what have you.’ So we just kind of make a note of all those conversations and (Lonnie Johnson) was a guy that his name had gotten brought up.”
Johnson is a player that has been on the team’s radar since the 2019 NFL draft. Former Chiefs LB coach Matt House had coached him at Kentucky. They also had one of his former teammates in-house this offseason to advise the team. Ultimately, they’ve brought him in to play cornerback (not safety) and he’ll have a chance to compete with the rest of the group at a very low cost to Kansas City.
“We did have some experience with him,” Veach said. “Coach (Matt) House was here. We went through the process with Lonnie coming out. He was with him at Kentucky and obviously, Justin (Reid) played with him in Houston. So we were able to talk to both people. I think Lonnie was in a situation where he was bouncing around from corner to safety and back to corner, back to safety. I just said, ‘Look we’re pretty good here at safety.’ We have some corners we like, but we also like big, long, press corners. We know he can press, we know he’s physical and we think he’ll come in here and compete.”
Looking ahead to the 2023 NFL draft in Kansas City
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The 2022 NFL draft just ended, but the Chiefs have turned their attention to the 2023 NFL draft for a very important reason — it’ll be hosted in Kansas City for the first time ever.
“We’re extremely excited about the draft here next year,” Veach told reporters. “It was Clark’s idea, he mentioned that maybe we should look into getting a room over at Union Station and making that our make-shift draft room so we can be there and experience what we believe is going to be a tremendous event.”
While a make-shift draft room around Union Station is on the table for the team, trading away the team’s 2023 first-round pick isn’t an option for the team. Veach has a penchant for getting rid of those high-value draft picks, only having made one first-round draft pick prior to the 2022 NFL draft.
“The only thing that Clark told me was, ‘You can’t trade next year’s one (first-round pick), we’ve gotta have a one (laughing).’ Other than that, he lets me do what I want to do,” Veach said. “He joked a few times before the draft that we have to have a one next year so I went in with that mindset that I couldn’t move the one. Now I did remind him that Vegas isn’t using a one or a two, so I had to at least throw that line out there that it’s just been done this year.”
All jokes aside, Veach is extremely confident in the team’s ability to draft and develop players. For that reason, they’re very much so looking forward to making their picks in next year’s draft as opposed to trading them away.
“I think where we are and with what we did this offseason, taking a step back, knowing that we have a lot of good players and high-priced players on this team, knowing that our staff does a really good job of evaluating talent, our coaching staff does a really good job of developing talent, when you can have that amount of picks and really put together a solid plan and stick to it, we’re going to turn out some good players here,” Veach concluded. “We’re going to be looking forward to using all of those picks next year – the one, the two, the two threes and two fours. Hopefully, we add another great class like we did last year and this year.”
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