Brett Veach joked Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt ordered him to protect 2023 first-round draft pick

Brett Veach has full autonomy to build the football roster in Kansas City — and who can blame Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt for giving him control of football operations. The Chiefs are 60-21 with a Super Bowl title and two AFC championships since Veach took over the reins as general manager in 2017, setting the team up for a decade of success by moving up in his first draft and selecting Patrick Mahomes. 

Veach doesn’t need to be questioned — nor ordered — regarding moves in Kansas City. This year was no exception after the Chiefs brought home a draft class that included Trent McDuffie, George Karlaftis, and Skyy Moore. Having a boatload of draft picks was beneficial to the Chiefs, who are looking to reload their roster after moving on from Tyreek Hill. 

Veach did move up in the draft in order to land McDuffie, giving up a 2022 first-round pick (No. 29), a 2022 third-round pick (No. 94) and a 2022 fourth-round pick (No. 121) to move up eight spots in the draft. Veach joked Hunt was more than fine with that, just as long as he didn’t part ways with a first-round draft pick in 2023. 

Why is that pick significant? Kansas City hosts the 2023 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,’” Veach said earlier to reporters this week as he laughed. “Other than that, he lets me do what I want to do. 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.”

The Raiders didn’t have a first-round pick — and they hosted the draft in 2022. They didn’t have a second-round pick either, as a result of the Davante Adams trade.  

“I had to at least throw that line out there that it’s just been done this year,” Veach said. “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.”

If the plan works the way Veach hopes, the Chiefs will have the 32nd pick next year. 

“We’re going to be looking forward to using all of those picks next year – the one, the two, the two threes and two four,” Veach said. “Hopefully we add another great class like we did last year and this year.”