Is Walter Nolen The Clear 1st-Round Choice for Chiefs?

With the 2025 NFL Draft quickly approaching the Kansas City Chiefs are finalizing their draft plans like all the rest of the league. The Chiefs will look to get better through the draft, as they need a strong class to help them out for the 2025 NFL season.

The Chiefs will go into the draft with their draft boards filled with players they believe will be the best fit for their team and scheme. The franchise has found success in recent drafts, and it came from all the rounds, not just the early ones. But there is a certain player that is drawing a lot of attention for the Chiefs to be their first round pick.

That player is Walter Nolen out of the University of Mississippi. Nolen is a defensive tackle with a lot of upside who has the ability to stop the run game and get after the quarterback. He will also be a good fit to play alongside one of the best defensive players, if not the best defensive players in the NFL, in Chris Jones.

The Chiefs want to be able to get after the quarterback with just a four-man rush next season. The Chiefs are also still looking for another defensive lineman who can benefit from playing with Jones, and Nolen will give the Chiefs that.

Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz of USA Today. also has the Chiefs taking Nolen with the 31st pick of the draft in his latest mock draft.

"After reconfiguring their offensive line by exporting Joe Thuney to the Bears and inking Jaylon Moore to a massive deal, the Chiefs settled in for a relatively quiet offseason," said Middlehurst-Schwartz. "They'd certainly make some noise by taking advantage of a promising defensive tackle class with Nolen, who would give defenses plenty of headaches as they try to account for Chris Jones and him on the interior.

Many experts have Nolen getting selected by the Chiefs in the first round. Is that saying that the Chiefs will go with defensive players in the early rounds of the draft? The Chiefs know how to draft, and maybe they know that if they do not get Nolen in the first round, they will miss out on a top defensive player in this draft.

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