The 2025 NFL Draft has come and gone, but there are still some new points of adjustment after the event. New faces on each individual team, plus the roles the new players could immediately fill, are at the forefront. After taking time to look back on the draft weekend, there were still some surprises. This is especially true for a team like the Kansas City Chiefs.
Kansas City was able to fill needs on the trenches. The Chiefs also added key depth at cornerback and wide receiver in the middle portion of their selections. Though, what were some headlines that possibly stunned K.C. fans looking back on the draft?
Here are three surprises that stood out from the Chiefs after their 2025 NFL Draft haul.
Not taking a running back before Round 7
The Chiefs must truly be gun-shy, still leery from the results of taking Clyde Edwards-Helaire in the first round back in 2020.
Kansas City has been able to find necessary production from many different running backs. Not all of them came via premium investments in the Andy Reid era. Nonetheless, this was seen as one of the deepest running back drafts in recent memory. Not going to that spot in the draft earlier than round seven was still a bit shocking.
That is also no slight to Brashard Smith, himself, whom the Chiefs took with their final pick at running back. For instance, I thought he would even go earlier than that. It would be nice to offset some pressure from Patrick Mahomes with a top runner. We will see if waiting that long to address running back paid off.
A lack of trades from Brett Veach
Compared to most drafts, the Chiefs really did not move around the board via major trade swings. All of their trade activity over the course of draft weekend this year resulted in minimal amounts of movement on the board. Ironically, the first time Brett Veach ever traded down was in the first round this year. Kansas City only moved down one measly spot in the process, however.
Later on, during day three of the draft, they did move up for linebacker Jeffrey Bassa. Yet, Kansas City only moved up eight spots to get him, after being stunned that he was still available. It is interesting that they traded up in round seven to secure Smith. However, by swapping picks in the final round, that cannot necessarily be classified in the same realm of aggressiveness as other Chiefs' draft weekend trades from the past. It was a fairly tame draft for Kansas City, where they let the board fall to them.
Natural fits made by national media comes to fruition
Kansas City generally keeps its plans close to the vest. Whether it be the draft, free agency, or trades, the Chiefs usually keep everybody on their toes. It is not like their draft plans for this year were leaked, per se. However, we usually see some names thrown out there by the national media and by mock drafters that do not turn into Chiefs selections.
It can even be a case of knowing those thoughts and ideas thrown out by that part of the football community would be someone Kansas City would never take. But in this particular draft, you could argue that a fair amount of their selections were connected to the Chiefs by the national media for a while. Josh Simmons and Omarr Norman-Lott were especially popular choices to be linked to K.C. Furthermore, names like Jalen Royals and even Bassa were seen as natural fits for the Chiefs.
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