The Chiefs Are Officially on the Clock

And Andy Reid’s trust is in general manager Brett Veach.

“I’m optimistic for the future going forward here,” Reid said after Sunday’s loss. “Brett's got the controls from here with the draft, and he and his guys will do a great job there in the draft, and as we work through free agency.”

Chiefs nearly had No. 11

Veach and his guys for a few moments on Sunday actually held the No. 11 pick. But after Harrison Butker’s field goal gave the Chiefs a 12-11 lead with 1:01 remaining, Aidan O’Connell stepped up.

The Raiders quarterback quickly hit tight end Michael Mayer on a 21-yard seam and after a short pass to Tyler Lockett, Daniel Carlson nailed a career-long 60-yard field goal to win it for Las Vegas.

The kick dropped Kansas City to 6-11 and secured the No. 9 selection for the Chiefs, their highest selection since taking tackle Eric Fisher No. 1 overall in 2013.

Kansas City finished in a three-way tie with New Orleans and Cincinnati, who each finished 6-11. However, draft-order ties are broken by strength of schedule – the combined winning percentage of a team’s opponents – and the Saints clinched the No. 8 slot earlier Sunday because they played the easier 2025 schedule.

The Chiefs, meanwhile, played an easier schedule than Cincinnati, so Kansas City will select ninth and the Bengals 10th.

Las Vegas, which snapped a 10-game losing streak in beating the Chiefs, owns the No. 1 selection. The Raiders led a quartet of 3-14 teams, and will be followed by the New York Jets, Arizona and Tennessee. The No. 5 selection belongs to the Giants (4-13) followed by Cleveland (5-12) and Washington (5-12) at sixth and seventh.

Chiefs will draft higher in second round

While Kansas City will have to wait until No. 9 to draft in the first round, NFL rules will allow the Chiefs to move up to draft No. 8 in the second round. Teams in tied segments such as New Orleans, Kansas City and Cincinnati alternate their order in subsequent rounds.

In other words, Veach will get two of the top 40 choices – ninth overall in the first round and 40th overall, the eighth choice in Round 2. Then, in the third round, the Chiefs would drop to the 10th choice (74th overall).

“We've got a good nucleus of guys, veteran players,” Reid said. “They'll be back. You want that foundation, and that's where you start. And then you give Brett an opportunity to have the draft picks that he has, and picking where he's picking, he's going to do a great job there.

“And then whatever happens, free-agent wise, or guys we sign or we don't, wherever that goes, you still got a long way to go to add people, and do what you need. So, it'll be a fresh start coming up here.”

Draft capital as of now

Before compensatory awards in March, the Chiefs have only five selections in April: Their own picks in Rounds 1-3, Chicago’s fourth-round selection (in the Joe Thuney trade) and their own pick in the fifth.

Per Over the Cap, the Chiefs are due a compensatory selection at the end of Round 5. Compensatory picks are awarded using a formula that measures net losses in the prior offseason’s unrestricted free agency, and the Saints signing safety Justin Reid will likely lead to that fifth-rounder.

But the Chiefs traded their sixth-rounder to New England as part of the Josh Uche trade. Their seventh-rounder is believed to have gone to Dallas as a condition of the trade for Peyton Hendershot in August 2024.

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