This Mock Draft Gives the Chiefs Exactly What They Need

Jul 22, 2025; St. Joseph, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach walks down the hill to the fields during training camp at Missouri Western State University. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images Denny Medley-Imagn Images

This Mock Draft Gives the Chiefs Exactly What They Need

Originally posted on Kansas City Chiefs on SI
By Michael Canelo | Last updated Dec 15, 2025 11:30 AM ET

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The Kansas City Chiefs will have to address a lot on this team this upcoming offseason. That could be sooner than later for this franchise, which has a slim chance of making the playoffs this season. That is something that is going to shock a lot of people if it happens.

And it is looking like it is. The Chiefs are having a down year, and they look like a team that is still trying to figure it out on both sides of the ball, and that is something that you do not want to see from a team at this point in the season.

The Chiefs have not played their best brand of football this season. They had sparks here and there on the offensive side, and what it could look like. But at the end of the day, it just has not been consistent. Now they find themselves on the outside looking in at a playoff spot. Even if they win out, they will need a lot of things to go wrong for other teams to get in. It could be a whole reset and maybe one they need. It is not easy for any team to do what the Chiefs have been doing.

Denny Medley-Imagn Images

Maybe it is time to blow it up on the offense side and take a look at what you could do better and get the help that star quarteback Patrick Mahomes needs. Over the last few seasons, the Chiefs have run it back with mostly the same wide receiver core. That was something Mahomes trusted coming into the season. The way that unit has played, it has not been good, and that calls for the Chiefs to look elsewhere to make the right adjustments to make this offense go again.

They could get that help in the 2026 NFL Draft. The Chiefs could have a better pick than previously, and that could land them a big-time young wide receiver.

Denny Medley-Imagn Images

Recent Chiefs 2026 1st Round Mock Draft

Rob Rang of FOX Sports has the Chiefs taking one of the best wide receivers coming out of college in the first round.

14. Kansas City Chiefs (6-7): Makai Lemon, WR, USC

Like Jackson with the Ravens a pick earlier, the critics are seemingly lining up to attack Patrick Mahomes and the suddenly pedestrian Kansas City passing attack. A few years ago, the Chiefs invested a second-round pick on Skyy Moore with the hopes that his versatility could take their offense to another level . Lemon is an upgraded version of that idea, offering the elusiveness, breakaway speed and grit to resurrect one of the league’s most dangerous passing attacks.