The Kansas City Chiefs will receive draft pick compensation for the Chicago Bears’ hiring of front office executive Ryan Poles for their general manager vacancy.
In November of 2020, the NFL approved its plan to reward teams for developing minority head coaching and general manager candidates. Teams that lose a minority assistant coach or personnel executive who becomes a head coach or general manager for another team receive third-round compensatory picks in each of the next two drafts. That means Kansas City will receive a third-round pick in 2022 and a third-round pick in 2023 (the year they host the draft). They could earn an additional third-round pick if Eric Bieniemy were to land a job as a head coach this offseason.
Remember, the Chiefs also sent a 2022 conditional sixth-round draft pick to the Steelers for Melvin Ingram. They also traded another sixth-round draft pick to the Minnesota Vikings in the Mike Hughes trade, acquiring a seventh-round draft pick in the process. The sixth-round expected to be sent to Pittsburgh was acquired from the Baltimore Ravens in the Orlando Brown Jr. trade.
With all of that in mind here is a look at the draft picks that the Chiefs currently hold in the 2022 NFL draft:
- Round 1, Pick ?? (No. 32 if the season ended today based on playoffs seeding)
- Round 2, Pick ??
- Round 3, Pick ??
- Round 3, Pick ?? (Compensatory pick for Ryan Poles)
- Round 4, Pick ??
- Round 7, Pick ?? (via Minnesota in Mike Hughes trade)
- Round 7, Pick ??
- Round 7, Pick ?? (Las Vegas via New England in Yasir Durant trade)
As of today, Kansas City has two dozen players scheduled to hit unrestricted free agency at the onset of the new league year on March 16. They’ll have to do some work in the draft to grab some players to help replace some of those losses.
Don’t be surprised to see Brett Veach manufacture some trades with these picks, even possibly trading their late first-rounder for a proven veteran as he did last season. Six seems to be the sweet spot for Veach, as he’s selected just six players each year dating back to his first NFL draft running the front office in 2018.
