Chiefs GM Brett Veach on positions with most depth in 2021 NFL draft
While Kansas City Chiefs GM Brett Veach is focused on the NFL’s upcoming free agency period, he’s also continuously preparing for the 2021 NFL draft. The team is getting to know all of the players in virtual pre-draft meetings and they’re beginning to put together a preliminary draft board.
With each draft class, comes a new set of strengths and weaknesses in terms of the players and position groups available. So what are some of the positions that Veach expects to have the most depth in this upcoming class? One of the groups that he thinks is filled with talent is the wide receiver position.
“We just finished what would have been our pre-combine meetings this past weekend and getting through the board,” Veach told reporters on Monday. “I think every year you’re going to have receivers because every team seems to have two or three of those guys so there’s definitely some depth at the wide receivers position.”
Veach feels the number of receivers coming out for the draft has something to do with the prevalence of the passing game and the need for receivers in college football today. It seems like every year since he’s been in charge, there has been a good or great crop of receivers. This year doesn’t seem to be much different, especially at the top of the draft.
The receiver position group isn’t the only one that stands out to Veach in this class, though.
“I would say the two positions that really jump out at you would be the offensive line and the cornerback position,” Veach continued. “I think those are the two positions that kind of just, when you look at the board, they kind of just scream at you that there’s depth there. Really from rounds one through three, one through four and they’ll go quick even if there are numbers there. By the time you blink your eyes, you’ll get into the middle or late round two, all those numbers that you saw that we joke about every year, ‘wow there’s so many linemen’, but when you take 31 or 32 every year, by the time you get to 31, they’re all gone. That’s just the way it works, but just want to share from a numbers standpoint, I think the offensive line is really deep, I think the cornerback position is deep and the receiver position has some value in the middle and late rounds.”
Chiefs fans are probably happy to learn that Veach finds this a strong crop of offensive linemen. Everyone seems to believe that the Chiefs need to make some future investments in the position group after the disastrous outcome of Super Bowl LV. The cornerback spot is also one that is perenially considered a need in Kansas City. This year, with a starter in Bashaud Breeland, expected to hit unrestricted free agency, they could take advantage of the depth at the position.
There’s another position that Veach believes has some good depth too.
“Quarterback looks to be a pretty good class,” Veach said. “But I can’t anticipate drafting a quarterback, certainly earlier anyway.”
While the Chiefs don’t figure to take a quarterback in the draft, that could be important when it comes to landing the player they want at the end of the first round. The more quarterbacks that are drafted early, the likelier it is that their top choice falls to them at No. 31.
With depth and value to be had at the positions Veach outlined, there also comes a lack of depth at other position groups. Areas of need for Kansas City such as tight end, edge defender, linebacker, and safety might be a little more difficult to track down as they get deeper into the class.
“O-line, corners and receivers, I think looks pretty good,” Veach reiterated. “Everywhere else, is a little bit thinner, some positions may be thinner than in years past so there will be a little bit more work to do to see if you can build up the numbers and identify talent later on in the draft.”
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