Here’s how Kansas City Chiefs can replicate success of last year’s draft

The Chiefs have won two Super Bowls in the past four years, and on face of it, you’ll probably recognize the similarities first. Like, say, the quarterback, his favorite weapon and their head coach.

But let’s take a moment to talk about the differences. Like, say, how the front office built those teams.

When the Chiefs broke a half-century championship drought in 2019, they did it with Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones, same as they would four years later, to be sure — except in that season, they represented a minority in one category.

Homegrown players. Just 39.6% of the team’s 53-man roster that season began their careers in Kansas City, as those three did.

Contrast that to four years later, when the Chiefs would hoist the Lombardi Trophy again, and that homegrown number jumped to 60.4%. More than half the roster.

The takeaway is that the Chiefs have thrived in drafting and developing recently, and there’s probably no better example than last season. (That doesn’t necessarily mean they will thrive next week, when the NFL Draft hits downtown KC. In fact, a decade from now, we might still be looking at that 2022 class as this front office’s best work.)

But there’s a specific lesson to be gained from why that class proved so successful. A model to follow, if you will, for next week.

Once the draft moves into the middle and especially the later rounds, that’s where the Chiefs can separate themselves. It’s where they have separated themselves in the past three years — L’Jarius Sneed (fourth round) and Michael Danna (fifth) in 2020; Noah Gray (fourth) and Trey Smith (sixth) in 2021; Joshua Williams (fourth), Jaylen Watson (seventh) and Isiah Pacheco (seventh) in 2022.

How? They ignored a league tendency to marry their draft board only to specific roster needs on the final day of the draft. They just took the guys they labeled the best football players.

The former is undoubtedly the lure of the opening rounds, given the expectation of immediate impact. But the Chiefs have the luxury of having a roster with less glaring problems, and the accompanying advantage is versatility.

Use it.

I asked Chiefs general manager Brett Veach about this Thursday, and he replied, “I think it’s working with the premium positions, and it’s also working with numbers.” He would add, “I think it’s just a matter of working through all of the information that the board kind of explains to you.”

In a pre-draft news conference in which general managers have precisely zero motivation to reveal classified blueprints, that was Veach’s most revealing statement — the one that offered some clues into how the Chiefs might navigate the back end of the draft.

He identified some potential late-round targets — premium positions, and deep positions in this particular class.

While so many teams continue to target positions of necessity, even late in drafts, the Chiefs should follow a different path. Throw the needs out of the window. Just grab the best value. That’s the real takeaway from last year.

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve pinpointed the roster’s most pressing needs (offensive tackle, edge rusher, wide receiver and defensive tackle). As the draft ages into the older rounds next weekend — fourth round and later — forget all of that.

There can be a rich-get-richer flavor to those rounds, but only if you treat it as such.

So where might that lead them?

Well, this year’s overall draft class is considered perhaps deepest at cornerback and tight end. Those are the spots that could offer the best late-round value. Those are not spots in which the Chiefs should be desperate to add some players. They have three cornerbacks heading into just their second season, and another cornerback named L’Jarius Sneed. You know the tight end.

Shouldn’t matter.

The Chiefs didn’t need a running back a year ago at this time, not most immediately anyway, but it was considered the deepest position group in the draft. The consequence is that only so many teams think they want a running back, and some talent falls later than it should.

As the seventh round rolled around, there remained a guy on the board who the Chiefs had graded as a fourth- or fifth-round talent. The Chiefs took him. And a player they didn’t know they really needed started in the Super Bowl, led the game in rushing and ran for a touchdown.

Again, the luxury of a championship roster.

Don’t worry about where you add as much as whom you add.

Oh, and they also grabbed a cornerback in the seventh round last season even though they’d already used not one but two picks earlier in that same draft on cornerbacks. Jaylen Watson played 31 snaps in the Super Bowl.

The two examples have the same outcome.

But different lessons.

The Chiefs pounced on a deep position group, just as tight end and cornerback will be labeled this year. And they also stacked one very specific position group to ensure somehow, someway they improved there.

They can follow that model once more.

Too often teams assume they’ve already addressed a position by using a first- or second-day pick on one — inexplicably ignoring that, you know what, not all rookies transform into the players you’d like them to be.

Veach’s quote offers clues as to how the Chiefs can be moving in the later rounds. Two of the aforementioned needs happen to overlap what Veach calls premium positions — offensive line and defensive line. The Chiefs’ right tackle position is a question mark. The entire defensive line — edge and tackle — could use some help.

If the Chiefs happen to address one (or both) spot early, don’t cross it off the board. Throw numbers at a problem. On the D-line, coordinator Steve Spagnuolo adequately rotates players in the game. It’s fine to grab an extra. Or two. They’ll be used — just like all three cornerbacks from last year’s draft class were used.

Same goes for the O-line. I don’t need to remind you why the 2020 Super Bowl ended the way it did. And in the short-term, if everyone is healthy, let the best guy win the job. Doesn’t hurt to add competition.

That’s long been the cliche you’ll hear from a lot of teams — add competition. Instead, they add to spots they perceive as bare.

The Chiefs ought to follow through on it. Because they can afford to follow through on it.