Let this be a lesson in humility for us all.
It only took a handful of picks for most projections for the 2026 NFL Draft to fall apart. But when it came to predicting what the Kansas City Chiefs might do, well, let's just say that very few saw this coming.
With their first overall selection in the '26 draft, the Chiefs decided to flip extra picks from the third and fifth rounds to the Cleveland Browns, along with No. 9 overall, to move up three spots and grab LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane at No. 6. Just like that, scores of mock drafts floated over the last several months deflated just as quickly as they circulated, demolishing the hopes of any fan or analyst who thought they had things figured out.
On the surface, the Delane pick should have made more sense. He was the best available prospect at a position at which the Chiefs were shockingly thin. The departures in the secondary were hard to stomach in free agency, along with the trade of Trent McDuffie, and the Chiefs had Kristian Fulton and Nohl Williams as their starters outside coming into the draft. That was never going to hold up.
The first night of the 2026 NFL Draft was quite humbling for anyone who thought they knew what Brett Veach was thinking.
At the same time, most fans also thought that the Chiefs could get by with lesser investments than a top-10 cornerback selection after years of watching the likes of L'Jarius Sneed or Charvarius Ward climb from low-level prospect to above-average starter. After several seasons being spoiled by a sneaky good draft-and-develop pipeline, the Chiefs knew this offseason's losses in the secondary were too great to ignore.
If Kansas City had stayed at No. 9, they could have landed Bain without a problem. When they moved up to No. 6, they could have leaped the New Orleans Saints for the sake of Tyson. As it turns out, Veach spurned both players to grab the player he wanted most.
By the time the Chiefs turned in their second draft card of the night—a worthwhile investment in Clemson defensive tackle Peter Woods—any notion that fans had even a decent read on what Brett Veach wanted to do in this year's draft fell by the wayside. Some drafts might prove differently, but the '26 edition shows that no one outside of Arrowhead really had any idea where the Chiefs might be going this spring.