Kansas City Chiefs 2023 NFL Draft Profile

Time Stamp: April 10, 2023 3:08 PM

The 2023 NFL Draft begins on Thursday, April 27 as the first round picks are announced. The second and third rounds take place on Friday, and the whole thing wraps up with the fourth through seventh rounds on Saturday. TGH will be taking a quick look at the first few picks for some teams, and shedding some light on what direction they will go. Here is the Kansas City Chiefs NFL Draft profile for 2023.

Team Needs

The Chiefs still don’t have a ton of glaring needs even after losing players post-Super Bowl win. One could argue their biggest needs lie at wide receiver and defensive tackle, due to the departures of players like JuJu Smith-Schuster and Frank Clark. They’ve also had major departures at offensive line, which were stemmed a bit by the signing of Jawaan Taylor.

First Round

Pick #31: Nolan Smith, EDGE, Georgia

Kansas City’s first pick is interesting, because given their rock solid status at most positions, they could either trade up to get a splashy player or trade down for more chances to hit on another Isaiah Pacheco-like flier.

Assuming they do not trade out of this spot, though, Nolan Smith could be their guy. His freakish performance at the NFL Draft Combine may excite teams enough to overdraft him (ahem… Green Bay Packers), but he could very realistically fall to them given the vast amount of talent in the first round.

Smith is a true ball-pursuit kind of edge rusher. If he can get off of his block during a long-developing pass play, his speed can get him there. If it’s a short pass, he can get to the receiver quickly, whether he’s close or not. Pairing him with Karlaftis, who’s still developing, could create a game-changing pass rush in 2023.

Second Round

Pick #63: Luke Musgrave, TE, Oregon State

Musgrave has been discussed in these draft profiles before. As said in the Packers’ mock draft, his numbers aren’t eye popping, especially in 2022, but that might be due to scheme and lack of utilization by his then-quarterback.

Tight end seems like a luxury pick for a team that already has Travis Kelce, but the Chiefs have to start preparing for his eventual departure. He can already block more efficiently than Kelce does, and it’ll be beneficial to pair the two together. Musgrave could be a dual threat kind of guy in just a few years.

Third Round

Pick #95: Tyler Steen, OT, Alabama

The Chiefs could take one of a bunch of receivers that will likely be available in the third round with the 95th pick. Trey Palmer, Xavier Hutchinson and Michael Wilson, just to name a few. But, given that this mock has them taking a project pass-catcher, here they’re going to go with a tackle.

Jawaan Taylor, who was grabbed in free agency from the Jacksonville Jaguars is reportedly moving to left tackle after mostly playing right tackle in his NFL career. So, Tyler Steen could be a good pick as he has lots of experience on the right for a top-tier NFL team. It’s about as simple as that. It adds depth, and, if Kansas City is lucky, he could start right away.

Stay tuned for more breaking NFL content, including midseason moves, contract updates and more news from every team.

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