Draft the fifth-best offensive tackle with the 31st selection in the first round. Or, wait for big-money tackles to sign on March 12 and pursue who’s left. Those could be the Chiefs’ best options to address their highest priority in the next two months.
Brett Veach and his scouts will earn every penny of their paychecks to find Kansas City’s next offensive tackle. But before anything happens, NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said that the Ronnie Stanley domino will affect a lot of teams, those needing tackles and those looking to trade up for any position in the first round.
“The one thing I would keep an eye on,” Jeremiah told reporters on Thursday, “is if you have some teams with tackle needs, depending on what happens with the Ravens with Ronnie Stanley, they could be one that could potentially move up.
“The Chiefs, depending on where their comfort level is with their roster, left tackle could be an area they could address. So, I try and look at maybe shallow pools and where there would be a need to move up. I would say keep an eye on the offensive-tackle market and maybe that could drive some movement.”
Offensive tackle is a shallow pool in 2025, without a lot of depth outside the first round. Jeremiah’s latest mock draft has five of them off the board in Round 1, concluding with the Chiefs selecting Oregon’s Josh Conerly at No. 31.
The Chiefs aren’t likely to drive movement, either. They have only five picks and figure to only receive a seventh-round compensatory award when the NFL announces them in March. Kansas City currently owns single selections in the first and second rounds, two in the third and one more in the fourth. That’s not a lot of capital to move up for a tackle.
Jeremiah has four teams taking tackles before the Chiefs: LSU’s Will Campbell to New England (No. 4 overall), Kelvin Banks from Texas to Chicago (10), Missouri’s Armand Membou to Indianapolis (14) and Ohio State’s Josh Simmons to Green Bay (23).
While the Chiefs got two solid years (2021-22) from a former Ravens left tackle in Orlando Brown, Kansas City allowed him to sign with Cincinnati in free agency. If and when Stanley becomes a former Ravens left tackle, the Chiefs don’t figure to be in those sweepstakes because they have only $8 million in cap space, according to Over the Cap.
The Broncos and Jaguars recently took their young left tackles off the market by signing Garrett Bolles and Walker Little, respectively, to contract extensions. That leaves Cam Robinson, Tyron Smith, and Alaric Jackson as less-than-ideal cream of the free-agent crop.
The middle rounds of the draft have proven successful in recent years for Veach and staff. If they don’t take Conerly, maybe they’ll surprise by developing a tackle outside the first round.
The Eagles’ Jordan Mailata, for example, entered the NFL in unorthodox fashion. Chiefs offensive line coach Andy Heck is a former left tackle in the NFL and Veach has learned from mistakes and certainly proven his worth in past situations like this. As with any glaring need in any draft, time will tell.