As a lead-up to the 2024 NFL draft, we've broken down the current depth chart of every NFL team and identified the biggest draft and team needs for the Kansas City Chiefs.
You can find additional team-by-team draft needs articles and other draft content on our 2024 NFL Draft Hub.
Who Did the Kansas City Chiefs Select in the 2024 NFL Draft?
The Kansas City Chiefs selected Xavier Worthy (WR, Texas) with the No. 28 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
The Chiefs also selected:
- Kingsley Suamataia (OT, BYU)
- Jared Wiley (TE, TCU)
- Jaden Hicks (S, Washington State)
- Hunter Nourzad (C, Penn State)
- Kamal Hadden (CB, Tennessee)
- C.J. Hanson (OG, Holy Cross)
Kansas City Chiefs Needs: Top Positions of Need in 2024
- Offensive Tackle
- Wide Receiver
- Defensive Line
What Picks Do the Kansas City Chiefs Have in 2024?
The Kansas City Chiefs have 7 picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, including:
- Round 1 (32)
- Round 2 (64)
- Round 3 (95)
- Round 4 (131)
- Round 5 (159)
- Round 5 (173)
- Round 7 (221)
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Kansas City Chiefs Draft Capital Stats
Our Sharp Draft Value Rank is a valuation of draft capital based on a combination of average performance delivered and average dollars earned on second contracts.
This is based on two public models: performance delivered based on draft slot (the AV model created by Chase Stuart) and contractual earnings in non-rookie deals based upon draft slot (the OTC model created by Brad Spielberger and Jason Fitzgerald).
- Chiefs Sharp Draft Value Rank: 28 of 32 teams
- Chiefs AV Model Draft Value Rank: 28 of 32 teams
- Chiefs OTC Model Draft Value Rank: 27 of 32 teams
Kansas City Chiefs Draft Value vs. Other Teams:
The Chiefs’ draft value is 22% lower than the league average of all 32 teams. 27 other teams have more draft value entering the 2024 NFL Draft.
Kansas City Chiefs Draft Prediction:
Brendan Donahue has the Chiefs selecting Kingsley Suamataia (OL, BYU) with the 32nd overall pick in his most recent 2024 NFL Mock Draft.
Mock draft expert Ryan McCrystal believes the Chiefs could target a wide receiver like Xavier Worthy (WR, Texas) with their top pick at No. 32 overall in the first round.
Kansas City Chiefs Strength of Schedule, 2024
The Kansas City Chiefs have the 12th-easiest NFL strength of schedule for the 2024 NFL season.
Kansas City Chiefs Offense: Depth Chart, Analysis & Draft Needs
Rich Hribar breaks down the offensive depth chart by position for the Kansas City Chiefs, identifying areas where the team could improve in the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft.
Quarterback Depth Chart, Chiefs:
- Patrick Mahomes
- Carson Wentz
- Ian Book
- Chris Oladokun
Patrick Mahomes had an “off year” by his career standards.
Mahomes threw a career-high 14 interceptions while posting career-lows in touchdown rate (4.5%), yards per pass attempt (7.0 Y/A), yards per completion (10.4), and passing yards per game (261.4).
He closed the season 10th in EPA per dropback (0.07) and 10th in success rate (45.2%).
On throws 10 yards or further downfield, Mahomes was 28th in the NFL in rating (65.1).
He completed just 45.8% of those passes with two touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Despite giving the league a chance last season compared to his prior career output, that still did not stop the Chiefs from making their fourth Super Bowl appearance over the past five seasons and winning their third championship over that span.
The Chiefs have made six consecutive AFC Title games since turning to Mahomes as their starting quarterback.
Mahomes is signed through the 2031 season, but after this season the Chiefs will have to work around a major jump in Mahomes’s current contract.
He will carry a $37.0 million cap hit in 2024, but then that spikes up to $66.3 million in 2025, $68.7 million in 2026, and $64.8 million in 2027.
We will see how the roster is impacted by those lofty cap hits or if the team and Mahomes come to another arrangement that moves money around.
Behind Mahomes, the Chiefs added Carson Wentz as an experienced option for a team in a dynasty arc.
Running Back Depth Chart, Chiefs:
- Isiah Pacheco
- Clyde Edwards-Helaire
- La’Mical Perine
- Keaontay Ingram
- Deneric Prince
- Hassan Hall
- Louis Rees-Zammit
The Kansas City run game was below the fold last season.
Their running backs combined to rank:
- 17th in yards per carry (4.1 YPC)
- 25th in success rate (33.8%)
- 23rd in the rate of runs to gain 10 or more yards (8.2%)
- 20th in yards after contact per rush (2.74)
Their backs did come in ninth in rate of runs to result in a first down or touchdown (23.6%).
Building on the way he finished his rookie season in 2022, Isiah Pacheco turned 249 touches into 1,179 yards and nine touchdowns over 14 games in his second season.
Pacheco has been a mixed bag as a runner in the NFL, but the top-down results are there.
Already getting over 2,000 total yards and 14 touchdowns through two seasons of a seventh-round pick is a net win, regardless of how he got there.
In 2023, Pacheco ranked 25th among running backs in success rate as a runner (37.1%) and 24th in explosive run rate (9.8%).
Pacheco is on the books for peanuts the next two seasons tied into his late-round draft capital, set to make $1.0 million in 2024 and $1.1 million in 2025.
The Chiefs do not have to force the issue, but we should still look for them to add something here.
The remaining backs on the roster are largely nondescript, and all are only under contract for this upcoming season.
Kansas City has already used a few of their pre-draft visits on Jonathon Brooks and Cody Shrader.
They have also used a visit on Carson Steele, who fits an archetype that typically moves to fullback or remains a power back only.
The Chiefs have not used a primary fullback since 2022, but Andy Reid has utilized one in all of his prior offenses while the Chiefs have had some of their worst success running the ball the past two seasons.
Wide Receiver Depth Chart, Chiefs:
- Rashee Rice
- Marquise Brown
- Skyy Moore
- Kadarius Toney
- Anthony Miller
- Shi Smith
- Montrell Washington
- Cornell Powell
- Justyn Ross
- Nikko Remigio
- Jacob Copeland
- Izaiah Gathings
This once again was a soft spot for the offense.
Kansas City targeted their wide receivers 53.3% of the time, which was 29th in the league.
Their wideouts combined to average 11.8 yards per catch (23rd) with 13 touchdowns (20th).
The group also was credited with 20 drops, which was 29th in the league.
Things were not all bad, however.
After a draft drought hitting on wide receivers, Rashee Rice found a consistent role later into his rookie season and never looked back.
Through 10 games, Rice was the best wideout on the team per opportunity but had yet to lock in consistent snaps.
He was averaging a team-high 2.21 yards per route run over that stretch but had only run a route on 44.5% of the team dropbacks and received 12.6% of the team targets.
Over the final 10 games, Rice jumped up to 2.59 yards per route run in a larger role. He ran a route on 69.4% of the team dropbacks with a 23.9% share of the team targets to close the year.
He had at least 19.0% of the team targets in each of the final 10 games of the season with over 25.0% of the targets in seven of those 10 games.
By the end of the season, Rice caught 79 passes for 938 yards and seven touchdowns in the regular season, adding another 26 catches for 262 yards and a touchdown in the postseason.
Rice found his niche producing after the catch.
70.8% of his receiving yards came after the catch, the highest rate among qualifying wide receivers.
Rice only averaged 4.6 air yards per target, ahead of only Parris Campbell and Kadarius Toney.
83.7% of his targets as a rookie were fewer than 10 yards downfield, which led the league.
While that could be viewed as something unstable moving forward. Rice caught a ton of screens in college. The Chiefs found where Rice succeeded and used him in that capacity to maximum effectiveness.
There is room for Rice’s route tree and role to expand.
He does face legal trouble following a hit and run that will likely result in “at least a multi-game suspension” according to Adam Schefter.
It remains to be seen how the legal issues will play out and when that suspension will happen, but the situation adds urgency to the Chiefs finding another receiver.
The Chiefs released Marquez Valdes-Scantling this offseason but also went out and added Marquise Brown on a one-year deal.
Brown did not live up to the compensation he was traded for in Arizona, posting 709 and 574 receiving yards over 24 games the past two seasons.
He is coming off a career-low 41.0 receiving yards per game, and his 3.6 receptions per game were his fewest since 2020.
Brown did still provide fleeting moments of success in Arizona, and the drop-off in production there was not completely his doing.
21.6% of Brown’s targets in Arizona were deemed inaccurate per TruMedia. No wide receiver with as many overall targets over that span has a higher inaccurate target rate.
Over his two seasons in Arizona, Brown played with six different quarterbacks. None of them were the caliber of Patrick Mahomes.
Even if Brown cannot fully resurrect his early career success and pedigree, his presence should aid Mahomes.
Since entering the NFL, Brown has averaged 23.4 yards per touchdown catch.
The only players with more receiving touchdowns and a higher average over that span are Ja’Marr Chase (32.3), Tyreek Hill (28.4), and A.J. Brown (27.7).
Since Hill left Kansas City, the Chiefs have had a hole in their offense creating splash-play touchdowns.
Over the past two seasons, Mahomes averaged 9.5 yards per touchdown pass in 2023 (ahead of Bryce Young) and 12.2 yards in 2022 (29th in the league).
Mahomes has 10 passing touchdowns from outside of the red zone the past two seasons (16th in the league) after having 56 of those scores in 2018-2021, the most in the league.
Brown is only under contract for one season, so we should not consider him a fix for this part of the roster but rather a band-aid.
They have a ton of warm bodies filling out their depth chart, but Rice is still the only potential long-term contributor that the Chiefs have signed for multiple seasons.
Rice, Skyy Moore, and Nikko Remigio are their only wide receivers signed beyond 2024, and I am not even sure the last name is a real player.
Pre Order the Best Analytical 2024 Football Preview
Don't miss out on Warren Sharp's 500+ page preview of the 2024 NFL season.
The preview is unlike anything you have ever seen, featuring stunning visualizations built with the reader in mind.
This preview shares insights into players, coaches, teams, and philosophies with one goal in mind: to prepare you for the 2024 NFL season by delivering the smartest information in the fastest, most direct way possible.
