The Kansas City Chiefs made a small splash during the first-round of the 2024 NFL Draft when they traded up four spots to grab Xavier Worthy, but the former Texas receiver wasn't their main target in the first round.
According to The Athletic, the Chiefs were looking to make a big splash in the opening round of the draft by trading up at least 10 spots so that they could land Georgia offensive lineman Amarius Mims.
Midway through the first round, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach and assistant general manager Mike Borgonzi were calling around to try and make a deal happen, but they gave up on the potential trade after Mims got selected by the Cincinnati Bengals with the 18th overall pick.
So not only did the Chiefs lose out on Mims, but they lost out on him to one of their bitterest AFC rivals.
It's an interesting nugget from the draft, because it tells you how serious the Chiefs were about trying to improve their offensive line. The Chiefs had Donovan Smith at left tackle last season, but he's no longer with the team. Mims played right tackle in college and according to The Athletic, some NFL teams believe he can play left tackle and it's possible the Chiefs were looking to draft him to play that spot.
After losing out on Mims, the Chiefs ended up using their second-round pick on an offensive lineman by taking Kingsley Suamataia out of BYU at 63rd overall. Right now, Wanya Morris is penciled in as the starter at left tackle for Kansas City, but Suamataia will almost certainly be given a chance to win the job in training camp. The upside for the Chiefs is that Suamataia can play right or left tackle, so they can put him in the spot that makes the most sense for them.
Although the Chiefs didn't land Mims in the first-round, they get the next best thing: A speedy weapon for Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs ended up trading from 32nd overall to 28th overall in a deal with the Bills, which allowed them to get Worthy, who set the NFL combine record for fastest 40 with a 4.21 time earlier this year.
The Chiefs might not have gotten they guy they were targeting in the first-round, but they still ended up with a solid draft haul with Pete Prisco giving their overall class an 'A' grade.
If the Chiefs had pulled off the trade to get Mims, it would have been the biggest first-round draft day trade of the year, but instead, that honor went to the Minnesota Vikings, who traded up six spots (from 23rd to 17th) to land Dallas Turner.
