‘Man, if we were just at four’ — Chiefs GM Brett Veach’s recent comments are impossible to ignore with Titans first round draft trade possibility

Could the Titans and Chiefs pull off a blockbuster first round draft trade? Brett Veach’s press conference at the combine is enough to make you wonder…

Charles Goldman, Easton Freeze
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The Kansas City Chiefs lit the NFL world ablaze this week with the blockbuster trade of the offseason. CB Trent McDuffie was shipped off to the Los Angeles Rams for a 2026 1st, 5th, 6th, and 2027 3rd. Now that the dust has settled, everybody is recalibrating their mock draft expectations to theorize on what GM Brett Veach might do with all his new draft ammo.

Tennessee Titans fans couldn’t help but think about the possibility of another first round blockbuster trade that they could pull off with the Chiefs, who have been a very popular connection in mocks to the same players Tennessee has. RB Jeremiyah Love and EDGE Rueben Bain in particular have been mocked to both teams at picks 4 and 9, and armed with the 29th overall pick from the McDuffie trade, the Chiefs could theoretically come up to 4 in a trade-up with their old pal Mike Borgonzi.

Would Kansas City even consider such a thing? I wrote about all the pros and cons of such a massive move (from both perspectives) in an article here if you want to dive into the logic. But this thought experiment brought us back to the second thing Brett Veach said at his Combine presser last week, which is suddenly impossible to ignore.

Brett Veach seemed to like the idea of having Titans’ pick at NFL Combine

Last week, the second answer Veach gave at his podium in Indianapolis carries a bit of a different meaning when you read it back today:

“It’s funny, every year when we were picking 31 and 32, I’d always say, ‘Man, if we were just at (pick) 24 or 25, we’d be exactly where we want to be.’ Now, we’re at nine and I’m like, ‘Man, if we were just at (pick) four (or) five, we’d be exactly where we want to be.”

Pick four or five, you say! Now, it’s important to hear the rest of the answer for full context. Veach goes on to explain that he’s even more excited about what his unusually high draft pick means for Day 2, and that controlling what you can control is what’s most important:

“I think every GM kind of has that mindset where unless you have the first pick, there’s a certain element that you can’t control, and you have to let the dominoes fall, if you will. We’re excited – we don’t want to picking nine every year but we’re excited to add some young talent to this roster and I think even more excitingly, those second and third rounds where we felt like (in) years past, day one would end and we would come in there and there would be five-or-six players but you knew at 32 in round two you wouldn’t get them either. It’s not just the first round; I think we have an opportunity to really capitalize here and add a lot of talent throughout the course of the draft weekend.”

So no, he isn’t leaking that he’s actively pursuing a trade up in the top 10. But you know what falls under the banner of “things you can control”? Trades! And in a moment of honesty, I think it is fair to say he expressed legitimate interest in having a higher pick in the first. Or at the very least, a legitimate desire to get his hands on one of the players likely to be taken just out of his reach.

Again, click here to dive into all the consequences of what this trade would bring to both parties. But I reached out to A to Z Sports Chiefs writer Charles Goldman for his two cents on whether the team he knows best would even consider such a thing. Here’s what he said:

“The two biggest problem areas for Kansas City during the 2025 NFL season were their pass rush and running backs. The Chiefs also stand at a bit of a crossroads during free agency with players who fit in this bucket. The players atop the running back list are the type of players they desperately need, but they also don’t value the position that highly. I don’t see them handing out top-of-market money to Seahawks RB Kenneth Walker or Jaguars RB Travis Etienne Jr. if they command it. They’ll stick to their guns and have a pretty firm limit in terms of how much they’re willing to spend. I also have a hard time seeing them handing out a big contract to an edge rusher or interior defensive lineman when they already have a ton of money wrapped up in Chris Jones and George Karlaftis.

Chiefs GM Brett Veach prefers to get the roster ready to play a game in free agency and go into the draft without holes, but I am not sure that’s realistic this year with all of the needs this team has. I can certainly see a scenario where the Chiefs miss out on adding a player at one of those two positions during free agency, which would prompt some urgency to move up to get “their guy.” I’d also wager it’d be more likely for Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love than it would be for an edge rusher or D-Lineman, knowing that there are some other options at the end of Round 1 that could make sense for what Steve Spagnuolo likes. Veach has proven time and time again that he’s not afraid of moving up and down the draft board. Really, it’s just a matter of whether the right set of circumstances prompts him to do so.”

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