Chiefs GM Brett Veach made a classy move in NFL Draft trade with the Browns that hardly anyone is talking about
The Kansas City Chiefs went up and got their guy with Mansoor Delane in the 2026 NFL Draft, and Brett Veach showed his cards to the Browns to make it happen.
The Kansas City Chiefs kept things close to the vest with what they wanted to do in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft. It was known the Chiefs were looking to trade up from pick No. 9 in the first round, but it wasn’t known they’d be doing so to take LSU CB Mansoor Delane.
Kansas City clearly wanted Delane on its roster badly, and GM Brett Veach was open to showing his cards to make it happen.
Inside detail of the Chiefs’ draft trade with the Browns show how hard KC was targeting Mansoor Delane
According to Yahoo’s Jori Epstein, the Browns needed to know one thing from the Chiefs to make the trade official: whether or not Kansas City would be taking an offensive tackle. Chiefs GM Brett Veach was open with the Browns that Kansas City would be going in a different direction than an offensive tackle.
“There’s a lot of trust between the two front offices, which always helps with these trade conversations,” Berry said, via Yahoo. “We felt like we were able to move down from six to nine, get one of our top three targets … [and] pick up some extra draft capital that we could both use and deploy to maneuver around the board.”
Looking at the Chiefs-Browns trade
- Kansas City received the No. 6 pick in the first-round (CB Mansoor Delane).
- Cleveland received the No. 9 pick in the first-round (OT Spencer Fano), and No. 74 in the third-round.
- The Browns traded out of the No. 74 pick with the Nee York Giants for picks No. 105 (fourth-round) No. 145 (fifth-round), and a 2027 fourth-round pick.
The Browns had three teams interested in trading up to the No. 6 spot and they turned down at least one team due to the offer deemed to be insufficient. Kansas City’s offer of the No. 9 and No. 74 picks is one that Cleveland was comfortable with because they felt that they still would be able to take their top offensive tackle target Spencer Fano.
Berry’s comment of trust between the two front offices shows the professionalism with which Veach and the Chiefs go about their business. It may seem like a given to do, but Veach didn’t have to be truthful with the Browns. The inside detail of the trade speaks to the Chiefs doing business in good faith.
The trade made sense for both sides and very well should work out for both teams as well. Kansas City landed a key secondary piece to build around after losing Trent McDuffie and the Browns drafted their starting left tackle.