The Kansas City Chiefs made waves this weekend with the report that they wouldn’t offer a contract extension to beloved running back Isiah Pacheco ahead of the 2025 season. That puts massive pressure on Pacheco during a contract year, though it also reveals a clear draft strategy for the team next month.

General manager Brett Veach has always prepared for impending departures. He’ll draft a theoretical replacement a year early, ensure that prospect proves themselves, then move on from the incumbent starter once it’s safe to do so.

It appears that the same is happening with Pacheco, and there’s one obvious mid-round target that the Chiefs need to pick in the 2025 NFL Draft to prepare for Pacheco’s increasingly inevitable departure.

Kansas running back Devin Neal, who grew up in Lawrence roughly 45 minutes outside of Kansas City, is one of the rising stars of this young draft season. He’s the all-time leading rusher in Jayhawks history, surpassing legends like Gale Sayers, and has the type of dual-threat skillset that should make him popular among teams.

The Chiefs rely on versatile running backs. They’ve used Pacheco and Jerrick McKinnon in tandom before and tried to find someone who could both effectively rush and catch passes in drafting Clyde Edwards-Helaire, but they’ve yet to surround Patrick Mahomes with a game-changing back.

We saw the Philadelphia Eagles rely on Saquon Barkley to win a Super Bowl, and now Kansas City needs to find a more reliable every-down back.

As a four-year contributor at Kansas, Neal had 760 carries for 4,343 yards and 49 TDs, adding 711 yards and a pair of scores through the air. He has unique balance, reminding some of a faster Kareem Hunt. While his 4.58 40-yard dash time won’t win him suitors, Neal showed enough on tape to prove that he’s more than capable of handing a large workload.

Hunt didn’t run a blazing 40-yard dash either and still became a productive player. Neal can do the same. His poor time might actually make it easier for the Chiefs to draft him, and selecting him in the fourth round would make a lot of sense based on this class.

For all of the draft ties coming out and early speculation, bringing a local star home to Kansas City at a position of need would benefit the Chiefs now and in the future.