Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri University all offer promising football players in this year’s NFL draft so which homegrown talents should Brett Veach, Andy Reid and the Chiefs front office be looking at with some of their picks?

The Kansas City Chiefs are lucky enough to reside within close distance of three major universities with differing types of football teams and talents.

With that comes a great opportunity for Kansas City coaches and front office members to get a closer look at some possible future Chiefs.

This year’s NFL Draft offers quite a few different local “homegrown” players from Kansas University, Kansas State University, and Missouri, including a few first-round talents that the Chiefs would be blessed to have if they were to fall to #31.

Let’s look at some local products who should be on the Chiefs’ radar this offseason (with a surprise at the end).

Cobee Bryant – CB, Kansas Jayhawks

The Chiefs have worked wonders with their recent draft picks in the secondary.

Just look at L’Jarius Sneed, who fell to the 4th round in 2020, or focus your attention on Trent McDuffie, who will likely be the highest-paid defensive back in the league soon.

Other selections under Veach have shown glimpses of greatness, but bringing Bryant into the mix would give Steve Spagnuolo a fun new toy to torment quarterbacks with all over the field.

Bryant’s size (6’0″, 175 lbs) isn’t anything to write home about, but the 3x First-Team All-Big 12 corner has plenty of attributes that Spagnuolo would utilize in a heartbeat.

For starters, Bryant’s durability through four years (10+ games every season) has shown he can stay healthy and on the field, which is a huge plus. He’s good-to-great in man coverage and was heavily reliable against number-one receivers.

He has shown he knows how to tackle—and, more importantly, wrap up—which will hopefully help reduce the number of missed tackles that Kansas City racked up last season (15th-most in the league). It’s also nice to see a DB that isn’t afraid to make a big hit nowadays (below).

Finally, Bryant’s ability to track the ball outshines all of his other traits and should give Reid and Spagnuolo hope that he can cover the likes of Tee Higgins when McDuffie is on Ja’Marr Chase, or when he lines up against Jaylen Waddle while McDuffie blankets Tyreek Hill. And, if need be, he has shown he can make the theatrical plays and interceptions when targeted:

Luther Burden III – WR, Missouri Tigers

This might be the most obvious desire for Chiefs fans—as well as players like Patrick Mahomes—but there is a real possibility that Burden III could fall to the Chiefs late in the first round.

Burden is a five-star recruit who has played significant snaps at both slot and outside receiver, doing serious damage at both positions throughout his time as a Tiger just 120 miles from Arrowhead.

Burden earned First-Team All-SEC during the last two seasons in black and gold, mainly as a slot receiver, in large part due to his big-play ability and the burst of acceleration that he shows on almost every offensive series.

Even though Burden doesn’t have the speed of Tyreek Hill, he ran a 4.41-second 40-yard dash at the 2025 Combine and has precise cutting and decision-making that the former Chief used to show off all the time.

Burden III to the Chiefs would give them one of the scariest young trios of wide receivers (Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy) that Veach would not have to start paying top dollar for until at least 2027.

But, as many have predicted, Burden III will likely be one of the first receivers drafted and will be off the board by #31 … but we can all hope, right?

D.J. Giddens – RB, Kansas State Wildcats

This draft might be one of the best running back drafts in modern NFL history, so one name that is going underneath everyone’s radar is K-State’s D.J. Giddens. Giddens, who had 1,200+ rushing yards in both of the last two seasons, would create the dynamic one-two punch in the backfield that Kansas City hasn’t had since Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson back in 2004–06.

Every Chiefs running back returning (Isiah Pacheco, Kareem Hunt, Carson Steele) can be identified as a “power back” by their running style.

All three like to run over their opponents, while Giddens has the shiftiness and quick feet to run around the defense in front of him.

At 6’0″, 212 lbs, with a 40-yard dash time of 4.43 seconds at the Combine, Giddens would provide electric, new, fresh legs to the running back room, which is hampered with injury-prone players in Pacheco and newly acquired Elijah Mitchell.

Much like K-State’s superstar back of the past, Darren Sproles, Giddens has great vision for the field and can turn on a dime while dropping a few tacklers along the way, much like he did against Colorado this past season:

Giddens has some great traits like instinctually falling forward, keeping a high center of gravity, and displaying amazing contact balance, but his downside will be in the passing game, where he will have to grow significantly as a pass catcher and a pass protector.

With that said, there will be a handful of running backs in this year’s draft that will come to surprise people, and Giddens is poised to be one of those guys.

A possible mid-round pickup would be great for both Giddens and Kansas City, especially since the top of the running back class will be highly coveted in the first 30 picks anyway.

Devin Neal – RB, Kansas Jayhawks

Another running back from around Kansas City—and another running back that will likely be forgotten about after the likes of Ashton Jeanty and Omarion Hampton are off the board.

Neal stayed his senior year at Kansas—amassing 1,000 yards for the third straight season—and although he could have been a more coveted running back in last year’s draft, he didn’t lose much draft stock with the way he played.

Neal had 34 total touchdowns over the last two seasons, gaining 1,260+ yards on the ground in both as well.

He finished last season with 105.5 yards per game, just two spots and six yards per game behind K-State’s Giddens (above). Needless to say, he was a workhorse for Kansas, but he never stopped running and ended up with the most rushing yards in team history.

Neal also proved how patient he can be in the backfield, often waiting for a wide-enough hole to open up before squeezing through and accelerating instantly—much like early in Le’Veon Bell’s career. He’s also one of the better pass-catching running backs (see below) in this year’s draft, which would pair seamlessly with Reid’s playbook and Mahomes’ ability to create plays.

Very similarly to Giddens, Neal will likely be the running back in the locker room that avoids tackles rather than breaks them. The breakaway speed helps him tremendously once the tacklers are behind him, but he will have to buck up before being an early-down back for Reid and Matt Nagy.

If Neal even falls to the third round, the Chiefs would be right to snap him up and move him just up the road from his home in Lawrence, Kansas. He would instantly improve the running back room and could learn how to be more physical from the veterans in the room, who all show their physicality every single game.

Honorable Mention: Tyler Lockett – WR, Kansas State Wildcats

Even though Tyler Lockett is a ten-year veteran, not an incoming rookie, he would still be a great addition on a team-friendly deal before or after the NFL Draft in Green Bay.

Lockett, who’s father Kevin Lockett was picked in the second round back in 1997, dominated during his four years in Manhattan and then showed his reliability over ten seasons in Seattle.

Only during his first three years in the league (2015–17) did Lockett not start at least 14 games, largely thanks to his tendency to fall to the ground rather than be taken out by defenders at full speed. During all those 14-, 15-, and 16-game seasons (plus the five postseasons), Lockett was known for his ball-tracking downfield and his insane toe-tap catches that usually ended up in six points:

A full season in the receiver room with Lockett’s veteran presence and knowledge could do wonders for the sustainability of Rice, Worthy, and Marquise “Hollywood” Brown.

Not only that, his ties to Kansas City, Blue Springs, and Manhattan might make him take a more veteran-laced deal to help the Chiefs out.

It’s also worth noting that Lockett’s younger brother, Sterling, is currently playing wide receiver in Manhattan for the Wildcats, where every Lockett has played before him.

All in all, Lockett would be a fun story for at least a season, and he could easily be what many fans believed DeAndre Hopkins was going to be at the end of last season.

If not, then a veteran of the game was able to play in the same uniform his father played in and was able to pass extensive knowledge to the Chiefs’ pass-catchers… that’s a win-win situation.