The Kansas City Chiefs have maneuvered their way into two first-round picks, but the wheeling and dealing may not be finished a little more than three weeks out from the NFL draft.

Kansas City currently holds pick Nos. 9 and 29 in Round 1, as well as No. 40 in Round 2. However, Lance Zeirlein of NFL Network predicted in his latest mock draft on Wednesday, April 1 that the Chiefs will go backwards and trade out of the top 10 with the New York Jets in order to amass more capital across the first two days of the proceedings.

Zierlein suggested a trade from No. 9 down to No. 16, where he then projects Kansas City to address a deficiency on the offensive line by adding tackle Monroe Freeling out of Georgia.

“Following the release of Jawaan Taylor, Brett Veach moves back and takes one of the most athletic tackles in the draft,” Zierlein wrote. “Freeling joins last year’s first-round pick, Josh Simmons, to give Patrick Mahomes a pair of young, talented bookends.”

Freeling has high upside as a prospect at left tackle, which would provide the Chiefs with some optionality at the position, as Simmons is currently the starter at that spot on the depth chart.

Regardless of which player ends up on which side longterm, there is plenty of logic to the idea of slotting in two first-round talents at tackle on inexpensive contracts as Mahomes heads into the second half of his career.

Chiefs’ Trade Down Could Take Team Out of Play for Elite Wide Receivers

The questions, though, are what Kansas City might get back in return for dropping seven spots and allowing the Jets to pick inside the top 10, and how much the Chiefs will surrender in terms of the player they would get were they to remain at No. 9?

In Zierlein’s hypothetical version of things, both of the top two cornerbacks in the draft, Mansoor Delane and Jermod McCoy, are already off the board to the Tennessee Titans and New York Giants at picks 4 and 5, respectively. All three of the top edge-rushers are also gone, with Rueben Bain Jr. the last of the group to go at No. 7 to the Washington Commanders.

That particular sequencing of picks ahead of Kansas City would strip away the team’s value potential at either cornerback or edge-rusher, its two biggest needs on defense. In turn, it would leave the Chiefs hunting either an offensive tackle or a wide receiver.

Kansas City would not lose much value by trading back if OT is their position of choice under Zierlein’s proposed circumstances. However, the Chiefs would forfeit the opportunity to select the first WR off the board, which could be Carnell Tate of Ohio State or Jordyn Tyson of Arizona State, both of whom are big-time prospects with high-end NFL ceilings.

Chiefs Could Potentially Acquire 2nd-Round Draft Asset in Trade if Right Player Falls to No. 9 Overall

Zierlein predicts that after the Chiefs select Freeling at No. 16, they will Clemson cornerback Avieon Terrell at No. 29 to fill their need at DB.

“Terrell is a sticky cover man with terrific competitive spirit and good ball skills,” Zierlein wrote. “In other words, he has some of the same qualities as [Trent] McDuffie.”

Kansas City traded McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams earlier this offseason in exchange for a pick package that included the 29th selection.

New York moving up seven spots into the top 10 to select safety Caleb Downs, who falls to that spot in Zeirlein’s mock, is a big enough move for a player rated highly enough that Kansas City could try to pry the No. 44 overall pick from the Jets in return.

That might normally be more than a team would part with for the relative jump, but Downs has All-Pro potential and the Jets holds two firsts and two seconds in this draft, as well as three firsts in 2027. Given New York’s impressive store of assets, Downs could well be worth a mid second-rounder that would had the Chiefs two early picks in Round 2 at Nos. 40 and 44.