Chiefs' College Scouting Director confirms suspicion about Kansas City's most surprising decision of the 2025 NFL Draft

As Day 3 of the 2025 NFL Draft arrived, Kansas City Chiefs fans sat on pins and needles waiting for GM Brett Veach to select a running back. 

Many fans thought the position would be a target at pick No. 133 in the fourth round, but the Chiefs stole Utah State WR Jalen Royals well after he was projected to be selected. There were no complaints because Veach would surely use the team's fifth-round pick acquired in the first-round trade down with the Patriots to select a running back, right? Wrong!

Instead, the Chiefs surprised and used that pick to trade up to pick No. 156 in Round 5 and select Oregon LB Jeffrey Bassa. They'd later trade up in Round 7 to select SMU RB Brashard Smith in the seventh round. 

What was the thinking behind these two decisions? Chiefs Director of Player Personnel/College Scouting Ryne Nutt discussed it on Monday.

"Yeah, so we knew before the draft this was a very deep running back class," Nutt said. "There were guys that fell into the fourth round that we thought would be gone at the beginning of (Round 2), and possibly beginning of (Round 3). So we kind of knew it was deep. We knew Brashard (Smith) was somebody we liked, kind of in the mid rounds. But with it being so deep, there was maybe a chance to get them (later)." 

So, knowing the depth of the running back class and that they might be able to target a player like Smith late on Day 3 opened an opportunity. When the Chiefs saw Bassa— a player I'm told the team had a top 100 grade on—sitting available in the middle of the fifth round, they knew exactly what they had to do. 

"What happened was, in the fifth, I mean, there was a player, and Jeff Bassa, who was there, who's clearly the best player on our board," Nutt explained. "So that would have been a time to take a running back. But when you have another player that is higher on the board, Brett (Veach) likes to go by, 'Listen, let's let the board — we've worked on this board for eight months — let's let this thing speak to us.' So, we took the player we had slightly higher in Jeff Bassa, and then allowed Brett to refocus, and say, 'Okay, I'm gonna take a running back, now I know who I want.' So, we get to the seventh round, and you know, Brett felt like giving up another seventh-round pick to move up was well worth it — and I think everybody did — to get the kid we liked in the mid rounds. So that was kind of thinking there." 

The Chiefs ultimately took a risk in waiting until their final pick of Day 3 to select a running back. Right now, there's a lot of optimism that it turned out for the better—bringing both Bassa and Smith to Kansas City.