A rare miss for the Chiefs this offseason will turn up the heat in the NFL Draft.

For the most part, it seems like everything that the Kansas City Chiefs have set out to accomplish this offseason in terms of free agency has gone their way.

This team needed to sort out the future with impending free agents Chris Jones and L’Jarius Sneed, which they succeeded in doing by signing Jones long-term and then trading Sneed to the Titans.

Beyond that, the other big worry for the Chiefs this offseason was at wide receiver, which they answered with one of the best deals of the offseason to ink Marquise Brown.

While the Rashee Rice situation complicates that matter further, they have upgraded the pass-catching corps, which was the goal.

But there’s one area where the Chiefs could still use some help to further their plight to three-peat as Super Bowl champions. After using Donovan Smith as a stopgap at left tackle in the 2023 season, Kansas City now needs to find an answer opposite Jawaan Taylor. And apparently, they tried to do so before the start of the 2024 NFL Draft, as ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler reported that they were talking with former first-round pick Andre Dillard before he ultimately signed with the Packers.

With that miss, though, the Chiefs strategy in the draft could be quite acutely affected.

Chiefs missing on Andre Dillard could increase urgency in the draft
Dillard was not going to be a long-term answer at left tackle for the Chiefs, to be sure. He was a disaster for the Titans last season after falling short of expectations in Philadelphia, the team that drafted him. But considering that Kansas City’s current options on the roster are Wanya Morris and Lucas Niang, they need depth and they need competition.

That’s where the draft could then come into play. My expectation would remain that, especially given the uncertain future of Rice, the back-to-back champs will be targeting a wide receiver in the first or second round of the 2024 draft. However, the other part of that equation could now clearly be offensive tackle.

Targeting players like Oklahoma Tyler Guyton, BYU’s Kingsley Suamataia, Arizona’s Jordan Morgan and some others with the No. 32 pick should be in play for Kansas City, especially depending on how the wide receiver board falls in the draft. Beyond that, if they were to draft a receiver in the first round, then guys like Notre Dame’s Blake Fisher or Yale’s Kiran Amegadjie could be in play for the Chiefs.

Missing on Dillard, to be sure, isn’t the end of the world. At the same time, though, it does show that Brett Veach and this organization recognize their current position at offensive tackle. And it would be shocking if that didn’t ultimately help to inform how this franchise aims to attack the 2024 draft.