KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the final weeks before the NFL draft, the Chiefs front office will, at some point, engage in the same exercise that you, me and thousands of others outside those walls partake.

A mock draft.

With a tad different motive.

They are dry-run exercises designed to produce a collection of road maps — or contingency plans — for what might confront them at the end of the first round Thursday.

Preparation for the what if, you could say.

What’s becoming clear over the last few seasons: the impossibility of such a prediction.

The Chiefs, thrice a Super Bowl champion in the last five years, a reward that comes with the 32nd overall pick, are first at the mercy of 31 other front offices, left to guess what will happen, but still preparing for what they want to happen.

Which is?

Veach offered some clues on Friday morning in a Zoom call with local media. There is typically a good bit of reading between the lines required, because, well, why give anything away? But there’s not much reading between the lines required in some of the headline takeaways here. Even if those instances fall under the to-be-expected — such as the Chiefs’ top needs — Veach offered some nuance to those conversations.

Here are three things we know a little better after Veach spoke to the media Friday:

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