[Quesadilla Joe]

Originally Posted by staylor26

Funny how you ignore “it’s been reported” that Veach was the guy pounding the table for Mahomes long before everybody else, and he’s been given credit for it by everybody from those at Texas Tech and Andy Reid himself.

Everyone else in the Chiefs' building loved him too. He doesn't get credit for drafting him. Not when Dorsey masterfully manipulated the draft in order to make sure he got his guy.

"We're sitting there on the night of the draft, and there's communication going back and forth between teams and agents. It's not something you see, but we're on our phones talking with coaches and general managers. We were aware of certain teams that said they were trying to trade up. If Kansas City hadn't gone exactly where they went, he would have been gone. He would have been gone on the very next pick."

Dorsey had much the same sense. He identified the Cardinals, Giants and Saints as teams the Chiefs needed to maneuver in front of. The Saints picked 11th, the Cardinals 13th and the Giants 23rd.

"I tried to read as much as I could, in terms of reading the other 31 teams and seeing where they were positioning," Dorsey said shortly after Mahomes was drafted. "I felt to get this player, I had to be at 10.

"I know there were three teams that wanted this player very badly, and I got a text or two [afterward] asking, 'How'd you do that?' It worked. I've got to thank the Buffalo Bills. They were willing to acquire some picks, and that would help them as well, so it helped out both parties."

Dorsey and Doug Whaley, then the Bills' general manager, started discussing the trade at the NFL scouting combine in February. They got serious about trade terms in the days leading up to the draft.

Whaley said last week that he didn't know the player the Chiefs were after and didn't suspect it was a quarterback, despite the steep move from 27 to 10.

"Not at all," said Whaley, who was fired shortly after that draft for reasons not having to do with the Mahomes trade. "The Chiefs played it right. With Alex Smith on their roster, we didn't think they were coming up for a quarterback.