Brett Veach details how Chiefs dig into a prospect’s off-the-field life before Draft

Once again, the Chiefs will play a waiting game during Thursday’s NFL Draft.

The Chiefs will make the final pick of the first round, and they are used to drafting late. It’s been the price of success during the Patrick Mahomes Era.

Despite that, general manager Brett Veach and his staff have unearthed some gems the past few seasons. Former Buccaneers GM Mark Dominik, who is now a SiriusXM analyst, has been impressed with Veach’s work.

“Every year he’s getting three to possibly four starters out of a draft class in the last three years,” Dominik said last week in a conference call. “That’s cooking with gas.

“And you’re also picking 26 or 31st or, you know, whatever it was. I think he’s done a really good job with where he’s been able to pick and what he’s been able to do with it.”

Veach talked about how the Chiefs prepare for the draft by doing much more than watching tape of prospects.

While on Kevin Harvick’s “Happy Hour” podcast, Veach detailed how the Chiefs vet college players. Veach said it’s “critically important” to learn all he can about the prospects when they’re not on the field.

“We have a college scouting system that deals just with the guys in the draft and I think I have a college scout in the northeast, the southeast, obviously southwest, west coast, middle of the country,” Veach said. “So we have an area scout, we call them, placed all over the country, and they literally spend the entire year just visiting schools and documenting information.

“And I always talk about how important those guys are during this time of year, because I think we can all sit there and watch tape and get a relatively good idea of what the player can do on the field. But it’s the person that really ultimately determines ... how successful they will be both on and off the field.”

While prospects visit the Chiefs and the team can talk to some of them at the Senior Bowl and perhaps the NFL Combine, there is much more work to be done.

The Chiefs do a deep dive on these players.

“So meeting with the college coaches, meeting with the trainers, meeting with the equipment-room people, meeting with the academic advisors, I mean, you name it,” Veach explained. “I mean my guys even go back and touch base with high school contacts and high school coaches. And just try to get an idea of how this guy’s wired and what’s he like under adversity and what type of people he hangs around with and just who he is as a person. It’s extremely critical and that’s why we spend so much time doing what we’re doing. We can always, again, watch the athlete on tape, but it’s the person at the end of the day, and it’s a big part of what we do.

“And I’m very fortunate we have a great staff. The guys that I have in my crew are some of the best in the business. So we’ve been very, very good and successful the last few years and again, looking forward to Thursday and another strong class to help our team go for that ever elusive threepeat.”