KANSAS CITY, Mo. — You just knew Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach wasn't going to go through an entire draft without making a trade.
The Chiefs didn't enter the weekend with a pick in the sixth or seventh rounds, but Veach swung a deal with Tennessee to move back in and grab an extra pick late in the 2020 NFL Draft to supplement the secondary.
Kansas City traded for the No. 237 overall pick in the seventh round and nabbed Tulane cornerback Thakarius "BoPete" Keyes, a 6-foot-1 and 202-pound man corner.
He has the size defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo covets at the position, including very long arms.
Keyes is also a relatively raw prospect. He didn't start playing football until his junior year of high school in Laurel, Mississippi, according to his Tulane player bio.
One Tulane prospect that immediately passed the eye test during pre-game was @GreenWaveFB CB Thakarius Keyes (@TzKeyes). Prototype-looking press corner that looked athletic moving around. NFL teams want CB with 33” arms in the @seniorbowl so Keyes will get a good look from us. pic.twitter.com/jZBstpebC7
— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) August 30, 2019
Kansas City traded its sixth-round pick next season to the Titans for the chance to select Keyes, who also was a star basketball player in high school and part of a state-championship squad on the hardwood as a senior.
Keyes appeared in 16 games during his first two seasons with the Green Wave, but he didn't crack the starting lineup until his junior season in 2018.
During his final two seasons at Tulane, Keyes made 85 tackles, including 68 solo stops, with 18 passes defended and two interceptions.
With the addition of L'Jarius Keyes in the fourth round, the Chiefs added two cornerbacks to bolster the position through the draft.
