From the FanPosts -Joel

The 2017 Draft is right around the corner which means more and more articles discussing draft stock and team needs. Each fan base has an idea of what they think their team should do however...

Regarding NFL Draft news:

1) No one outside the team knows who they will draft

2) Almost everyone inside the building doesn't know either — Mike McCartney (@MikeMcCartney7) April 14, 2017

Typically, the Chiefs are pretty good at turning over every stone in search of key components to add to the roster. And they are also very good at hiding their interests which makes putting together a draft visit tracker something of an enigma. If you've checked past Chief draft interest / visit trackers you will find that sometimes there is very little to find (2013) and sometimes you can get a good idea about who they really like (2015).

It safe to say that KC attends more pro days than several other teams in the league so it would seem to me that there isn't a lot of intel that you can gather by mentioning that KC was at a Pro day. The real tell for most teams is who they have in for their 30 in-house visits. Yet, this information often is hard to come by. As former Chicago Bears Scouting Director Greg Gabriel pointed out the other day:

Buffalo had private workouts with 3 of the top 4 QB's in the last 4 days. With the owner being involved this is obviously a big need 4 them — Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) April 12, 2017

So, we might not have a full picture, however, this is a matter of putting as many of the puzzle pieces on the table as possible and filling in the picture as best as we can. Part of our problem will be the fact that visits can workout players all the way up to the draft.

A week from today is the last day clubs can have prospects in for a visit. Clubs can visit or workout a player until day before the draft — Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) April 12, 2017

As far as how many visits and workouts a team can have, we know in-house private visits are limited to 30, Combine interviews are limited to 60. On campus workouts are open-ended and a local pro-day workout is allowed. ProfootballTalk's 2011 article, Breaking down the rules regarding pre-draft rookie visits, gives a good overview of the parameters. The local Pro-day rules changed slightly to allow a broader number to be able to visit provided they attended one of the KC "local" colleges.

I don't anticipate that I will be completely comprehensive with all of the "interest" or visits so feel free to add whatever you find in the comments.

Reported Private Visits

This is for the 30 in-house visits to Kansas City. I could only find 12 reported.

QB

Joshua Dobbs - Tennessee

Chad Kelly - Ole Miss

DeShone Kizer - Notre Dame

Mitchell Trubisky - North Carolina

Patrick Mahomes - Texas Tech

DeShaun Watson - Clemson

Davis Webb - California

ILB

Reuben Foster - Alabama

Raekwon McMillan - Ohio State

Elijah Lee - Kansas State

WR

Mike Williams - Clemson

Chad Williams - Grambling

Guard

Jordan Roos - Purdue

RB

Brian Hill - Wyoming

CB

Horace Richardson - SMU

S

Nicholas Morrow - Greenville College (D-III)

DL

Cameron Malveaux - Houston

Reported Combine Interviews

This is the 15 minute brief interviews. Teams can interview up to 60 players at the combine. Joel tracked this initially at Tracking the Kansas City Chiefs 2017 Combine Interviews I will bold the players that were listed previously.

QB

DeShaun Watson - Clemson

DeShone Kizer - Notre Dame

Patrick Mahomes - Texas Tech

Nathan Peterman - Pittsburgh

Brad Kaaya - Miami

LB

Zach Cunningham - Vandy

Hassan Reddick - Temple

Charles Harris - Missouri

Tarell Basham - Ohio

WR

Curtis Samuel - Ohio State

RB

Brian Hill - Wyoming

Marlon Mack - USF

Matt Dayes - NC State

Elijah McGuire - Louisiana-Lafayette

Aaron Jones - UTEP

CB

Fabian Moreau - UCLA

Cameron Sutton - Tennessee

Quincy Wilson - Florida

Tre'davious White - LSU

Adoree Jackson - USC

Jeremy Clark - Michigan

DL

Caleb Brantley - Florida

Local Day

QB

Garrett Fugate - Central Missouri State

LB

Connor Harris - Lindenwood

Donavin Newsom - Missouri

Michael Scherer - Missouri

Jordan Willis - KSU

WR

Deante Burton - KSU

RB

King Frazier - NDST

Alex Ross - Missouri

Connor Harris (FB) - Lindenwood

FS

Dante Barnett - KSU

Fish Smithson - Kansas

Deron Washington - Pittsburg St.

DL

Josh Augusta - Missouri

Rickey Hatley - Missouri

Pip Pipkens - Texas Tech

TE

Sean Culkin - Missouri

Special Teams

Jake Hurrell (LS) - Missouri

Austin Johnson (K) - Southern Illinois

Dalton Parks (PT) - Tulsa

Matt Wyman (K) - Kansas

Workouts / Senior Bowl / East West Shrine Interviews and Noted Pro Day Interest

This is the catch-all for the other noted places where KC expressed interest in a prospect. I added pro day material when a specific prospect was identified versus KC just being at a pro day event.

QB

Garrett Fugate - Central Missouri State

Nathan Peterman - Pittsburgh

Davis Webb - California

Antonio Pipken - Tiffin

LB

Carroll Phillips - Illinois

WR

Jalen Robinette - Air Force

RB

Brian Hill - Wyoming

CB

Ezra Robinson - Tennessee State

DL

Josh Augusta - Missouri

Matthew Godin - Michigan

TE

Colin Jeter - LSU

Eric Saubert - Drake

Special Teams

Zane Gonzales - ASU

Current conclusions based on previous data

The past Arrowhead Pride draft visit trackers have given us the following results:2013 Tyler Bray and Eric Fisher. 2014 Aaron Murray and LDT from 49 recorded prospects. 2015 gave us Marcus Peters (2 visits recorded), Ramik Wilson (2 visits recorded), Mitch Morse, David Irving, Dontella Luckett, and Devante Bausby. 2016 gave us Mitch Matthews and Demarcus Robinson.

So past known visits have given us Chief picks or undrafted free agents at the least. Yet, 2015 gives us hope that we might be able to figure out some high picks since that year we had our first, second and a fourth round pick all in for visits.

Keep Your Eye On:

As has become almost too obvious in the media and elsewhere, KC is looking at QBs. This year is the most public interest KC has shown in QBs since 2013. That year we met with 9 QBs, including Geno Smith, EJ Manuel and Landry Jones twice. 2014 only had a recorded meeting with David Fales, but rumored interest in Aaron Murray and Conner Shaw. 2015 had zero QBs and 2016 had Paxton Lynch.

2013 was the year of acquiring Andy Reid's preferred QB. This leads me to strongly believe that KC will come out of this draft with a QBOTF. And using the 2015 standard, I would anticipate that the QB of choice is one of Watson, Kizer, Mahomes or Peterman. And I suppose this all depends on how things fall in the draft.

Also, It would seem to me that Brian Hill (RB Wyoming) might be a strong choice for one of KC's mid-round picks. He is the first prospect I've seen in the 5 years of draft visit trackings that has had 3 meetings with the Chiefs. For the supposed rumors that KC loves Marlon Mack, it would seem Hill has really caught their eye.

Beyond those two observations, keep an eye on guys like Josh Augusta or Garrett Fugate as UDFAs or late round picks. Also, it would seem Cairo Santos and maybe even Dustin Colquitt will have some token competition this year.

Chiefscreen:

Finally, this season is all about smokescreens. Teams attempting to make other teams nervous about whether their player of choice will be there. Some teams play the game really well and others not so much. Because Quarterback is the key position in all of football, it has always played a roll in getting teams nervous in the draft. Teams will both overthink and underthink this position when it comes to rumors. Under John Dorsey and Andy Reid, Kansas City has been the master of the QB smokescreen. Both in 2014 and 2016, rumors abounded that KC was interested in various QBs. In 2014, oddly enough it was Johnny Manziel and not Derek Carr, who it leaked KC might be interested in.

Cleveland panicked and traded with Philly (who wanted Dee Ford according to Chip Kelly but thought he would be around a few picks later) to select Manziel. KC then took Ford, remember according to our draft visit tracker there had been little to no known interest in QBs during that draft. It wasn't until draft day that this "news" showed up.

This year, I do believe that KC is very interested in a QB. However, if you are fans of a certain QB you should be a bit worried when you hear a statement like this:

—One more quarterback note: If you're looking for a Mahomes landing spot, two teams I'm told by scouts and general managers that really like him are the Arizona Cardinals and Kansas City Chiefs. Matt Miller - 4/14/17

With other statements coming from "league sources" comparing Mahomes to a young Brett Favre, it has the makings of a KC special. Even Terez Paylor is hearing that KC likes Mahomes. That's a lot of smoke. Now all of a sudden, Mahomes has climbed into the proverbial draft stratosphere with some even suggesting that the New York Jets could take him at #6. Could it be that the league is "hearing" that the great QB whisperer, Andy Reid loves this kid and that is helping to drive him even higher when Andy has his eye set on someone else?

Now notice who the big faller is at QB. Deshone Kizer, the proto-type kid, who just last year was the sure thing and now you have an "AFC coach", presumably one that needs a QB making this statement to Albert Breer of the MMQB:

"He’s got the size, the arm talent and he’s very bright," said one AFC head coach. "But there’s a disconnect there. There are diva qualities there, and he seems to (overthink everything), like he’s fighting who he is. And once the cycle starts, he can’t get himself right." Sophomore Spurt or Slump?

This is a brilliant statement by this coach (whoever the Big Red guy might be), on the one hand, he praises Kizer's attributes but on the other hand he gets it out there that Kizer needs to be fixed and by using the "diva" term raises a red flag (no pun intended) that is designed to scare other teams off. And why would you need to play this game?

Talked to 3 former GM's all of whom stay in touch with what's going on. All feel 6 to 7 QB's will go in top 2 rounds. I feel it's 6 — Greg Gabriel (@greggabe) April 15, 2017

I could be totally wrong on this, however, I won't be surprised if this Donovan McNabb clone finds his way to KC. I'm not debating what he is as a prospect compared to the others because others on here do a much better job of breaking down film. I'm also not debating whether he should or shouldn't be on the Chiefs draft horizon. I just think all may not be as it seems.

No matter what happens this should be a fun draft and the Chiefs have plenty of draft chips to play a great game of poker, hopefully we get dealt a great hand.