{"id":870952,"date":"2026-04-21T02:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/870952\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T02:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T02:23:10","slug":"chiefs-eye-top-linebacker-prospects-with-9th-29th-picks-in-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/870952\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs eye top linebacker prospects with 9th, 29th picks in 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 The Kansas City Chiefs are slated to pick toward the top of the first round of the NFL Draft for the first time in a long time. <\/p>\n<p>The team holds the ninth- and 29th-overall picks in this year&#8217;s draft.<\/p>\n<p>Kansas City Chiefs eye top linebacker prospects with 9th, 29th picks in 2026 NFL Draft<\/p>\n<p>As the draft approaches, the Chiefs are looking at positions of need, and the linebacker position is getting pretty thin.<\/p>\n<p>Near the top of the draft is Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles. Styles is six feet five inches tall and 244 pounds, and he ran a 4.46 40-yard dash at the combine.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776738179_814_.jpeg\" alt=\"lb25\"  width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Julio Cortez\/AP<\/p>\n<p>        Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles (25) runs a drill at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (AP Photo\/Julio Cortez)<\/p>\n<p>Missouri&#8217;s Josiah Trotter should go in the early rounds. Trotter comes from a family of NFL talent; his brother and father have played at the highest level.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776738181_688_.jpeg\" alt=\"NFL Combine Football\"  width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Michael Conroy\/AP<\/p>\n<p>        Missouri linebacker Josiah Trotter (26) speaks during a press conference at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Michael Conroy)<\/p>\n<p>Arizona State&#8217;s Keyshaun Elliott is a great story out of Richmond, Missouri.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776738186_264_.jpeg\" alt=\"NFL Combine Football\"  width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Gregory Payan\/AP<\/p>\n<p>        Arizona State linebacker Keyshaun Elliott (07) participates in the Broad Jump at the NFL football scouting combine, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Indianapolis. (Gregory Payan\/AP Content Services for NFL)<\/p>\n<p>Other top linebacker prospects include Georgia&#8217;s CJ Allen and Texas&#8217; Anthony Hill Jr.<\/p>\n<p>Our Chiefs on the Clock specials will air at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. There will also be post-draft specials airing at 10:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n<p>I will be in Kansas City, while Matt Foster and McKenzie Nelson will be live in Pittsburgh for all of the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 The Kansas City Chiefs are slated to pick toward the top of the first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[4955,346,7,118,110,2438,2437,4135,6,2352],"class_list":{"0":"post-870952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-chiefs","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-kansas-city","12":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","13":"tag-kansascity","14":"tag-kansascitychiefs","15":"tag-linebacker","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-prospects"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116440322230632946","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}