Welcome back to another year of the SB Nation Community Mock Draft!
NFL mock draft 2026: Kansas City Chiefs select Carnell Tate, WR, Ohio State
The Chiefs miss out on a top defender, then choose to add more firepower for Mahomes with OSU’s Carnell Tate.
As we do every draft season, all 32 NFL sites at SB Nation come together to fill out an entire first-round mock draft leading up to the actual event that takes place from April 23-25. One by one, our site managers will make their picks and provide their reasoning behind the selection. From there, I will provide further analysis on top of giving a final opinion on the pick!
Without further ado, let’s keep things rolling!
With the ninth overall pick in the 2026 SB Nation Community Mock Draft, Arrowhead Pride’s Ron Kopp Jr. and the Kansas City Chiefs select Carnell Tate, wide receiver, Ohio State!
Kopp Jr.’s analysis:
NFL
SB Nation NFL Mock Draft: With the 9th pick, the Kansas City Chiefs select...
Wide receiver Carnell Tate, Ohio State
In general manager Brett Veach's shoes, I saw the board unfold in a way that allowed at least one of three players to reach the ninth spot by the time the 6th pick was determined: Safety Caleb Downs of Ohio State, Edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. of Miami and Tate
Honestly, one of the two plug-and-play defensive playmakers would have been preferred, but there's something refreshing about Tate being added to a receiving corps that seemingly complements his skillset well.
Tate is a downfield playmaker with ball-winning skills the Chiefs have never valued in their starting receivers. The organization values speed, yards-after-catch ability and versatility in alignment. The existing group of Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy and Tyquan Thornton provide a lot of those attributes to the Chiefs' offense, but Tate feels like a cherry on top as an outside receiver who can bring more explosive plays to the offense and force defenses to respect the downfield passing game.
It feels like a safe pick in the sense that Tate's floor still feels like a valuable piece to KC's offense as it stands now, but the hope is that Tate can transform into a true, do-it-all No. 1 wideout for the Chiefs, and it's not an unrealistic end goal.
Rec 3ReplyRead 25 replies
My analysis: The Chargers have missed Tyreek Hill since he was traded to the Dolphins and while they’ve found success as a team since that move, Mahomes has had to carry an offense with an aging Travis Kelce and some young wideouts who just haven’t been able to come up as often as Hill did for the team.
Xavier Worthy has looked good in spurts as the team’s dangerous speedster who can score in a number of ways, but injuries took four games from him in 2025 and he has yet to break 700 yards receiving in either of his first two seasons. Adding another receiver who should demand attention will only further open up the passing game back to a place both Andy Reid and Mahomes prefer. Instead of Reid needing to scheme open his speedsters who lack size and strength in the end zone, Mahomes can now utilize Tate’s notable 50-50 ball skills inside the 20.
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