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Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said he bumped into defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo in the hallway a few weeks ago. He needed to let him know they were going to bring in “our corner” — referring to LSU’s Mansoor Delane.

“Don’t bring him in,” Veach recalled Spagnuolo saying to him. “Let’s just Zoom him. Let’s keep it quiet.”

If you’re wondering about the Chiefs’ true feelings about Delane — the player they traded up to select with the sixth pick Thursday in the first round of the NFL Draft — perhaps it’s best to start here.

Spagnuolo loved him so much that he didn’t even want to give a scent to the NFL that the Chiefs could be interested.

“I would say at least three, four weeks ago,” Veach said Thursday, “we honed in on (Delane), and he was our guy.”

The Chiefs might’ve kept this a secret for the last calendar month. But when it came time to pick Thursday, they put all their cards face up on the table while letting everyone know just how much they valued his skill set.

Because in the end, Delane’s selection — the Chiefs’ first top-10 pick since quarterback Patrick Mahomes in 2017 — came at a high cost. To move up to get Delane at No. 6, Veach traded pick Nos. 9, 74 and 148, with trade value estimators believing the Chiefs surrendered roughly the equivalent of a third-round pick to leap those three spots.

So why do it? Why not remain patient and see who fell to No. 9? Why not just hope that Delane would be available at No. 9 — or another good player fell to that spot either way?

Veach answered that question in a few ways Thursday night but started with an overall philosophy that has spanned his 10-year tenure in K.C.

“I’ve always said this: You do all this work, and you put all this time into this,” Veach said. “But if you want a guy, you’ve got to go find a way to get him.”

Veach acknowledges now that Delane was a top-5 player on the Chiefs’ overall board. He said he started conversations with Cleveland general manager Andrew Berry at the NFL’s annual meeting in Phoenix three weeks ago about the possibility of trading up.

And then you have to know this about how the Chiefs operate under Veach: They trust their coaches — and always collaborate. Last year, for instance, Veach brought Spagnuolo into a side office off the team’s war room on Day 2 of the draft, writing some names on a markerboard while discussing which players the defensive coordinator preferred.

Three of those names that went up in marker — Omarr Norman-Lott, Nohl Williams and Ashton Gillotte — ended up being taken by the Chiefs on that day of the draft.

So Veach was certainly listening when Spagnuolo left each interview this year, increasingly impressed by Delane’s potential.

“This was our guy the whole time — assuming (David) Bailey and (Arvell) Reese were off the board,” Veach said. “Great players, but we had Delane right up there.”

Veach said all along, he told Spagnuolo he thought they’d have a chance to get Delane beyond the top five picks.

Then again, some internal studies by the Chiefs also revealed the difficulty they might have getting that player with their ninth pick.

Veach said the team’s director of football research, Marc Richards, ran endless predictive models, trying to anticipate what the teams ahead of the Chiefs might do with their picks.

And one result kept popping up with the charts and graphs Veach looked at: The New Orleans Saints, with pick No. 8, were the most likely team to select Delane.

It made sense. The Saints, like the Chiefs, had recently lost two starting cornerbacks. Veach said talks with Washington at No. 7 reiterated that the Commanders weren’t interested in trading the pick, and he didn’t figure the Saints would be up for it at 8, given their similar positions of need to the Chiefs.

There was even a bit more gamesmanship from there. Veach knew that if there was any GM who figured to be just as aggressive as him in the draft, it would be New Orleans’ Mickey Loomis.

For Delane, Veach figured, it would come down to the Saints and the Chiefs.

“We just made the decision, if we got within striking distance, let’s go up there and not leave it to chance,” Veach said.

New Orleans, for what it’s worth, took wide receiver Jordyn Tyson with the eighth pick. It seems likely that Delane’s and Tyson’s trajectories will be followed closely by Chiefs fans for years to come.

There was one other factor that can’t be ignored. The last time the Chiefs traded up for a first-round cornerback, they hit a grand slam while moving up in 2022 for Trent McDuffie. The compensation then was a third- and a fourth-round pick.

This time, it was a third- and a fifth- to go up for Delane.

“We felt like we needed to go up and snag (Delane),” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “Very similar to what we did with McDuffie when you really look at it.”

As for the player, Reid said the coaches were wowed by Delane’s retention during a video call with the team two days ago. Among the most impressed? Spagnuolo.

“It was Christmas for him,” Reid said of Spagnuolo’s response to selecting Delane.

Veach, meanwhile, described Delane as super-fluid and athletic. He said the cornerback played both patient and aware with great ball skills, while also showing a willingness and ability to tackle.

“We feel like he was the most complete corner,” Veach said.

The Chiefs had to believe so to make the move they did.

In addition to the draft compensation needed to trade up, K.C. also signed up for a larger rookie contract. The sixth pick’s guaranteed salary will be four years and $42 million; the ninth selection, meanwhile, would’ve had a four-year, $32 million contract.

It will all be fine if the Chiefs are right. And if Delane becomes the team’s next McDuffie-like star. And if the team’s history of collaboration between front office and coaches pays off with a fresh wave of secondary talent.

The cost wasn’t cheap. And the potential risks are difficult to miss.

Veach, however, stayed true to his principles with his pick.

And this much is certain: The Chiefs, in Delane, will be getting a player they want in their facility.

That is … at least now because the secret is out.

“I’m not so sure,” Veach said, “Steve wouldn’t have taken him over anybody.”