Emmanuel McNeil-Warren selected by Kansas City Chiefs by Arrowhead Pride in SB Nation’s community mock draft

Dec 30, 2023; Tucson, AZ, USA; Toledo Rockets safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren (22) against the Wyoming Cowboys in the Arizona Bowl at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome back to another year of the SB Nation Community Mock Draft!

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 29th overall pick in the 2026 SB Nation Community Mock Draft, Arrowhead Pride’s Rocky Magana and the Kansas City Chiefs select Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, safety, Toledo!

Magana’s analysis:

My analysis: McNeil-Warren is up there with some of the most-polarizing players in this group of players in the first round. I’ve seen some analysis fairly confused on why he’s getting first-round buzz and others believe he could be one of the biggest steals in the whole draft.

From what I can surmise, it seems it totally depends on which games of his you watch. But at the end of the day, the majoirity of scouts believe he’s a day one guy and Magana is seemingly in agreement. Spags’ defense in Kansas City benefits from a do-it-all safety who can be a chess piece in his aggressive scheme. McNeil-Warren can patrol the backend, be a decoy in the box before dropping into coverage unexpectedly, or simply be a menace around the line of scrimmage.