Draft Priorities

[onejayhawk]

4 hours ago, KC_Guy said:

Not sure what you mean with success in round 4 & 5. The only players worth mentioning over the past 5 years would be Sneed and to a lesser extend Danna. The jury is still out on Gray. Other than that, lots of misses or below expectation picks: Watts, Chesson, Eligwe ...

They had more success in round 6 & 7 in 2019: Fenton, D. Thompson, Allegretti. Other than that year: None - not a single player - left on the team from the 2017 - 2021 drafts.

Trey Smith I consider an outlier as he only dropped so far for medical reasons. Would have been a first or second round pick without it.

I don't think the Chiefs' drafts over the past 5 years have been a real success story. Shaky, good in 2019 and presumably in 2021, else ... ouch.

You have a point. I really meant outside the top 75 and before the late going. This FO team has produced a nice list--Saunders, Fenton, Niang, Sneed, Dana, Gray, Smith. Sneed and Smith are elite, Niang is a good starter when he's not hurt, while Fenton and Dana are solid rotation players, plus Gray and some fringe players. Any team would take that. You cannot take away credit for Smith, because this is the team that recognized the potential and paid the pick. Even iIf you just count Niang, Sneed, Dana, and Gray it's still doing well above league average.

It's not unusual for teams to not have players from the 6th and 7th rounds and it's a very short list. Not counting Fenton, Thompson, Allegretti, and Smith the team only selected three players and two were in 2018. The third was Bopete Keyes, who did better than average for a 7th round pick. 

2017 brought Mahomes, TK and Hunt. Stud draft. As bad as 2018 was, Nnadi, Watts, and Do'D are still on the roster. 2019 had no top 50 picks but brought four important players--Hardman, Thornhill, Fenton, and Allegretti. 2020 was very good--CEH, Gay, Niang, Dana, Sneed, and they picked up Wharton and Townsend. 2021 was the best draft since 2017, yielding Bolton, Humphrey, Gray and Smith. That's two elite drafts, one very good draft, a solid draft, and one subpar draft.

I challenge you to show another team that has done as well without top 10 picks. In fact, there have been only two first round picks and one was Mahomes. You may not think the team has drafted well but the rest of the NFL is jealous. If you want proof, the directer of player acquisitions was hired away to be GM for another team.

[onejayhawk]

This one is on Niang. He has had significan injury problems but performed well when healthy. We hope to re-sign Orlando Brown but even if we do, we need a reliable 3rd OT.
https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/the_chiefs_should_give_lucas_niang_the_benefit_of_the_doubt_in_2022/s1_16631_37244838