In case you didn’t know, the NFL College Draft is less than a week away. Since it has not been done up to this point, I want to look at what some of the mockers are projecting for the Chiefs. What is that? It’s been done? Almost every day on every site that even remotely covers the NFL?
I both love and hate this time of year. I love it because I get to know a wide range of players coming out of college that I would otherwise not. I get a sense of what each team is getting with their picks, and knowing a little something about them I have a better understanding as to how that player could fit with the team that drafted them. I live for Chiefs football and Chiefs football news, but all in all, I am a fan of the NFL as a whole. I like knowing as much as I can about every team out there so I can better guess how a matchup is going to go, better gauge what a free agent offers his perspective new team or even pretend I have insight into how a team likes to draft.
What I dislike about this time of year is that it seems to never end. It’s not just the endless mock drafts that can be wildly different from day to day from the same mocker, but also the lack of real football news. Now that the big wave of free agency has broke, washed upon the sand and slowly made its way back into the ocean, the only real news is the Underwear Olympic breakdowns. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was only a few weeks, but it has been over a month now and there are only so many ways you can say this guy is faster than that guy while running a 3-cone drill. Only so many arguments you can make for this guy being a better fit for this scheme than that guy is the same scheme. One thing that mockers have been able to prove to me though is that there is an infinite number of combinations for mocking this year’s first round of the draft.
All teams give the same typical answers to all the same questions. What are your expectations for this season? To win it all, to win the division, to take what we did last year and build on it? What did you do differently to prepare this offseason? I changed my diet, I changed where I work out, I changed who I work out with….
Rather than focus on this year’s draft, I want you to tell me which draft picks in years past were both your favorite/most memorable pick, as well as your most hated pick/biggest bust. As a disclaimer, my picks come from the last 20 years or so, I think it would unfair for me to include players drafted prior to me being the fan of the team that I am today.
For me, I have to go with Tony Gonzales as my favorite pick/player. I will admit that I wasn’t even a Chiefs fan when he was drafted, I was probably wearing a teal and gold Mark Brunell jersey when his name was called by Paul Tagliabue. The reason he was my favorite, as some of you know, is TonyG is the reason I am a diehard fan of the team today. It was a game in Oakland where he caught a TD out jumping two defenders in the end zone with one hand. Before he could dunk the ball over the goal post, I was requesting a jersey from my dad and the rest is history. Others that would make a short list for consideration as my favorite are DJ, Houston (never thought I’d be happy to hear someone failed a drug test), Berry, and Charles. You know, the cornerstone players from the last decade, lol.
As for my least favorite: Larry Johnson, Jon Baldwin, Junior Siavii, Brodie Croyle, Sly Morris, and Eddie Freeman… all were considerations, but for me personally, it has to be Ryan Sims. I remember still being in high school when he was drafted, and the hype was thick for Sims. He had played next to Julius Peppers in college, and according to some was the reason Peppers was as good as he was. I purchased a Sims jersey right after the draft because who doesn’t want a jersey of the cornerstone guy your team just drafted, right? I’ll tell you this, Sims was the last jersey of an active player I’ve bought. (I was given a Cassel jersey before his second season with the team and more recently a Berry jersey) To compound how bad he was and how bad the team’s decision making was that year, second round DT Eddie Freeman was just as big, if not a bigger bust than Sims was. Add in the fact that after Sims was drafted at sixth overall… John Henderson, Albert Haynesworth, and Ed Reed were drafted and went on to have really good careers.
How about you, who is your — favorite and least favorite — draftees of the Kansas City Chiefs?