Chiefs: Evaluating Veach’s 2021 Draft, WOOT! WOOT!

Were I to give Brett Veach’s Third Draft a Draft Grade, it will not be a difficult task. I came away from the third day of the draft, feeling an intense satisfaction and give our Maverick GM a solid Thumb’s up. For the outlook, I won’t use A’s, B’s and C’s. I am going to use my own scale and to the nether world with all the national pundit/analyst/writers and pod-cast presenters. I will use my own grading system.

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Nick Bolton, LB, Mizzou

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Nick Bolton wasn’t my crush, but the Chiefs are getting a highly rated player none-the-less. This is not a fluke player. Why, all of a sudden do we see a question as to the quality of the player of focus? All along Bolton has receive high credos. The way I see it, bottom line, is that he is tough as nails, gives and takes punishment, is always around the ball and he had 17 more stops than any other LB in the SEC. What I find amusing is, now that the draft has been completed, the pundits are downgrading the Chiefs making Bolton their pick at #53? I need to figure out how to grade the pundits that I see doing this, but it would require expletives that we don’t use here on A1.

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Bolton is very close to being a valid round one pick. His toughness is not questioned, He makes quick and correct diagnosis and reacts to the play without tardiness or hesitance. Bolton has great game speed especially closing speed and it shows in his play, game after game. He hits RB’s at the hole, fends off blocks and makes TFL’s. I cannot see him as being a detriment to pass defense either. Suddenly this cropped up as pundits wanted to downgrade the Chiefs selection. This makes no sense to me at the outset.

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Nick Bolton may not have been my choice at LB, but I was on top of him from the film review that I made in January and Bolton was my first player of focus for the upcoming draft. I called attention of this to Laddie Morse, our illustrious leader here at ArrowheadOne, about the time the Chiefs earned a Super Bowl Fail grade in early February. Odd that the first LB that I looked into ended up being the last one I am appraising, due to his being drafted by the Chiefs.

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The Coaching Staff gets a blessing in a highly intelligent LB who is very coachable. He will not require as much lead time as they used with Gay. I see Hitch, Gay and Bolton being the 4-3 base players This season not next. He will force his way into the mix and he will be always on the ball.

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The downside of this pick is reflected in the RAS score for Nick but keep in mind this is a physicality index, not a game playing metric(where Nick excels). The RAS must take into account the player’s length as a factor though there were some measurements that I cannot explain. His explosiveness score is good but does not reflect his game play explosiveness as an example. His composite speed grade is “Good”. With a very good 4.6sec 40 time. What surprised me as his 3-cone and Shuttle results. At any rate, the graphic is included only to demonstrate the point.

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Nick Bolton gets a “ WOOT! WOOT” from me. He’s a top draft pick as a LB and was ranked by many pundits as being close to a round one player.

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Creed “Freaky Frankenstein” Humphrey

An almost home grown product

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With the selection of Creed  Humphrey, I will post a single graphic to tell the tale, but if OU DE Ronnie Perkins says playing against him is playing a freak, then I am sold. Beyond that? I wrote up Creed earlier on draft day and arrive at high positives despite his left-handedness. Creed brings so much to the table that it’s difficult not to see him playing in the NFL for 10+ Years, making the Pro Bowl, being a team leader, a man of character plus… a Freaky good pass protector for Patrick Mahomes.

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This was a top level selection and surprisingly still available late in round two. To show you why, Im going to posting only a single graphic that it says it all (though, again, it does not reflect what the player does on game day). For example, in 3 seasons, Humphrey did not give up a single sack, in 461 pass defense snaps! Teams must not have valued him due to his handedness. This gave Brett Veach a round 1 talent with the 63rd Pick!

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I grade the pick of Creed Humphrey: “WOOT, WOOT!”

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Joshua Kaindoh, DE, FSU

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I knew about him and mocked him, thinking an addition at DE would top off the gas tank for the DL. I believe Josh checks off most of the boxes that tell me this is true and Veach provided verification by selecting him. Slightly over a week ago, I was working to figure out which players would fit a round 4 type selection, and Kaindoh fit big time. I did have other players on the list, but more and more my thinking was that Kaindoh fit extremely well with what the Chiefs do and could be a very quick fix to the Front 4. If you compare his RAS to that of Tanoh Kpassagnon, he is quite superior, and KPass was a second round pick.

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What I wanted to see accomplished was to complete the retooling of the defensive Front Four and work to make them a constant threat. Veach has done that, adding Free Agent Jarran Reed and now, Joshua Kaindoh. Kaindoh will quickly have game to game impact and it’s easier to predict that because of his athletic prowess: see his RAS Chart below as it tells a significant story. A 4.68 40 yard dash for a man his size is not normal!

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This informs us that Kaindoh is a player who has all the tools needed to become a top level Defensive End. The noted evaluations tell the story that the coaching he received with FSU was not what it needed to be and it will be up to Steve Spagnuolo and Brendan Daly to develop and exploit his talents where he is lacking. One example is the limited repertoire that a top quality DE has for the pass rush. Also, a stronger use of his hands to fend of blockers will help him. Kaindoh will need that coaching up, but that is the reason that he was such a high value pick to be plucked by Brett Veach. I am not stating that he is to be a starter now, but that he will be a significant contributor of impact by the end of 2021. I think we’re going to be hearing a lot more from Mr. Kaindoh.

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As a 4^th round pick, that would earn Josh Kaindoh a solid draft grade of “WOOT”! … and maybe I will upgrade that to a double!

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Noah Gray, TE, Duke

This TE pick gives me pause. A note from today’s look: Dane Brugler said Gray is,

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“Duke’s all-time leader in receptions by a tight end (105), although he padded the stat sheet with a lot of underneath, quick-game routes (digs, outs, curls, etc.).”

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Overall, Gray is a large-framed receiver type, but he does not have the length that is finding it’s way to play in today’s NFL. I can see him as a receiving threat with no difficulty. He could be the H-Back type player for blocking purposes, but 6-3, 240-ish lbs., he’s not going to be the heavier blocking type TE lined up tight on the LoS.

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, but for now, he’s something other than a traditional tight end and has “tweener” traits that will make him role-dependent. His athletic ball skills and toughness are NFL-quality, but if I had my druthers about this draft, I’d have avoided drafting a TE due to the dearth of high-quality players from which to choose.

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I will report back more on Gray’s selection in the future and do more investigation of Gray to provide a more honest appraisal but for now I cannot give Gray a Woot type grade. Call it a middle of the road possible future “Woot.” Perhaps the downgrade can be addressed with game effort. Gray averaged 11.7 YPC his sophomore year, however, that dropped below 7.7 in 2019 and 9.8 in 2020. His 40 time is top notch at 4.62 – 40 and that should help present a problem to opposing defenses when he and Kelce are on together. His length, 6-foot-3, I regard as a negative.

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Gray’s selection is the only draft pick that perplexes me from the 2021 draft. The Chiefs must have a view of him as a versatile pick with H-Back type usage as well. The RAS graphic doesn’t tell us the story on why Veach made this pick.

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My thought? Due to his line up in the slot historically, he was not tasked with being an inline blocker as a TE. He was sometimes lined up in the backfield for blocking purposes but that is a different task. He has the speed necessary to handle a blitzing lineman or corner and will accomplish this task easily. You can see where he is not going to be touted for inline blocking, but his frame is good for it. I understand the pick, but it is not what I think they needed at TE in a poor TE draft.

Gray’s Selection earns a “Wooolf”

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Cornell Powell WR, Clemson

This was a round 6 pick that also brings aboard a player to fulfill fleshing out a position group. The thing about Powell is that he has speed on his side of the ledger which is probably why he was selected as the 6^th round pick. Be that as it may, with a late choice, Powell is a perfect example of a player who might surprise the NFL to Dickens and Doyle. If so, it won’t require a sleuth to figure out why. Here is Powell’s RAS Chart:

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This fills a hole with a player who is also arriving at the “mature” age of 24 and has recovered from the injury which cost him time and a season. That injury is probably why he was not considered to be a round 2 draft pick. I’m good with this pick, especially considering where the Chiefs are in the WR Position group. He has speed, a ton of talent and due to the injury, and red-shirt situation, he is coming to the NFL as a mature player. I like that. I am solid in adding a player for the 4-5 WR role and let him work into it and win it. That would be great!

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I will be digging more into things as I write the article. Here, I think they see Powell as a true possession WR. He doesn’t win his matchups against DB’s with blinding speed. The point about him is that he wins the matchups.

Still, I am going to give Powell a “Wooolf”.

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CB or Safety

The missing ingredient, this time around

 I am counting on starting out the CB group with: L’Jarius Sneed, Charvarius Ward and Rashad Fenton plus DeAndre Baker. I would have liked to see a CB pick in this draft, or possibly a Safety. Veach just clearly ran out of picks. Ah well. Now we have at least one reason to look forward to 2022 Draft.  

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2021 Draft Conclusion

Did Brett Veach do due diligence? Uncle You Bet. Do I like this draft? Absa-positively. Brett Veach told us in his earliest offseason presser what he was going to focus on: OL, DL and LB. Did he accomplish his tasks? My resounding answer to this questions is, “Yo, Boy Howdy!” Brett added to our LB corp, which was sorely needed. He completed the OL pick with OC Creed Humphrey. He added again to the DL positions with Joshua Kaindoh. I cannot fault Brett Veach In the actions taken this offseason nor the draft at all. Sure, I have questions about it, but did he do what he set out to do? Plus, do the players brought to the fold add to the roster in highly positive way? You answer me that one… or two!

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I know that the national pundits will see it as a C grade draft, which is nonsense as it usually results when they evaluate the Chiefs. That type of view is something that I see as not very complimentary of the folks involved. I will leave things with the following grading:

My grading of Brett Veach for the 2021 Draft

is an unqualified “WOOT!, WOOT!”

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This is a draft that builds on the success of the last two. It will have equal success, but actually has a chance to supersede those drafts. The pick of Cornell as a late pick is going to turn into a real deal, top level pick. Creed will be the starting center for more than a decade, Bolton fits well with Gay, while Kaindoh may just be what Dorsey wanted when he drafted Kpass (only Kaindoh) will succeed). That’s how I am seeing this draft. TE? Gray is a different colored horse. I just don’t know enough to judge that pick. How about you? What’s your take?

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David Bell –- ArrowheadOne

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