Chiefs: It’s Far Too Late to Worry and Too Soon to Figure You Have it All Figured Out

Chiefs: Too Late to Worry and Too Soon to Figure You Have It All Figured Out – ArrowheadOne has had several articles dealing with the draft and UDFAs; Some agree with the picks, and others find them hard to believe. Or if you were in deep enough on prospects for the Chiefs, you likely had formed a very solid construct of what would happen. I know though, that as time passed on through the mocks which I started doing in late January and escalated in late February, I found myself with a shifting value assigned to position groups.

I had taken a hard look at Darryl Williams for example and mocked him. Lucas Niang was also a mock target. I did not see a RB that I thought would fit in many of my mocks though. Largely because I didn’t think the Chiefs would have access to pick a top RB in round 1. Sure, I liked Edwards-Helaire but not in round one. I usually ended up drafting a RB with the 4 th round pick and that was if I didn’t get a particular player that I felt deserved to be selected in round four. CEH was never available.

Late in the pre-draft, a bit more than two weeks before the actual draft, I decided that the Chiefs offensive line wasn’t in as dire shape as others were viewing it and I still don’t see it that way. I wrote an article or two that established this reasoning related to the injury plague to the front 5. I was disheartened by the play of LDT who had become very solid at ROG. 2019 was a big set back to my expectations. I then realized that he was coming off an offseason of healing from a broken leg and then suffered a high-ankle Sprain to boot.

I felt the same was true with Andrew Wylie at LOG and mourned the fact that Stefan Wisniewski was departed. Then Brett Veach brought aboard a slid role player when he signed Mike Remmers. Martinas Rankin would return for whom I had high hopes after his stint as a starter in 2019. I looked at how Pat Mahomes viewed our bookend Offensive tackles and that shored up things for me quite a lot. I felt that Austin Reiter suffered due to the instability across the front five and that all these men were returning and that gave me renewed optimism.

So about that time I turned my attention to drafting a year or two ahead of time. It appeared to me that the Interior OL was deeper than OT and that soon Brett Veach must turn attention to the OT position and I mocked a few drafts that way. Lo and Behold, Veach brought in Lucas Niang as the Chiefs 3^rd round pick. I viewed this far more positively than many seem to see it – a big man who could “red-shirt” 2020 and perhaps take on the Swing Tackle job. He would then be staging for 2021 or 2022. For me, this was a very positive draft in the 3rd round due to Niang’s coming to the Kingdom.

Turning back to what actually happened, when Veach selected Clyde Edwards-Helaire, I was up until 4:00 AM studying him and by the time I tried to sleep I believed that on Veach’s big board, that CEH had emerged as the top talent to be selected, especially considering the top CBs and LBs had been taken from the board. Turning the page to round 2, when Veach chose Willie Gay, Jr., I could see that one coming. Baun was my pick and would that Veach could somehow brought in the two of them to the Chiefs in the draft. Gay had the red flags and no one outside of the Chiefs internal crew knew that he was a Chiefs target. He fell to the Chiefs pick in the 2nd round and by that time, as I was scanning for what I knew of him before the pick happened, and then there he was – a round 1 talent who had speed, gap closing/pass defense in his repertory!

The Chiefs had walked away with two round 1 picks in the first two rounds and selected Niang to boot in the 3rd. So, in multiple ways, for the rest of the draft, the bump system was in play and BEPA (Better At Every Position) surely seemed to be a factor also with the BPA from the Chiefs GM Scouting crew and with consultation with Andy Reid and his coaching staff, the Chiefs walked away then with a great choice at CB in the 4th and adding a 7th round CB by trading the 6 th round pick of 2021 to get back in the draft and select BoPete Keyes.

Also in my attempts to look at the draft and envisioning Brett Veach’s draft board, I concluded he had boards for each position group and that fed to a big board view as the draft rolled from one pick to another. That way he would have players with a ranking score of some value that I don’t know that they use but a classification which would allow Veach, Reid and all the advisors to see how the different position players at any point in the draft would fit, how they ranked, what scout put them forward, film review status and establishing a value that was equally applied despite dis-similar positions. It’s impossible to know exactly how they do this but it must entail a tremendous amount of granular views of all players that they consider for the draft.

Of course as the off-season courses, one you may view me as super biased, but the truth is the truth. I don’t know what I don’t know, but I do have a view point that is not superfluous.

What the Chiefs accomplished was to add a complete RB with all the skills used by the Chiefs which builds threat to a greater level and prevents defenses from setting up in cover three at least to a great extent – CEH is a threat on the ground and in the aerial attack at the same time. “No” Cheating is going to be the internal cheer from the WRs for the season. He will team up with Damien Williams for a 1-2 RB attack (then the rest as it unfolds though not yet determined. Gay bolsters the LB Room. In fact, with the addition of Gay, the Chiefs LB group will have found a definitive leader on defense which will make any other LB on the field at the same time a better player. I have already addressed Niang but you could not say that he is a lesser player for a round 3 pick. On another team he would be earmarked to be a starter. This draft and the Shutdown is what allowed the Chiefs to pick Niang in the 3rd. Niang was a three year starter at TCU and excelled in their ZBS. Expect Niang to be ready quickly and be a contributor at least as I have proposed. Another important point of Niang’s career is that he did not allow a sack in 44 games.

With the 4 th pick, the Chiefs snap safety L’Jarius Sneed who has top end speed. While other teams are gearing up for the WRs the Chiefs add Sneed and I see him as becoming a contributor in the secondary quickly. He states that his prime position is CB but he had switched to safety for the 2019 season. We get a ball hawk who is versatile and that fits the Chiefs defense to a “T”. Fifth round pick, Mike Hanna, has been tumbling around in my mind since he was selected. I thought as did Ransom, that maybe they were seeing a middle LB. However, his speed and rush skills are likely honed to the DE role. I now want to see what he brings to the table in practice and pre-season. He certainly should fit Toub’s special teams package.

As noted, the Chiefs used their 2021 round 6 pick to draft Thakarius “Bopete” Keyes. You might think this is a meaningless late pick but I submit that he was steal, with 16 career NCAA INTs and his pass defense was good. The fact that he boasts 4.39-40 speed has got to be important to the secondary which is working to defend against NFL opponents who drafted to compete with the Chiefs. The downside the Chiefs are going to face is the now known suspension games of Bashaud Breeland. I’m seeing that this number will be four but others have written that it will be two. That won’t be a positive for the Chiefs secondary and is going to be a concern.

The Chiefs Draft Picks – 2020

Round 1, pick 32: Clyde Edwards-Helaire RB – LSU

Round 2, pick 63 (from 49ers): Willie Gay Jr. LB – Mississippi State

Round 3, pick 96: Lucas Niang OT – TCU

Round 4, pick 138: L’Jarius Sneed S – Louisiana Tech

Round 5, pick 177: Mike Danna DE – Michigan

Round 7, pick 237 (from Broncos via Patriots): Thakarius “Bopete” Keyes CB – Tulane

David Bell — ArrowheadOne

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