Laddie Morse
I wish, I wish, I wish… the draft was this week and not next week. In other words, the NFL Draft can’t come soon enough as far as I’m concerned. With those words spoken out loud, let’s dig into the draft from a Mock point of view and consider two different ways to go about drafting. Of course, there’s the trade-up or trade-down debate, but I’m not entering into that discussion here. What I am going to do is offer my point of view on whether or not the Chiefs should draft a WR first… or an OT first.
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2024 Draft Mock #1
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Here’s a mock draft done at PFF.com, a mock draft simulator:
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32. OT, Jordan Morgan
Jordan Morgan is 6-foot-5 and weighs in at 311 lbs.. He is the 9th best OT listed at DraftBuzz.com and he is the 41st best overall prospect ranked by DrafTek. Going for an Offensive Tackle first is the idea here. That means that Brett Veach and his team saw the other players coming off the board as being of too high a price to spend on a trade-up and the available wideouts were not comparable to the talent the Chiefs had in house at Offensive Tackle. I know that’s a hard thing to compare, but that’s exactly what Veach and his team must do. Here’s Jordan Morgan’s RAS (Relative Athletic Score):
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64. WR, Xavier Legette
With the first three picks, the Chiefs must some how navigate there way into selecting a WR plus and an OT. That’s not the only reason Xavier Legette appears he. He a good one. If Ladd McConkey was available here, I’d have chosen him as I rate him one step above Legette. Legette is 6-foot-1 and weighs in at 221 lbs. plus he runs a 4.39 – 40-yard dash. He played all five years for South Carolina and what some see as a problem is that Legette didn’t have a breakout year until 2023 when he caught passes for 1,255 yards.
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Prior to that his best season was 18 catches for 167 yards receiving. That he broke out is the key here and that’s why I mocked him to K.C.. Here’s a great catch by Legette:
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95. DT, T’Vondre Sweat
I know there’s lot of Chiefs Kingdom who are not fans of T’Vondre Sweat and his recent DWI didn’t help his cause any either. However, Andy Reid loves to take on those cases where some compassion is needed and Sweat has the necessary tools to help Chris Jones so…. Sweat also has the size that Steve Spagnuolo loves and he stands at 6-foot-4 and weighs in at 356 lbs.. What many Kingdom fans need to know is that Sweat is bigger than Dontari Poe was and Poe was drafted 11th overall back in 2012. I’m not comparing Sweat to Poe but Reid could easily design some offensive plays for Sweat like he did for Poe. The one greatest issue I have with Sweat is… can he make it through an Andy Reid Training Camp?
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2024 Draft Mock #2
This mock was done at FanSpeak.com:
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32. DL, Byron Murphy II
While lit’s apparent that I didn’t chose a WR or an OT here, Ryan Tracy of RGR Football has made me aware of the need for another good Defensive lineman. With Chris Jones 29 years old and turns 30 in early July he’s not getting any younger, so the challenge is to keep the pressure on opposing QBs up the middle. Murphy II stands 6-foot-1 and he weighs in at 300 lbs.. He ranks 4th amoung all DL by DraftBuzz.com and he ranks 28th best as an overall prospect by DrafTek.com. In the 2023 season at Texas he had 5.0 sacks and 8.5 Tackles for a Loss, in 13 games.
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64. WR, Malachi Corley
Malachi Corley is downgraded by some pundits for playing against lesser opponents since he played for Western Kentucky in Conference USA. However, Corley is gifted as a pass catcher and that’s what gets him drafted (mocked) here. Corley was once a RB and breaks tackles like one to this day. Reid will love Corley’s ability to gain yards after catch (YAC). Sometimes breaking tackles is just as good as breaking ankles. Over four seasons at Western Kentucky Corley had 3,035 receiving yards. In his Junior season, 2022, he had 1,295 receiving yards and was 16 yards short of a thousand last year. He stand at 5-foot-11 and weighs in at 200 lbs. so he’s built like a RB already. His ability to break tackles is top notch and here’s some of his 29 TD’s plus you’ll see his skill at breaking tackles. Sorry for the poor video quality (1:06):
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I love the way he refuses to go down! Malachi Corley not only was a RB in high school, but also played basketball, which HC Andy Reid will love. He also earned all-conference honors in Conference USA during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. I’m impressed enough by Corley that I wouldn’t mind seeing K.C. double-dip and take two WRs in this draft… especially if he was one of those chosen wideouts. Don’t ask me why, but he reminds me a bit of Joe Delaney.
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95. OT, Brandon Coleman
Coleman stands at 6-foot-5, 313 lbs. while running a 4.99 – 40-yard dash. That’s really cooking for a man that size. Although Coleman will need some coaching up, he promises to be a good professional offensive lineman one day. Although Coleman may start out as a Tackle in the Chiefs system, he could end up as an Offensive Guard, especially after Joe Thuney retires or exits. Here’s Colemans RAS:
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“Brandon Coleman is a OG prospect in the 2024
draft class. He scored a 9.97 #RAS out of a
possible 10.00. This ranked 5 out of 1523
OG from 1987 to 2024.” –Kent Lee Platte
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Finally
Now that we’ve covered two different approaches to the Chiefs draft picks, I think it would be best if K.C. selects an OT initially. Why? Because each time I’ve done a mock, it’s the best OTs who get snatched off the board first while the WRs are deep and you can find good one’s in the second and even the third rounds. In fact, if the Chiefs are looking for a starter at OT, they may have to trade up in round one to get one. Then again, it’s as Brett Veach says:
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What do you think? Did we learn anything here today?
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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