The Top-30 & Other Player Visits: Fanciful, Deceitful or Purposeful?

David Bell

How important are the Top 30 Visits?

In 2022, three of those players are now Kansas City Chiefs. Two of them found major roles in the Super Bowl Run.

Those 2022 Top 30 visitors:

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• April 12: Fayetteville ST CB Joshua Williams (Drafted in round 4–Major Contributor in 2022)

• April 18: CB Jaylen Watson (Drafted round 7–Major Contributor to CB Group in 2022)

• April 19: QB Chris Oladokun (UDFA signed, and now QB #3 on the Roster)

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Chris Oladokun – NFL.com – Photo Credit

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Of course, we out in the netherworld don’t know if a telephonic or virtual interview, is, or is not, a player the Chiefs are truly interested in. –> Such a contact, could be a deception meant to mislead other GMs, Coaches, Scouts, and Analysts. <– This is always a possibility. Aside from this, the visit of a player without a workout is indeed a Top-30 visit. Chiefs conversations with players at an NFL event, a bowl game or practice, are not Top-30 visits. They are of the “informal meeting” category. Attending a public workout, is not considered a Top-30 visit either.

Pre-Draft Visits and Contacts

These may occur at various sites, locations, and Events such as a Bowl Game Practice, the Scouting Combine or a Pro Day. It could be a visit at a public workout at any site to which all teams may visit. These contacts are not Top-30 Visits A Top-30 Visit will be scheduled at Kansas City. No workout can be included for such a visit. Those are a separate category for teams interacting with particular players.

Private Workouts By Teams Are Not Top-30 Visits

Players are brought to KC for the purpose of the workout, meeting coaches and front office staff as well as touring the Chief’s facilities and offices. Players for a workout verifies what is known about the player. The questions that our GM and coaching staff are seeking, is a verification of the current health and status the player — a verification of the metrics recorded at the Scouting Combine or a Pro Day. Such a visit could be an investigation related to a particular players recovery from a recent injury. Also included in the purpose of the visit, is to identify communication skills, his ability to think on the feet, so to speak, and obtain information about a given player’s football IQ. This would include personality, the ability to communicate ideas and the player’s fitness to meeting the team’s “Persona”. For the Chiefs, I believe this is crucial aspect of determining if the player is a match for the locker room dynamics, or not.

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Pre-Draft Site Specific, and Virtual or Telephonic Meetings

Also not Top-30 Visits

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In 2021, a partial list of players who had such “meetings” were Mizzou LB Nick Bolton (Top-30). Other interviews were with Miami TE Brevin Jordan, OSU OT Teven Jenkins, Kansas RB Pooka Williams (short, telephonic-not Top-30), KSU DL Wyatt Hubert (who had two pre-draft meetings and 3rd was scheduled, BC LB Isaiah McDuffie (vIrtual – not Top-30), FSU CB Assante Samuel (vIrtual – Not Top-30).

Obviously, Nick Bolton was selected by the Chiefs in the 2021 Draft. It appears that the Chiefs were indeed interested in Wyatt Hubert and I am positive they were very interested in Assante Samuel. These were players who identified publicly any type of contact with any team. The Chiefs would also indicate occasions where they met with a player at a Pro Day, The Scouting Combine, a KC or other local workout.

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2019 Top-30 Visits: Players Discovered

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Charles Omenihu photo – Houston Chronicle/Tom Pennington Photo

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• LA Tech DE Jaylon Ferguson – Reported by Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle.

• TCU DE L.J. Collier – Reported by Jared Tokarz of NFL Draft Insider.

• Texas A&M TE Jace Sternberger – Reported by Aaron Wilson of The Houston Chronicle.

• Texas DE Charles Omenihu* – Reported by Charles Goldman of Chiefs Wire. (In 2023, Emenihu is now a Signed F/A for the Chiefs

• Virginia DB Juan Thornhill* – Reported by The Daily Progress. (Drafted by the Chiefs)

• Houston LB Emeke Egbule – Reported by Brooke Pryor of the Kansas City Star.

• Mississippi State DT Jeffery Simmons – Per Jeffery Simmons personal Instagram.

• Penn State CB Amani Oruwariye -Reported by Josh Norris of Rotoworld.

• BYU LB Sione Takitaki – Reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.

• Vanderbilt CB Joejuan Williams – Reported by Josh Norris of Rotoworld.

• UNC LB Cole Holcomb – Reported by Tom Pelisserro of NFL Network.

• Kentucky CB Lonnie Johnson – Reported by Josh Edwards of 247 Sports.

•Villanova OL Ethan Greenidge -Reported by Tony Pauline of Draft Analyst.

• Old Dominion DE Tim Ward*– Reported by Eric Edholm of Yahoo Sports (eventually signed by the Chiefs)

• Notre Dame DL Jerry Tillery – Reported by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.

• Washington CB Byron Murphy – Reported by Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle.

• Missouri OT Paul Adams – Reported by KC Star beat reporter Alex Schiffer.

• Utah State RB Darwin Thompson – Per Darwin Thompson’s personal Instagram account.

• Central Michigan CB Sean Bunting – Per Sean Bunting’s personal Instagram account.

• Appalachian State RB Jalin Moore – Reported by Justin Melo of Draft Wire.

• Louisville OT Trevor Reid.

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What Is a Top-30 Visit?

It does not mean that a team is keen for any player, so the term Top-30 is a misleading name.

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From Walter Football, here’s a list of this year’s visits made by Prospects to the Chiefs:

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Bottom Line

The Team reporting mechanism needs to be recorded and list of Top-30 visits documented & Made Public (aside from sites like Walter Football reporting it)! Visits with workouts should also be recorded and the list made public. Informal contacts, video chats and phone calls is also intriguing, but those contacts can be fanciful on the part of players and their agents.

The difficulty is in determining the purpose of Team contacts, or any of these visits, including Top-30 visits. For me? It remains nebulous in order to understand why such events took place, Top-30 or other Player Specific Contacts. Secretive events, are these contacts with college players. Apparently, this is done with purpose by Teams and the NFL itself.

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David Bell — ArrowheadOne

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