Three Day Three Sleepers and Keepers – Yep, the Kansas City Chiefs can find treasures buried in the late rounds of the draft. This is not only a testament to the work of GM Brett Veach in coordination with his staff, but perhaps and more importantly, credit must be given to the talents of his scouting team. I’ve heard some pretty negative stories about ex-Chiefs GM, Scott Pioli, and how he would simply ignore prospects in the later rounds. Not any more.
.
While many teams, including the Chiefs of past years, have basically neglected the deep evaluations of prospects in the late rounds, or even taken the, “rock-paper-scissors” approach to selecting late round players, the Chiefs have a dedicated crew of employees watching over the player acquisition process. It’s extensive and includes (from Chiefs.com):
.
- Football Operations Counsel and Personnel Executive – Chris Shea
- Assistant Directors of Player Personnel – Mike Bradway, Ryan Poles
- Player Personnel Assistant – Jalen Myrick, Samuel Seale, Kunal Tanna
- Director of Football Operations – Mike Borgonzi
- Director of Football Administration – Brandt Tilis
- Director of Pro Personnel – Tim Terry
- Director of College Scouting – Ryne Nutt
- College Scouting Coordinator – Greg Castillo
- National Scout[s] – Trey Koziol, Cassidy Kaminski
- Pro College Scout – Jason Lamb
- Area Scouts – Willie Davis, Terry Delp, Pat Sperduto, David Hinson
- Scouting Assistant – Ricky Seale
.
It’s not the actual selection of the Chiefs 4th round pick at #138, L’Jarius Sneed, that I want to highlight here, it’s the area scout who had much to do with getting him into a K.C. uniform: Willie Davis. When Sneed was drafted, in a post draft interview, David said:
.
“You have a long, fast kid with really good ball skills. Really smart. He understands how to play the position. He can play both press, he’s a long big kid that can get up in the face of receivers and play press corner, and he has the instincts and the knowledge to play off [off-man coverage] also.”
.
This year, there may be more hidden talents late in the draft than ever before, simply because of a systemic endemic draft season pandemic, it’s all been so, ick! Enough to make you sick, if you weren’t already. However, it takes a village and the Chiefs may have the best group of Village People in the league.
.
So, here are some prospects who show up as being ranked in the later rounds of the draft, which are likely to fall to day three, but also players which have upside.
.
WR Jacob Harris
.
Jacob Harris stands 6-foot-5, weighs 212 lbs., caught all of 49 balls in his his last two years at the University of Central Florida (UCF). However, it was his pro day that caught my attention, so I had to look into him further. He may have had only 30 receptions in his last year at UCF, but 8 of those were touchdowns. Here’s a 29 second video review of his pro day.
.
.
A 40 inch vertical jump, an 11-foot-1 long jump, and a 4.39 – 40 yard dash makes him someone who deserves consideration. Those numbers out distance 80% of the other wideouts in this year’s draft. Here’s a look at what Harris can do.
.
.
Jacob Harris is somewhat new to football. He was a soccer kid growing up and dreamed of playing professional soccer. After becoming a frequent spectator of football practices in high school, he’d head off to his soccer practices, but eventually decided he wanted to give football a go in his senior year. Since wide receiver was a position he’d’ been thinking about, he made the most of his efforts at Palm Harbor University High School in Florida. He originally gave his verbal commitment to play soccer at Florida Gulf Coast, but started his football career as a walk-on at Western Kentucky. After getting home sick, he returned to Florida and then signed with UCF.
.
Harris is obviously a developmental prospect and started out as a Special Teams player, where he has plenty of experience at UFC. Josh Huepel — yes, that Josh Huepel — his head coach at UCF (and now the new HC at Tennessee) said this of Harris prior to his senior year:
.
“Since he’s been inside of our program, tireless work ethic he brings it at the same competitive nature every single day. That’s why you see him go from a scout team guy to earning a position on special teams and becoming a dominant special team’s force at the end of last year.”
.
Could Jacob Harris be a WR-TE hybrid in Reid’s offense? Possibly. Could he provide Patrick Mahomes a red zone target? Possibly. Harris is ranked at the 311th best overall prospect in this draft by DrafTek so maybe the route for signing him is as a UDFA. When a prospect is that tall, that fast, and that explosive, you find a place for him on your squad.
.
LB Garrett Wallow
.
Garrett Wallow is out of TCU and played in 40 games there, 34 as a starter. We know how much Andy Reid likes players with experience, and Wallow gives him that. Wallow is 6-foot-2, 230 lbs. which makes him 2 inches taller than Anthony Hitchens and weighing the same, and while he didn’t turn in the fastest time in the country, he did have a 4.65 – 40 yards dash, compared to Hitchens 4.74 – 40. He started out as a Safety, and is also good in coverage. Note: his 40 time is barely faster than Daniel Sorensen’s — Sorensen ran a 4.67 40 — so he could be a good replacement for Dirty Dan.
.
Wallow was a leader on the Texas Christian defense the past two seasons and had 215 tackles, 27 for a loss, 5.5 sacks and an INT over those two seasons. You can often see him deciphering a play quickly and heading downfield to make the tackle, often in the opponents backfield. He ranked #1 in total tackles and #1 in solo tackles during the 2019 season in the Big 12. Here are a few of my favorite plays by Garrett Wallow.
.
.
“… anticipated by Garrett Wallow” are fitting words for the way he plays. We’ve seen Anthony Hitchens struggle for the better part of two seasons, precisely because he hasn’t anticipated well. Admittedly, Hitchens improved over the last half of 2020 and we can only hope that continues in 2021. A Linebackers job is as much about football IQ as it is about brut strength. Wallow appears to have that “anticipatory set” at the ready, on most plays. Jordan Reid at The Draft Network says of Wallow:
.
An outstanding blitzer, he has the closing speed in order to finish plays in a hurry by bringing targets down to the ground. Wallow’s speed to the ball is slightly above average and he has the speed necessary to chase down ball-carriers. His instincts are still developing, but he shows an understanding of concepts being developed in front of him.
.
Wallow looks like he plays faster than his 40 time and that may be because he has such good instincts, he already knows where he’s going on a given play. While I hope Veach drafts a much faster linebacker, earlier in the draft, if he does decide to double-dip at LB, Wallow could be an excellent choice for an ILB, as long as he has two speedy guys on the wings.
.
ER Payton Turner
.
Edge Defender Payton Turner stands 6-foot-5, weighs 270 lbs. and played his college ball for Houston. I call him an Edge “Defender” because he’s played several positions along the defensive front while at Houston (a reason that attracted me to him as I know DC Steve Spagnuolo loves to move guys around), as well as at LB. Joe Marino writes of Payton Turner:
.
“The Cougars played him all across the defensive line, even as a standup outside linebacker at times. At the next level, Turner is best suited to play 4-3 defensive end but also has the length needed to serve as a 5-technique in a 3-4 front. The best components of Turner’s game are his length, physicality, power, hand combatting skills, and motor. Those traits give him appeal as a pass rusher and run defender.“
.
Turner had a knee injury as a senior in high school and Houston was the only college that offered him a scholarship. That may be part of the reason many of us haven’t heard of him. However, his tape is exciting to watch and he reminds me of the defensive linemen Spags used to coach for the New York Giants over ten years ago. Linemen he won a Super Bowl with. Long and lean guys like: Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck, both 6-foot-5, like Turner. Here, see what I mean:
.
.
The 4th and 5th plays in, Turner doesn’t do the best job of setting the edge, but in both cases, does a good job of making up for it. It looks like he has already developed more than one move to get to the QB. He’d definitely be a developmental Defensive End, but he appears to have plenty of upside. While we spent years hoping that Tanoh Kpassagnon would develop into a very good DE, the biggest flaw with him was, he was drafted in the second round and we expect more out of those players. If K.C. can get Payton Turner in the 4th or 5th round, he’d be a great addition and someone Steve Spagnuolo and DL line coach, Brendan Daly, could coach up. A man his size running a 4.54 – 40 yards dash should get some attention.
.
There’s something special about each of the players I chose to highlight today. With Jacob Harris it’s his height and speed, with Garrett Wallow, it’s his football instincts and playing faster than he timed, and with Payton Turner it’s his size/speed ratio and upside, the kind of upside Spags would love. Let me know what you think.
.
Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
.
If you are viewing this in Apple News and would like to join the Discussion, [GO HERE.](http://arrowheadone.com/three-day-three-sleepers-and-keepers/#disqus_thread)
.