A Different View Of The Chiefs Draft
We always welcome input from readers. Sometimes those posts catch our attention and they turn up here on the site. Here are the thoughts of Douglas Wymore. Enjoy.
Maybe the best way to analyze the Chief’s draft is look from the top down, instead of the bottom up, which is the more traditional method of building a team.
I think that is what Todd Haley wanted, and he got his way.
The traditional NFL model provides a hierarchy for draft picks that puts a premium on QB, LT, DE, CB, etc. Teams say that they build from the inside out, depending upon talent available. Good teams have traditionally found players through the draft, free agency, trades, and UFA’s.
The success of the last few Super Bowl winners and changes in the passing game show that there may be ways to accelerate the run to the championship, and a dominating play-making safety may be as necessary as a pass rushing defensive end.
The past few Super Bowl winners all had high-caliber, play-making safeties: Darren Sharper, Troy Polamalu and Bob Sanders. The only exception was the Giants, who had a tremendous pass rush. Arizona made the Super Bowl largely because of Adrian Wilson and Ed Reed anchored Baltimore’s secondary. Houston’s defensive play improved immensely once Bernard Pollard arrived from Kansas City. Brian Dawkins made quite a difference in Denver, until he began to wear down toward the end of the season. All of these teams had other good players, but in each case the safety was a major difference maker. On the other end of the spectrum, the teams with the worst records typically had safeties that underperformed, such as Kansas City, Washington, St. Louis and Oakland.
Losing a high impact safety caused teams to lose toughness, such as the Redskins with Sean Taylor dying, Dawkins and Sharper changing addresses, and Sanders and Polamalu being injured.
Second-round pick Dexter McCluster provides the quick-strike capability and flexibility that may allow Kansas City to develop an inside-out attack that helped New Orleans with Reggie Bush, New England with Wes Welker, Philadelphia with DeSean Jackson and Brian Westbrook and Pittsburgh with Santonio Holmes. KC had some success with Dante Hall, and Cleveland uses Joshua Cribbs. Just as they needed a playmaker that could create space from the line quickly, they also needed someone to stop teams from picking up third downs through quick throws, so they drafted Javier Arenas in the second round, who may also serve as a kick returner.
With their credibility being questioned and Pioli’s recent low impact drafts and high number of outright busts, they needed instant impact. As Bill Parcells once advised a coach who was explaining how injuries derailed his team from achieving its high expectations, the cure is: “Just win, son.”
With a poor record for the past few years, declining fan base, management changes, abrasive management style and underperforming 2009 draft, they needed instant impact to avoid the job jeopardy that another disappointing season would bring.
Let’s hope they get the impact they expect.
Can anyone til me about Jer. Urbin? I know he was high in the draft.
This was a good article, mostly because I agree with it. Re-read the last three paragraphs, “underperforming 2009 draft”. My, my is good to notice someone else think Jackson, Magee, et al was not a busting out success or even adequate for a team that had 2 wins the year before. In 2010, these draftee may be what we needed last year, kids who can actually play by the start of the season. We will see.
Excellent perspective. The Chiefs went after playmakers instead of work horses (in the draft at least). Then they will fill in the work horse players via free agency & or trades.
Maybe this will shake up the way of doing business in KC. Worse case scenario is…There really is’nt one. After all,we only won 4 games last year.
Go Chiefs.
I love how they mention the Texans defense got better once Pollard was added and how the chiefs poor safety play contributed to the L’s… I really hope that McCluster can give us an inside presence on the field, but this is the NFL and he better be tough…
“arrowhead1978 says:
I love how they mention the Texans defense got better once Pollard was added and how the chiefs poor safety play contributed to the L’s…”
Obviously Pollard didn’t do things their way so he got cut. Maybe it will turn out to be for the best because they may have not picked Berry if not for cutting Pollard.
One thing that I’m not sure has been mentioned yet about Dex – by picking him up, we add some “weapon insurance” should Charles get hurt (or get a case of fumble-itis).
Also, I’m not sure we’ve said much about this either, but with the pickup of Asamoah, if for some reason Lilja doesn’t work out, we have a credible “Plan B” versus the “trade several next year picks to get someone else’s backups” approach we had to take last year.
I think we all pretty well envisioned after last year the Chiefs would pick up a big nose for the middle. When Cody was there and we didn’t get the guy at 50 it was crushing. I don’t care about Dex or Jav. I love the Big Jon pick. How do you go in the three four with out any one at nose tackle. They must be bonkers over Shaun Smith.
SG do you really think this team is so complete it is time to draft guys for “plan B”? To add team speed is what happened in ‘10 but were there better choices, don’t know. It seems to me Pioli is setting himself for a very long run, as in years. I do not see any reason to take that long to rebuild in the NFL. We seem to be moving positively but at a crawl.
Danny W,
I think they simply didn’t think as much of Cody as a lot of fans did.
I am so glad that we did not pick Mt. Custard (Cody). I’m very happy with this draft and especially the fact that we picked Berry. We’ve got speed, flexibility, and I truly believe that our new coaches will maximize what we already have on the O & D lines. More moves will be made before the season starts. This draft is part instant gratification and part build for future. We will be a Team for the ‘Teens, like we were in the 90’s.
Thanks for the article and sharing your opinion well, Mr. Wymore.
Go CHIEFS!
Pioli’s picks in ‘09 underperformed, but it’s not like they didn’t warn the fans. Pioli said right after that draft that he believes D Linemen take some time to develop.
He also said Washington was a very young, very raw but athletically gifted player who would take some time to be what he could be. If Jackson and Magee can improve as much year one to year two as Dorsey did, they will be just fine. Lawrence, Williams and O’Connel were late picks who contributed on special teams, and may do more down the line. That’s not so unusual.
First of all, I agree with Michael. Seems a lot of fans (and other supposed “experts” in the media) this year, talked trash about KC’s 2009 picks, while seeming to forget those important words from Scott. You also can’t grade last year’s draft, due to the inconsistancy of coaching we had. This year will prove/disprove whether 2009 was a successful draft.
As for Pollard; I believe when KC traded him, Scott was already strongly considering picking Eric Berry. Had Pollard adjusted to the new staff better, things might have gone differently. However, I think things worked out for the better.