Five NFL Draft Prospects For Kansas City To Consider
With the offseason upon us, it’s time to start breaking down the 2012 NFL draft and see who might be available for the Kansas City Chiefs when the pick in either the 11th or 12th spot (to be determined by a coin flip with Seattle).
You can break the draft down from countless angles and between now and April 26 we’ll do just that. For today, let’s start with the basics and just look what kind of player Kansas City might have available to them when their number is up. Based on the rankings of ESPN’s Scouts Inc., here are the top five players who fall in the general vicinity of the Chief draft spot…
Jonathan Martin (OT, Stanford): From a positional standpoint, he’s the only offensive lineman in this group and that’s Kansas City’s biggest area of need. At 6’6” 304, he’s a tough run blocker, whose college team was much more physical than they were generally given credit for. On the downside, his pass protection skills are still evolving and there’s a lot of work to do on his basic technique, somewhat surprising for a player whose job it was to protect Andrew Luck. I have a hard time using a pick this high on a tackle who’s not ready to step in and pass protect right away, but with the Kansas City offense more geared to running the ball, Martin can still be a good fit and grow into the protection role.
Luke Kuechly (ILB, Boston College): A proto-typical inside linebacker in that he’s strong and sure in reading the play, getting to the ball and wrapping up. He’s also a little slow and can be a liability in pass coverage and as a blitzer he’s not going to make an offensive coordinator change a game plan. Kuechly has the markings of being a solid pro, although I’m not sure if he would be enough of a standout to merit selection this high.
Michael Brockers (DT, LSU): He’s the defensive line equivalent of Kuechly, in that he’s very tough against the run, moving well laterally, while lacking the first-step speed necessary to be a power pass rusher from the inside. Normally I’d say not to use a pick this high on him, but Kansas City does have a big need at nose tackle and Brockers could fit that spot.
Andre Branch (DE, Clemson): The scouts don’t like his first-step quickness, which I would see as a disqualifying mark for a defensive end in the top half of the first round. Branch wins praise for his discipline, fundamentals and ability to contain and seal the edge, but I wouldn’t even consider using a pick this high solely for that, especially in a 3-4 scheme.
Dre Kirkpatrick (CB, Alabama): He’s got long arms and can play physical at the line of scrimmage, but while his cover skills are good, they aren’t great. With Kansas City having good corners, it would make little sense to draft another one unless he was the next Darrelle Revis. Kirkpatrick isn’t.
So if the choice were just these five who would you take? I guess I would lean Brockers, as he comes from a good college program, knows something about winning and fits an area of need. But what I’m really thinking is that maybe it might be better to make a trade—either move up and get legitimate impact guy or move down and go for quantity in later rounds.
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[...] Jonathan Martin is the most likely top prospect to be available when Kansas City picks, and you can read more about him in the analysis of other players, regardless of position, who would be good fits at that [...]
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