Why The Kansas City Chiefs Should Trade Down In The NFL Draft
In my recent NFL mock draft, I had the Kansas City Chiefs using their first-round pick on Stanford’s offensive tackle Jonathan Martin. I also noted in the comment that the Chiefs should really consider trading down. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that Kansas City should make a move with their first-round pick to move in either direction—and most likely that direction is downward.
The one player I can see trading up for would be Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon. He’s a wild-card in the draft projections right now, with a lot of scouts’ rankings having him around 10th—meaning a slip to KC at either 11 or 12 is not out of the question. My own completely unprofessional opinion can’t imagine Blackmon lasting past the top five and if he does I’m going to have about as much faith in scouting as Billy Beane did in Moneyball. If Blackmon does start to slide, Scott Pioli should work the phones and see what it would take to get in position to draft him.
But the more likely scenario is that Kansas City will be faced with choices like Martin, or Alabama outside linebacker Courtney Upshaw, Boston College inside linebacker Luke Kuechly or ‘Bama running back Trent Richardson. There are cases for all of them. Kansas City needs offensive line help. Upshaw could be a havoc-wreaker in the 3-4 scheme. Kuechly is a steady tackler on the inside, and Richardson is a player that scouts project could go higher, so there’s the argument of good value.
I don’t think any of the situations are really ideal. In the case of Martin and Kuechly, they’re good players and worthy of a first-round pick, but not this high. In the case of Upshaw, he’s a good talent, but Kansas City is in good shape at the OLB spot. And there would be nothing wrong with picking Richardson either, but a high first-round pick is a lot to invest on someone who’d be an insurance policy for Jamaal Charles.
The choices Chiefs’ general manager Scott Pioli is likely to face are to either stockpile an area of non-need with the best player on the board or overvalue someone in an area of need. We can debate all day long about which option is better, but in reality the best choice in these situations is to see about an option to trade down. Move to the 20th pick or so, and see if you can grab an extra choice out of it in round two and maximize value.
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[...] I know I’ve already argued that Kansas City should trade down. But in the spirit of election-year flip-flopping, let me now consider an alternate scenario. Kalil is to lineman what Andrew Luck is to quarterbacks. There’s no reason to like the USC prospect. His 6’7” 295-lb frame is well-suited to playing in the NFL. To read through ESPN’s Scouts Inc. report on Kalil is to see a portrait of a future Hall of Famer. [...]
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