Nate Taylor: some draft tidbits

On a recent episode of his podcast Only Weird Games, Nate Taylor provided some draft tidbits on the 1st two rounds.

The Chiefs attitude going into the draft was "how can we better serve Mahomes."
Around pick 16/17, the Chiefs started making move-up phone calls. They wanted to move up into the teens.
They were super interested in Amarius Mims. They felt he was "the first prospect they felt they could go get."
They felt that Brian Thomas Jr. was not going to be "in range." He went 23rd, so Nate argues that they could have tried to go get him. But their next big prospect they loved was Worthy.
In part they valued getting a WR in the 1st if a tackle didn't work out because that 5th year option will be so financially valuable.
They then tried to draft up into the early 50s in the 2nd round.
They were nervous as hell that Baltimore would take Kingsley.
Taylor suggests the one-pick trade-up for Kingsley may have been a "psychological play," indicating to Kingsley that they were willing to burn resources to snag him.

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Originally Posted by Direckshun:
On a recent episode of his podcast Only Weird Games, Nate Taylor provided some draft tidbits on the 1st two rounds.

The Chiefs attitude going into the draft was "how can we better serve Mahomes."

Around pick 16/17, the Chiefs started making move-up phone calls. They wanted to move up into the teens.

They were super interested in Amarius Mims. They felt he was "the first prospect they felt they could go get."

They felt that Brian Thomas Jr. was not going to be "in range." He went 23rd, so Nate argues that they could have tried to go get him. But their next big prospect they loved was Worthy.

In part they valued getting a WR in the 1st if a tackle didn't work out because that 5th year option will be so financially valuable.

They then tried to draft up into the early 50s in the 2nd round.

They were nervous as hell that Baltimore would take Kingsley.

Taylor suggests the one-pick trade-up for Kingsley may have been a "psychological play," indicating to Kingsley that they were willing to burn resources to snag him.

Interesting, thanks Direckshun. Man I would love it if Kingsley becomes a better player than Mims, God I hate the Bengals. The "psychological play" element sounds like BS to me, if I'm honest.
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Sounds like crap to me, too.

The simplest explanation is usually the best. Teams were trying to jump the Chiefs for a tackle, they stayed in touch with the 49ers to ensure that wouldn't happen, and outbid whomever tried to jump them to get their guys.
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I like that show for the most part but so much of Nates "insider scoops" feel like smoke screens or like his insider is a janitor just making shit up from cafeteria talk he over heard. You don't jump up to make someone feel good. You move up to make sure no one else gets the player. Pretty cut and dry. The Chiefs moved up from 29 to 10 to stroke Mahomes ego..
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Taylor is entertaining for the most part (until he and Brisco get on their soapbox) but I doubt he has much more actual inside information than anyone here. The whol psy-op trade up angle is ridiculous. San Fran probably called and said that some other team was trying to trade into 63 and grab Kingsley and that if we wanted im we had to give something up.
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Originally Posted by raybec 4:
Taylor is entertaining for the most part (until he and Brisco get on their soapbox) but I doubt he has much more actual inside information than anyone here. The whol psy-op trade up angle is ridiculous. San Fran probably called and said that some other team was trying to trade into 63 and grab Kingsley and that if we wanted im we had to give something up.

Got dam almost forgot about the soap box. That Rashee Rice episode was fucking awful. Almost walked away forever.
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Originally Posted by Direckshun:
Sounds like crap to me, too.

The simplest explanation is usually the best. Teams were trying to jump the Chiefs for a tackle, they stayed in touch with the 49ers to ensure that wouldn't happen, and outbid whomever tried to jump them to get their guys.

I listened to someone on NFL Radio (Kirwin or Polian, I don't remember) insist that teams don't "peddle" a pick like that.

That the Jets, for instance, would never call up Minnesota and say "Hey, we've got a team looking to jump to 10 and snag a guy in front of you, wanna make sure that doesn't happen?"

I mean if the Vikings moving up 1 spot to take a QB when the Jets have Rodgers or the Chiefs moving up 1 spot to grab Kingsley doesn't disprove the hell out of that notion, I just don't know what could.

Of COURSE they do that. Why in the world would they not? If you're not doing that, you're GMing wrong, IMO.
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The only counter I can reasonably come up with is that if you're the team looking to jump to 63 and the 49ers say "Lemme call you back..." then you KNOW why they're doing it. In that case I say "oh no, sir. You take it now or it's not on the table. I'm not gonna have you leveraging my offer to a team I'm needing to get in front of. We don't have time for this nonsense. I've offered you a fair deal and you can take it or leave it..."

Which is a risk, for sure. But in a timed situation like that when you're looking at zero sum outcomes, you really can't let a team have a free hand like that. You need to put a deadline on that sort of offer.
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Originally Posted by Dunerdr:
Got dam almost forgot about the soap box. That Rashee Rice episode was fucking awful. Almost walked away forever.

The Rice episode was nothing compared to the Araiza one. That one was flat out embarrassing.

The Rice episode was pretty reasonable because they just tossed the ball to Keysor and let him work. I'd like to think they learned their lesson from the Araiza shit.
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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
The only counter I can reasonably come up with is that if you're the team looking to jump to 63 and the 49ers say "Lemme call you back..." then you KNOW why they're doing it. In that case I say "oh no, sir. You take it now or it's not on the table. I'm not gonna have you leveraging my offer to a team I'm needing to get in front of. We don't have time for this nonsense. I've offered you a fair deal and you can take it or leave it..."

Which is a risk, for sure. But in a timed situation like that when you're looking at zero sum outcomes, you really can't let a team have a free hand like that. You need to put a deadline on that sort of offer.

I always assumed that draft rooms had more than one phone. Say KC calls and let's SF know that they're interested in moving up if they start to get calls. While Lynch is on the phone, some lackey could call the Chiefs and start working out a deal for their pick.
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Originally Posted by The Franchise:
I always assumed that draft rooms had more than one phone. Say KC calls and let's SF know that they're interested in moving up if they start to get calls. While Lynch is on the phone, some lackey could call the Chiefs and start working out a deal for their pick.

Oh I don't doubt it. I assume it DOES happen. I'm just playing devil's advocate. But I would be willing to bet that those deals have some pretty sharp edges to them at times. Some real car salesman sort of pressure tactics. Because like I said, you really can't afford to get worked like that. Being the dude that gets leveraged in a deal like that a time or two is going to be enough that you're gonna wanna get to yes/no within a real short timeline.

So while you have Lynch on the phone making hand signals to his lackey and saying "hey, what was that offer again...uh....my...uh...my phone is breaking up. I'm going through a tunnel, can you give me 45 seconds or so to get out the other side and run that by me again?" you're gonna get fairly impatient.
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