2022 Recap
In our 5th straight home AFC Championship game, we avenged the '22 loss to the Bengals and went to our 3rd Super Bowl in 4 years, winning the whole damned thing.
It was a "re-tooling" year, stemming from Veach's decision to cut ties with long time starters like Tyrann Matheiu, Charvarius Ward, Daniel Sorenson, and most notably, Tyreek Hill. The talking heads wrote us off before the season began when the rest of the AFC West spent half a billion dollars to take us down, but we didn't write back.
Instead, Veach and co put on an elite performance in the offseason, bringing in some notable FA's (Reid, Dunlap, JJSS, MVS) and absolutely crushing the draft. Of our 10 picks, 9 played significant snaps and there was extreme value found late in the draft. Additionally, there was a mid-season move to acquire Kadarius Toney and it paid off when it counted most.
Two years ago, Veach attacked the OL in the offseason with incredible results. Last year, he attacked the secondary and infused it with youth, setting that position group up for years. This year, there's an opportunity to overhaul both the DLine and the WR rooms.
In addition to the Draft & FA decisions, there are some contract decisions to be made on our own high-impact players, like OBJ, Chris Jones, Sneed, and Gay.
Overview
This is the 12th year in a row that we will be tracking the college players the Chiefs have publicly or privately expressed interest in leading up to the NFL Draft.
No dancing around it - last year, this thread has a poor showing, but not for lack of trying. Cards were held tightly to the vest, as many of the draft picks revealed that they had, in fact, met with the Chiefs. It was just never reported. The only "hit" was a PS QB in Chris Oladokun, who was drafted by the Steelers and snagged after final cuts.
For those who are new: the way this operates is that we collectively monitor various social media sources, blogs, articles and reports for news of the Chiefs' interest in a certain player. When posted in this thread, I will update the OP to include the player.
*Please provide the link to the article, the players name, position and team.
I am going to try to link to player profiles when they exist, courtesy of
The Draft Network, other sites' write ups, or their team's website.
Let's meet some of our future Chiefs:
2023 Draft - Chiefs Prospect Tracker
Offense
QB
Logan Bonner, Utah State
RB
Tyjae Spears, Tulane
Deuce Vaughn, Kansas State
WR
Xavier Smith, Florida A&M
Jalin Hyatt, Tennessee
Ronnie Bell, Michigan
Tre Tucker, Cincinnati
Jacory Rankin, Mississippi Valley State
Nathaniel Dell, Houston
Rashee Rice, SMU
Quentin Johnston, TCU
Peter Afful Jr., Washburn
Jadon Haselwood, Arkansas
Colton Dowell, Tennessee-Martin
Zay Flowers, BCU
TE
Dalton Kincaid, Utah
Josh Whyle, Cincinnati
Leonard Taylor, Cincinnati
Daniel Barker, Michigan State
OT
Wanye Morris, Oklahoma
Tyler Steen, Alabama
Anthony Bradford, LSU
Broderick Jones, Georgia
Darnell Wright, Tennessee
Jordan McFadden, Clemson
Trevor Reid, Louisville
Jake Witt, Northern Michigan
Anton Harrison, Oklahoma
Jaelyn Duncan, Maryland
Earl Bostick Jr., Kansas
IOL
Matthew Bergeron, Syracuse
John Ujukwu, Boise State
Ryan Hayes, Michigan
Jerome Carvin, Tennessee
Anthony Bradford, LSU
Cooper Hodges, Appalachian State
Defense
CB
Rejzohn Wright, Oregon State
Arquon Bush, Cincinnati
Julius Brents, Kansas State
Cam Smith, South Carolina
Jerrick Reed II, New Mexico
Ekow Boye-Doe, Kansas State
Kahlef Hailassie, Western Kentucky
S
Daniel Scott, University of California, Berkley
Alex Cook, Washington
Jason Taylor II, Oklahoma State
Jerrick Reed, New Mexico State
DE / Edge
Derick Hall, Auburn
Isaiah Foskey, Notre Dame
Nolan Smith, Georgia
Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Kansas State
Lonnie Phelps, Kansas
DJ Johnson, Oregon
Ikenna Enechukwu, Rice
Andrew Farmer II, Lane
BJ Thompson, Stephen F. Austin
Will McDonald, Iowa State
Truman Jones, Harvard
Jose Ramirez, Eastern Michigan
LB
Daiyan Henley, Washington State
DeMarvion Overshown, Texas
Noah Sewell, Oregon
Jeremy Banks, Tennessee
Micah Baskerville, LSU
DL
Gervon Dexter, Florida
Desjuan Johnson, Toledo
Brodric Martin, Western Kentucky
Deslin Alexandre, Pitt
Jalen Carter, Georgia
Mazi Smith, Michigan
DT
Keeanu Benton, Wisconsin
Dante Stills, West Virginia
Adetomiwa Adebawore, Northwestern
Caleb Sampson, Kansas
Special Teams
P
Adam Korsak, Rutgers
K
LS
Links to Past Years:
[Reply]
Originally Posted by Dante84:
2022 Recap
In our 5th straight home AFC Championship game, we avenged the '22 loss to the Bengals and went to our 3rd Super Bowl in 4 years, winning the whole damned thing.
It was a "re-tooling" year, stemming from Veach's decision to cut ties with long time starters like Tyrann Matheiu, Charvarius Ward, Daniel Sorenson, and most notably, Tyreek Hill. The talking heads wrote us off before the season began when the rest of the AFC West spent half a billion dollars to take us down, but we didn't write back.
Instead, Veach and co put on an elite performance in the offseason, bringing in some notable FA's (Reid, Dunlap, JJSS, MVS) and absolutely crushing the draft. Of our 10 picks, 9 played significant snaps and there was extreme value found late in the draft. Additionally, there was a mid-season move to acquire Kadarius Toney and it paid off when it counted most.
Two years ago, Veach attacked the OL in the offseason with incredible results. Last year, he attacked the secondary and infused it with youth, setting that position group up for years. This year, there's an opportunity to overhaul both the DLine and the WR rooms.
In addition to the Draft & FA decisions, there are some contract decisions to be made on our own high-impact players, like OBJ, Chris Jones, Sneed, and Gay.
Overview
This is the 12th year in a row that we will be tracking the college players the Chiefs have publicly or privately expressed interest in leading up to the NFL Draft.
No dancing around it - last year, this thread has a poor showing, but not for lack of trying. Cards were held tightly to the vest, as many of the draft picks revealed that they had, in fact, met with the Chiefs. It was just never reported. The only "hit" was a PS QB in Chris Oladokun, who was drafted by the Steelers and snagged after final cuts.
For those who are new: the way this operates is that we collectively monitor various social media sources, blogs, articles and reports for news of the Chiefs' interest in a certain player. When posted in this thread, I will update the OP to include the player. *Please provide the link to the article, the players name, position and team.
I am going to try to link to player profiles when they exist, courtesy of The Draft Network, other sites' write ups, or their team's website.
Let's meet some of our future Chiefs:
2022 Draft - Chiefs Prospect Tracker
Offense
QB
Logan Bonner, Utah State
RB
Tyjae Spears, Tulane
Deuce Vaughn, Kansas State
WR
Xavier Smith, Florida A&M
Jalin Hyatt, Tennessee
Ronnie Bell, Michigan
Tre Tucker, Cincinnati
Jacory Rankin, Mississippi Valley State
Nathaniel Dell, Houston
Rashee Rice, SMU
Quentin Johnston, TCU
Peter Afful Jr., Washburn
Jadon Haselwood, Arkansas
Colton Dowell, Tennessee-Martin
Zay Flowers, BCU
TE
Dalton Kincaid, Utah
Josh Whyle, Cincinnati
Leonard Taylor, Cincinnati
Daniel Barker, Michigan State
OT
Wanye Morris, Oklahoma
Tyler Steen, Alabama
Anthony Bradford, LSU
Broderick Jones, Georgia
Darnell Wright, Tennessee
Jordan McFadden, Clemson
Trevor Reid, Louisville
Jake Witt, Northern Michigan
Anton Harrison, Oklahoma
Jaelyn Duncan, Maryland
Earl Bostick Jr., Kansas
IOL
Matthew Bergeron, Syracuse
John Ujukwu, Boise State
Ryan Hayes, Michigan
Jerome Carvin, Tennessee
Anthony Bradford, LSU
Cooper Hodges, Appalachian State
Defense
CB
Rejzohn Wright, Oregon State
Arquon Bush, Cincinnati
Julius Brents, Kansas State
Cam Smith, South Carolina
Jerrick Reed II, New Mexico
Ekow Boye-Doe, Kansas State
Kahlef Hailassie, Western Kentucky
S
Daniel Scott, University of California, Berkley
Alex Cook, Washington
Jason Taylor II, Oklahoma State
Jerrick Reed, New Mexico State
DE / Edge
Derick Hall, Auburn
Isaiah Foskey, Notre Dame
Nolan Smith, Georgia
Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Kansas State
Lonnie Phelps, Kansas
DJ Johnson, Oregon
Ikenna Enechukwu, Rice
Andrew Farmer II, Lane
BJ Thompson, Stephen F. Austin
Will McDonald, Iowa State
Truman Jones, Harvard
Jose Ramirez, Eastern Michigan
LB
Daiyan Henley, Washington State
DeMarvion Overshown, Texas
Noah Sewell, Oregon
Jeremy Banks, Tennessee
Micah Baskerville, LSU
DL
Gervon Dexter, Florida
Desjuan Johnson, Toledo
Brodric Martin, Western Kentucky
Deslin Alexandre, Pitt
Jalen Carter, Georgia
Mazi Smith, Michigan
DT
Keeanu Benton, Wisconsin
Dante Stills, West Virginia
Adetomiwa Adebawore, Northwestern
Caleb Sampson, Kansas
Special Teams
P
Adam Korsak, Rutgers
K
LS
Links to Past Years:
I have run so many mock drafts on the NFL Mock Draft Database Simulator, and the ESPN Analytics Simulator with Draft Day Predictor Model, that I can't keep track of which I like best. Seriously, running mocks gets addictive.
So, I am just going to share some of the players I would like to see us draft, so I can check back next year to see how they developed, no matter who actually drafted them. These are not obvious picks, but players that I think look good, have nice measurables, or have positional flexibility, etc.
Braeden Daniels T/G - Utah -6'4" - 294 LBS - 33" arms - 4.99 40 -9.56 RAS - This is a super athletic player who has played both tackle positions and guard in college. He could either end up starting at RT, or be a very versatile backup.
Israel Abanikanda RB - Pitt - 5'10" - 216 LBS - 41" vertical - His 40 time has been debated, but at his pro day, some reported that he ran in the high 4.2s/low 4.3s, instead of the 4.41 - 4.45 that some sites have listed. Even with a 4.45, his RAS score is still 9.63. If Reid/Nagy really want to convert a RB to WR, this player could be a candidate, but either way could provide matchup problems.
Darius Rush CB - South Carolina - 6'2" - 198 LBS - 33 3/8" arms - 4.36 40 - 10'1" broad jump - 9.8 RAS - This CB is a converted WR, with great size, length, and speed. With his size and speed he could play multiple positions and give Spags a lot of flexibility. He could end up being a lot like Sneed.
Bryce Ford-Wheaton WR - WVU - 6'4" - 221 LBS - 33.5" arms - 9 3/8" hands - 4.38 40 - 41" vertical - 10'9" broad jump - 9.97 RAS - Per the official NFL prospect site, he specializes in 50/50 jump ball situations. This may be someone who goes undrafted, or someone who goes higher than expected because of his measurables. I have always wanted Mahomes to have a tall jump ball receiver, and with this size and speed, and a reputation for getting jump balls, this could be a high reward/low risk late round pick.
Dante Stills DT - WVU - 6'3.5" - 286 LBS - 32 3/8" arms - 9 5/8" hands - 4.85 40 - 8.62 RAS - This is the son of former Chiefs player Gary Stills - He doesn't really have a set position on the DL, but has played inside and out, and with his size and speed, could be a versatile backup/rotational player. I mostly added him because his father played for us, but he could be a good late round pickup.
[Reply]