The Chiefs fell just shy of the first 3-peat in NFL history, yet still made it further than any other team in its' attempt at it, getting back to the big game. Unfortunately, the Super Bowl was a complete dud, and the blowout loss put a cloud over the insane accomplishments that were achieved.
The 15-2 regular season record, the best in franchise history, was a wild ride. There were a bunch of games that were won very late, with walk-off FG's, walk-off blocked FG's, walk-off doinks with back-up kickers, OT wins, fumble recoveries preventing walk-off FG's.... just a truly insane year... and while the playoffs were fun (see ya, Bills!), sadly the magic ran out at the worst time.
Mahomes had arguably his worst season, which likely stemmed from a handful of things that rattled him: 1- The LT situation fell apart, and really never got solved despite some desperate efforts. 2- The WR room was shredded, leaving him with a talented, yet-developing rookie, where chemistry needed time to develop.
It will be interesting to see what sort of mentality he approaches the offseason and training camp with. If he's the GOAT we believe he is, he will have a the rage of a thousand suns burning within him and the league will be sorry.
The run game was salvaged after Pacheco's injury by a reunion with Kareem Hunt. This position seemed to stall as year went on, as it was clear the group lacked acceleration and dynamism.
The defense had a mostly great year, but took a dip when their #2 CB went down with a broken ankle. The pass rush picked up late when Omenihu returned and Karlaftis shined, but seemed to fizzle against a large Philly O-Line.
There are again some big decisions looming this offseason: Who returns - Kelce? Bolton? Smith? Reid? Brown? How does Veach fix the LT/OL problem? How does Veach reconstruct the WR room with Rice's injury + probable suspension? What support do we give Chris Jones on the line?
Thread Overview
This is the 14th 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.
Last year, we had 2 early hits: Xavier Worthy & Kingsley Suamataia. Let's see if we can get more this year.
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, NFL.com, or their team's website.
Will Sheppard was great at Vandy. Why he made a backwards move in transferring to Colorado is beyond me. He would be a sneaky good pick for any team. I thought I remembered us talking about him a bit last year before he did transfer instead of declaring? [Reply]
Looking at this list and removing local prospects, just trying to get a feel for legit interests. Not that they might not be interested in a few of the local guys, but it's usually not something outside of UDFA for the bulk of them. I italicized local guys they probably have legit interest in and removed the rest.
RB
Micah Bernard, Utah
Ollie Gordon II, Oklahoma State
Quinshon Judkins, Ohio State
Cam Skattebo, Arizona State
Damien Martinez, Miami
Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Arizona
Shunderrick Powell, Central Arkansas Devin Neal, Kansas
WR
Ali Jennings, Virginia Tech
Jalen Royals, Utah
Kyle Williams, Washington State
Isaiah Bond, Texas
Isaiah Neyor, Nebraska
Jaylin Lane, Virginia Tech
TE
Kole Taylor, West Virginia
Elijah Arroyo, Miami
Oronde Gadsden II, Syracuse
Harold Fannin, Jr., Bowling Green
OT
Anthony Belton, NC State
Josh Simmons, Ohio State
Caleb Etienne, BYU
Cameron Williams, Texas
Josh Conerly, Jr., Oregon
Gerad Christian-Lichtenhan, Oregon State Logan Brown, Kansas Aireontae Ersery, Minnesota
IOL
Aiden Williams, University of Minnesota-Duluth
Carson Vinson, Alabama A&M
Miles Frazier, LSU
Mose Vavao, Fresno State Bryce Cabeldue, Kansas
DE
Ahmed Hassanein, Boise State
BJ Green II, Colorado
Princely Umanmielen, Ole Miss
Kyle Kennard, South Carolina
Elijah Roberts, SMU
Nic Scourton, Texas A&M
Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, Georgia
Que Robinson, Alabama
Barryn Sorrell, Texas Johnny Walker, Missouri
DT
Darius Alexander, Toledo
Joshua Farmer, Florida State
Derrick Harmon, Oregon
Shemar Turner, Texas A&M
Adin Huntington, Tulane
Philip Blidi, Auburn
Warren Brinson, Georgia
Ty Hamilton, Ohio State
Kyonte Hamilton, Rutgers
Coziah Izzard, Penn State
Omarr Norman-Lott, Tennessee
LB
Chris Paul, Jr., Ole Miss
Shemar James, Florida
Brandon George, Pitt
CB
Trey Amos, Ole Miss
Darien Porter, Iowa State
Nohl Williams, California
Melvin Smith, Jr., Southern Arkansas Jacob Parrish, K-State
S
Donovan McMillon, Pitt
JJ Roberts, Marshall [Reply]
Woah. Talk about someone that hasn't done shit in college potentially getting a shot to make an NFL roster. No way he gets drafted but he might get a camp invite. [Reply]