Revisiting the 1984 Draft

[KChiefs1]

I used to get Pro Football Weekly & Joel Buschbaum was their draft guru. I always enjoyed his analysis. I was going through my old draft stuff & found his newsletter he would send out to subscribers of PFW. The Chiefs had a nice draft in 84.



The LA Times on the Gary Green trade:

The Rams had pick #21 in the 1st round, going into the 1984 NFL Draft. The Rams would trade that pick to the KC Chiefs for CB Gary Green. Green had made three straight Pro Bowls and made All Pro, three straight times, with the Chiefs. Green would play for the LA Rams for two seasons, 1984 and 1985. He was All Pro in both 84 and 85, making the Pro Bowl in 1985.

But in late 1985 Green suffered a neck injury that would prove to be career ending. In 1986 Green officially retired from the NFL. The KC Chiefs draft OT, John Alt with the pick acquired from the LA Rams. If the LA Rams had kept the pick, they could have drafted QB Boomer Esiason, from Maryland. In fact Sports Illustrated's mock draft had the LA Rams drafting Esiason. At worst the LA Rams would have had a young QB to develop behind Ferragamo. But the decisions and choices made after 1984 really proved the LA Rams made a huge mistake by not drafting Boomer Esiason. - L.A.

[Rain Man]

I remember being really disappointed that Gary Green was traded. We lost him and Gary Barbaro back to back in their primes, and I loved good defensive back play. Then John Alt barely played his rookie year due to back problems and I thought the trade was a disaster. But Alt came back strong the next year and it ended up being a good trade.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I remember being really disappointed that Gary Green was traded. We lost him and Gary Barbaro back to back in their primes, and I loved good defensive back play. Then John Alt barely played his rookie year due to back problems and I thought the trade was a disaster. But Alt came back strong the next year and it ended up being a good trade.

I always found it curious that Jim Schaaf always seemed to find fantastic defensive talent, from Mike Bell and Art Still to Barbaro, Green, Lloyd Burress, an undrafted Deron Cherry and so on, but had extreme difficulty finding a good to great running back (outside of JD), a QB and an even average head coach.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I always found it curious that Jim Schaaf always seemed to find fantastic defensive talent, from Mike Bell and Art Still to Barbaro, Green, Lloyd Burress, an undrafted Deron Cherry and so on, but had extreme difficulty finding a good to great running back (outside of JD), a QB and an even average head coach.

Yeah, that was odd. Those 80s teams really had a lot of defensive talent (other than linebacker for some reason), and the offense was always questionable, other than an odd Bill Kenney year or two. Some of our leading rushers in those days don't even rise to the level of trivia questions.

[ptlyon]

I remember being a youngster my excitement of opening up the paper to read who we drafted. Not that I paid much attention to college football and would know who they were, just the excitement football and who we picked.

Oddly, the only player I really remember from all that from all those years is Percy Snow.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by ptlyon

I remember being a youngster my excitement of opening up the paper to read who we drafted. Not that I paid much attention to college football and would know who they were, just the excitement football and who we picked.

Oddly, the only player I really remember from all that from all those years is Percy Snow.

Yeah, same here. Most of the time I had no idea who they were. At some point I started finding magazines that would talk about the players, and that was great to read. My enduring memory was reading amazing things about Brian Jozwiak, and the statement, "He's going to be a star at left tackle for the next decade."