The Long, Slow, Arduous Bataan Death March To Drafting OL On May 8th

[Direckshun]

I keep looking at the talent right now, have been for about three months.

And I honestly think the talent is at its best at OL towards the end of the 1st round.

Andy Reid needs to replace Albert, and there's no guarantee he has faith in Fisher. And Asamoah has almost certainly left, so we'll be in the hunt for a guard as well.

This is a team looking to get away from Pioli's smaller, nimble OL, and towards Reid's larger, more powerful OL.

Maybe we bring back Schwartz at guard. Maybe not.

God. This franchise has conditioned me to prepare for the worst.

***UPDATE***

OL the Chiefs could potentially, inevitably draft at 23, depending on where things are in 5 months:

OT Greg Robinson, Auburn
OT Taylor Lewan, Michigan
OT Cameron Erving, Florida State
OT Antonio Richardson, Tennessee
OT/G La'el Collins, LSU [not coming out this year]
OT/G Zack Martin, Notre Dame
OT Cyrus Kouandjio, Alabama
OG Gabe Jackson, Mississippi State
OG Cyril Richardson, Baylor
OG David Yankey, Stanford
OG Xavier Su'a-Filo, UCLA

I will run mini-scouting reports on these guys over the next five months in this sad, miserable thread, plus any guys who also drift onto the radar.

If there are any others you'd add, feel free to.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by kccrow

Direckshun, I agree about OL in this draft. I have a feeling that Yankey is the pick if he's there at 23. Yankey reminds me an awful lot of Evan Mathis too. Best guard I've seen in a while.

See, I liked him a whole lot too, but he's not proving to be terribly athletic.

He seems to me, now, to be one of those 2nd/3rd round picks who's got everything you need except the exceptional athleticism. We'll see. I think Yankey will be a Pro Bowl talent, however.

Zack Martin, however, I believe is probably on this team's radar as our 1st round pick.

Hoping against hope, however.

[Direckshun]

It's happening, people:

23. Kansas City Chiefs: Xavier Su'a-Filo, G, UCLA
It sounds like the Chiefs want to take a guard with their first pick after trading down. Xavier Su'a-Filo or David Yankey would make sense for Kansas City.

Su'a-Filo picked up in 2013 where he left off the previous year. The 6-foot-4, 307-pounder was rock solid for the UCLA in the run game and in pass protection. While the rest of the Bruins' offensive line had some struggles in 2013, Su'a-Filo's blocking in the pass game was steady for Brett Hundley. Because of injuries, Su'a-Filo had to play some left tackle. He did a decent job there, but his NFL future is at guard.

Su'a-Filo was a force for UCLA in 2012. He had an excellent season as a run-blocker for Johnathan Franklin. Su'a-Filo also was good at providing Brett Hundley with a clean pocket. Su'a-Filo started at left guard and chipped in some time at left tackle because of injuries. He was named a First-Team All-Pac-12 pick by the coaches and media publications.

Su'a-Filo was out of football in 2010 and 2011 while serving on a Mormon mission. Bruins head coach Jim Mora, Jr. made it an immediate priority to recruit Su'a-Filo back to UCLA. He set a Bruins record in 2009 with 13 starts at left tackle. The true freshman was an honorable mention All-Pac-10 selection and was on numerous All-Freshman teams.

[Direckshun]

I haven't really done a breakdown of Su'a-Filo. Maybe I should.

[O.city]

Ew.

****ing shoot me

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

OG David Yankey, Stanford



Ladies and gentlemen, the best guard of this draft class. Absolutely no doubt in my mind.

There's a reason OL from Stanford are highly sought out. They are expertly coached, and come into the NFL readymade to be plugged into a lineup and play. The program has made miracle talent out of people like Jonathan Martin and David DeCastro in recent years, and David Yankey is better than both of them.

He does play, however, a devalued position at guard. But positional value aside, Yankey is entering Draft season as a Top 5 player in sheer talent. That'll probably change as the ebbs and flows of the year progress, but for now, there's Clowney, then there's Yankey and three or four other guys, and then there's everybody else.

There are absolutely zero holes in his game. His pass protection along the interior is smooth and efficient. His run game blasts holes open. His technique, great. His athleticism, nearly Fisher-esque -- at the guard position.

It's hard to even tell what offensive gameplan Yankey couldn't effortlessly execute. I'm tempted to say he's more of a zone-blocker than he is a power-blocker, but who the hell drafts a guy like Yankey just to waste his talents forcing him to block downhill? Yankey's true talent is his Swiss army knife utility: you can pull him, you can throw him out on screens, you can send him to the second level, you can him sprinting out to the edge on bubble screens!

If there is a single hole in Yankey's game, and I do mean a single hole, it's that he is developed to capacity. He's already at his ceiling. But that ceiling is already Pro Bowl material for ages. He is one of the players I am most excited to see in the NFL.

Projection for Yankey: I think Yankey is Top 15 material unless he tanks at the Combine. There is no offensive system he cannot fit into. There is seemingly no pass protection responsibility he cannot handle. I think Yankey is going to blow up at the Combine, however, and he's a prime candidate to go in the Top 10 if there's a team stupid enough to draft a guard that early.

Projected Chiefs interest @ 23: Maximum. The Chiefs would adore a talent like Yankey's to supplant the struggling Jeff Allen at LG, Yankey's position at Stanford. If Yankey somehow lasts to the 23rd pick, he's absolutely gotta be on KC's shortlist, and I'd argue he'd be the heavy favorite to end up a Chief.

I still can't help but think the Chiefs are going to pick up Yankey.

Yankey's athleticism is definitely suspect after watching him tank the Combine.

However, his game athleticism is more than adequate. I'm projecting right now, about one-and-a-half months out, that the Chiefs are going to draft David Yankey.

[O.city]

Great rope end draft, and we are taking a guard. Of course we would.

[Direckshun]

OT/G Xavier Su'a-Filo, UCLA



If you were asked to build a guard, the end product would look a ton like Xavier Su'a-Filo (pronounced "zoo-ah feelo"). You'd probably give him a large frame (6'4", 307 lbs) with room to grow, long legs with a thick trunk of a lower half, quick feet and powerful hands. That's what Su'a-Filo has, and it's the kind of tools that make you think "wow, this guy could really be an All Pro." Yet I was surprised that with all those gifts, I merely saw a steadily above average player in the guy, which suggests that he has yet to reach his maximum potential. That said, he has a lot of impressive tape. Filling in at LT this year because of injuries, you'll see in the above clip that he has a pretty good game against VT, one of the most ferocious front sevens there was in 2013.

Su'a-Filo is described this year as a guard, and for good reason. Putting on his UCLA tape suggests that he's extremely good at guard, and merely really solid at tackle (he played left tackle for about a year and a half for the Bruins). I don't think he's a "OT/G" like Zack Martin, who's more of a tackle who can convert to guard; Su'a-Filo will play guard and can fill-in at tackle when needed. Like the other 1st-round-caliber guard in this year's class (Yankey), Su'a-Filo is comfortable with both power and athletic schemes. That flexibility will put him higher on draft boards than the power-only, guard-only talents of Gabe Jackson. And while Yankey may be more polished, Su'a-Filo dominated him at the Combine.

As I alluded to earlier, there are areas where Su'a-Filo will need to step up his game, suggesting that he hasn't reached his full potential yet. He legitimately struggles keeping his head on a swivel and making the right blocking decision; stunts, blitz-pickups, and delayed-rushes can confuse him, which honestly may be the only way to beat him. If he gets a DL sized up and squared, he is capable of dominating, though he's surprisingly not a pancake artist like Gabe Jackson. He does get beat with tricks, however, but possesses really good recovery moves/speed.

His upside is probably Alan Faneca, if you remember the All Pro Steeler guard, because Faneca also had thick trunks, could sink his hips, and drop anchor. Su'a-Filo isn't as consistent in that regard (very few are and will be), but he has the build and skillset to develop in that arena.

It's important to remember that Su'a-Filo does possess some bust-ability. He possesses a fantastic punch, and he plays strong, but he doesn't play with that nastiness that can erode DLs over the course of a game. He played like a steady, dependable presence against college defenses, so he's definitely not going to be an elite road-grader against NFL defenses.

Projection for Su'a-Filo: At this point, Su'a-Filo is just outside the top 32 prospects in this draft class, in my opinion. But his elite versatility and huge upside give him better-than-50% odds that a team in the back end of the 1st goes for him. Again, he does have All Pro upside.

Projected Chiefs interest @ 23: Orgasmic levels of interest. The Chiefs altered last year between a power-run scheme (that the coaches preferred) and a zone-blocking scheme (that they best performed under). Su'a-Filo should be able to play both schemes very well, and most importantly, he can also play tackle when you need him to, which is something neither Yankey nor Jackson can say with confidence. If the Chiefs have to decide between Yankey and Su'a-Filo, it'll just be like their choice in 2013 between the known quantity in Luke Joeckel (Yankey) vs. the elite upside of Eric Fisher (Su'a-Filo). And we all know how that decision went down.

[RealSNR]

It's well-known that Walter hates the Chiefs. He loves mocking offensive line guys to them because SOMEBODY has to draft them. So it may as well be the miserable puke teams.

He does it all the time to the Chiefs, Browns, Bengals, Vikings, Titans, Rams, etc. A lot of those teams rarely need the offensive line in the first round. Maybe they could improve at one of the tackles or have a hole at guard, but that's no reason why the first round is needed to take care of that gap.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by SNR

It's well-known that Walter hates the Chiefs. He loves mocking offensive line guys to them because SOMEBODY has to draft them. So it may as well be the miserable puke teams.

He does it all the time to the Chiefs, Browns, Bengals, Vikings, Titans, Rams, etc. A lot of those teams rarely need the offensive line in the first round. Maybe they could improve at one of the tackles or have a hole at guard, but that's no reason why the first round is needed to take care of that gap.

This.

Dude HATES the Chiefs.

[Direckshun]

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl-mock-dra...dy-bridgewater

Mocking The Draft, a highly respected draft site, just had the Chiefs trade up to #17 to land Su'a-Filo.

Denver stays put and drafts Cooks.

[htismaqe]

Trade UP to take a guard?

[The Franchise]

Clinton-Dix at 8?

[O.city]

Great way to really fill the stands, draft a shitty offensive lineman in the first round two straight years.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by O.city

Great way to really fill the stands, draft a shitty offensive lineman in the first round two straight years.

There's a good number of people on this board that think it would be a great move.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Trade UP to take a guard?

And giving up a 4th.

That leaves us with a 1st, 3rd, 5th and two 6th round picks.