Best draft picks by Round - Round 1

[Rain Man]

I'll switch this up a little. Before posting my top 10 list, I'll start from the bottom, revealing in reverse order all 56 of the Chiefs' 1st round picks over the years. Then I'll put the top ten in this OP and put up the poll.

Feel free to share your memories, happiness, or disgust at each pick. I'll post one whenever I'm slightly bored.

#1 Buck Buchanan, DT
#2 Tony Gonzalez, TE
#3 Derrick Thomas, ROLB
#4 Ed Budde, LG
#5 Eric Berry, SS
#6 Gary Green, CB
#7 Derrick Johnson, ILB, OLB
#8 Art Still, DE
#9 E.J. Holub, OLB/C
#10 Tamba Hali, OLB/DE

[Rain Man]

#33. Steve Fuller, QB, 1979. 23rd pick.

Believe it or not, this is the third quarterback on this list. Once upon a time, the Chiefs drafted first-round quarterbacks. They've just never been very good at it (until Patrick Mahomes II, of course, who is a first-ballot Hall of Famer).

Putting this in context, Len Dawson played until he was 40 years old. I didn't remember that at all. In the end, as we saw in the Woody Green discussion, Coach Paul Wiggin was actively rooting for someone to beat Dawson out of his starting spot. When Dawson finally headed off to the Hall of Fame, Mike Livingston was the heir, but he'd grown old waiting in the wings, so it was time for fresh blood.

There are the stories now of whether the 49ers were really interested in Steve Fuller. Bill Walsh denied it, but the Chiefs were wary enough of it that they put two high second-round picks into a trade up to draft Fuller. (They'd already used their first-round pick on Mike Bell, an effective but cocaine-snorting defensive end.) Marv Levy said that he was coerced into the tradeup by Jack Steadman, and that he would've been fine using one of his second-rounder on a guy named Joe Montana that he had a hunch about. But who knows? Everyone says now that they were interested in Montana.

Regardless of that story, the Chiefs traded up to get Fuller, and the 49ers waited until the third round to draft their own quarterback, and it worked out in their favor.

Fuller was handed the starting job quickly in 1979, starting 12 games as a rookie for a team that had gone 11-33 over the past three years. He did ... well, he was a rookie on a weak team. It wasn't pretty. But even so, the Chiefs finished 7-9, and they were 6-6 in the games that Fuller started. That's progress.

He came back in 1980 as the unquestioned starter, and actually played decently through 13 games. The Chiefs were 6-7 in that period, but Steve was holding his own. Unfortunately, he had a Wally Pipp moment in Week 13, hurting his knee. This forced Marv to start a low-round free agent the final three games, a guy named Bill Kenney. Bill went 2-1 in those games, with the offense producing an impressive 28 points per game with five touchdown passes, whereas Steve had been producing 18 points per game.

Suddenly it was competition going into training camp, and then bam - Fuller injured his knee again during preseason and required a second surgery. The job belonged to Kenney by default.

While Fuller rehabbed, it was Kenney's turn to be mediocre. But he had a lot of help from a rookie pro bowl running back named Joe Delaney, and he won 8 of his 13 starts. Fuller came back in Week 8, became the starter again in Week 14, and the Chiefs' offensive production once again dropped. The Chiefs averaged 25 points per game in Kenney's starts, and 10 points per game in Fuller's starts.

So now Levy was in a bind. Do you start the 1st round draft pick or the productive low-round guy? We had a full-blown quarterback controversy.

Levy waffled and the NFL went on strike in 1982, blowing up the process. Of the nine NFL games that year, Kenney started 6 and Fuller started 3. Kenney went 3-3 and Fuller went 0-3. Both played reasonably well, but Kenney produced double the passing yards per game. Kenney was initially the starter, then it was Fuller, then it was Kenney again. It was a mess.

But you have to put the best guy on the field, right?

It was now 1983. The Chiefs had a new coach, John Mackovic, and he had a pass-heavy philosophy. The upcoming NFL draft had quarterbacks oozing from every pore, so the Chiefs drafted a can't-miss prospect named Todd Blackledge for Mackovic's system. Kenney could hold the fort down cheaply until Blackledge took over, so Fuller was suddenly the third man down the depth chart. Mackovic jettisoned Fuller in a trade to the Rams for a one-year cornerback named Lucious Smith and a 5th-round draft pick. (Fuller may have been injured, too, because he doesn't show up on the Rams roster in 1983.) He ended his Kansas City era with 31 starts, a little more than 5,000 yards passing, and almost 900 yards rushing. Not a star, but not as horrible as he's remembered.

But never fear for Steve Fuller. In 1984, the Rams traded him to the Bears for a couple of low-round draft picks. Jim McMahon got hurt in Week 10 and Fuller ... caught ... fire. He was fantastic, despite the Bears only going 3-2 in that stretch, and then he also played well in the Bears' first playoff game, leading them to a win. It all blew up in the NFC championship game, though, when he was taken down by his draft twin Joe Montana.

Fuller suited up a couple more years for the Bears, getting spot duty whenever McMahon got hurt. He didn't play well when called upon, but even so, he got a Super Bowl ring and more importantly, he was one of the lead singers of the Super Bowl shuffle. One might objectively note that his performance in the Super Bowl shuffle was also subpar. I highly recommend watching the video. Steve is the non-rhythmic guy wearing jersey number 4.

[Rasputin]

Kinda makes me sick to my stomach that we passed on Joe Montana for Steve Fuller that should go down as worse than passing on Dan Marino for Todd Blackledge.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

Kinda makes me sick to my stomach that we passed on Joe Montana for Steve Fuller that should go down as worse than passing on Dan Marino for Todd Blackledge.

We passed on Tom Brady for Darnell Alford, a guard from Boston College.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

Kinda makes me sick to my stomach that we passed on Joe Montana for Steve Fuller that should go down as worse than passing on Dan Marino for Todd Blackledge.

We'll never know how the Montana draft really went down. Everyone in San Francisco (other than maybe Steve Young) claims that they were the one who advocated for Montana. Levy claimed that he wanted Montana. Probably everyone on every other NFL team says they were wanting Montana.

But the only thing we know for sure is that every team in the league except the Redskins passed him over at least once, including the 49ers. Nine teams passed him over 4 or more times.

If it makes us feel better, the Chiefs only passed him over twice. Of course, that was because they gave up two second rounders to move up for Fuller, so maybe that's actually worse.

Here's how many opportunities each team had to draft Joe Montana, instead choosing another player.

Los Angeles Rams 5
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 5
Buffalo Bills 5
Miami Dolphins 5
St. Louis Cardinals 4
Atlanta Falcons 4
Chicago Bears 4
Cincinnati Bengals 4
Cleveland Browns 4
Seattle Seahawks 3
Detroit Lions 3
Green Bay Packers 3
Dallas Cowboys 3
Philadelphia Eagles 3
Houston Oilers 3
New York Jets 3
New Orleans Saints 2
Minnesota Vikings 2
New York Giants 2
Denver Broncos 2
Kansas City Chiefs 2
San Diego Chargers 2
Baltimore Colts 2
Pittsburgh Steelers 2
New England Patriots 2
San Francisco 49ers 1
Oakland Raiders 1
Washington Redskins 0

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by patteeu

We passed on Tom Brady for Darnell Alford, a guard from Boston College.

Alford may have had a faster 40 time.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

Kinda makes me sick to my stomach that we passed on Joe Montana for Steve Fuller that should go down as worse than passing on Dan Marino for Todd Blackledge.

Originally Posted by patteeu

We passed on Tom Brady for Darnell Alford, a guard from Boston College.

Meh, the whole NFL passed on Montana at least twice, and Brady at least five times. NOBODY knew what those guys would turn out to be, including the teams that actually drafted them, so hard to fault any particular team for not taking him. Every team in the NFL "missed" on those guys repeatedly.

[stumppy]

I need more football info.

[Rain Man]

#32. Tyson Jackson, 2009. 3rd pick.

You may not remember Tyson Jackson, because we sure didn't know who he was in 2009 when was drafted. In fairness, though, much of the Chiefsplanet debate was Aaron Curry versus Mark Sanchez, so we can't really throw stones. But let's go ahead and throw stones.

2009 was a time of great change, coming at the end of a disastrous 2008 season where the Chiefs had their worst record in franchise history. Their only two wins of the year came against Denver and Oakland, which makes it kind of a successful year, but it was still a bad, bad year.

Clark Hunt was gaining his footing as an owner, and he cleaned house. GM Carl Peterson was ousted, and Herm Edwards and his defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham were also asked to leave. They had embraced a 4-3 defense, and the starting linemen in 2008 were Tamba Hali and Turk McBride at the ends and Glenn Dorsey and Tank Tyler at the tackles.

Clark strived for innovation, so he went out into the market aggressively. He hired two-time NFL Executive of the Year Scott Pioli to recreate the Patriot Way in Kansas City and brought in Todd Haley, the hot offensive coordinator of last year's NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals, to be the coach.

The new defensive coordinator was Clancy Pendergast, who was on a very different trajectory. He'd been the defensive coordinator for those same Cardinals, but he was fired after the Super Bowl. Haley swooped in and picked him up.

One of management's first tasks was to retool the defensive line from a 4-3 to a 3-4. Hali was moved back from defensive end to linebacker. Dorsey was moved out to a 3-4 end position. Turk was eventually cut in training camp (following Gunther to Detroit), and Tank was traded to Carolina mid-season in 2009 for a 5th round pick.

Backup Ron Edwards was elevated to a starting nose tackle position, but they needed another 3-4 end. And that was when Pioli got the bright idea to draft Tyson Jackson.

Jackson's consensus value was around the 20th pick when Scott Pioli went rogue, abandoning all reason and taking him while all of the draftniks were still popping open their first morning beer. Suddenly he was the third pick in the draft, and chaos broke loose. Or if not chaos, there were some perplexed looks.

He was given the starting job in 2009 and didn't impress.

In 2010 he hurt his knee on opening day and then couldn't dislodge testicle-grabbing Shaun Smith from the lineup when he returned.

In 2011 he was the starter and didn't impress.

In 2012 he was the starter and didn't impress.

In 2013 he took one of the largest pay cuts in the history of the world to stay on the team, lopping more than $10 million off of his 2013 salary: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...y-cut/1970755/

At that point, the Pioli experiment was over and John Dorsey and Andy Reid came to town. They took one look at Jackson and sent him packing, letting Pioli sign him as a free agent in Atlanta.

All in all, Jackson was a Chief for five uneventful years, starting 55 games and amassing 137 tackles and 9 sacks. Those numbers sound a bit more impressive than what we saw on the field, following my theory that modern 1st round picks get a lot more time to prove themselves than did their forebears in the 1960s through 1980s. He's clearly capable of playing in the NFL, if not exactly excelling. I guess I'd describe him as dependably mediocre. Tyson continues to ride that train as he enters the 9th year of his NFL career.

Oh, and I forgot the picture. Here's Tyson Jackson knocking down a cardboard cutout of Phillip Rivers.

[Amnorix]

The 2009 draft is famously weird. More pro bowlers in the 2nd half of the first round than the top half. Shady McCoy a late 2nd, long after the Broncos take Knowshown Moreno, the Colts take the immortal Donald Brown, and the Cardinals take the even more immortal Beanie Wells.

Not that any of that serves as an excuse but, yeah, weird draft.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

The 2009 draft is famously weird. More pro bowlers in the 2nd half of the first round than the top half. Shady McCoy a late 2nd, long after the Broncos take Knowshown Moreno, the Colts take the immortal Donald Brown, and the Cardinals take the even more immortal Beanie Wells.

Not that any of that serves as an excuse but, yeah, weird draft.

Yeah, we call Tyson Jackson a bust around here, but he might be one of the top ten first-rounders taken that year. (Yeah, he was the third pick, so it's still a failure, but not like most of the other teams that year.)

Kenny Britt was the 30th pick of the first round that year, and he recently made me laugh. NFL Network is showing the Hard Knocks of the Rams, and this happened. Watch it, it's funny.

Brian Quick is mortified to be called out, but Kenny Britt is so dumb that he doesn't get it. He thinks it's hilarious, even though he was the one driving. That guy has neither a clue nor a way to keep it in the house if he did happen to find one.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Yeah, we call Tyson Jackson a bust around here, but he might be one of the top ten first-rounders taken that year. (Yeah, he was the third pick, so it's still a failure, but not like most of the other teams that year.)

Kenny Britt was the 30th pick of the first round that year, and he recently made me laugh. NFL Network is showing the Hard Knocks of the Rams, and this happened. Watch it, it's funny.

Brian Quick is mortified to be called out, but Kenny Britt is so dumb that he doesn't get it. He thinks it's hilarious, even though he was the one driving. That guy has neither a clue nor a way to keep it in the house if he did happen to find one.

Yeah, he's your Ken Sims. The Patriots drafted Sims #1 overall in 1982 and he was widely considered a bust. But he played for 7 years and was a starter and solid contributor most of those years.

Ryan Leaf is a bust. Ken Sims and Tyson Jackson are overdrafted, but they're not really "busts" in my mind. If they're busts, what the hell is Leaf?

(Sorry, can't watch video currently but will circle back later to watch it).

[Rain Man]

#31. Victor Riley, RT, 1998. 27th pick.

Right tackle is historically an unsettled position for the Chiefs. Here are the primary starters at right tackle over the past 20 years:

2016 Mitchell Schwartz
2015 Jah Reid
2014 Ryan Harris
2013 Eric Fisher
2012 Eric Winston
2011 Barry Richardson
2010 Barry Richardson
2009 Ryan O'Callaghan
2008 Damion McIntosh
2007 Chris Terry
2006 Kyle Turley
2005 John Welbourn
2004 John Welbourn
2003 John Tait
2002 John Tait
2001 Marcus Spears
2000 Victor Riley
1999 Victor Riley
1998 Victor Riley
1997 Glenn Parker

Victor Riley's not looking so bad now, is he?

Victor was Marty's swan song, his final 1st round draft pick. It's poetic that he used it to draft a 6-5, 328 pound right tackle who carried significant portions of that weight in his belly. Bravo, Marty. Bravo!

Riley wasn't an all-pro by any means, but he came in, started as a rookie, and held down the starting job for 3.5 years, until an injury forced him out of the lineup at long last. He started 52 games, and while he wasn't a team strength, he wasn't a weakness. He was just plain ol' Victor Riley.

He left as a free agent, went to N'awlins, started for a couple of years, and also was a backup for a couple of seasons in N'awlins and Houston.

If he had played his whole career in KC, he'd be considered a solid but unspectacular pick. However, leaving in free agency drops him down into the 'disappointing' quadrant of picks. I don't understand why he's so frequently mentioned as one of the worst Chiefs picks; he was just plain ol' Victor Riley, who I suspect ate a lot of cheese curls and cheap beer during the offseason. You don't get a gut like that eating baked chicken.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Yeah, he's your Ken Sims. The Patriots drafted Sims #1 overall in 1982 and he was widely considered a bust. But he played for 7 years and was a starter and solid contributor most of those years.

Ryan Leaf is a bust. Ken Sims and Tyson Jackson are overdrafted, but they're not really "busts" in my mind. If they're busts, what the hell is Leaf?

(Sorry, can't watch video currently but will circle back later to watch it).

I'd label these guys as 'disappointing'. When I think about the 56 picks in Chiefs history, I'd have four quadrants

Top - Stars
Second - Solid
Third - Disappointing
Fourth - Busts

Guys like Tyson Jackson and Ken Sims fall solidly into the third quadrant in my mind, and kind of at the top end of that, which is exactly where Tyson ended up on my list.

[Rain Man]

#30. Dee Ford, OLB, 2014. 23rd pick.

I feel bad putting Ford at #30, because that falls into the "disappointing" quadrant, even if just barely. But you have to do what you have to do.

The truth is that Ford has been with the team for three years and he's made 19 starts. It's not fully his fault since Houston and Hali have been in front of him in the past, and he got 10.0 sacks last season in 14 starts. I feel like he'll produce if given the playing time.

If you look at the history of linebackers drafted between the 13th and 33rd pick in the draft over the time period from 1977 through 2007, those who were in their third year typically had an eight-year career. If you scale Dee up to eight years based on past performance, that'll be 51 starts and 41 sacks. That's not a disrespectable career by any means, but it's a little disappointing. The challenge, of course, is that he may not play a full eight years with Kansas City given free agency. He sees solid enough that I suspect he'll at least meet the average career length of eight years, though, and he could go further.

So the bottom line is that there are a lot of questions here. How long will his career be, how long will he be a Chief, and will he eventually get a full-time role? We don't really know. I think the risk is probably greater that he'll underperform these expectations than overperform, so I'm ranking him a bit lower than I'd like.

What do y'all think? If I gave an over/under of 51 starts and 41 sacks for a Chiefs career, do you think he'll outperform those or underperform?

He's got a good lean, apparently, as shown below. I really think that his challenge is not having an inside move. If he gets an inside move to match his speed move, he could really thrive in the NFL.

So in summary, I'm sorry, Dee. I want to rank you higher. Prove me wrong.

[rico]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

#30. Dee Ford, OLB, 2014. 23rd pick.

I feel bad putting Ford at #30, because that falls into the "disappointing" quadrant, even if just barely. But you have to do what you have to do.

The truth is that Ford has been with the team for three years and he's made 19 starts. It's not fully his fault since Houston and Hali have been in front of him in the past, and he got 10.0 sacks last season in 14 starts. I feel like he'll produce if given the playing time.

If you look at the history of linebackers drafted between the 13th and 33rd pick in the draft over the time period from 1977 through 2007, those who were in their third year typically had an eight-year career. If you scale Dee up to eight years based on past performance, that'll be 51 starts and 41 sacks. That's not a disrespectable career by any means, but it's a little disappointing. The challenge, of course, is that he may not play a full eight years with Kansas City given free agency. He sees solid enough that I suspect he'll at least meet the average career length of eight years, though, and he could go further.

So the bottom line is that there are a lot of questions here. How long will his career be, how long will he be a Chief, and will he eventually get a full-time role? We don't really know. I think the risk is probably greater that he'll underperform these expectations than overperform, so I'm ranking him a bit lower than I'd like.

What do y'all think? If I gave an over/under of 51 starts and 41 sacks for a Chiefs career, do you think he'll outperform those or underperform?

He's got a good lean, apparently, as shown below. I really think that his challenge is not having an inside move. If he gets an inside move to match his speed move, he could really thrive in the NFL.

So in summary, I'm sorry, Dee. I want to rank you higher. Prove me wrong.

I think his ranking is fair. It's one of those deals where yeah, this is where he belongs now, but it could change.

Maybe a #30 with a "TBD" asterisk.