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DE Will McDonald IV, Iowa State
I think we have a good conception of DC Steve Spagnuolo at this point; what he needs out of his edge rushers, and what he tends to gravitate away from. And at the end of the day, it's best if you have a defense (and defensive line) that all "sing out of the same hymnal," as Mike DeVito so regularly says on his podcast. But the game of football is like gravity; some things are immutable. One of those things is that you have to get sacks off the edge, an area the Chiefs' DL has been middling at for the entirety of Spags' run. Strapped for cash, there is no solution other than just drafting your way out of it.
The Chiefs went a long, long way towards doing that this past offseason by obtaining a picture perfect LDE in George Karlaftis. The RDE position, typically thought of as lightning fast and bendier, remains open, and Will McDonald is a case study in what that position looks like on most defenses. McDonald has a lightning first step, threatens every tackle's outside shoulder, and shows surprisingly good technique against the run and the pass for someone out of Iowa State. When Iowa State wasn't trying to get cute and kept him wide, he racked up double digits sacks multiple years. He's a passrush specialist and that's how he needs to be used.
His biggest whammo is that he's too small to be a prototypical Spags DE. He's either 6'3" or 6'4", 245 lbs or 235 lbs, and the Combine will have to solve that mystery. Drafting him is redshirting him for a year while you put him through an NFL strength & conditioning program. As a result, he can't really solve your passrush until year 2. His technique and abilities flash a ton, however. I'd absolutely take him in the 2nd.
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