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CB Kyu Blu Kelly, Stanford
After absolutely torching the NFL by rebuilding the entire offensive line in one offseason a couple years back, GM Brett Veach lapped the field last year by rebuilding the entire secondary. The work that Veach, DC Steve Spagnuolo, DBs coach Dave Merritt, and S Justin Reid have done getting all of these first year players up to snuff has been nothing short of remarkable. Spags is truly, historically underrated. The Chiefs' CB position enters the 2023 NFL Draft as bodied out as any on the roster.
But hear me out: if Kyu Blu Kelly had been in the NFL draft, he's a Chief, right? He's long-played for an excellent program, his dad was an 11-year NFL veteran, he is clearly a smart guy, he's currently torturing WRs at the Senior Bowl. He's long, he's a track star in both the 100m and 200m, so he's going to be a better athlete than most of the guys he's covering. So we can't dismiss the idea of drafting a CB high completely out of hand. He looks really good getting in and out of breaks, but I do want to see how he performs at the Combine on that front. I bet he runs a 4.3, however. And at 6'1", it's hard not to love that.
That said, I don't see him becoming a Chief, because there's just too many "but"s that would have to happen. First of all, the CB room is very solid in KC, so he'd have to drop in the draft to end up here. Second, he's fantastic in press man, but struggles with all the eye candy in zone; he reads receivers well but QBs can toy with him. Last but not least, and this is a big deal in the Spags scheme: there are entire games where he just plays soft. Not super enthusiastic attaching the run, and unless he's going up against a slot receiver, he's not crazy about fighting through blocks.
Where would he have to fall for the Chiefs, who probably love this guy's moxie, to take him? The 3rd? The 4th? Other teams will value him more and he'll likely go well before then.
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