C-
Kansas City Chiefs
Flashes of a plan, unevenly executed. Chiefs: C-.
by CalvinylG ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 24 picks
· 3 steals
· 16 reaches
Some picks age like wine; Dominique Hampton at the 173rd pick will need to, sitting 61 spots clear of his grade. The final tally is a middling C-.
Abrams-Draine falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch. The Chiefs indulged a want in Abrams-Draine while a need in quarterback stayed open.
If this class has a fault line, it runs straight through quarterback. The roster is better shaped than it was, with wide receiver chief among the fixes.
It nets out as a middle-of-the-pack haul that neither helps nor hurts much.
Pick-by-Pick
Xavier Legette in slot 42 is fine work, a shade of surplus and no downside. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Ruke Orhorhoro at pick 50 is the pick scouts circle, and not in a good way. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
DJ James at the Round 2 slot is the sort of value that quietly wins a weekend. Useful body for a position without much behind the starter.
They reached a country mile for Dominick Puni at the 66th pick, and the board is aghast. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Jeremiah Trotter Jr. in No. 67 is exactly on the number, no argument either way. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
They liked Austin Booker enough to skip the value, taking him in pick No. 68. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Brandon Dorlus at Round 3, Pick 5 jumps the queue by a touch more than is comfortable. It fills a real need, too.
Theo Johnson at the Round 3 slot is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Dadrion Taylor-Demerson at pick No. 88 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Christian Mahogany in pick 90 is the kind of reach that only looks good if he outplays it. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Matt Goncalves in the 91st overall pick is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
The board screamed and they did not listen, reaching into the next round for Johnny Wilson. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
The eyebrow-raiser of the weekend. They went cornerback with Kris Abrams-Draine while clear needs at quarterback sat open.
A big swing on Mohamed Kamara at slot 110, well ahead of any board in the building. A need, and now a little less of one.
Cedric Gray at pick 120 nudges the ledger their way without any fuss. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Value said wait; Dillon Johnson in the Round 4 slot says they were not listening. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Justin Eboigbe at slot 132 is a conviction pick that outran the value. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Josh Newton in the 137th overall pick is a bargain the rest of the room will envy. Depth on depth, at a spot that was hardly crying out.
A wild overpay on Walter Rouse in pick No. 142, the sort that defines a class for the wrong reasons. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Kitan Oladapo at No. 152 is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.
A premium they did not need to pay, Layden Robinson a notch or two before his time. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Kendall Milton in the 171st pick is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
A real head-scratcher, Jared Wiley in Round 5, Pick 36 is miles ahead of his ranking. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
They left a pile of value on the table to take Dominique Hampton this early at the 173rd pick. A want more than a need, though you can never have too many.