D
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs let James fall into their laps, and walked away with a D.
by CalvinylG ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 18 picks
· 4 steals
· 9 reaches
You can hear the double-takes from here. The Chiefs took Ryan Flournoy at the 172nd overall pick, roughly 33 spots before his name belonged.
The trade table is where this weekend went wrong. Landing James that late papers over a lot of smaller sins. They will answer for taking cornerback early while quarterback went begging.
A whole weekend of picks and quarterback is somehow still a want. It is a win-now wager, and the future is the stake.
Bottom line, they will need several of these picks to beat their grades just to break even, and quarterback is still a hole.
Pick-by-Pick
Xavier Legette at pick 35 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Ruke Orhorhoro at the 50th overall pick is a conviction pick that outran the value. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Bralen Trice at Round 2, Pick 21 is a clear overpay, with better names still on the board. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Patrick Paul at the 64th pick is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
T.J. Tampa is a better player than the 68th pick suggests; smart patience, rewarded. Depth more than a fix, but depth they can use.
Kiran Amegadjie at the Round 3 slot is a sound buy, the sort that quietly helps a class. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
A linebacker of that caliber at pick No. 74 is the definition of value, full stop. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
They paid sticker price for Dadrion Taylor-Demerson in slot 79, and that is fine. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
They went early on Zak Zinter in the 90th overall pick, and the value did not follow. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Theo Johnson at pick 95 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A surprising call. With quarterback still to address, they spent No. 101 on DJ James, a cornerback they were not short of.
Brenden Rice in Round 4, Pick 3 lands just on the right side of the ledger. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
McKinnley Jackson at Round 4, Pick 4 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
A reach for Johnny Wilson in slot 109; a little patience would have been rewarded. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They jumped the gun on Mohamed Kamara, taking him earlier than his grade liked. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
A real head-scratcher, Kendall Milton in the 171st pick is miles ahead of his ranking. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Ryan Flournoy in pick 172 is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Trevor Keegan at the 173rd overall pick is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.