D-
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs let James fall and pounced. Final grade: D-.
by CalvinylG ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 18 picks
· 4 steals
· 9 reaches
There is reaching, and then there is Joshua Cephus at No. 212. The Chiefs jumped the board by 54 and dared it to prove them wrong. A weekend that fought the value and lost, hence the D-.
James falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch. They lost the exchange badly enough to drag the whole class down. The Chiefs indulged a want in James while a need in quarterback stayed open.
A whole weekend of picks and quarterback is somehow still a want. It is a win-now wager, and the future is the stake.
In short, the board sent warnings, and they will be hoping it was wrong.
Pick-by-Pick
Xavier Legette at pick No. 37 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
No drama and no debate, T.J. Tampa went about where he belonged in slot 48. A minor need, but a need all the same.
A reach for Bralen Trice in pick 50; a little patience would have been rewarded. The roster fit checks out.
Patrick Paul at the 53rd pick jumps the queue by a touch more than is comfortable. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
No edge and no loss on Ruke Orhorhoro in the 64th pick; it is a wash and a sensible one. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
A offensive lineman of that caliber at pick No. 78 is the definition of value, full stop. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Fair-plus on Dadrion Taylor-Demerson, a quiet win that adds up over a draft. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Steal is underselling it; Jeremiah Trotter Jr. at pick 95 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. A need, and now a little less of one.
A quiet steal in the Round 3 slot: Dominick Puni for less than the market said. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
A wild overpay on Johnny Wilson in the 104th overall pick, the sort that defines a class for the wrong reasons. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
The eyebrow-raiser of the weekend. They went cornerback with DJ James while clear needs at quarterback sat open.
Jared Wiley at No. 112 is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Jalyx Hunt at No. 149 is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
They reached into another round for Cornelius Johnson, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Kendall Milton at pick 164 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
Logan Lee at slot 171 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
They talked themselves into Ryan Flournoy at Round 5, Pick 36, and the board did not agree. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, Joshua Cephus well ahead of where he belonged. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.