The Chiefs have flexibility at pick 31 and have a chance to draft a key player because of it
The Chiefs are in a unique position for Super Bowl winning teams. They don’t have any major holes in their roster. The Chiefs do need to make moves including franchise tagging or extending Orlando Brown Jr. They need to make a decision on Juju Smith-Schuster, Melcole Hardman, and Juan Thornhill. With all of these in mind, they are not losing key players like other Super Bowl champions have.
The impact this has on the draft is Kansas City is not pigeonholed into drafting one position. As long as the Chiefs don’t draft a punter, kicker, quarterback, or running back there is an argument they did the correct thing.
With the thirty-first overall pick, Kansas City will miss out on the top-tier talent at many premier positions. However, there is one player that could fall to KC at 31 to fill in the offensive line.
Darwan Jones is an offensive tackle from Ohio State. He is 6’ 8” and has weighed between 360-375. He mostly played right tackle over the last 3 years but has some snaps on the left side.
Over the last two years, he played in 24 games and 1,484 snaps. He was able to protect his quarterback with a great level of production. He was officially graded with 11 quarterback hurries, one quarterback hit, and three sacks.
With his amount of snaps at right tackle, he could get some teams looking the other way, allowing him to fall down in the draft.
His size is a huge advantage to him and he takes advantage of it. His wide base allows him to stand up against bullrush defensive ends. It is rare to see him get knocked down off his feet.
His size also gives him a large wingspan. One flaw in his game is against flexible edge rushers that are able to get outside of his base. He is able to use his arm span to keep those players in front of him. When pass rushers get to his outside shoulder to bend around he is able to kick step out and extend his arms to slow down the pass rusher.
Jones is effective at stopping stunt moves and twists. That is an impressive feat for any player. That skill takes a lot of communication and being able to work inside of the system. He will need to take that skill set with him to the NFL level.
He does not pull on run plays effectively. He struggles with moving down the line. He also will lose his base. Part of the reason he loses his footwork is he will depend too much on his hand-fighting early in the rep. If his initial punch misses he struggles to recover.
Drafting a rookie to play at right tackle will free up space for the Chiefs to invest in Brown. Even if Kansas City overpays for Brown, paying three other positions on the offensive line, Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith, and potentially Jones the Chiefs end up paying below the rest of the league.
