#34. Ryan Sims, DT, 2002. 6th pick.
Where to start?
First off, we've gone through 22 picks on our way up the list, and the odds say that we should have listed seven draft picks from 2000 or later. However, we've only listed two. Why is that?
My theory is that in simpler times a first-round bust never played. They didn't cost that much money so you'd put the best people on the field regardless of when they were drafted. In the post Y2K era, first round picks are so expensive that they're likely given every chance to succeed, which means more playing opportunities even if they haven't earned it. A 2000-era bust will likely be given a couple of years to prove himself, which make me think that Jonathan Baldwin must have stunk far more than we even thought possible.
Anyway, Ryan Sims is one of those guys who was given a chance to succeed, albeit under Greg Robinson's infamous "spinner" defense. (Shudder.) Who can forget the sight of Eric Hicks being the lone pass rusher against five linemen while Ryan Sims dropped back into coverage?
Anyway, we may remember this story. Dick Vermeil had an old linebacker from the Eagles named John Bunting. Bunting was then coaching at North Carolina and talked up Sims like he was the second coming of Bob Lilly. Sims played next to Julius Peppers, and questions arose about whether Peppers was all that and a bag of chips, or whether Sims' work inside made Peppers look good. (Spoiler: Peppers was all that and a bag of chips.)
Closer to home, debates on Chiefsplanet raged about whether we should take Ryan Sims, John Henderson, Albert Haynesworth, or Wendell Bryant, and as I recall it was mostly a Sims/Henderson debate. (Spoiler alert: the correct answer was Haynesworth.) I was in the Bryant camp, which was a small minority and rightfully so.
When the time came, the Chiefs thought the Vikings wanted Sims, so they traded up from #8 to #6 with the Cowboys, giving up a second-round pick and a 2003 third-round pick to do so. However, the Cowboys forgot to call the league office to let them know about the trade, and the draft clock ran out. The Vikings tried to run up to the stage with their Ryan Sims card, and the Chiefs ran up with their Ryan Sims card, and the NFL ruled that the Chiefs won the race.
And that was the last time that Ryan Sims was ever double-teamed.
Seriously, screw Greg Robinson and that spinner defense. We all talked about how it didn't make use of Sims' strengths, but we also began wondering just what Sims' strengths were. He had a big holdout his rookie year, signing after training camp had ended, and he only started two games his rookie year. His season ended with a dislocated elbow, which sounds like an injury that would really hurt.
He came back and was a regular starter in 2003 and 2004, playing mostly free safety or some such thing in Greg Robinson's stupid defense. He showed promise in 2003, regressed in 2004, and then hurt his foot in 2005 and missed a majority of the season.
In a telling anecdote, he was then traded to the Buccaneers for a conditional seventh-round draft choice, but apparently he didn't meet the conditions, so the Chiefs got nothing in the trade. Sims ended his Chiefs career with 36 starts and 64 tackles. He actually stayed with the Buccaneers for four more years in which absolutely nothing of interest happened.
He must have the least flattering football card photo ever made:
Here's a better picture of him dancing with Boomer Grigsby in one of the rare moments where Robinson's defense didn't yield points.
