Best draft picks by Round - Round 1

[Rain Man]

I'll switch this up a little. Before posting my top 10 list, I'll start from the bottom, revealing in reverse order all 56 of the Chiefs' 1st round picks over the years. Then I'll put the top ten in this OP and put up the poll.

Feel free to share your memories, happiness, or disgust at each pick. I'll post one whenever I'm slightly bored.

#1 Buck Buchanan, DT
#2 Tony Gonzalez, TE
#3 Derrick Thomas, ROLB
#4 Ed Budde, LG
#5 Eric Berry, SS
#6 Gary Green, CB
#7 Derrick Johnson, ILB, OLB
#8 Art Still, DE
#9 E.J. Holub, OLB/C
#10 Tamba Hali, OLB/DE

[Rain Man]

#19. Eric Fisher, LT, 2013. 1st pick.

Mock me, curse me, say whatever you want. Fisher is on track to be a top-20 first round pick in Chiefs history. Hear me out.

He's played for four full seasons now, and he's been a reliable starter. He's getting better every year. In Year 1 he moved to RT because Branden Albert cried and stomped his feet, screaming shrilly that "Left tackle is mine! I own left tackle! Herm gave it to me!" In Year 2 Eric moved to left tackle and he's been pretty darn good ever since. Other than being framed for a crime he didn't commit in the Pittsburgh playoff game, you never hear anything about Eric, and that means he's doing a good job.

So anyway, he's played for four years and he's recorded 59 starts. When you look at OT's drafted in the first five picks between 1977 and 2007, those who make it past their first four years have an average career length of nine years. Given that he's under contract, we can expect him to stay with KC, so we're going to get pretty much a full decade of perfectly serviceable left tackle out of that pick. In the NFL, that's a success.

Yeah, I know, I know. #1 pick. It's not Eric's fault that he was the most talented player in the remedial draft class of 2013. You can only compete against the people who are in your class, so it is what it is. Put on some welder's goggles to protect your eyes, and then gaze upon the top ten picks of 2013.

1 Eric Fisher
2 Luke Joeckel
3 Dion Jordan
4 Lane Johnson
5 Ezekiel Ansah
6 Barkevious Mingo
7 Jonathan Cooper
8 Tavon Austin
9 Dee Milliner
10 Chance Warmack

In retrospect, isn't it thrilling that we got Eric Fisher?

Hopefully he'll start getting pro bowl nods, but that's tough at OT when Joe Thomas is around. We know how pro bowls work on the offensive line, and Joe Thomas will suck up a LT spot until he retires. And it's not like Joeckel is going to compete for a spot.

So suck it up, buttercups. Fisher will likely end his career as the 19th best first-round pick in Chiefs history, and here's a picture to remember him by. If you want to disapprove of someone in that picture, disapprove of Goodell.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Have we checked listopencil for CTE lately?

I'm not busy next week.

[Rain Man]

#18 - Mike Bell, DE, 1979. 2nd pick.

Oh, gosh. I've been waiting for this one. This may be the most interesting review of the whole series.

So we start in the early 1970s. Mike Bell lives in Wichita, and he has a twin brother Mark. I'm not sure how twins can have different talents, but both boys play football and are good, but Mike is a heckuva lot better.

So their senior year comes and all sorts of colleges want Mike. Mark, not so much. He's good, but not that good. The Bell parents, not realizing that twins can be actual separate human beings, order the boys to go to the same college.

This puts a constraint on Mike. He's getting all sorts of scholarship offers, but Mark isn't. It turns out that only Wichita State and Colorado State would offer Mark a scholarship (and you know those were pity scholarships to get Mike). So the Bell boys go to Colorado State.

Mike had a stellar career there, being named an All-American as a sophomore and a junior before a knee injury cut him down his senior year. Mark did well after being moved to tight end, but not as well as Mike in the story of his shadow-stunted life. And in addition to Mike and Mark, Mark also played well, and this is where it gets a little confusing.

The NFL draft came in 1979, and Colorado State had three players drafted in the first five rounds: Mike Bell, Mark Bell, and Mark Bell. That threw me for a second. Mike went with the second overall pick, and his twin brother Mark went in the fourth round (as a defensive end, oddly), which is pretty good but not as good as Mike. And in the fifth round, another Colorado State guy named Mark Bell was drafted at wide receiver.

Here's a picture of the three Bell boys. The one in the middle is not one of the twins.



At this point, we can forget about Mark and Mark. They both had short NFL careers and probably now spend their lives secretly swapping wives without the women's knowledge. But Mike came to Kansas City.

He arrived in an odd environment. A year earlier, the Chiefs had also held the #2 pick, and they used it to draft Kentucky DE Art Still. With the 29th pick that year (the #2 pick in the second round), they had drafted yet another DE named Sylvester Hicks. So Bell arrived as the #2 pick (another twin thing, I guess), and he had a #2 pick and a #2 pick in the 2nd round ahead of him.

So he sat on the bench and got injured a lot. He got injured and Hicks got injured and Art Still dominated and by Bell's second year both he and Hicks were hurt so a guy named Dave Lindstrom started almost every game. After two seasons, Bell had only made five starts and he'd missed games with knee, bicep, hamstring, and groin injuries.

The Chiefs sent him to some specialist who likely dealt with the frail elderly, and that guy told him to lift fewer weights and start stretching more. Bell lost 15 pounds, became more limber, and seldom missed a game after that if you don't count going to prison. (More on that later.) He took over the starting job in 1981 and held it through 1985. Interestingly, he weighed about 245 pounds, which is microscopic for a DE today and was small even back then. But wait until I tell you about Art Still.

1985, though, produced a very unusual event. It was late in a disappointing season, like most of them were back then, and on a Wednesday Mike was coming out of a team meeting at Arrowhead. He was intercepted by Mulder and Scully.

"We're with the FBI," they said. "Up against the wall and put your hands behind your back." During the season, a Chiefs starter was led out of Arrowhead in handcuffs facing federal charges.

Apparently Mike had kept his friends back in Wichita, and they liked the ol' nose candy. Mike enjoyed it as well, and he made a call to a wiretapped phone in Wichita to buy some of it. He was one of 31 people arrested, including his twin brother Mark (though Mark's arrest probably wasn't as good). It must have been going on for a while, because a former Chief, James Walker, was arrested in that group and he'd only been with the team for one year in 1983.

And this wasn't some Aqib Talib thing where they just let him go. He got sentenced to prison. Prison! He got a one-year sentence for cocaine trafficking (actually two one-year sentences served concurrently) and a two-year suspended sentence for cocaine possession. His twin brother Mark got an identical sentence, though not as good since he only got one of the one-year sentences.

The Bell boys reported to prison and served four months before getting out on good behavior or something. Mark was out of the league (working at a hair salon), while Mike sat out the full 1986 season. In the days before Von Miller, the league didn't really like having cocaine traffickers suiting up on game day.

But in 1987 Mike was reinstated, and all of a sudden he was back in a Chiefs uniform. That must have been an awkward welcome back. He came back as a starter and then crippled on as a backup for three more years after that before retiring.

So if you summarize his career, it went like this:

2 years as an oft-injured backup
5 years as a starter
1 year in prison
2 years as a starter again
3 years as a backup again

Prison or not, that's a long Chiefs career. He was active for 12 seasons, and while he never made a pro bowl, he racked up 99 starts and 40 sacks. That's pretty productive for a 1st round pick, I guess.

Here are a couple of pictures of Mike for you. I always remember him as a pretty lean player like this.

[Rain Man]

#17 - Jerome Woods, FS, 1996. 28th pick.

When Marty took the reins in 1989, he had a great free safety in his prime. Deron Cherry was 30 years old. At the strong safety spot, Kevin Porter was a third round pick in his second year.

Marty didn't seem to care that much about safeties, so he let the position stand. Deron retired after 1991 and Porter was a kind of a bust, unfortunately. From 1989 through 1995, the primary starters at the two safety spots were Cherry (2 years), Porter (3 years), Jeff Donaldson (1 year), Martin Bayless (2 years), Charles Mincy (1 year), Kevin Ross (1 year), David Whitmore (1 year), William White (1 year), Brian Washington (1 year), and Mark Collins (1 year). Other than Porter, Mincy was drafted in the 5th round and the other guys all came with no investment of draft picks.

By 1996 Marty must've decided that the position warranted more attention, because he drafted Jerome in the first round and then followed up with Reggie Tongue in the second round. Neither guy started their rookie year, though Jerome kept himself busy as a pretty decent kickoff returner. However, in 1997 they took over and started for the next three years as a pair, Jerome at FS and Reggie at SS.

At some point a choice had to be made, and the Chiefs picked Jerome over Reggie. Reggie played another six years, mostly for Seattle, and Jerome continued on with Kansas City. Chiefsplanet was somewhat split on the decision. (I was in the Reggie camp since I thought he was more of a ball hawk but I had nothing against Jerome.)

The main story for Jerome after that was a broken leg in the preseason of 2002 that destroyed his whole season. That must have been a bad broken leg because he was out all year. He came back in 2003, having a banner year in which he scored the only two touchdowns of his career. A 46 yard interception against Pittsburgh in Week 2 and a 79 yard interception against Green Bay in Week 6 helped him secure his only pro bowl spot in his career, coming in his 8th pro season.

But it was a short revival. Injuries in 2004 and 2005 bit hard into both seasons, and the Chiefs released him prior to preseason in 2006. He tried to catch on with another team, but got no bites. In 2007 he signed a short one-day contract with the Chiefs so he could honorably retire after
a commendable 105 starts with the Chiefs.

All in all, he was a solid player for a long time. A star? No. But he was a productive draft pick and we salute him.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

#17 - Jerome Woods, FS, 1996. 28th pick.

When Marty took the reins in 1999, he had a great free safety in his prime. Deron Cherry was 30 years old. At the strong safety spot, Kevin Porter was a third round pick in his second year.

Marty didn't seem to care that much about safeties, so he let the position stand. Deron retired after 1991 and Porter was a kind of a bust, unfortunately. From 1989 through 1995, the primary starters at the two safety spots were Cherry (2 years), Porter (3 years), Jeff Donaldson (1 year), Martin Bayless (2 years), Charles Mincy (1 year), Kevin Ross (1 year), David Whitmore (1 year), William White (1 year), Brian Washington (1 year), and Mark Collins (1 year). Other than Porter, Mincy was drafted in the 5th round and the other guys all came with no investment of draft picks.

By 1996 Marty must've decided that the position warranted more attention, because he drafted Jerome in the first round and then followed up with Reggie Tongue in the second round. Neither guy started their rookie year, though Jerome kept himself busy as a pretty decent kickoff returner. However, in 1997 they took over and started for the next three years as a pair, Jerome at FS and Reggie at SS.

At some point a choice had to be made, and the Chiefs picked Jerome over Reggie. Reggie played another six years, mostly for Seattle, and Jerome continued on with Kansas City. Chiefsplanet was somewhat split on the decision. (I was in the Reggie camp since I thought he was more of a ball hawk but I had nothing against Jerome.)

The main story for Jerome after that was a broken leg in the preseason of 2002 that destroyed his whole season. That must have been a bad broken leg because he was out all year. He came back in 2003, having a banner year in which he scored the only two touchdowns of his career. A 46 yard interception against Pittsburgh in Week 2 and a 79 yard interceptions against Green Bay in Week 6 helped him secure his only pro bowl spot in his career, coming in his 8th pro season.

But it was a short revival. Injuries in 2004 and 2005 bit hard into both seasons, and the Chiefs released him prior to preseason in 2006. He tried to catch on with another team, but got no bites. In 2007 he signed a short one-day contract with the Chiefs so he could honorably retire.

All in all, he was a solid player for a long time. A star? No. But he was a productive draft pick and we salute him.

Sort of glad to see Tongue go, if only because the "laid a licking" puns got really tired really quickly.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

Sort of glad to see Tongue go, if only because the "laid a licking" puns got really tired really quickly.

Well yeah, there was that. But remember that Jerome really brought the Wood.

[Rain Man]

I had to switch the picture because I don't think that first one was really Jerome even though it was labeled as him. The jersey number is wrong.

And I hope Getty Images goes bankrupt. They steal old pictures and claim them as theirs and then try to charge for using them. Getty Images is perhaps America's most terrible company.

[Willie Lanier]

Love the analysis, and both players, but tongue was the better player IMO, one of the best safeties at the time.

And he didn't take no shit, he ****ed people up

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Willie Lanier

Love the analysis, and both players, but tongue was the better player IMO, one of the best safeties at the time.

And he didn't take no shit, he ****ed people up

I remember at the time thinking that Tongue had a better tendency to be around the ball and make plays, but in the end they were kind of similar. Tongue has the advantage, but not by a lot.

Of course, Tongue was a SS, so I generally expect fewer interceptions out of them than a FS, and fewer FR. I expect more FF, though.

Woods - 9 seasons (not counting the one IR season)

15 Int
11 FF
5 FR
5.0 sacks
2 defensive touchdowns

Tongue - 10 seasons

15 Int
12 FF
10 FR
9.5 sacks
4 defensive touchdowns

[patteeu]

Great write-ups, Rainman.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Great write-ups, Rainman.

I was hoping people appreciated my Mike Bell writeup. I find Mike Bell's story interesting.

I'm starting to get close to #11. It's going to be quite dramatic.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I was hoping people appreciated my Mike Bell writeup. I find Mike Bell's story interesting.

I'm starting to get close to #11. It's going to be quite dramatic.

I'm already starting to hyperventilate.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

#19. Eric Fisher, LT, 2013. 1st pick.

Mock me, curse me, say whatever you want. Fisher is on track to be a top-20 first round pick in Chiefs history. Hear me out.

He's played for four full seasons now, and he's been a reliable starter. He's getting better every year. In Year 1 he moved to RT because Branden Albert cried and stomped his feet, screaming shrilly that "Left tackle is mine! I own left tackle! Herm gave it to me!" In Year 2 Eric moved to left tackle and he's been pretty darn good ever since. Other than being framed for a crime he didn't commit in the Pittsburgh playoff game, you never hear anything about Eric, and that means he's doing a good job.

So anyway, he's played for four years and he's recorded 59 starts. When you look at OT's drafted in the first five picks between 1977 and 2007, those who make it past their first four years have an average career length of nine years. Given that he's under contract, we can expect him to stay with KC, so we're going to get pretty much a full decade of perfectly serviceable left tackle out of that pick. In the NFL, that's a success.

Yeah, I know, I know. #1 pick. It's not Eric's fault that he was the most talented player in the remedial draft class of 2013. You can only compete against the people who are in your class, so it is what it is. Put on some welder's goggles to protect your eyes, and then gaze upon the top ten picks of 2013.

1 Eric Fisher
2 Luke Joeckel
3 Dion Jordan
4 Lane Johnson
5 Ezekiel Ansah
6 Barkevious Mingo
7 Jonathan Cooper
8 Tavon Austin
9 Dee Milliner
10 Chance Warmack

In retrospect, isn't it thrilling that we got Eric Fisher?

Hopefully he'll start getting pro bowl nods, but that's tough at OT when Joe Thomas is around. We know how pro bowls work on the offensive line, and Joe Thomas will suck up a LT spot until he retires. And it's not like Joeckel is going to compete for a spot.

So suck it up, buttercups. Fisher will likely end his career as the 19th best first-round pick in Chiefs history, and here's a picture to remember him by. If you want to disapprove of someone in that picture, disapprove of Goodell.

Not safe for work Rape

[Scooter LaCanforno]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

#37. George Daney, G, 1968. 22nd pick.

Since we traded Pete Beathard for a first-round pick you may be wondering who we took with that pick. It was this fellow, Mr. George Daney.

George is another classic story of a guy getting screwed over in the draft. The Chiefs already had Ed Budde, of course, and were looking to upgrade the RG spot. With the 22nd pick, they selected RG George Daney, but they had two first-round picks and with the #19 pick they selected RG Mo Moorman. They must have really wanted a guard.

Moorman won the starting job and held it for six years before retiring, while Daney was the backup. Daney finally got to start in his seventh year, and then retired after that. The records don't show exactly how many starts he had, but I suspect it was in the 25 to 30 range. He was apparently quite active on special teams, though.

He was also one of the team clowns. You should read this great article about Jim Tyrer's murder-suicide https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...=.a5f1fba52009, but it mentions the following about Daney:

On the excellent Chief teams of the late '60s and early '70s, no two players seemed more dissimilar than celebrated offensive tackle Jim Tyrer and backup guard George Daney. Tyrer seemed a tower of strength, always forward-thinking and sensible; Daney was seen as a flake, if not quite a goof-off, a man who joined center Jack Rudnay in countless pranks and seemingly gave no thought to life after football. In tandem, Daney and Rudney were known as Heckle and Jeckle, after the cartoon birds.

Once, to relieve the boredom of yet another film, Rudnay and Daney unscrewed all the outlets within 100 yards of the projector, snipped all the wiring and then replaced the outlets. Coach Hank Stram must have considered hiring an electrician as an assistant coach. There was a method to this seeming madness, Daney insists. Acting looney often was a way to avoid becoming looney.

Although none of his teammates sensed it while he was playing, Daney fully realized the limits of pro football, that it was an interlude in his life, to be used as a springboard toward financial freedom rather than as a way to avoid growing up.

Like most players, Daney was frustrated at the uncertainty, callousness and lack of imagination in the NFL during his seven years with the Chiefs. Unlike most players, he mustered the courage to quit long before being ordered. In early July of 1975, Daney charged into the Chief offices to announce his retirement. Nobody was there to acknowledge it.

"The office was about a mile from the house," he said. "I'd gone that far, I had to tell someone. So I told the only person there -- the trainer. I told him to tell the front office. Then I went on vacation. When I got back, I found out they traded me to Houston, that they were trying to salvage something.

"I could have gone two more years, maybe five. But where would it have gotten me? Where's the breaking-off point? Jim was at a much higher level (of income) than me. But he still had to start from the bottom some time. That's not a pessimistic view. It's realistic. You get caught in an ego and financial trap. And the longer you play the more you get trapped.

"I told Jim I was twice as smart as he was (both retired in '75), because it took me seven years to learn what it took him 14 to learn. We were both unemployed -- only I was 28 and he was 36."

"I used to wish George had a bigger ego," said Linda, "that he was more like Jim, that he'd play a few more years. Thank God he never listened to me."

So in summary, he's a different type of player than we've seen so far on the list. He didn't get a lot of starts, but he was with the team for a long time. Unfortunately, he also had an odd young death, dying at age 43 in his garage in what was believed to be an accident.

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-02-...ard-found-dead

He looks like someone I recognize, but I can't place who:

I remember George Daney getting ejected in a pre-season game. He went to the bench and switched his jersey with a another player, he then went back into the game and got thrown out again. I think the NFL changed the rules on ejected players after that.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Scooter LaCanforno

I remember George Daney getting ejected in a pre-season game. He went to the bench and switched his jersey with a another player, he then went back into the game and got thrown out again. I think the NFL changed the rules on ejected players after that.

I'd never heard that. You have to like those early AFL days.

I saw a film clip on one NFL Network show where a fan ran onto the field as the ball was snapped and rushed the passer. The play stood.

Here it is. Of course it was the Patriots cheating to beat the Chiefs.