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

[Rasputin]

Dammit Carl


The Todd Blackledge curse was born but now it is broken with Patrick Mahomes II

[Rain Man]

#40. Willie Scott, TE, 1981. 14th pick.

I remember the 1981 draft as being odd, because they drafted two tight ends with the first three picks. Willie was the first rounder, and I kind of hate to rank him this low, but I need to.

He was with the team for five seasons, and was the starter for two. He got spot starts every season, so in total he started 40 games. I don't remember much about Willie, but presume he was more about blocking than receiving, because he totaled 75 catches for KC for slightly less than 700 yards.

He was replaced in the lineup by Walt Arnold, so I guess that tells us that he didn't exactly have a stranglehold on the position. He then went to New England as a backup for a couple of years.

The picture below may or may not be of Willie Scott during his college days. I'm not sure. I can't find a picture of him as a Chief, because of a much more famous Willie Scott.



The more famous Willie Scott is, of course, the woman ("Wilhelmina Scott") in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Kate Capshaw's character is from Missouri, so it's possibly that her character is loosely based on the life our former tight end.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

Dammit Carl


The Todd Blackledge curse was born but now it is broken with Patrick Mahomes II

I'd never thought about it before, but Bill Kenney, a 12th round draft choice of the Dolphins before coming to KC, killed two Chiefs first-round quarterbacks. He chased Steve Fuller to the bench, knocking him out of a starting spot, and then he fought Todd Blackledge off from that starting spot a couple of years later.

Maybe it's the curse of Bill Kenney more than the curse of Carl.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I'd never thought about it before, but Bill Kenney, a 12th round draft choice of the Dolphins before coming to KC, killed two Chiefs first-round quarterbacks. He chased Steve Fuller to the bench, knocking him out of a starting spot, and then he fought Todd Blackledge off from that starting spot a couple of years later.

Maybe it's the curse of Bill Kenney more than the curse of Carl.

I'm kinda fond of Dammit Carl


Any other way of thinking is going take extra therapy sessions and lots more booze and drug paraphernalia to comprehend and cope.

[Rain Man]

#39, Elmo Wright, WR, 1971. 16th pick.

He gets some bonus points for inventing the modern touchdown celebration, but that doesn't buy much given the terrible things it spawned. And did you know that he only scored 7 touchdowns in the NFL? That high-step wasn't seen very often, but you can see it at the 4:00 minute mark here, as well as the 5:30 mark and the 10:00 mark. (The 10:00 one is the prettiest.) At 26:40, you can see an ultra-rare Elmo dance on a non-touchdown, which I didn't think existed. (Awesome video of the 1971 season, by the way. Definitely worth watching.)




Anyway, I think that Elmo was a starter for four seasons, but he was the #2 receiver, and I think he was hurt and missed most of his second year. I think perhaps injuries ended his career after his fourth year, but I'm not sure. In the end, he produced a little more than 1,000 yards receiving and almost 100 rushing. It was a career that ended too soon.

[Chieficus]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

#40. Willie Scott, TE, 1981. 14th pick.

The picture below may or may not be of Willie Scott during his college days. I'm not sure. I can't find a picture of him as a Chief, because of a much more famous Willie Scott.

Here ya go...

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Chieficus

Here ya go...

That could be him. Let me take a closer look.

[Rain Man]

#38, Pete Beathard, QB, 1964. #2 pick.

With the #2 pick in the draft, the Chiefs selected a quarterback. A quarterback!

If you know your history, you might question this, because Len Dawson had been a starter for two years when this pick was made. But - get this - Hank Stram said that he "liked to stockpile quarterbacks".

I'll stop for a moment and let you savor a time when Chiefs management liked to stockpile quarterbacks.

Anyway, it was a calculated risk. Dawson had started for two years, with a fantastic year in 1962 and a good year (for the era) in 1963. However, he'd done nothing for five years before that with Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and in an era where players didn't play forever, he was going to be 29 years old headed into the season. Beathard was highly rated, so the Chiefs pulled the trigger.

As it turns out, it was a bad bet. Dawson continued his growth trajectory into a Hall of Fame career, and actually played another 11 seasons. For 3+ seasons Beathard languished on the bench, getting only 2 starts before being traded to Houston in 1967. He played for Houston (3 seasons as a mediocre starter), the Cardinals, and the Rams before actually returning to KC as a backup for the 1969 season.

Beathard ended his Chiefs career with about 1,600 yards passing and his 10-year NFL career with a little over 8,000. He threw 43 TDs and 84 Ints, so no one ever confused him with an all-pro.

So his Chiefs career was a bust and he wasn't an effective quarterback elsewhere in the league. Why isn't he rated at the bottom of the list?

Well, my friends, this is a lesson in drafting. The Chiefs took a highly rated quarterback, sat him on the bench for three years, and were then able to trade him. In return, they got 1st round draft pick in 1968 (#22 pick), a defensive end (Ernie Ladd), and a backup quarterback (Jacky Lee). Quarterbacks have trade value based on reputation.

Overall, he wasn't a big gain, and perhaps we lost value dropping from the #2 pick to the #22 pick. But overall, we got a backup QB for several years, a defensive end, and another pick who turned out to be a 7-year backup for the Chiefs. Not ideal, but not bad.

Here's a rare view of Beathard in action for the Chiefs:

[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:

[Rasputin]

Gosh dang that's tragic I didn't know this story of Jim Tyrer's. These are things NFL should be warning players about and possible prevent what happened with Belcher.

[rico]

I'm loving these. Thanks Rain Man!

[Halfcan]

Awesome thread!

[patteeu]

In b4 poll.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

Gosh dang that's tragic I didn't know this story of Jim Tyrer's. These are things NFL should be warning players about and possible prevent what happened with Belcher.

That was a pretty amazing article, wasn't it? I knew what had happened, but didn't know much about the back story.

What was particularly interesting to me was the realization that a lot of these older players didn't make a ton of money, so they had to go out and find jobs in their 20s or 30s or 40s, and it wasn't just to keep busy. They really needed the income.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

That was a pretty amazing article, wasn't it? I knew what had happened, but didn't know much about the back story.

What was particularly interesting to me was the realization that a lot of these older players didn't make a ton of money, so they had to go out and find jobs in their 20s or 30s or 40s, and it wasn't just to keep busy. They really needed the income.

Yes great article much insight to what goes through players mind it's not as glamorous at it may seem. I'll probably read it a few times over for better understanding of what it was like.