My Official Endorsement of the #18 Overall Pick

[Direckshun]

I've spent a shit ton of time thinking about it, might as well do it.

2014: WR Brandin Cooks, Oregon State
2013: QB Geno Smith, West Virginia
2012: OLB Whitney Mercilus, Illinois
2011: OLB Justin Houston, Georgia
2010: QB Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame

My official endorsement in 2015 is center Cam Erving, of Florida State.

Why not a WR: I don't anticipate that the three WRs I'd love (Cooper, White, Parker) will be available. I'm not a huge fan of DGB, and I have doubts in Perryman and Dorsett. I like the WR depth in this draft, especially on the 2nd day of the draft, and I'd prefer the Chiefs wait until then (or even better, trade down).

Why not a CB?: I believe that no player fits what John Dorsey wants in a draft pick more than Trae Waynes, but Waynes is likely a Top Ten pick. I think it's highly likely Dorsey selects Collins in the first round, but I have doubts there. Kevin Johnson is one of my favorite players in this draft but it's unclear to me if he's a schematic fit. And the character questions on Marcus Peters are too potentially severe to ignore. (Although, if the Chiefs select Peters, I'd trust Dorsey's judgement 100% since his resources are obviously drastically superior to mine, which don't exist.)

Why not an OT? I don't think tackle is a serious need for this team in 2015. Fisher should become a league average LT at least, and the team is basically married to him. We've got Jeff Allen and Donald Stephenson for RT, both of whom should be fine enough there, and I don't like burning first rounders on RTs anyway. Besides, Cam Erving can play tackle.

Why not a passrusher? Everybody is jonesing really hard for Dupree right now, and justly so, but he will likely be gone before our selection. Simply put, the Chiefs must sign Justin Houston. If they cannot sign him, than they need to land two 1sts for him and my assessment here would change.

Why not an ILB? There are no ILBs in this draft that I like at #18. My favorite is Denzel Perryman, and there's a chance he lasts to our 2nd rounder.

Why Erving?

1. Erving hails from the best center factory in the country -- a factory that has churned out Rodney Hudson himself and Bryan Stork, who's surprised me by manning the center position capably for the Super Bowl champions.

2. Erving possesses all the characteristics that make centers successful. He's got long arms, fantastic pulling ability, great strength, and positional flexibility. His arrow is pointing dramatically upward, and like Hudson, you can expect him to be at an All Pro level within a couple seasons' playing time.

3. A great line, as the Cowboys and 49ers has shown, relieves pressure on the rest of the offense. Smith will have more time to diagnose, and Charles will have a longer career.

4. The Chiefs, for all their bluster, have exhibited little faith in Eric Kush, making center the most obvious hole on our roster.

The question is not "who is the best player," the question is "who will improve the team that most in the short- and long-term.

To me, that answer is Cam Erving.

Barring, of course, that the Houston situation is hopeless. In which case, I reserve the right to alter this endorsement.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Seems like the behavior of a team with no cap space.

What if I told you it was actually the behavior of a team who spent the most money on a free agent WR this year and also gave decent deals to a mediocre ILB and backup OG, while they also re-signed their CB-turned-FS with one year of starting experience to a pretty good deal and traded a 5th rounder for Ben Grubbs and gave him an extension to save money in the short term? All of this while they knew what the market was for Rodney Hudson and still chose not to fork over the cash for either him or someone like Stefan Wisniewski.

What do you think that says about what they think of Eric Kush?

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by milkman

If the ancient Chinese were espousing the belief that centers would be under valued, they were not only wise, they were prescient.

How can you ignore that?

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

I'm not sure. He is a first round caliber OT who became the country's best center in two months. He's got prototypical size and athleticism with 34" arms.

He's a rare "safe pick" with ridiculous upside. He's probably my favorite center prospect since Mack, and probably moreso due to his upside.

If you are going to do a positional conversion, I'd rather have John Miller or Shaq Mason.

Both play with great leverage and strength and hold the point of attack much better than Erving.

Erving is not going to hold up against NFL defensive tackles. He's just not. He doesn't have the leg strength to handle those guys. He can't lock his lower half and anchor. Miller and Mason probably do that better than anybody in this draft. And they come up quicker than Erving, who also had two high level guards next to him.

You want a RT? They you draft Erving. He's long, athletic and has nice feet. You don't draft Erving and expect that you are going to get a functional NFL center. You won't.

Like the other former All-American LT turned C, Barrett Jones, Erving is not near as good at the same point and Jones was going to be able to play center at the NFL level because he had the strength and mass to anchor.

[kccrow]

My opinion is that if you want to take a center high, you do it in round 2 with Hroniss Grasu, who has been consistently top notch at the position for years now. 52 consecutive games at Center.

[RunKC]

I think that it's far more likely that we will take a defensive lineman compared to an offensive lineman because of the following reasons:

1. DeVito is old and likely in his last season. Howard is a decent rotational DE in a contract year.
2. Catapano is a complete unknown.
3. We just paid Bailey considerable money and still need to pay Poe, which means they likely will let Howard walk if/when a team overpays for him next spring. A rookie DE would fit well in the budget for the position.
4. Our DL was overused last season and it hurt our run defense. We could really use another player there IMO.

[OldSchool]

Looks like you aren't alone Direck:

Jamaal Charles said he wants the Chiefs to upgrade the offensive line in the draft.
Charles, who lost stud center Rodney Hudson in free agency, channeled his inner Chris Johnson with these quotes. "It was challenging last year playing with guys — some got hurt, some got suspended. So it was hard playing. I never knew how crucial it was to my career that I needed linemen." Despite the struggles of the line, Charles still averaged 5.01 YPC and finished as fantasy's No. 7 overall running back. He'll be an elite producer even if the Chiefs' hogs project to struggle once again.

[The Franchise]

Where the **** does it say that he wants them to upgrade it through the draft?

[OldSchool]

Originally Posted by Dicky McElephant

Where the **** does it say that he wants them to upgrade it through the draft?

I guess they are drawing the conclusion that, since there are no more quality linemen left in FA, the only other way to upgrade now would be to draft one.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by OldSchool

I guess they are drawing the conclusion that, since there are no more quality linemen left in FA, the only other way to upgrade now would be to draft one.

And I'm of the assumption that we already have. That's not to say that we should pass on an offensive lineman if he's BPA at that point but we've improved this offensive line already in my mind.

[OldSchool]

Originally Posted by Dicky McElephant

And I'm of the assumption that we already have. That's not to say that we should pass on an offensive lineman if he's BPA at that point but we've improved this offensive line already in my mind.

I think that really depends on how big of a step down it is from Hudson to Kush as well as how much improvement we could expect from Fisher and whoever will be starting at RG and RT for us.

[The Franchise]

Well let's take a look at each position.

LT - Can it get worse? Sure....but I don't think anyone thinks that it will. Fisher should have a full offseason to get better.

LG - Grubbs is immensly better than McGlynn last year. Vastly improved.

C - Kush as of right now is a downgrade from Hudson. We don't know how much of a downgrade it truly is at this point. Could be huge....could be small.

RG - Fulton should get better with an entire offseason. Fanaika is better depth than we had last year.

RT - The truly unknown spot. Which Stephenson will show up? Will Allen succeed at RT?

[CleveSteve]

here's more of the quote... still doesn't exactly say draft.

“I definitely want them to address that,” Charles said, via the Associated Press. “I’m not a GM, so I can’t do that job. But it was challenging last year playing with guys — some got hurt, some got suspended. So it was hard playing. I never knew how crucial it was to my career that I needed linemen. I saw DeMarco Murray had a great line in Dallas. Running backs, we’re more important than wide receivers on the team. We might be looking for the best wide receiver, but you need a good running back. At the end of the day, a good running back touches the ball more.”

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by Dicky McElephant

Well let's take a look at each position.

LT - Can it get worse? Sure....but I don't think anyone thinks that it will. Fisher should have a full offseason to get better.

LG - Grubbs is immensly better than McGlynn last year. Vastly improved.

C - Kush as of right now is a downgrade from Hudson. We don't know how much of a downgrade it truly is at this point. Could be huge....could be small.

RG - Fulton should get better with an entire offseason. Fanaika is better depth than we had last year.

RT - The truly unknown spot. Which Stephenson will show up? Will Allen succeed at RT?

I think even though RT is an unknown, there are some posters who equate "unknown" with "dumpster fire." And that's stupid, because we have to be even 50/50 on getting worse at RT to legitimately consider that the offensive line as a whole could get worse, provided that Kush is the worst thing since Rudy Niswanger

It is overwhelmingly likely that between Stephenson and Allen there is a player who is better than Ryan Harris as our starting RT, and that's just without an extra OT at some point in the draft. The chances increase if we do.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by SNR

I think even though RT is an unknown, there are some posters who equate "unknown" with "dumpster fire." And that's stupid, because we have to be even 50/50 on getting worse at RT to legitimately consider that the offensive line as a whole could get worse, provided that Kush is the worst thing since Rudy Niswanger

It is overwhelmingly likely that between Stephenson and Allen there is a player who is better than Ryan Harris as our starting RT, and that's just without an extra OT at some point in the draft. The chances increase if we do.

I absolutely agree.

However, when looking at the offensive line, the right side from the center over is a question mark.

Kush is a completely unknown. As many have said, including myself, if he was good enough to allow the Chiefs to let Hudson walk and become our starting center, then he should have been good enough to have manned either guard position last year rather than the dumpster fires that the team continued to roll out there every week. If he's good enough to start at C, he's definitely good enough to start at guard and you get him reps so he becomes a better player. Huge question mark and I think that the team got caught with their pants down regarding Hudson. They should have signed him to a long term earlier versus letting him hit the free agent market. I'm sure that they never envisioned him getting that much money, but here we are.

Fulton at right guard was nearly as bad as McGlynn/Linkenbach at left guard. There were times during the season that he was a turnstile. Hell, at least a turnstile has those metal arms and can get in your way. Fulton often did not. You can point to him as being a rookie and the arrow only points up at this juncture, but he's slow of foot (was noted as such during his entire time at Tennessee) and lack lateral agility.

Right tackle was an abortion. Sure, I'd be the first to believe that between Stephenson, Allen and Sherrod, all very talented and skilled tackles when they came out of college, that there is no way in hell that they don't find a guy who will perform at a level that is markedly better than what we saw last year from Harris. However, there are questions. Can Stephenson play at this level without the aid of PED's? Can Allen even play at the NFL level effectively? He hasn't yet. Can Sherrod get his head back into the game of football after his broken leg? Despite his enormous upside, he hasn't yet.

Now, my opinion is that we are going to be just fine. Hudson was basically playing the three interior line positions by himself last season. Grubbs is an enormous upgrade at LG. Fisher will be better. Fulton will be better and if he's not, Allen can play RG at a 60% level, which should be good enough. And between Stephenson and Sherrod, they'll have a decent RT - maybe even something special if either finally gets it to click.

That being said, I think that the team would be foolish not to look at potentially upgrading the C, RG and RT positions in the draft in the event that none of these guys "get it." With ten picks available, there is ample opportunity to fill the holes and build the depth at WR, DB and LB while also addressing the potential hot spots on the offensive line.

This should be a "core" draft class for Dorsey. The team is on the verge right now and this should be a draft class that allows them to get over the playoff hump and stay there for a while.

[OldSchool]

Originally Posted by SNR

I think even though RT is an unknown, there are some posters who equate "unknown" with "dumpster fire." And that's stupid, because we have to be even 50/50 on getting worse at RT to legitimately consider that the offensive line as a whole could get worse, provided that Kush is the worst thing since Rudy Niswanger

It is overwhelmingly likely that between Stephenson and Allen there is a player who is better than Ryan Harris as our starting RT, and that's just without an extra OT at some point in the draft. The chances increase if we do.

Let's just all agree that it isn't a good thing that this OL has been in flux the entire time that Reid and Dorsey have been here, especially when you consider the fact that Reid's schemes tend to be more complex than the majority of other coaches and much of what he does requires a really well-coordinated effort up front.