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DT Keeanu Benton, Wisconsin
In the NBA, there was an era with Shaq, with Dwight Howard, and even Tim Duncan, where teams just felt at the mercy of big centers chopping them down in the paint. So teams would go out and try to find big dudes to clog the lane, and sometimes over-invest, just anything to force these teams with powerful centers to beat them any other way. I wonder sometimes if the NFL may end up with the same reckoning as defenses become more athletic to try to take away more active passing games, and offenses inevitably counter with power. How much is taking the run game away worth it?
Your answer to that question is the answer to how valuable you think Benton is. Benton is the answer to "how do I clog up the line of scrimmage." You can run wide to get away from him. You can run sweeps to avoid him. You can pass over him. But you cannot run through him. Long arms, brute force, and absolute technically sound menace over the center, demanding double teams every time an offense thinks they have what it takes to enforce their will and run between the tackles. That's what Benton does, that's what he's good at, and he'll never make a single Pro Bowl ever. But you won't be able to run on him.
The value in that is unmistakable, and as a result, I think he's going to be more attractive to 3-4 teams than he will be to the Chiefs. But I think he has more value than some may give him credit for: the Chiefs have very good linebackers to cover off tackle runs. They have a growing, young secondary that will only get better. By far the weakest spot on the defense by the end of the year was up the gut, to the point where they had to bring in DT Brandon Williams to shore it up. If you can have that brick wall in the middle of your line all year on first- and second-downs, what would you spend to build it? I'd spend a second and sleep easy.
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