How did Skyy Moore fall to us?

[Direckshun]

Largely size concerns, it seems:

The 2022 NFL Draft was another strong year for wide receiver talent, and many assumed that a run on wide receivers would happen in the first round. That panned out with the Falcons taking Drake London at No. 8 and three other receivers were taken over the next four picks. The levee breaking on wideouts led to Jahan Dotson ending up as the 16th pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, and some analysts thought Western Michigan's Skyy Moore would go late in the first round thanks to the run on receivers.

Moore was superb throughout 2021, hauling in 95 passes for 1,292 yards and 10 touchdowns. The junior also worked out well before the 2022 NFL Draft. Hence, there were some projecting him to the opening night of the draft, so some were surprised when he slid to late in the second round.

NFL team sources actually had Moore graded lower than the media hype. Some teams had him graded in the second round and others had him in Round 3. They saw some limitations with his size and thought Moore (5-10, 196) could have problems with longer cornerbacks as a pro. Thus, teams did not see a real slide with Moore.

The Kansas City Chiefs ended Moore's slide, and they are a mixed landing spot for him. On the plus side, Moore landed with an elite quarterback in Pat Mahomes and a great coaching staff led by future Hall of Fame Andy Reid. On the negative side, Moore is in a crowded depth chart, as the Chiefs have established veterans like JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Mecole Hardman and Josh Gordon. Due to the a second-round pick investment in him, Moore is assured of making the roster, but he could have a hard time breaking out in an offense that spreads the ball around and features tight end Travis Kelce. Moore will have to earn his playing time, but if he can break through to a starting job, he could turn into a very productive pro operating with Mahomes and Reid.

[Kiimo]

Didn't they bring in Pickens?

He may have said that there was interest from Pittsburgh

Here's a quote from Pickens:

"With the draft you never know," said Pickens. "I am just glad to be a Steeler. I knew it was a possibility. But you never know.

[BossChief]

Originally Posted by Cave Johnson

Sure.

Or maybe they didn’t like Pickens and Pierce and felt confident Moore would be there at 54.

Who the **** knows.

Or they liked all of them equally and knew one of them would still be there after a trade down. That’s exactly what I think happened. Veach always talks about “pockets of players”. Veach also said he was ok with a “small trade down” but not a big one for this specific reason.

[staylor26]

It’s pretty obvious that Moore was their guy.

He was easily the best fit of that group, as I said before the draft.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Chris Meck

This is most likely, AND I think it is also likely that they felt that the other teams looking WR at that point were probably going to go for the measurables guys.

I think they probably liked Moore based on FIT and felt Pickens and Pierce would be the choice for the others based on size.

I think they had a pretty good idea of exactly how it would go down.

Pretty sure that additional pick (#158) was part of the ammo they used to trade up for Kinnard.

[Chiefshrink]

Originally Posted by kccrow

Take a look at this list and tell me what you notice about it besides the fact that it's all the receivers to every break 10,000 yards in the NFL.

Jerry Rice - Mississippi Valley State
Larry Fitzgerald - Pittsburgh
Terrell Owens - Tennessee-Chattanooga
Randy Moss - Marshall
Isaac Bruce - Memphis
Tim Brown - Notre Dame
Steve Smith - Utah
Marvin Harrison - Syracuse
Reggie Wayne - Miami
Andre Johnson - Miami
James Lofton - Stanford
Cris Carter - Ohio State
Anquan Boldin - Florida State
Henry Ellard - Fresno State
Torry Holt - North Carolina State
Julio Jones - Alabama
Andre Reed - Kutztown
Steve Largent - Tulsa
Irving Fryar - Nebraska
Art Monk - Syracuse
Brandon Marshall - Central Florida
Antonio Brown - Central Michigan
Jimmy Smith - Jackson State
Charlie Joyner - Grambling
Hines Ward - Georgia
Derrick Mason - Michigan State
Michael Irvin - Miami
Don Maynard - Texas-El Paso
Calvin Johnson - Georgia Tech
Muhsin Muhammad - Michigan State
Rod Smith - Missouri Southern State
Keenan McCardell - Nevada-Las Vegas
DeSean Jackson - California
Chad Johnson - Oregon State
Joey Galloway - Ohio State
Roddy White - Alabama-Birmingham
Gary Clark - James Madison
Stanley Morgan - Tennessee
DeAndre Hopkins - Clemson
Keyshawn Johnson - Southern California
Harold Jackson - Jackson State
Santana Moss - Miami
A.J. Green - Georgia
Lance Alworth - Arkansas
Andre Rison - Michigan State
Donald Driver - Alcorn State

Spoiler!

If you answered 18/46 (39%) came from schools outside the Power 5, you'd be correct. School size simply isn't a great indicator of success.

Proof that it is a QB driven league and there are no Chief WRs listed.

[xztop123]

The most important thing no one is arguing is the situation that skyy is walking into.

You could probably trot me out there at wr and force feed me stats in this offense

I could see skyy being a bust in many other systems.

Hard to imagine he will be in kc, assuming he gets a large % or targets and stays injury free

[Kiimo]

I don't think a guy who gets separation that easily and has that good of hands would be a "bust" anywhere but he definitely has a better opportunity in this offense for sure.

[saphojunkie]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Except that Skyy couldn't get OU's attention. Or any other Power 5 school's. So there are real questions about how some of his film really translates. That's what I think keeps getting overlooked. Of COURSE he's going to look dynamic against teams in the Sun Belt. It's gonna look a lot easier piling on yards against Buffalo than it did when he went 2/22 against Michigan.

Meanwhile Pickens went to a team easily on par w/ Oklahoma in the sports top conference and was considered a massive recruit throughout the process.

Granted, that's not dispositive, but it's another data point. There's actually a surprisingly strong relationship between recruiting rankings and future NFL production.

Skyy never played for a team like Georgia, even during the 'free transfer period', because a team like Georgia wasn't interested in him. If he went to OU maybe he's just an undersized 2-star recruit (so maybe a priority walk-on) that simply never saw the field at all. It's every bit as likely as him being a 1st rounder.

yeah neither could mahomes stop it

[kcbubb]

Originally Posted by BossChief

Or they liked all of them equally and knew one of them would still be there after a trade down. That’s exactly what I think happened. Veach always talks about “pockets of players”. Veach also said he was ok with a “small trade down” but not a big one for this specific reason.

Veach may have been happy with some of the defensive players too like Sam Williams or drake london. Veach probably had 5 players that he liked equally with that trade down.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by xztop123

The most important thing no one is arguing is the situation that skyy is walking into.

You could probably trot me out there at wr and force feed me stats in this offense

I could see skyy being a bust in many other systems.

Hard to imagine he will be in kc, assuming he gets a large % or targets and stays injury free

I actually can't see him being a bust in any system. Sure could have seen Hardman being a bust in many systems though.

[rabblerouser]

Originally Posted by BossChief

Yeah, bringing up Gordon there was silly. Dude isn’t even a JAG anymore

Is that the proper nomenclature?

Since JAG = "just a guy", saying someone is "a just a guy" doesn't seem to make any linguistic sense.

Josh Gordon isn't even JAG anymore seems like the wording to me, but WTF do i know?

[Otter]

Andre Reed - Kutztown


Kutztown? My gay uncles's, brain damaged, one-eyed, parapaligic nephew made their starting roster.

[kccrow]

Originally Posted by rabblerouser

Is that the proper nomenclature?

Since JAG = "just a guy", saying someone is "a just a guy" doesn't seem to make any linguistic sense.

Josh Gordon isn't even JAG anymore seems like the wording to me, but WTF do i know?

I've always wondered the same thing.

[htismaqe]

People still say they put their PIN number into an ATM machine, too.

[Kellerfox]

Getting into semantics over the nomenclature, I was raised that the acronym JAG is "Just another guy" instead of "Just a guy." Looking online it appears that it's a 50/50 split. The end result is the same either way. And that concludes today's episode of "Today I Learned..."