I Had It All Wrong. But So Did You.

Let me first express the thoughts that currently reside within my head approximately 14 hours after the end of the 1st round of the draft: “Brilliant! But I’m still worried like hell.”

This is a significant progression from my total befuddlement, which accompanied what was perhaps the weirdest 15 minutes of televised draft history. In the midst of crickets chirping as Rich Eisen and the NFL Network crew tried to figure out what was going on, the Chiefs came out and picked at 26th (not the 27th pick they traded Cleveland for) a guy who virtually no one on the planet had talked about as a possible 1st round pick-up for them – WR out of Pitt, Jonathan Baldwin.

At the end of the day, I probably couldn’t have been more wrong in my prediction for what the Chiefs were going to do with their first pick of the draft. I had them probably taking Phil Taylor, but only because the best-fitting O-line prospects — particularly Gabe Carimi — would have already gone. In fact, Pioli and Co. passed on Carimi not once, but twice in the draft, and allowed Cleveland to trade up and take Phil Taylor with their original pick at 21. So there you go, I was as bad as Mel Kiper on that one.

There is a lot I can say in my defense, however. I can at least say that all of those out there who adamantly said Taylor was a 2nd rounder were also proven wrong, and I can take pride in the fact that, at the very least, he was picked in the exact spot where I said he would go. Furthermore, the fumbled trade that caused the Ravens to pass and cede the 26th spot to KC would have been a trade for Chicago to move up and take Carimi. So I wasn’t so far off in the placement of the players anyway.

But enough disclaimers and CYA, who is this guy that we ended up with?