Are the Kansas City Chiefs set at wide receiver?
The NFL Draft is now only about a month away. If most of you Kansas City Chiefs fans are like me, you are probably pouring over scouting reports and looking at the always popular mock drafts. I know that mock drafts are seldom accurate, but they do give you a good sense for what other people see as your favorite team’s biggest needs.
As I have scoured the internet this week for different mock drafts, I have started to notice that wide receiver is a popular position to mock to the Chiefs. In looking over current mocks, I have seen Mike Williams, Corey Davis, and John Ross all mocked to the Chiefs at pick number 27. While I can’t argue the value of those players at that spot in the draft, I personally don’t see that as a big need for the Chiefs.
Don’t get me wrong, the more weapons you have on offense the better. Could adding a talented first round wide receiver give the K.C. offense a boost? Sure, it would also give the Chiefs some insurance if they believe that Jeremy Maclin may be starting to decline and they fear they may need to move on from him after this upcoming season. I just think it might be more of a luxury pick than an actual need.
I personally think getting a quarterback of the future is a much bigger need, but even if they don’t like the quarterback options and want to give the offense a boost this season I believe a running back could do more than another receiver would. In fact, I would prioritize upgrading the number two tight end spot over wide receiver as well. On the defensive side of the ball another cover corner, another pass rusher, and a replacement for the aging Derrick Johnson would all be higher on my wish list than another wide receiver would be.
If you’ve been reading my posts for a while this may sound familiar. Last year I wrote a piece after the draft titled “Why the Chiefs don’t need a prolific number two wide receiver“. In that post I explain in some detail why the Chiefs don’t need their number two wide receiver to put up huge numbers. While the numbers may not include last season, you can go back and read it now and it all still basically holds up. I
f Andy Reid’s offense is going to operate the same way it has for the better part of the last two decades then there won’t be all that many passes for another wide receiver to catch (more on that in a minute) and if the defense is going to continue to be a strength of this team and we aren’t expecting to win many games 42-40 then I just don’t think we need many more receiving weapons.
If you don’t agree with me (yet) let’s first do a little number crunching.