2012 NFL Draft Should Be RGIII Or Bust For The KC Chiefs

The 2012 Kansas City Chiefs have a chance to be special.

So do the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Chiefs.

I believe that this group of Chiefs have such a solid nucleolus of players that the team can win a Super Bowl sometime between 2013 and 2015.

But they’ll never do it with Matt Cassel.

Or Kyle Orton.

The Chiefs are becoming special. They have wonderful young talent at a number of positions, as well as a group of veterans hitting their Pro Bowl primes. This is no longer a team in a rebuilding phase. These guys should be competing for AFC Championships year in and year out for years to come.

Sure, there are holes that need to be filled. The team needs a tackle, a TE and depth just about everywhere. But this team has the right mix of young talent and veteran leadership to make noise.

It just doesn’t have a championship QB.

It doesn’t have a difference maker.

I’ve been talking about the Chiefs getting a difference maker at QB for a while now but as the season was winding down it became apparent to me just how important that idea was. All the playoff teams, with the exception of maybe Alex Smith, who has also greatly improved, have big time difference makers at QB. Even Timmy Tebow, while he might not be a good QB, is a difference maker. There is no getting around it. No Tebow, no playoffs for Denver.

Matt Cassel and Kyle Orton are not difference makers. They never will be. And as long as one or both of those guys is the best QB on KC’s roster, the Chiefs aren’t going anywhere.

If the Chiefs don’t get their difference maker at QB now, they very well could miss their championship window. The successful teams are the ones who get their guy when it is time. The Packers made sure to snag Aaron Rodgers. The Falcons nabbed Matt Ryan. The Steelers pulled the trigger on Ben Roethlisberger. The Giants made a deal to get Eli Manning.

The Chiefs have moved beyond the talents of Matt Cassel. They are about to reach a stretch of seasons where Cassel will hold them back, not help them.

That is why the Chiefs must step up and get their franchise QB this season. No other move will change the fortunes of the team in 2012 and beyond than getting “the guy.” A franchise QB makes everyone on the team better. The Chiefs need that type of player.

Fans are often afraid to part with draft picks. They seem to treat these picks with an almost holy reverence. We throw out phrases like “mortgaging the future” as if those picks are all guaranteed to pan out so long as the team holds on to them.

To that I say look no farther than Kansas City’s 2009 draft. Would you trade KC’s entire 2009 draft class to have gotten Matt Ryan in 2008? Of course you would.

It is easy to whiff on draft picks. Why not use some of those picks to whiff on a shot at a decade of winning with a franchise QB?

Just look at the Colts. They tried to get a bargain by drafting Curtis Painter late in the draft. The only thing Curtis Painter will ever be good for in Indy is that he was bad enough to land them Andrew Luck.

I would rather the Chiefs traded up to land Robert Griffin III and whiff than watch Matt Cassel or another retread, average QB lead a team with Super Bowl talent to 9-7 and 10-6 records and first round playoff losses for the next four or five years.

The Chiefs haven’t won a playoff game since I was in junior high but they haven’t tried to draft a franchise QB in the first round since the year I was born.

What is the worst that can happen if the Chiefs move up to take RGIII? More losing seasons? He’s a bust? So what.

Look, I can’t guarantee that RGIII will work take the Chiefs to a Super Bowl. I can’t even guarantee you that he will win a playoff game.

But I can guarantee you the Chiefs will never win a Super Bowl with the Matt Cassels, Kyle Ortons, Brodie Croyles and Damon Huards of the world. It just isn’t going to happen.

Draft picks are never guaranteed. They are for teams to use to improve their team to give it the best chance to win the Super Bowl. No army of tackles, linebackers, nose tackles or tight ends are going to win the Chiefs a Super Bowl.

But a QB might.

The Chiefs should use their draft picks this year, to get Robert Griffin III. It isn’t going to take every pick the Chiefs own to move from #11 or 12 to #2. It will take a lot but it will be worth it if they get “the guy.”

Hell, to me, it will even be worth it if they don’t.

RGIII or bust.

RGIII or Cassel.