NFL Draft 2015: Analyzing Marcus Peters and more

Sep 20, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; Washington Huskies defensive back Marcus Peters (21) celebrates his interception against the Georgia State Panthers during the first quarter at Husky Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

“And the Kansas City Chiefs select….”

Doing exactly what I would have done, general manager John Dorsey picked a defensive back. For the media, it was a head-scratching decision. Many Chiefs fans also wanted a playmaker on offense. The criticism is generated, in part, by the off-field conduct of our pick, Marcus Peters, while he was a standout cornerback with the Washington Huskies.

This weekend the front office of Kansas City managed to make everyone happy while simultaneously making everyone mad. In the first round they did almost what I would have done, and began the process of building a shutdown secondary. In the second round they went a long way toward making Alex Smith’s life easier by picking up an all-around offensive lineman in Mitch Mose. In the third round, the Chiefs finally got what most people wanted in the first and picked a wide receiver, Chris Conley of Georgia. Overall, everyone got their wishes met–perhaps not in the round they wanted, but unless you were hoping for a quarterback or running back it’s all there. Lets talk a bit about the picks, from my vantage point.

First, let’s see what Kansas City needed. On offense, the Chiefs didn’t score a single point using a wide receiver all year long. They won nine games that way. Kansas City almost won quite a few more, and it could be argued that if our defense had been better we would have won all of the close games. Last year our fill-in cornerbacks got burned over and over. When they weren’t blowing coverages, they were missing tackles. I thought that with Eric Berry fighting for his life off the field that we might want to draft a safety in the first round, but the men who are paid to know better disagreed.

Last year our fill-in cornerbacks got burned over and over. When they weren’t blowing coverages, they were missing tackles.

Peters is universally respected for his ability as a cornerback. How often do you see that? Usually in the draft the team picks up eight or ten players, not knowing how well it will work out making the transition from college to the NFL. Think about Eric Fisher for a moment. A young man was selected with the first pick overall, and the questions about him were performance-based. As a general rule, that is always the question about drafted players. Will they even make the team? Not this time. The unanimous conclusion about Peters’ football skills has been rendered–he will be able to play, right away.

So the question about him then is will he be able to control himself as a young millionaire? Well, I researched his conduct. I read up on his high school and college records.

Peters is from a very small-school in Oakland, McClymonds High School. His high school team had 22 players on it. He played offense, defense, and special teams all in the same game. When he was on offense he was a wide receiver. On defense he was a cornerback, he returned punts and kicks. He was a standout on his senior team which went 12-0. His dad is a high school football coach, though he wasn’t when Marcus was there.

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In college he played for the Washington Huskies. While Peters was there, Washington had a coaching change, and apparently some issues between him and assistant coaches arose. He got into it during a game with one, then missed a practice and got released. I hear people saying “those are just the things we know about.” If there are other things that we don’t know about, my comment is “So what?”

We know enough already. I am tickled that the questions about our pick are off the field, because you can train a young man to be a man. It’s much harder to teach a cornerback to be a shutdown corner.

I am excited to have gotten this young man. Kansas City really needed help at cornerback. Sean Smith is doing a great job over on his side, but he is in his last year of this contract. The crew of corners that tried to tie up the wide receiver that Smith wasn’t covering were having a really hard time. That should end now.

Next: Onto the second pick...