Chiefs Rookie of the Year: Predicting the winner

With training camp quickly approaching this weekend, and a handful of rookies looking to make an impact. I thought it would be a good idea to look at which rookie has the best chance of winning the teams Mack Lee Hill Award (Rookie of the Year).

There’s a handful of rookies that have a legitimate shot at the award this year. The guys that have the best shot are Marcus Peters, Chris Conley, Steven Nelson, James O’Shaughnessy, and Ramik Wilson. Obviously Peters is the heavy favorite in this group. Mitch Morse could have an outside shot, but there is a lot of competition at offensive guard and he might have to wait until next season to make an impact.

Marcus Peters

Coming out of Washington, Peters is an incredibly talented cornerback. The Chiefs got lucky when he slid to the with the eighteenth pick. Many analysts thought he could have been a top-10 pick if he wasn’t thrown off the team for arguing with the coaching staff while at Washington. With Sean Smith receiving a three-game suspension for a DUI, Peters is getting thrown to the wolves immediately. He needs to produce right away with the second game of his career being against DeMaryius Thomas and Peyton Manning. That’s a tall order for any cornerback let alone a rookie trying to assimilate himself to the NFL. Peters has Pro Bowl potential and no one should be surprised by a big rookie season from him.

Chris Conley

Looking at Conley’s stats in college it is no wonder he went in the third round of the draft this spring. Looking at his numbers from the combine, it doesn’t make sense that Conley fell. Conley is a 6-foot-3 receiver that ran a 4.3 40-yard dash time and had a 45″ vertical. He can take the top off a defense and go up and get the ball against a smaller cornerback. Playing at Georgia hurt his numbers a little bit because of the run-heavy offense, but don’t be surprised if he wins the second receiver spot sometime this year.

Steven Nelson

Nelson could be another guy that benefits from the suspension of Sean Smith this season. Most of his reps will come against the slot receiver and his main competition for playing time will come against Phillip Gaines. If he can beat out Gaines for playing time then anything can happen. Gaines had a good rookie season and by all accounts has only improved this offseason.

James O’Shaughnessy 

There might not be a better team in the NFL to play tight end for than the Kansas City Chiefs. O’Shaughnessy is walking into a great situation. He has a quarterback that loves throwing to tight ends, an offense that is very friendly to tight ends, and a coach that runs three-tight end sets. On the other side of the coin, there is no way he is going to unseat Travis Kelce. It doesn’t mean he can’t have a productive season he just might not be productive enough to win this award. If he keeps improving like he has this offseason then the tight end position is looking pretty good in Kansas City for the next few years.

Ramik Wilson

If Wilson wants to play this season he is going to have to beat out Josh Mauga during training camp. This is entirely possible, but Mauga won’t be a pushover. If Wilson is able to unseat Mauga and play next to Johnson, the Chiefs could be looking at an inside linebacker that they will have for the foreseeable future. The best case scenario is he beats out Mauga and plays next to Johnson, learning from one of the best. His odds of winning rookies of the year for the Chiefs aren’t incredible.

Mitch Morse

I am a little uneasy about putting Morse on this list, because I am not entirely sure he will have a huge role for the Chiefs this season. It looks like the center position is Eric Kush’s to lose. Ben Grubbs is going to be the left guard and that leaves the right guard to be decided between three guys. Even if Morse doesn’t get much playing time this season, he still has it in him to be a good lineman in the NFL and could be helping the Chiefs out a ton in the future. That being said, I just don’t think he gets enough action this year to be considered for any awards.

Conclusion

It’s easy to pick Peters as the early favorite for Rookie of the Year, but in the spirit of underdogs and for the sake of conversation I am going to pick Chris Conley. I think he will be able to win the second receiver position and make an immediate impact. Conley is also going to benefit from playing across from Maclin and having Kelce running around in the middle. He should see a lot on man-coverage and be able to beat slower cornerbacks downfield. Hopefully Smith has a little more confidence in his arm.

Alright, Addicts. What do you have to say?