2016 NFL draft: Chiefs quarterback search

Nov 1, 2015; London, United Kingdom; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith (11) carries the ball on a 49-yard gain against the Detroit Lions during game 14 of the NFL International Series at Wembley Stadum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Kansas City Chiefs have thrown together a pair of impressive wins heading into the BYE week.  Enough so that there is room for hope that his season might be salvageable.  It has also quieted some the talk about benching or cutting Alex Smith.

That’s definitely a good thing, but not just because it lessens some of the more fervent pitch fork and torch talk.  When the fan base is (at least temporarily) mollified, that opens the door to some real thought and dialogue over what is one of the most important issues facing this franchise moving forward.  Not long ago, I put together a comprehensive look at why moving on from Alex was very difficult to do at this point.  However, I also offered up that it is something that needs to be at the forefront of general manager John Dorsey’s thinking going into the 2016 NFL Draft.

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Now, despite what some of the more fervent “Alex haters” will tell you, not just anybody can step in and replace what Smith does in our offense.  That simply is not true. Even if Alex Smith is a “below average” starting quarterback, that still puts him over about 80 percent of the quarterbacks in the NFL today…and that doesn’t include the guys waiting at home for phone calls.

What that means is that the Chiefs should not draft a quarterback just for the sake of drafting one.  They need to make sure they are getting the right one.  The worst thing they can do is replace Alex Smith with a guy who ends up leading them to failure (wink wink SF).

To help those of you that either don’t follow college football, don’t get too worked up about the draft, or simply don’t have the time to look into these things, I’m going to do a run through of the upcoming 2016 quarterback draft class and how the Chiefs will fit into the mix.

Next: Looking at the options...