2017 NFL Draft: “Excellent year” for Chiefs to draft a quarterback
By Matt Conner
ESPN’s survey of whether every team should draft a quarterback or not this year gives the Chiefs an obvious thumbs up for the 2017 NFL Draft.
ESPN recently ran a quick survey of all 32 NFL teams asking a very simple question: Should they draft a quarterback in the 2017 NFL Draft? For the Kansas City Chiefs, Adam Teicher, former beat writer for the Kansas City Star, was the one answering and, of course, he provided the answer we would all give: absolutely. He writes:
"This is an excellent year for the Chiefs to draft a quarterback, perhaps in the first round for the first time since 1983. Alex Smith has two seasons left on his contract, giving the Chiefs plenty of time to groom a quarterback to step into the starting lineup by 2019. The Chiefs have two backups on their roster, but neither Tyler Bray nor Joel Stave entered the NFL as a draft pick. The Chiefs have 10 draft picks this year, so they have the resources to move up a few spots in the first round to take a quarterback such as Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes, if they so desire."
Teicher is not wrong. Every planet has aligned to make this the ideal year for the Chiefs to take a quarterback. The roster is basically ready to compete as it is. The Chiefs have plenty of picks and the ammo to move wherever they want in the draft without worrying about retaining necessary assets for other roster holes. They’ve also done the requisite homework, meeting with each and every quarterback at the Combine, at pro days and at Arrowhead who could conceivably interest them in the early rounds.
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It’s also the perfect time given Alex Smith’s ceiling as a starter. They’ve found the promised land of the playoffs and learned how to win consistently. Now it’s time to raise the bar as a franchise. Smith will become much easier to bring off the books next year, as Teicher mentions, and the overlap is the perfect mentoring period. It’s all storybook, really.
The only teams that look more ready to take a quarterback are those without a single option at the top of the draft. Even then, there’s no guaranteed thing in this year’s class, which might just make the Chiefs the team most likely to take one of the 32 in the draft.