NFL power rankings: Kansas City Chiefs climb 4 spots after draft
By Matt Conner
The latest power rankings are out over at ESPN and the Kansas City Chiefs have somehow climbed four spots after an NFL Draft with no first round pick.
The Kansas City Chiefs are a top 10 team, once again.
The latest NFL power rankings from ESPN are out—the post-draft edition, if you will—and the Chiefs have climbed from 14th overall to 10th on the strength of their… draft class?
It’s actually hard to guess why exactly voters would think so much more of them now than they did a couple weeks ago considering all they’ve added are some promising rookies who were mostly third round grades or less. Even the Chiefs themselves have admitted as much.
"The Chiefs were 28th in total defense in 2017 –is their worst finish since 2009, when they went 4-12 — which led to their becoming the first team in the common draft era (1967) to select only defensive players in a single draft."
What’s hard to imagine here is how much better the Chiefs will be without a first round pick, the kind that you can auto-slot into a starting role because it’s such an obvious upgrade. If you listen to the Chiefs front office, it’s infectious to hear their reasoning behind each pick and easy to feel better about things, but for those coming from an outside view—such as ESPN here—it’s hard to imagine they really know how much Derrick Nnadi will bring to the running game or how Dorian O’Daniel’s diversity will enhance the team’s subpackages.
In the last power rankings, the Chiefs were at No. 14 overall by ESPN, a middling position brought up by the quality of the offense but back down by the defensive questions, likely beginning in the secondary (and the trade of Marcus Peters). As for other outlets, however, like Bleacher Report, the Chiefs have been a top10 team all along.