Realistically, the NFL Draft is a shot in the dark. Looking back, who are the Kansas City Chiefs’ top 10 draft busts of all time?
The Kansas City Chiefs have a long and storied history, from former owner Lamar Hunt’s heavy involvement in the creation and structuring of the league in its early years to playing in the first Super Bowl and winning the fourth. They haven’t been back to the promised land in some time, but the tea leaves say the time is coming.
The Chiefs have had a number of extraordinary players come through 1 Arrowhead Drive. It’s a legendary list of players like quarterback Len Dawson, who commanded arguably the greatest stretch of Kansas City Chiefs’ teams in the organization’s history, and pass rusher Derrick Thomas, who was one of the linchpins of the great defenses the Chiefs had in the 1990s playing under head coach Marty Schottenheimer.
The list also includes legends like Tony Gonzalez who, while not playing on consistently great or even good teams, was consistently great himself. He will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2019 and richly deserves it for his play. Simply put, there is a long list of great Chiefs’ players throughout the years. They didn’t necessarily win championships, but they were great nonetheless.
That said, there have been some extreme disappointments along the way. The Chiefs have had their share of high profile draft busts throughout the years. For context, a draft bust is usually a player who was drafted in the first round. They came into the league with significant hype about what they could do on the gridiron for their new team, only to fall short of those expectations.
Who are the biggest misses in Chiefs draft history? The Chiefs have employed some great general managers and some short-lived ones, so who is responsible for the biggest draft bust?
I have subjectively selected 10 notable players to rank from the Chiefs’ list of first round draft picks. I have also selected three honorable mentions, who do not quite fit the overall criteria. I have added some layers of additional, simple criteria so we can effectively analyze from first to last who are the top 10 draft busts in Chiefs’ history.
Here is a brief explanation of the criteria. Each player, based on their overall draft number, will receive a pick impact score. This will be a negative score calculated by subtracting 32, for total picks in the first round, from their personal pick number. This factor emphasizes how valuable each pick is, and the expectations that come along with it, the higher it is in the draft.
The next factors are a little simpler. Each player will receive 10 points for playing through their rookie contract, 10 points for achieving a second contract from the team, 10 points for a Pro Bowl selection, 20 points for an All Pro selection, and lastly one point for each game they started for the team. You may ask, how can a draft bust make the Pro Bowl or All Pro team? Keep reading and you will see why.
The player with the lowest score, and thus the lowest value to the team, will be considered the biggest bust out of the 10 and vice versa.
Note, this is not an indictment on them as a person or even really a player for that matter. Objectively, they had incredibly successful football careers. They simply fell short of lofty expectations.