DERRICK NNADI
Round: 3
What We’ve Seen: Nnadi came in as the second-most pro-ready player in the draft class (next to Armani Watts‘ 45 games of experience) and provided immediate dividends for the Chiefs as a rock-solid run stopper in the middle of the defensive line. Next to Chris Jones, Nnadi gave the Chiefs a couple nice young pivotal players around whom they could rebuild the front under D.C. Steve Spagnuolo.
What We Could See: Coming into his second season, Nnadi is ready to take on a much bigger portion of reps from teammates like Xavier Williams despite the presence of third round pick Khalen Saunders. Nnadi played a season-high snaps in the team’s playoff loss against New England (58 snaps) after slowly earning more and more as the year wore on.
Nnadi’s limitations as a pass rusher will keep him from being an every-down contributor along the line, but there’s no reason why he can’t blossom into one of the NFL’s best run defenders as soon as this coming season. Freshman mistakes should begin to disappear in year two (5 penalties, only 1 batted ball at the line, 2 missed tackles) and the 500 reps earned from last year should help Nnadi recognize and react faster than ever at the LOS.
With all of talk about Jones as the star holdover and Frank Clark and Alex Okafor as the nice new imports, Nnadi could prove to be an underrated starter alongside the aforementioned talents to help put the Chiefs defensive line over the top. A quiet contender for one of the d-lines in the NFL.