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Which Kansas City Chiefs rookies had you fooled?

By Sterling Holmes

CARSON, CA - SEPTEMBER 09: De'Anthony Thomas #13 of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates a touchdown with Chris Conley #17 against Los Angeles Chargers during the second half at StubHub Center on September 9, 2018 in Carson, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
CARSON, CA - SEPTEMBER 09: De'Anthony Thomas #13 of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates a touchdown with Chris Conley #17 against Los Angeles Chargers during the second half at StubHub Center on September 9, 2018 in Carson, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images) /
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CLEVELAND, OH – DECEMBER 22: De’Anthony Thomas #16 of the Baltimore Ravens grabs his helmet before running on to the field during the game against the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium on December 22, 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio. Baltimore defeated Cleveland 31-15. (Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OH – DECEMBER 22: De’Anthony Thomas #16 of the Baltimore Ravens grabs his helmet before running on to the field during the game against the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium on December 22, 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio. Baltimore defeated Cleveland 31-15. (Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images) /

Let’s raise a glass to Kansas City Chiefs rookies who fooled us from years past.

Every year, new players come to play for the Kansas City Chiefs and with that comes high expectations. Each fan is drawn to certain players based on high potential, crazy athleticism, or domination in college. Yet they don’t always turn out to be the star performers that the fan base dreamed of. Many of them never pan out either in Kansas City or in the NFL.

With another class of Chiefs rookies arriving for the 2020 season, it felt right to raise a glass to the past. Here is a list of guys I believed would be absolute studs for the Chiefs only to find out, for one reason or another, they weren’t.

De’Anthony Thomas, 4th Round, Oregon (2014)

I feel like almost everybody in Chiefs Kingdom had extremely high hopes for Thomas. A guy who was going to be the quickest guy on the field at all times who could play returner, running back, and wide receiver was seemingly going to be a mismatch no matter what. Turns out, that dream didn’t really materialize. Whether the lack of size became an issue or trying to learn so many positions in a complex offense stunted some growth, he ended up similar to Dexter McCluster.

I truly thought Thomas was going to be close to what Tyreek Hill has turned out to be. Maybe Mecole Hardman should have been the better comparison, but when a player was so decorated in college and ends up in an Andy Reid offense, I thought the ceiling was insanely high. While he wasn’t bad in Kansas City and some of his issues were with injuries and playing time, it was a far cry from what I thought he’d be able to do. With Hill emerging in the return game after he got drafted, playing time started drying up more for Thomas.

Thomas was a fine player in Kansas City. He had some solid returns and made a couple of long touchdown catches, but he was not the player I envisioned when he first came to the Chiefs. Looking back, a lot of gadget players were seemingly becoming popular and the Wildcat offense was occasionally still employed. As we know, that didn’t last long. We all know how tough it is to stick in the NFL and he has made a solid living—for sure not a bad NFL career, just not one that had me going crazy when he was drafted.

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