ESPN’s NFL re-draft would make Kansas City Chiefs a last-place team

A re-draft of the entire NFL at ESPN left the Kansas City Chiefs with a horrible roster.

The offseason for any sport is a fun time to dive deep into statistics, create lists for all sorts of rankings and, in general, have some creative fun with the free time before actual competition begins again. Over at ESPN, a complete re-draft of the NFL (for at least a few rounds) provided some entertainment for fans—and a horrible new team for the Kansas City Chiefs.

ESPN beat writers were assigned to each team and the draft order remained the same from this year’s first player draft. That said, a snake order was used, which means that the Chiefs did have the last pick overall in the first round, but they also started the second round at No. 33 overall. This means the Chiefs missed out on arguably the 31 best players in the league but they were also the first to finish their four rounds.

The other re-draft rules to know: no cap constraints and each team had to take a quarterback, another non-offensive player and a defensive player.

The good news here is that Adam Teicher, the man making the Chiefs picks for ESPN, is not in charge of the actual front office. Here were his four selections:

1. Stephon Gilmore

Our take: At this point, the top quarterbacks, pass rushers, tackles and more were gone, so it could make sense to go ahead and land a top flight corner option to solidify a team’s pass defense. The New England Patriots could certainly point to Gilmore’s presence as a pillar for a Super Bowl worthy defense.

If there’s any point to argue here, it just depends on how you’d want to make up your team. Elite players like wide receiver Julio Jones, offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk, or pass rusher Myles Garrett were all available here and could be better building blocks than Gilmore at this stage.

2. Dalvin Cook

The Chiefs get the first running back in the draft atop the second round with Cook, an interesting choice since running back is such an easy position to fill in general—let alone when every other NFL player besides the first 32 taken were still available. To be clear, Cook is an elite talent with a well-rounded skill set. He also just broke out in year three and has a history of injury issues.

Imagine Gilmore and Garrett as defensive pillars. Or Gilmore and Jones to have an elite player on each side. Or at least start to dive into the trenches. Personally, I would go Jones and Ramczyk if the quarterbacks just aren’t worth taking at this stage.

The picks actually get worse from here, believe it or not.

3. Nick Chubb
4. Tyrod Taylor

Does Teicher mean Nick Chubb, the running back of the Cleveland Browns? Yes, he does. Somehow Teicher was given four picks in the first 97 NFL players available and came away with two running backs. Not even sure what to say here and this has nothing to do with Chubb’s considerable talents.

At this point, quarterbacks are long gone. Even Jameis Winston is gone by the third round, so to be fair, it’s not like Teicher was going to grab anyone dazzling at the game’s most important position. Yet at the very least, he could have strengthened key positions with elite players for the sake of a future quarterback.

In this instance, Tyrann Mathieu is available at safety as is Eddie Jackson. Cornerbacks still on the board include Patrick Peterson, Jeff Okudah, and Marshon Lattimore. What about a linebacker like Darius Leonard? A pass rusher like Frank Clark or DeMarcus Lawrence?

Instead, Teicher ends up not only taking a backup running back (or tandem) in Chubb but he also then reaches atop the fourth round for Tyrod Taylor who is over 30 and hasn’t been a full-time starting quarterback since the 2017 season.

Basically a top four could have looked like this for the Chiefs:

1. Ryan Ramczyk
2. Josh Allen
3. Jeff Okudah
4. Frank Clark

Take a look at the complete re-draft and sound off on who you would have selected if in the Chiefs’ position.