Regrading 2017 KC Chiefs draft starts and ends with Patrick Mahomes

The K.C. Chiefs finished the 2016 season with a 12-4 record an an AFC West Championship. Unfortunately, due in large part to a stagnant offense, the team was eliminated by the Pittsburgh Steelers in their Divisional Round playoff game by a score of 18-16. As such, Kansas City entered the 2017 NFL Draft with major questions about the future of the team from top to bottom. It seemed next to no starters were locks to start the following year, and general manager John Dorsey had myriad options to improve the team via the draft.

For Chiefs fans who assumed that they could skip out on the first two hours of draft coverage since the Chiefs weren’t picking until 27th overall, they were surprised to learn that they missed the biggest draft move in franchise history.

The 2017 NFL Draft will always be remembered for the fateful trade that catapulted the Chiefs from pick 27 all the way up to pick number 10, where they decided to take a chance on a young “gunslinger” from Texas Tech named Patrick Mahomes. It altered the landscape of the NFL, and the trajectory of the franchise in perpetuity.

But taking their future franchise quarterback was just the first pick the team made that weekend, as they also made five other selections that weekend.

Sixth Round – 218th Overall – Leon McQuay, Safety

With their last pick of the 2017 draft, the Chiefs took safety Leon McQuay from the University of Southern California. The former Trojan was a bust in the NFL, where he played in only one game for Kansas City and never made another NFL roster. He went on and off the Chiefs practice squad through May of 2019, but once he was cut that time, his time in the league was over.