KC Chiefs: Ranking every first-round pick since 2000

In one week, unless general manager Brett Veach surprises everyone by trading down out of the draft’s first day entirely, the K.C. Chiefs will add another name to the list of first-round picks used by the franchise. Over the years, the first round of the NFL Draft has brought in some of the best players to ever suit up at Arrowhead Stadium and other names that make fans cringe because of their inability to live up to the investment made. Boom or bust, as they say.

For another seven days, the majority of the conversation surround the Chiefs and the draft will be about the future: What position will he play? Who will it be? Will any great value fall in the draft? Will the team reach for a need?

For our purposes, however, we thought it would be fun to look back just a bit and recount the Chiefs’ first-round picks in recent history to rank how they have fared. The year 2000 seemed like a long enough range without bringing up names most of us would have a hard time recalling, and 20 years seems like a decent span of time.

Given various trades and moves over the years, the Chiefs have made only 17 first-round selections since the year 2000. In order to generate furious debate (or actually to hope you come away thinking, “That list was right on!”), we’ve ranked every first-rounder made by the Chiefs over the last two decades. We’ll start at the top, but first, we’ll at least admit there’s one pick for whom the jury will be out for some time.

To Be Determined: Clyde Edwards-Helaire

Despite the strong opinions surrounding the use of the first-round pick just last year on a running back, the truth of the matter is that it’s going to take at least a couple more years before we can get an accurate read on just how effective it was for Veach to take Clyde Edwards-Helaire with No. 32 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft.

At the time, it wasn’t hard to find a draft analyst who believed that Edwards-Helaire would be an ideal fit in Andy Reid’s offense, and the draft lore from that fateful night included a thumbs-up from Patrick Mahomes himself in terms of the actual pick. Yet the selection also came with some backlash—not about Edwards-Helaire’s talent but rather in response to the position taken. Namely, did the Chiefs really need a running back so early?

In his first season, Edwards-Helaire showed flashes of the sort of game-breaking potential that he holds to elevate the Chiefs offense. At the same time, he was limited by his usage, which is out of his hands, of course. It was most surprising that a running back known for being the best pass catcher in the draft at his position was trusted so rarely in the passing game.

Moving forward, Edwards-Helaire will likely earn more trust from his teammates and coaches which will mean a significant increase in touches and production. If he can provide a missing element in this offense—the one that left when the team released Kareem Hunt back in the 2018 season—then he’ll likely be ranked fairly high in future versions of this list. As for now, it’s simply unknown how things will play out.