KC Chiefs: Biggest NFL draft busts of the Andy Reid era
By Josh Fann
KeiVarae Russell
Notre Dame cornerback KeiVarae Russell, who was one of the better secondary playmakers in college in his class, was a top-75 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. Russell was from one of the last John Dorsey drafts before Brett Veach took over the reins. The strange thing about the Russell pick was that Dorsey was usually money with his earlier picks and had drafted several cornerstone players for the Chiefs over the years including Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
Russell was a totally different story. What makes Russell one of the biggest busts in the Reid era is that he didn’t even make the team as a rookie. You’ll find a lot of players up and down the list of Chiefs drafts since 2013. A lot were over-drafted or never quite reached their ceiling, which is one thing, but to not even make the team? That’s a pretty bad indictment on a pick.
The drafting of Russell really hurt the Chiefs because they had been trying to find another good corner to pair up with Washington product Marcus Peters and the depth chart behind Peters was pretty lackluster as well. Losing out on that third-round pick was consequential for the Chiefs defense which spent years scraping the bottom of the barrel at the cornerback position until just recently.
As for Russell, he also jumped from practice squad to practice squad and occasionally made an active roster, but he never had sustained success anywhere. At age 28, he remains a free agent.