Yeah, this isn't a year where there are a whole lot of 'woulda/shoulda' alternatives at the back of 1/early 2.

I have a hard time figuring anyone was banging on the table for Sam LaPorta in the 1st or Keanu Benton.

I liked a bunch of the DL (almost all more than FAU) but none of them have done dick. Foskey, Ojulari, Hall, White - all pretty irrelevant. Tuipulotu would've been a scheme fit problem here, IMO. Anybody gonna say they had Nacua or Tank Dell as 1st round picks?

This just wasn't an early-impact class. Shit happens. Pure hindsight sure says "Man, Sam LaPorta would be awfully nice to have right now" but I seems kinda ridiculous to hold that against Veach - I don't think anyone really thought that would've been a wise decision at the time. Kincaid has come on annoyingly strong but like Addison and Flowers, they weren't available at our pick and we tried, but failed, to move up.

Draft really fell off at that WR run. From there on, there weren't a slew of great choices. I suspect we got past Veach's "X number of First Round talents" figure. His efforts to move up in the first certainly support that as well.

{shrug}

Just consider Rice a 1st rounder and FAU a second, then all is well.

Maybe he's lifting weights in the training room too much and getting stiff. Gotta be a reasonable explanation as to lack of production.

136 snaps and 1 sack


Maybe some yoga classes would help

He has about 125 snaps. And he's a rookie.

I mean what more explanation is needed? That's 3 games worth of snaps to this point; you figure he should be at 5 sacks?

He's fine.

Meh. In my mind Rice was the first round pick and FAU is the second round pick and it is more palatable.

FAU has done what people who do their homework expect. Justyn Ross was undrafted, didn't do shit while he was playing and has a fan page with 10k followers. go figure.

YOGA, bitches ! Get the boy some help!

Ksrlaftis had 1 sack with 6 games left if I recall correctly, and he had a lot more snaps.

We have a pretty solid DL (defense tied for 5th in NFL for sacks) and folks are upset that a rookie isn't pushing for more time?

I mean, ok, I guess.

This is another thread that’s going to be fun to revisit in a few years when this dude is raping faces to laugh at all the geniuses who were already writing him off halfway through his rookie season.

Fact remains, until the staff gets him on a regular Yoga program he'll never develop.

Regular yoga will do nothing for him, but hot yoga will put him in the HOF.

All joking aside, I had absolutely no idea how hard yoga was until I started doing it. I thought it was just glorified stretching. Boy was I wrong. As Tony Horton says - I hate it, but I love it. Actually I just hate it. But I do it because it works.

There’s a need for Hog Farmer, among others, to have a brain perfusion test to determine if there is any kind of functional grey matter.

Anybody see Will Andersons performance today. Now that's what a 1st round DE is supposed to be doing!

:facepalm: LMAO

Are you seriously comparing a ****ing top 5 pick, whom many had the #1 overall player, with the 31st pick?

Yea, you are absolutely clueless about the draft. Sorry man.

Was wondering who'd be the first to take the bait, I had it between you and Chris. Congrats, you won. ROFL

You need a hobby

How would you even be able to determine this?

NOPE.

That's bait.

Because like me, they all **** your mom, and they told her.

I see the Packers 1st rd pick DE got a sack.:D

to be fair, he was drafted a lot higher for a reason

Want to see Felix get more snaps these last 3 weeks. 2 opponents are bad so he should get some run in the 2nd half while the starters get less work in preparation for the playoffs

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chiefs</a> DC Steve Spagnuolo on Felix Anudike-Uzomah:<br><br>&quot;I can see him in meetings fully intent. It&#39;s sinking in, he&#39;s getting it. He&#39;s waiting for his opportunity. Hopefully when he gets it, he can rise up and be everything we thought he&#39;d be.&quot;</p>&mdash; Jordan Foote (@footenoted) <a href="https://twitter.com/footenoted/status/1738257477664133353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Seems like a pretty clear redshirt year but id like to see him get some run.

How ****ing hard is it to "GET IT" when you've been rushing the passer all through college. I mean REALLY, how difficult is it. You either have it or you don't. Damn , Veach tossed that pick away!

:facepalm:

Is it truly your position that no successful NFL pass rusher has ever needed development? They all hit the ground running as rookies?

You understand that outside of QB, edge rusher is probably the most difficult positions in terms of transition, right?

It'd be good to rotate him in a healthy amount in the playoffs. Get a taste of that intensity and experience.

Tell me WHY the position is so difficult. You put yer hand in the ground and when the ball is snapped you go around the tackle and go for the QB. How many books do you need to study to do that ?

How many sacks did Karlaftis have through the first half of his rookie season?

FAU would likely have 4 or 5 sacks right now if we weren't loaded at DE.

Karlaftis, Dannie, Omenihu and Jones are all in line for snaps there before FAU gets anything.

I liked you better when you didn't troll

I'm gonna look on Amazon to see if there's a book. 'How to rush the passer"

Those guys all need breathers at some point during the game, even as a rookie he should be getting 12-15 snaps per game at this point and we're well past the half point of the season. Every 1st round DE that was worth a damn had some success during year 1. The ones that didn't never amounted to shit. Chalk him up to the garbage pile

Well he is only 21 and weighed 255 when drafted. I think a year of development mentally and physically isn't surprising to the Chiefs. If you think there isn't techniques and complex defenses that a player develops in the NFL, then there's no arguing with you.

I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t have 10 sacks next year. And by shocked, I mean I’ll call for Veach to be fired and his family shamed.

What do you think happens when a pass rusher increases their sack total from year 1 to 2? What accounts for their increased production?

You spend a 1st round pick for an immediate starter and contributor, not on a player to ‘red-shirt’ and learn. Another wasted high draft pick from Veach.

I'd say DEs and WRs tend to get until their 2nd season before passing judgement, but more flashes in yr 1 woulda been nice.

Lot of folks showing they don't understand how the league works and how to plan to keep a team with a QB making so much functional.

Very odd trashing Veach too considering no team in the league has drafted better than him the last 3-4 years relative to where he's picked in comparison.

Maybe they learn the inside shoulder swipe move and the double spin with hands to the throat.

Patrick Mahomes says "Hi"

You are so right. No high draft pick who failed to produce immediately was ever valuable in franchise history.

That no 2 overall pick we took that produced 2.5 sacks his rookie year turned out to be a complete bust. The team would have been so much better off if we had ditched Neil.Smith in 1989. He only produced a mere 101.5 more sacks in his career, which were completely worthless

The Chiefs would also have been well served to ditch that DT they took early in the second round after he produced a mere 2.0 sacks his rookie year and 6.0 as a second yr player. Chris Jones is so overvalued it's not funny. He hasn't produced anything worthwhile since.

Instead please look up “How to Rush the Wood Chipper”

If I was being hyper critical I'd say my two concerns are 1) I know we have some DE depth, but I don't think it's all that good, so it's a shame FAU hasn't managed to squeeze in more snaps. That said, is he likely to be immediately better than the guys playing, probably not, so maybe not a great surprise. And 2) one of the plus sides in his draft evaluation across the board was that he had quite a well developed pass-rush plan and a complete set of tools. So maybe there's a little less growth available there.

I still think the best counter is he's young, so he should have time to develop physically, and you can always improve your repertoire and technique. Plus even if our DEs aren't all that, they have experience coaches trust. So I reckon year 3 to see what we've really got. Just need to be patient...and I'll need to remind myself next year.

Very weird perspective in this thread.

The Chiefs should aspire to have a roster so deep that they don't need multiple draft picks to have an impact from their 1st game. The fact we needed to last year shows how bad the roster had gotten from all the winning and picking late constantly, combined with moves trading premium picks away.

FAU's contribution so far this year is nothing to do with him as a player and how deep we are at DE after signing Omenihu in the offseason.

My take away from this pick is that the board didn't fall how they wanted in the 1st round and they didn't quite get what they wanted as options, so they defaulted to taking a young talent at a premium decision. That doesn't mean FAU is a bust or a bad player. If he was capable of beating out experienced NFL DEs in year one, he wouldn't have been there at 31. That doesn't mean he won't be an impact player over his 5 year rookie contract.

There's a pretty hard limit on 100% effort full pad snaps a DE gets in the league in training. I have much more faith in a guy adding effective strength/power from the weightroom in his early career than I have him developing good technique.

I agree with all of this.

I also hate the “he’s a first-round pick, gotta
Contribute right away!” thought.

When you’re picking at 32, you’re likely NOT picking a player with a first-round grade around the league. You’re probably somewhere between 6-10 players past consensus first rounder territory.

There's really not much he can do. The only way he can get on the field is if Spags puts him in the game. And if Spags wants to move him along slowly as a pseudo-redshirt year, then that's what's going to happen.

I really don't think it's anything of a shortcoming of his. Had he been drafted in Karlaftis's year, I think he would have seen those snaps. The team has the luxury of playing some veterans who don't need their snaps monitored (like we did with Dunlap).

That's literally exactly what happened to Mahomes his rookie year. So basically just wait a goddamn ****ing year before you start listing concerns you have with him.

Literally the only reasonable critique of FAU as of right now is that we don't know what he is yet.

That's it.

There's no reason to have any feelings either way about it. If you do, it says more about your general mindset than any actual reality.

Karlaftis, Omenihu, and Danna "aren't all that good"?

They have a combined 20 sacks, and that's with Omenihu missing 6 ****ing games.

And that's also ignoring the fact that Chris Jones is part of that DE rotation, and gets his fair share from that spot too.

Also, he's 21 years old with more athletic upside than Karlaftis has. Are we really questioning his room for growth?

It seems to be accepted fact that Veach did try to move up to get someone. No one wanted to deal. So he took the best 2nd rounder that was available that they had their eye on. The picks success, meh or fail is still TBD.

As with a lot of arguments on CP, there are a couple of things at play.

A lot of people see first rounders as immediate impact picks. Yeah, okay, but the reality is that in any one draft, there are only 15-20 TRUE first round talents. And some of those don't play big impact positions. So no, if you're drafting at #30 or below, you're not getting an immediate impact stud.

There's a general rush to negativity, as if there's some prize for being the first one to declare a decision A MISTAKE, as if that somehow is an indication of wisdom, and anyone who disagrees is a HOMER.

And finally, there's the unfair advantage of HINDSIGHT, in which one can point to an NFL player who's outplayed their draft position, and declare that SHOULD have been the pick, and how stupid The Chiefs must be to have picked like...Mecole Hardman instead of DK Metcalf. This ignores all of the red flags and concerns about a specific player pre-draft. You can also see this in play right now, as Pickens is showing exactly why a team like KC didn't want to draft him. The fact that Skyy Moore has been a disappointment had half the board clamoring for Veach's head while Pickens was putting up numbers-but now we see who Pickens really is and that choir is remarkably silent.

I don't think any of them indivudually are all that good no. Depends on your definition of "good". Danna has been great for his role and amazing value, but is limited. Karlaftis has, imo, improved a little on last year but has a good way to go to be a higher end DE, Omenihu has flashed some decent pass rushing but has been poor against the run and a horrible tackler. There's plenty of good aspects in isolation, but none of them individually are "good". By that i mean, I dunno, a top 30 DE maybe?

I'm not questioning FAU's room for growth, I said exactly the same in that post. He's 21, plenty of room, and I think we need patience the first 2 years.

Considering FAU is currently a mystery, are you taking DEs Latu or Verse if they fall to us in the draft? Would be tempting IMO.

Karlaftis is on the verge of double digit sacks in his sophomore season, and you're saying he "improved a little on last year"?

Look dude, I don't at all think you're in that whiny little bitch crowd, you're mostly neutral and balance some of us homers out, but sometimes you're just oddly harsh.

You've been particularly harsh on Karlaftis for example, and it's just really weird. I don't get it.

Tempting? Sure.

But ultimately, I'm just not going in that direction. That would make 3 straight years drafting an EDGE in the 1st. With our need for weapons, I just don't think we can afford that luxury.

Sure I’m not against continuing to draft DL with high picks, but guess what they’re probably going to do their rookie years? About as much as Felix. They’re going to sit and come off the bench occasionally. Single digit sack seasons.

You take them if you believe in them as great players, not because we chose to sit our previous draft pick at that position during his rookie year

I definitely have been harsher on Karlaftis than others, and possibly unfairly. I dunno, I feel like there's a really good player there in the making, I just don't see it how others do at present. I think he could and perhaps should be much better against the run. He seems to be washed out and/or misdiagnose things way more than I'd like. Again, if it's just me seeing it, maybe I'm not really seeing it I guess.

Appreciate the comment re being generally balanced. In all honesty I'm pretty happy to get both barrels from you and anyone else if you think I'm talking s***. Useful corrective when I am!

Agreed, this is my take. Got to let these DEs develop and see what we get. This year it's weapons. I think both Verse and Latu go earlier anyway.

Does everyone remember the last time we drafted a guy in the first round and sat him basically all year? How did that turn out?


*yes, I'm making that comparison. Let me dream, dammit

I don't have an in depth analysis of how Karlaftis is doing, but there are plenty of Seth Keysers out there on the internet whose opinion on him this season is much higher than yours.

They may be right. I think he's going to possibly make another couple of jumps. One where he starts setting the edge better. Another when he starts to win more quickly, and does so across the line. I think if/when he does that we'll have a better idea of what he's producing right now.

His best attribute right now is he's relentless.

He IS quietly approaching 10 sacks on the season, going a bit under the radar if you ask me.

I know this is the FAU thread, but honest question on Karlaftis. Do people see him winning quickly? Do you care either way?

The only thing Karlaftis has going for him is his high motor that never quits. I mean, if you can just keep running ,eventually you'll find enough plays where the QB has to hold the ball 6 to 8 seconds or more.

It's time to let him play all day and see what we got

The end of the first is about taking guys that fall for whatever reason or taking high upside guys that have some flaws or need some development

If you take more of the first, in general, they tend to be good players early but have lower ceilings. The later tend to take some time but have higher upside but low floors

I think we’ve done well mixing those two in the de spot. Karlaftis is a good solid De, but due to his physical specifics he’s probably lower ceiling wise than fau

It’s also why teams tend to be more open to trading end of first round picks for established players than cp because at some point you need high end players and you aren’t likely getting them by picking there

Unless you're looking for a QB or top flight pass rusher then really no. NFL is pumping out receivers and receiving TE's like crazy bc high schools are playing more spread offenses and the NFL has basically adopted it.

Sam La Porta
Tank Dell
Puka Nacua
Rashee Rice
Josh Downs

All taken outside the 1st rd. These receivers/receiving threats are there. Just take them man. And this was in a down year for receivers too.

We all thought this off-season that we'd have to seriously consider trading up for a LT and then Wanya comes in and has looked competent. Hell he's been better than Orlando and Smith for the most part.

I think trading a 1st and payoff dudes is off the table with Mahomes contract unless it's for prime Reggie White.

Pay the all pro caliber 26 year old corner on your own team and pay some money for a quality WR like Calvin Ridley or Mike Evans.

They’re not paying any kind of money to over 30 year old wrs.

There are so many guys picked in a draft that don’t hit, yet we look at the outliers and say “pick those”

There’s a lot more sky Moore’s than puka”s

14 tackles
2 TFL
.5 sacks
7 QB hits

Played less than 200 snaps. Showed flashes early when he had 4 pressures in first 2 games with a 14% pass rush win rate which was 2nd best to Chris Jones.

For those who think he's a bust, check out Devonte Wyatt in GB. Didn't do much of anything as a rookie. This year showed a big jump and got 5.5 sacks as an IDL. I think Felix can be a solid rusher next year and make a jump.

He had 2 TFL today and should have had another sack when they were driving near the end zone. Also had some pressures I noticed. Not a bad outing for him.

Furious George took a while to get going and now he's a double digit sack guy. I think DE is a pretty hard position to just come out of the gate dominating unless you're a legit freak

He had a few big hits if I remember correctly

Didn't play much. But he didn't need to be rushed in.

The little he did play, I noticed him a couple of times. hopefully a late bloomer when he gets his chance probably next year because I'm kinda assuming Danna will hit free agency and he will get the start there. If he doesn't, then he must not be that good.

He did some good things. He's just buried on the depth chart right now. Overall it's a veteran filled DL. George walked in day one and had little competition. It's not like that for Felix.

Give him the off season to keep developing. Not giving up. I can see the big picture with him.

He's still only 21!

He ranks right up there with Blaine Gabbert

Wow, that's a good point. :thumb:

Shame he hasn't had more snaps, it would be more encouraging, but next year is the year to start judging.

Not getting snaps in the scrub bowl isn’t good any way you spin it.

So, you're all saying we need to give FAU another year before we can start calling him FAUX?