Yeah. **** man... could have had Marino and we got Shitledge.

If I remember correctly from documentaries, Marino slid because of alleged drug use??!

And Kelly slid because he had a short list of teams he was only willing to play for? Then he went to the USFL for a few years before the NFL.

Anyways, even Tony Eason and Ken O Brian would have been better than Blackledge. Both drafted after him.

Without reading all the posts, much of the blame goes to Hank Stram for not bringing on new talent and sticking with the older guys too long until they were done.

They had poor luck drafting Lenny Dawson's replacement. Steve Fuller and Todd Blackledge, both first round picks, were a horrible busts.

The Head Coach choices were pathetic, Marv Levy brought on the winged T which was an embarrassment. John Mackovic was horrible, Frank Ganz was a great special teams coach but not head coach.

Marty was such a welcome relief.

Marty Ball forever (it seemed). I did love that guy. RIP

The rest of the AFC West was also very good during that time-frame.

Scanned through the thread and one thing that has not been mentioned is Joe Delaney's untimely and tragic death in '8. This should be included in why KC sucked out loud in the 80's.

I left Missouri for good in 1984 when I went in the Navy. After that, and until the Montana days, it was nearly impossible for me to see a Chiefs game since they were almost never broadcast locally in Virginia or Illinois. And they certainly weren't broadcast when I was deployed.

Of course, I didn't miss much.

In that era, the Chiefs home games were rarely broadcast locally. That’s how bad they were.

Only Elway was drafted before Blackledge.

Dan Marino, Tony Eason, Ken O'Brien and Jim Kelly all drafted after him.

In fairness, Blackledge threw 22 TDs in his senior season. Those were elite numbers back then. Second nationally.

Chiefs whiffed drafting Marino and Kelly in 1983.

Poor Leadership.

Sorry Mr. Hunt, but you and Jack Steadman were far more interested in your other business interests than the Kansas City Chiefs Football Franchise - and it started in the mid 70's (not the 80's), and lasted until they got a real football guy in place (Carl Peterson). It was a rudderless ship in those days, and I'm so glad that shit is in our distant rear view.

Compare his JR to SR year stats. Evaluators didn't really put much emphasis on the whole picture, but rather the individual.

Alleged drug use was correct, which I don't think was ever proven. Pitt had their players tested in 1982, and they all were clean. It probably started off as him being a "partier", which is normal for a college student to do that. It just snowballed.

Also, if I recall correctly, the 1982 was also that year where the catchphrase "Just Say No" was growing.

I think Marino one was stricken off on one or two teams because he cussed out a receiver running a wrong route on a workout, but I'm not 100% positive on this one.

Either way, a lot of teams dropped the ball on this one, especially Kansas City. Selecting Blackledge over Marino set that franchise back 15 years.

He had the talent. He did not have the drive or desire to see it thru. He hung up his cleats right after the Chiefs drafted him.

He also won a national championship that year

Meanwhile, Marino had regressed his senior year, and got blown out twice by Blackledge in college (Pitt and Penn State were both great teams back then). He also had the drug rumors. Marino falling to the defending AFC Champ Dolphins shows how many teams didn’t believe in him