Karlaftis is a project. Wonder if the KC staff is up to coaching him up. Any DL/Edge players the Chiefs drafted recently who were developed into front line guys?

We play Chargers first on Thursday night first game so Justin Herbert will be his first sacks.

I can't wait till he chases JaMarcus Wilson and take him down. I know he isn't moving around as fast as he use too.

Carr is going get wrecked. Devante Adams isn't going get the ball to him to make big plays and Sneed & or McDuffie and Reid will help cover him.

We are still top dogs in the division and will be for all eternity and that's when Patrick decides to retire.

He will line up and play day one.. He better, or Veach made a big mistake..

Project? The guy had 7 sacks as a freshman playing in the Big Ten against quality offensive lineman. You’re confusing someone who has potential to get even better because he’s young and relatively new to football with a “project.”

Try harder with your trolling.

In every ranking of DE's prior to the draft that I looked at, he was always ranked 3-5. I think we were fortunate that he fell to us! Reid and Spags had to sign off on the pick, I dont think those two, plus Veach, didnt do their homework.

KC's next great George.

He's certainly no Clelin Ferrell

He’s also a great scheme fit. A lot of the other edge players were 3-4 guys and couldn’t hold up against the run.

He may be our best DE day 1

He’s already the biggest guy in that room

I'll take an effort guy all day over a guy like Clark that plays hard a few plays a game at best.

How does he overcome the arm length? He has powerful, heavy hands and also has quick hands. Both tools are things that will help him win hand fights.

Purdue moved him all around, so if he’s facing a team that has a really long OT, I see Karlaftis moving around and rushing from different spots.

He’s going to be a good player regardless of where KC uses him, and from Day 1 with upside.

It's an important thing to note that the kid played on a pretty lousy D-line; he was constantly doubled and still had the high pressure rate. But not sacks, you say?

Yeah well, he's going to line up next to Chris Jones. You can't double them both, can you?

He will get around Kolton Miller easy enough and wreck Carr.

Maybe not easy enough but good enough to get around Kolton Miller and wreck Carr. Kolton will have his hands full (of holding calls).

I...don't think there's a question.

I’d hate the pick too if I was a raider fan.

High motor guy with attack mindset and brutal hits. Yeah, I like. He's our Watt. Our Bosa.

He's not got quite a Bosa athletic profile, but the Watt comp fits nicely I think.

Just a nice pick at the end of the first.

Yeah, high pressure rate with low sack conversion numbers has a strong correlation with being THE guy on a DL, with not much around you.

Now you need a speed guy opposite him.

Why was his junior year so bad? I can see the intrigue about his freshman year, but it looks like he started every game in 2021 but only recorded 4.5 sacks?

* Likes Lawrence's trolling in both of these threads.

He's f'd and he knows it. Bottom of the AFCW. Again.

Good luck buddy.

He only played in 3 games. Had an injury, then COVID cut the season short.

I liked this pick last night and I like it even more this morning after watching the Kelce reaction to the selection. Of course he's going to call it a good pick, but the smile on his face and "Aww, yeah!" the instant the pick was called tells me #87 approves. Some here and national pundits can bitch all they want, but Kelce plays football for a living.

Where’s that at?

That’s for season 2020. It says 2021 he played all 12 games..

I don't understand the Watt comp at all... Watt is superhuman freak athlete, who is a 3x DPOY and HOFer, it doesn't seem fair to my Big Fat Greek Sacking.


God I hope he is, but expecting Watt seems like folly.

Yep, I agree. I project him to cause multiple headaches and tears for Carr.

I think people are comparing to Watt on the Steelers. I could be wrong though.

I don't think we need to get carried away comparing him to HOFers. He was picked right where he was projected. Just a solid late-1st pick at a position of severe need. That is a good thing.

JJ Watt Combine:

4.91 40-yard dash
34 bench press
37 vertical jump
120 broad jump
6.88 3 cone
4.21 shuttle

Karlaftis Combine:

4.71 40-yard dash
21 bench press
38 vertical jump
121 broad jump
6.78 3 cone
4.36 shuttle

His 3 cone beating JJ's by a full tenth of a second is excellent news.

His strength isn't there, but JJ had a full 24 pounds on him coming out.

As soon as this kid gets in an NFL weight program he's going to be an absolute beast.

Boner initiated

I hope so. I just think comparing him to the most dominant DE of the last decade is kinda hyperbole.

You gotta think about comparing to Watt as a prospect. Not as what he turned out to be in the league.

It is, but in the same way that the negative Nancys are poo-pooing the kid as a 'poor athlete' with arms that are 'too short'.

The kid's effort indicates that only injuries could make him bust. He's an extremely high motor kid. His arms are longer than Hutchinson's, who went #2 (and should've been #1). His RAS score was 9.28, he's plenty good athletically.

Could he have a JJ Watt type ceiling? Yes, it's physically possible. Is he likely to bust? No, not unless he gets hurt. Will he likely be a solid, good player? Yes, that's the most likely outcome. Did we have a DE like that on our roster? No, we did not.

Yeah, the athlete stuff is getting out of hand.

Karlaftis didn’t run a sexy 40 and he doesn’t display above-average bend. But his short-area quickness and explosion scores are good.

He’s a great athlete. Just not a traditional RE.

So can anyone tell me why his 2021 season he only put up 4.5 sacks?

2019 - 12 games - 7.5 sacks
2020 - 2 games - 2 sacks
2021 - 12 games - 4.5 sacks

2019 looks intriguing and 2020 was covid related.

But what happened in 2021?

Goodness Clay. JJ Watt, really?

LMAO

I hope he just hope he becomes an above average starter.

Day 1 starter at LE.

the rest of the line was shitty, and so he was double teamed on every play. He still finished #3 in the nation in pressures.

NINJA EDIT

If he had above average bend and a better athletic profile he's a top 5 pick.

He's a good pick at 30. It's fine. People need to not get so worked up.

His 3 cone would have been 2nd behind Hutchinson at the combine at his position.

That’s really good

Hmm.

I just watched the 2021 highlights in the OP and the majority of the time he had 1 on 1 match ups.

I'll take your word for it and be happy for the #3 in pressures...

Or you could do a little reading.

A quick google search will be illuminating.

Step away from the keyboard TEX.

I think you're forgetting how many times I get called a Chiefs hater for being critical of aspects of the team.

Hill isn't the reason the Chiefs offense was amazing.

Patrick Mahomes is. If you'd wipe your tears, you could see that he's still here.

Get some Dolphins gear and jump on their ****ing bandwagon, and better yet, jump to their board. Fap to dehydration watching Tyreek Hill get his thousand yards on the way to 6-11 record.

You think maybe there’s a correlation between getting single blocked and producing a rep that ended up on a highlight reel?

Someone made an interesting comp for this kid: Jared Allen

that's a good comp too, he's like a stronger allen

He was 3rd in QB Pressures in all of college football, and was routinely double/triple teamed and schemed against as the only defender worth a damn on his team.

Just looking at sacks here would be like looking at INT's for a great CB on a bad defense where no one throws at him.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Karlaftis? To the <a href="https://twitter.com/Chiefs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Chiefs</a> ? Oh my</p>&mdash; trey wingo (@wingoz) <a href="https://twitter.com/wingoz/status/1519880143350632448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Putting his RAS in the OP so people stop saying he's not athletic.

So I typically try REALLY hard to find guys who are a bit under the radar when making comps, especially as the rounds progress.

Comparing someone like Karlaftis to Allen or JJ Watt is nuts. Karlaftis isn't going to be DPOY or go to the HoF, fellas. I'd put just about any amount of money on that. So let's try to find something reasonable here.

I think I've come up with a couple I really like.

Reasonable 75th percentile projection: Jabaal Sheard. Sheard played for a decade and was a capable 6-8 sack sort of guy most years. A little shorter armed, won mostly with power (especially as he aged) and wasn't the most bendy dude you'd see out there. He was never a superstar but he was always a pretty damn good player and someone you were happy to have on your roster.

Bottom 25% projection: Chauncey Davis. Same kind of player, just wasn't as good at it. Played 100 NFL games, started a couple dozen of them. Obviously this would be a disappointing outcome and I think Sheard is the far more likely scenario, but it's not as though a 100 games played floor is a disaster of a pick. When that's something of a worst case scenario for a guy, that's pretty solid.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">George Karlaftis doesn&#39;t get enough credit. Dude is consistently chipped/double-teamed/triple-teamed which provides other defenders a chance to make a play if he can&#39;t. Those kinds of intangibles don&#39;t show up in the stats but make a big difference in the game.</p>&mdash; Calvin Williams (@CalvinTaffs) <a href="https://twitter.com/CalvinTaffs/status/1457152431251460106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Narrator: “They still didn’t”

Can’t wait to watch George and Chris wreck opposing offensive game plans. This kid a ****ing brute!

ask Frank Clark

RAS is reeruned.

He's not twitchy and he's not winning with speed or bend around the edge. He's gonna be a puss/pull guy who powers through the OT. It's partially why he gets pressure so often but doesn't finish sacks.

He's just not terribly explosive. But again, that's okay. This is a guy that sets an outstanding foundation to build around. A solid, dependable player that allows you to take more aggressive swings at the other DE position on guys like Mafe, Jackson, Ojabo, Williams, etc...

And lets also not forget that he's a BABY. In a draft loaded w/ 23 and 24 year old rookies, this kid just turned 21 a few weeks ago. He could take 2 years to develop and still be younger than Mafe is now. He'd be the same age as Jermaine Johnson.

And from a football age standpoint, he's barely starting out. There are a lot of rough edges that can be refined that allow him to win on technique rather then bend and explosiveness going forward.

He's got intangibles? I'M DOWN MOTHER****ER!

KC can add a more quick twitch bend type situational pass rusher later in the draft.

karlaftis is the guy you love watching on Sundays with his non-stop motor. His scouting report reads a lot like Tamba Hali's did - raw, non-stop player, maybe not fast or strong enough.

If Karlaftis learns to use his hands it will negate the short arm issue a bit. The non-stop motor is the key.

Bring him on.

I was meh at first, but he shows some good burst in the highlights.

Yup.

He'll have to develop into one of those guys who just isn't very much fun to play against. Get heavy, violent hands that are constantly making OTs work through the whistle and by the 3rd/4th quarter they'll just get tired of it and start letting their technique slip.

He's not a guy that's going to be shot out of a cannon on the first snap for a strip/sack. He's water carving out a rock. He's just going to have to keep coming and coming and coming until the other guys will just slowly slips away.

Yeah, I like the idea of pairing him with Drake Jackson a LOT. (Jackson turned 21 this month). The coolest thing about that pairing is that if you're thinking long-term, and you end up transitioning BACK to a 34 defense at some point, both of these guys fit with that, also. Jackson could easily play OLB and Karlaftis can play a 5-tech, easily.

He's not going to win with raw speed, but he can win with quickness and technique. His burst is pretty good (10 and 20-yard splits indicate that), and he does have quick hands.

I want that Sam Williams George Karlaftis duo soooo bad

And getting coaching from Joe Cullen?

YES PLEASE

The fact that Joe Cullen is now involved with these DL selections just makes me feel so much better.

If Karlaftis got drafted by the Ravens and he was there, is there any doubt that he would at least be a good player?

Cant get it out my head

We're gonna get us a bad ass WR with that next pick.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wrote about my favorite Day 1 moves: <a href="https://t.co/4ds0fkLrH0">https://t.co/4ds0fkLrH0</a></p>&mdash; Sam Monson (@PFF_Sam) <a href="https://twitter.com/PFF_Sam/status/1520052201250566151?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That's good, but we've also had a good DL coach the past few years and haven't exactly been DL University.

He hasn't had the talent infusion in his defense though.

The forking maroons in this thread will go down in infamy worse than ones in the Super Bowl thread - who I also correctly called out during that game, saying that they would live forever in infamy.

This kid is going to be one of the best defensive players in Chiefs history. Not just good, not just an all-pro...one of the best defensive players in the history of the franchise. Book it.

This kid has 3 major things going for him that you can’t teach:

-Motor
-Elite lateral agility
-Work ethic

That lateral agility of his is gonna come in handy. It’s right there with Aidan Hutchinson. It’s elite. And his work ethic is going to help him get better. He went from 25% body fat to 15% body fat while getting to 272 lbs.

I listened to his interview and he said he knew strength wasn’t enough. He would lift and then go work on his hand work by practicing hand combat MMA moves.

His floor is really high and I’m fine with that. We desperately needed a worker like him especially with Frank Clark’s problems.

Love that he can play all over the line as well. Can easily see him lining up next to Chris Jones on some situations

Cullen >>>>> Daly

White Tamba!

Could you upload a lower res signature photo? The one you're using is crashing my browser.

TIA

I think we got a steal.

Expound.

I think where his lateral agility stands out is in a way that doesn't necessarily translate to his position. Turning and running (i.e. a 3-cone drill) isn't something he's going to be asked to do often.

Instead, I think you want to see flexibility - someone that can maintain drive with his body turned. And I think that's actually an area where he struggles a fair amount. I don't see a guy who can get rocked, re-set and hold his ground in a rep. I don't see a guy likely to throw up a double move, get a OT on his heels and then swim inside him.

He has to turn his body to get going in the direction he's trying to go. There's just some baseline flexibility issues I see that probably diminish his ceiling.

I was expecting Ravens to grab him with their 2nd pick but Linderbaum was just too good to pass for them.

I was already complaining in my mind, damn another good football player that just lands in their lap.

Real happy he made it to us.

How ****ing reeruned are you? He hasn’t hit on a cb you say?? LMAOLMAO

What an idiot LMAO

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Brought the whole fam out ❤️���� <a href="https://t.co/vcQ6qsg0nK">pic.twitter.com/vcQ6qsg0nK</a></p>&mdash; Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) <a href="https://twitter.com/Chiefs/status/1520054989623767041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>