Draft Position in Mahomes Era

[tredadda]

With all the talk of how KC has been doing things since 2017 regarding the draft it really is amazing how good they have been building through the draft despite their position. So I figured that it might be good to look back on every team's draft position along to their average over those years (first round only).

Reason for this is because some teams have a lot of studs on their roster, but that's more because of where they drafted vs how well they drafted.

This will only be based on where they were slotted, not where they picked via trade as this will show more about the success of the team the year prior (at least to the best of my abilities). It will also show why dynasties are so hard to maintain. Also this is not designed to look at quality of picks as that can be subjective. Plus success rate tends to be better the higher one picks.

The layout will be Team: Position (starting with 2017), and (average without rounding).

Arizona: 13, 15, 1, 8, 16, 23, 3, 4 (10.3 average)
Atlanta: 31, 26, 14, 16, 4, 8, 8, 8 (14.3 average)
Baltimore: 16, 16, 22, 28, 27, 14, 22, 30 (21.8 average)
Buffalo: 10, 21, 9, 22, 30, 25, 27, 28 (21.5 average)
Carolina: 8, 24, 16, 7, 8, 6, 9, 1 (9.8 average)
Chicago: 3, 8, 24, 19, 20, 7, 1, 9 (11.3 average)
Cincy: 9, 12, 11, 1, 5, 31, 28, 18 (14.3 average)
Cleveland: 1, 1, 17, 10, 26, 13, 12, 23 (12.8 average)
Dallas: 28, 19, 27, 17, 10, 24, 26, 24 (21.8 average)
Denver: 20, 5, 10, 15, 9, 9, 5, 12 (10.6 average)
Detroit: 21, 20, 8, 3, 7, 2, 18, 29 (13.5 average)
Green Bay: 29, 14, 12, 30, 29, 28, 15, 25 (22.7 average)
Houston: 25, 4, 23, 26, 3, 3, 2, 27 (14.1 average)
Indy: 15, 3, 26, 13, 21, 16, 4, 15 (14.1 average)
Jacksonville: 4, 29, 7, 9, 1, 1, 24, 17 (11.5 average)
KC: 27, 22, 29, 32, 31, 30, 31, 32 (29.2 average)
LV: 24, 10, 4, 12, 17, 22, 7, 13 (13.6 average)
LAC: 7, 17, 28, 6, 13, 17, 21, 5 (14.2 average)
LAR:5, 23, 31, 20, 25, 32, 6, 19 (20.1 average)
Miami: 22, 11, 13, 5, 18, 15, (0), 21 (15 average)
Minnesota: 14, 30, 18, 25, 14, 12, 23, 11 (18.3 average)
New England: 32, 31, 32, 23, 15, 21, 14, 3 (21.3 average)
New Orleans: 11, 27, 30, 24, 28, 18, 10, 14 (20.2 average)
NYG: 23, 2, 6, 4, 11, 5, 25, 6 (10.2 average)
NYJ: 6, 6, 3, 11, 2, 4, 13, 10 (6.8 average)
Philly: 12, 32, 25, 21, 6, 19, 30, 22 (20.8 average)
Pittsburgh: 30, 28, 20, 18, 24, 20, 17, 20 (22.1 average)
SF: 2, 9, 2, 31, 12, 29, 29, 31 (18.1 average)
Seattle: 26, 18, 21, 27, 23, 10, 20, 16 (20.1 average)
TB: 19, 7, 5, 14, 32, 27, 19, 26 (18.6 average)
Tenn: 18, 25, 19, 29, 22, 26, 11, 7 (19.6 average)
Washington: 17, 13, 15, 2, 19, 11, 16, 2 (11.8 average)

The biggest takeaway from this is that a large portion of the success of this team is due success in the draft, an this has all been done near the end of each round. It's easy to hit on a CB like Sauce Gardner when you are drafting high vs a Jaylen Watson. Also easy to draft a Joe Alt at #5 vs finding someone at the end of the first.

Veach has put on a masterclass in drafting, although he does have his share of misses. But what he's doing based on where he starts in each draft is impressive. It's also why this dynasty is so impressive.

[In58men]

There’s no offseason thread, so here ya go.

Chiefs sign RB Keaontay Ingramhttps://t.co/417aAWxfXf pic.twitter.com/511VpQ6CcT

— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) February 13, 2025

[Indian Chief]

Interesting to see the gap between the Chiefs and even other good teams, 8-10 spots on average.

[scho63]

So the Chiefs are over 7 spots lower on average than the next lowest teams Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

That is a HUGE differential.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by scho63

So the Chiefs are over 7 spots lower on average than the next lowest teams Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

That is a HUGE differential.

It’s significant in the sense that Veach has consistently needed to be more savvy with his drafts as he doesn’t have the luxury of getting blue chip players in the draft as they are almost always gone by the time KC picks. It’s also why they have to take raw, high upside guys like Kingsley and hope that the coaches can develop him.

It’s far harder to build a roster of elite talent always picking at the end of each round and why dynasties are so hard to sustain in this era.

[tredadda]

Also looking at those numbers, from 2017-2024 (I did not count the upcoming draft) their average position is equal to that of the team with the worst record of the conference championship game loser. Take out the anomaly that was Mahomes rookie year and their position is even lower.

While it "briefs well" to just trade away 1st round picks to move up in the draft, history shows that KC's picks aren't worth much and probably won't be anytime soon. Most teams drafting high don't exactly get giddy over the thought of giving up their high picks for KC's 29th pick minimum.

[nicksdad]

Good excuse making . They can trade up as they have , worthy, mcduffie. They can trade picks for a player , obj. They can sign free agents , j Taylor . What they can’t do is fan on tackle talent repeatedly. Obj, niang, Taylor, Morris, ks ( too early). The best of the bunch apperas to be obj who apparently was a traffic cone / speed bump as soon as he stoped wearing red. You would think that getting buc ****ed in one Super Bowl would have taught him a lesson but I guess we needed two OL fueled blowouts for veach to “ leap into action “this off season . Unfortunately he appears to have the Mid-ass touch on tackle evaluation

[GordonGekko]

Originally Posted by nicksdad

Good excuse making . They can trade up as they have , worthy, mcduffie. They can trade picks for a player , obj. They can sign free agents , j Taylor . What they can’t do is fan on tackle talent repeatedly. Obj, niang, Taylor, Morris, ks ( too early). The best of the bunch apperas to be obj who apparently was a traffic cone / speed bump as soon as he stoped wearing red. You would think that getting buc ****ed in one Super Bowl would have taught him a lesson but I guess we needed two OL fueled blowouts for veach to “ leap into action “this off season . Unfortunately he appears to have the Mid-ass touch on tackle evaluation

"buc ****ed"

Veach is great at drafting defense, especially secondary, he is terrible at drafting OL especially tackle, and even evaluating tackles in free agency, bringing in Taylor and paying massive money to someone who is below average, and then he had a serviceable OBJ who we let go and have been struggling to backfill this position for a couple years now. Pat just needs average play at LT and we win Superbowls.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by nicksdad

Good excuse making . They can trade up as they have , worthy, mcduffie. They can trade picks for a player , obj. They can sign free agents , j Taylor . What they can’t do is fan on tackle talent repeatedly. Obj, niang, Taylor, Morris, ks ( too early). The best of the bunch apperas to be obj who apparently was a traffic cone / speed bump as soon as he stoped wearing red. You would think that getting buc ****ed in one Super Bowl would have taught him a lesson but I guess we needed two OL fueled blowouts for veach to “ leap into action “this off season . Unfortunately he appears to have the Mid-ass touch on tackle evaluation

Who’s making excuses? Just pointing out the reality of where they have drafted. They did trade up for Worthy and McDuffie. To get McDuffie they traded Miami’s #29 to #21 and for Worthy it was #32 to #28. None of these were even remotely close to drafting Top 10.

Sure they can trade for a LT, but who? Brown Jr was an exception because he was determined to be a LT and Baltimore had no need for him as they had Stanley.

He didn’t fan on Tackles like you make it seem. He tried to get Trent Williams but he went elsewhere. Taylor is a better tackle than you are giving him credit for. He’s no Mitchell Schwartz, but he’s a big improvement over Wylie. Niang was a product of his inability to stay healthy.

His evaluation of the LT might not be the best, but to think he ignored it is silly. There are only so many positions that he can fill each year. Elite LTs get drafted early and rarely hit the market. This is why KC brings in stop gaps while trying to draft/develop raw, high upside guys.

But your assessment that he has neglected the line is completely wrong.