From the FanPosts. Effort like this is rewarded. -Chris

It's never too early to start looking down the road at what sort of talent is going to be available on day 1 of the 2009 Draft, especially when you're 1-8 on the season and coming off a 4-12 season which ended with 9 straight losses.

I'll also be going over each of the key position groups and what the depth chart currently looks like to see from where we came and get a better idea of how far away we are from being back in contention for the West. Also a little fantasy advice scattered throughout. More after the flip!

I'm only giving the first three rounds because after that you get into more gray areas as the freak athletes and top 100 prospects go flying out the door and you're left with more gambling in the late rounds. Not to mention, Rd4-7 picks depend a lot on what we're able to pull down in the first 3 rounds.

That said, places I think need to be at the top of our priority list, in order: DE, ILB, or  OL (order of all three depends heavily on what the draft board looks like when the rock drops on us).

Position Groups:

Offense:

As far as things have been looking the last 3 weeks we seem to be set *knock on wood* at QB. Thigpen is putting up absolutely gross stats right now, made even more impressive consider how he played in Atlanta AND remember a month ago when our OL couldn't open a hole big enough to see through and they were almost WORSE at pass protection! While I still feel we need to address our O-line in every way possible this off-season, it has gone from being a top 2 priority to somewhere in the 2-3 range.

Our backfield is also performing surprisingly well, I've been pleasantly impressed by Charles much earlier than I had anticipated. It wasn't as much a matter of whether he'd learn how to produce in this league or not but more of when, and I'm happy to say that if you overlook the ankle, which shouldn't nag at him much longer if the team doctors keep him off it for a few more days. Savage is running the ball well, reminds me a lot of DSproles, especially since both are backing up all-star runners in LJ and LT respectively (they both have looked bad this year but I still have a feeling they've got at least a couple good years left in them as feature backs).

Mike Cox is playing well at FB, won't hear his name called out over the speakers much but we've been hurting bad ever since we let TRich skip out of town and lead-block for AP in Minnesota. Within a few years Cox should be a solid backfield blocker which will be an integral part of our offense if we decide to stick with anything even remotely resembling the spread. If Herm stubbornly tries to revert to his own brand of Martyball again then I'd like to see more emphasis put on the OL and better lead-blocker than Cox, hard to judge the untapped ability without being in the locker room though in my opinion, especially with a fullback.

Our receiving corps looked shallower than a juice box at the beginning of the season but I'm actually quite pleased with how they've shaped up recently. Mark Bradley (whom I started in two leagues this past weekend despite a whopping 0.0% start rate and less than 3% own per ESPN's fantasy stats; if you haven't already, pick him up at least as a tie-breaking benchwarmer but keep in mind, he's had double-digit fantasy games the last 3 weeks in a row after escaping the WR killing grounds of Chicago) came out of nowhere and is finally able to balance out the field with Bowe and Gonzalez (who's looking better than normal lately and has a good heir in Brad Cottam).

Toss Will Franklin (looks promising but had a bad set-back early on and is only now getting a chance to really shake off some of the rookie jitters so we'll see where he stands in 6 weeks) in as your slot guy and if you need to go 5 wide for a hail mary you can throw Webb and Darling in (about all they've shown to be good for this year is one or two catches blocks per game).

Kevin Robinson will probably ride out the year battling for the KR/PR slot but if we can get KSmith or LJ healthy I'd liked to see Savage back to return. His size and quickness make him a tough target to mark on the field plus he's got good burners on him, give a guy like that the ball and a little open space and he's going to make you pay for it.

Defense:

I'll start with the secondary, then the linebacking corps which will tie in with our D-line.

Thus far Herm has stuck true to form and proven he's one of the better coaches in the league at evaluating DB prospects. The Brandon's have been playing magnificently and, considering their youth, have more than a few mulligans left in the bag for the stupid rookie mistakes they'll inevitably make a few more times this year. Flowers has shown he's got a very strong base for what could very well develop into one of the top shutdown corners in the league with a few more years of experience. Carr, despite being a later pick from a mid-major has proven on more than one occasion that he's willing to earn the right to start on this team.

That's really it though for our CBs, Mo Legget is a raw talent, he's got enough of it to make it as a nickel back for KC in the future but for this year, he's a stop-gap until Surtain gets healthy again. Macklin and Colclough have yet to see any major game-time so the verdict is still waaay out on that one.

We seem to be well-stocked at Safety as the 2nd half of the season builds some momentum. Bernard Pollard and Jarrad Page have both proven why they're starting for KC. The addition of DaJuan Morgan through the 08 Draft gives us some insurance and could help pressure Pollard and Page into wrapping up rather than swingin for the fence with every hit. Aggression within a defense can win and lose games, something I'm gonna guess Gun knows all too well, but there's a difference between tattoo'ing a receiver over the middle on 3rd and long and trying so hard to blow the other guy up that you miss the tackle behind the line of scrimmage and give up a 30 yard gash instead.

Every year I feel like our corps of  LBs gets better and better and then gameday shows up and our LBs don't. The last few weeks we've been seeing more production from DJ and Demorrio, one of whom should be a heavy-hitting stud by now and is finally starting to look like he's figuring things out. It always looks like our LBs are trying to do too much at one time on just about every snap. We're missing reads in coverage and stuffing the wrong gap far too often, which is why we're +8 in turnovers and 0-3 in the last three weeks.

The rest of our LB's are pretty non-descript as of Week 10. The same can sadly be said about our D-line when it comes to pass-pressure. Glenn Dorsey is playing well all things considered and is on pace to whomp past greats like Warren Sapp in tackles as a rookie. Moving Tamba back left was far overdue and he seems to be getting back into the habit of consistently pressuring the pocket. The rest of the DLinemen rotating through have looked like an entirely different group than they did 2 months ago. They've still got a long road ahead of them just to reach mediocrity within the league but it's nowhere near as bad as I was anticipating after the way we played against Tennessee, Carolina, and Oakland.

The 2009 Draft

We're most likely looking at a pick somewhere in the 3-5 range which is awesome. At least we can try for another home-run of a draft class and have a legit chance of doing so with a top 5 pick.

Round 1: Michael Johnson - DE (Georgia Tech)

The man is 6'7" 260lbs and runs a 4.63 40. He's got top-end talent and he's massive. Watching him play gives you a better feel for his ability, reminds me some of the physical ability Jared Allen had when he first showed up at Arrowhead as a rookie (6'6" ~255). A little time in an NFL-quality weight room and he'll be ~270 and just blowing opposing QB's. After the Hali Experiment went down in flames KC needs a dominant pass-rushing RE and Michael Johnson is the prospect.

Rey Maualuga - ILB (USC) would be another excellent pick here as well. Both are top 10 prospects and either would be an enormous help in shoring up our wretched run defense and sack totals.

Round 2: Herman Johnson - OG (LSU)

Yet another freakishly enormous rookie at 6'7" 349lbs and runs a 5.45 40, not the quickest guy on the field but with his size DT's will have their hands full on every down. He would immediately be able to compete for, and likely win, the starting RG spot from Day 1. The trend KC seems to be flirting with is that of a very large, physical team that can get a good first push off the line and Johnson fits that mold to a tee.There's a lot of room between Johnson and the next best prospects (Canfield and Parker of Cinci and Tennessee respectively) on the list, if we intend on addressing our OL in the draft this year, and we most definitely should, we couldn't make a better value/need pick than this kid.

Round 3: Either we look to the OL again with one of the better Center prospects to come out in the past few years with Antoine Caldwell - C ('Bama), excellent leader, acceptable size, could stand to gain some weight at the NFL level but has been playing on a heretofore undefeated Alabama team that can run and pass at will, a testament to the OL's ability to protect the QB across a mix of offensive packages.

Or, we could go with an ILB (assuming we take Johnson over Maualuga in Rd1 otherwise Caldwell would be a solid value pick while still filling a need) like Scott McKillop (Pitt) or Daniel Holtzclaw (Eastern Michigan). Both have almost identical metrics at 6' 1" ~245 and 40-times in the 4.63-4.65 and have been heavily underrated (Holtzclaw more so than McKillop) but each looks to be a solid draft prospect. McKillop ended '07 with 151 tackles which lead the nation, Holtzclaw had 125 tackles with 2 INTs as well in '07.

I'd love to see KC pick up M. Johnson, H. Johnson, and McKillop or Caldwell in a dream draft scenario (in order of preference). I'm not factoring in supplemental picks, trades, etc... as yet because it's still only November and that'll all change a lot over the next 5-6 months.

Until then, we just have to do our best to enjoy the football our Chiefs are playing lately which shouldn't be too hard regardless of the outcome. These kids are playing with a new fire these last few weeks though, after the debacle that was the first 6 weeks of the season for KC things are beginning to click on both sides of the ball for our rookies. They're learning to play together as a team and it's finally showing, won't be long before we get another win or two under our belts.