Grading the Chiefs Rookies At The Halfway Point, Part Two

Welcome to Part Two of our Grading the Rookies series. If you've missed Part One, you can find it here. We'll finish things up tomorrow by looking at the Chiefs late round draft choices. For today, we take a closer look at the middle rounds of the draft that offered up a surprising choice in the fourth round and a project in the fifth.

To get a good idea of measurement, we'll take a look at three things:

*The half-season stat totals

*What was being said at the time of the draft

*What we can tell at this early stage of their career

The details can all be found starting with Donald Washington after the jump:

Donald Washington, Fourth Round Pick (102 overall)
Meaningful Stats: 3 total tackles, 0 interceptions, 0 pass defense

What Was Said: "Washington is a tall corner but lacks exceptional speed. He came out a year early, plays well in coverage and had an outstanding three-cone time. He may have been better served to stay in school because he's unpolished in certain areas. He may struggle early until he learns the pro game." -NFL.com

What We Can Tell: Thus far, we've been through three rookies and again, we can't tell much. Although in the quote noted above, this was quite expected. Even the people we interviewed around Ohio State couldn't tell me much about Donald Washington. The skills and athleticism might be there, but we've yet to see those translate to anything meaningful in the pro game.

And there's really been no chance so far. Those three tackles all came in the Cowboys game in Week Five and then he's been inactive for every contest ever since. It'd be nice to see him get even some junk time, but hey, I'm not the coach.

The thing about this pick, to me, is how surprising it was. A project like this is usually reserved for the fifth round or later. After all, in perspective, this pick was sitting right outside the Top 100. And I had a hard time finding anyone thinking Donald Washington was one of the 100 best players available in the draft. With so many obvious positions of need on the Chiefs, this was the draft's curveball on my end. That's not say that Washington won't pan out at all, it's more the factors surrounding the choice.

Colin Brown, Fifth Round Pick (139 overall)
Meaningful Stats: None

What Was Said: "The Chiefs add a promising young tackle to their rotation with the selection of Brown. The former Tiger will provide quality depth for the team as a potential swing-tackle prospect." -NFL.com

"Fifth-round choice Colin Brown, who played center, guard and tackle over his career at Missouri. He's athletic, having been a McDonald's All-America nominee and all-state performer in basketball at Braymer (Mo.) High School. He made 28 starts at right tackle with the Tigers very productive pass offense, so he knows how to protect the quarterback. He's not just tall at nearly 6-8, but he's big boned and could probably add more weight. The Chiefs see him as a right tackle." - NFLDraftScout.com

"He doesn't have much experience blocking within a prototypical NFL running game. Missouri almost exclusively ran zone running plays where backs would take a delayed handoff out of the shotgun, pick a hole along the line and go from there. I wouldn't say this makes for a weakness, but Brown just doesn't have recent experience within a pro-style offense." -Sportswriter Dave Matter, Columbia Daily Tribune

What We Can Tell: There's not much to be said for a guy who's yet to play any minutes, even on an offensive line as needy or broken as the Chiefs. Then again, Brown was described as a project by virtually everyone around him. Still those we interviewed around draft time from his alma mater believe his combo of size and raw power were worth taking a risk on. Perhaps not in the fifth round, but really how can you tell this late in the draft.

More to come in Part Three