Expect a Much Better Draft from Scott Pioli in 2010

Now that Pioli has had a year to evaluate the teams needs, he can pick out those positions that will best help the entire team. Sort of how Jamaal Charles helped improve the offensive line.

I was a little dissapointed we didn’t get any blue-chip guys, but I too realize they probably weren’t the best deal. I’m glad we re-signed Chambers and signed TJ. These moves can only help the team next year.

Overall I don’t think any team has had a better offseason than the Chiefs when you factor in the coaching changes. The draft is going to be huge. It HAS to be better than last years. I’m not one calling last years draft a “bust”, yet, but other than Succop we really didn’t get any help from the rookie crop last year. The rookie’s this year have to have a much bigger impact than last years.

i know he wont do that, especially with Crennel and Weis on board. He has to give them players to work with that they want. That way there wont be any problems amongst all of them.
Pioli isnt Al Davis and he is going to make the decisions that is right for this football team and the decision is going to be one that im glad i dont have to make. We are probably the most dedicated fanbase and thanks to sites like AP and AA we can scrutinize every little move. 2009 stung alot of Chiefs fans, hopefully all their sleepless nights around the draft board at Arrowhead is going to pay off!

I believe that you are right the Pioli isn’t necessarily the shrewd evaluator of talent that he has been labeled. He is more of a shrewd manager of the sifting device that is a scouting department. Effectively managing this group is where his sucess is derived. Not by studying college game film.

I also agree with chicks that last year’s draft can only be effectively evaluated in about 3-4 more years…then we’ll know if it was a bust or not.

However, that’s what makes this year’s draft so exciting.

it’s a partnership that requires several pieces to fit together. The scouts, the head personnel guys, and the coaches have to all be aligned.

It may prove to be the best drafting team in any sport, ever…a virtual drafting supernova!

They shifted the Defense to a 3-4 that required an overhaul of the front 7. That will take 2-3 years to get all the peices in place. The 09 draft was just the beginning of that.
He also didn’t have as good a feeling of what the team needs are as he does now. The foundation is starting to take shape.

…it became clear to me that Pioli was drafting toward the future and stuck to the plan instead of trying to fix the team fast by plugging holes. He grabbed the best player for his plan and this year he will be able to grab a few more. Eventually, and hopfully soon, those picks will start to gel and the true design will be exposed for us to see. He truley is rebuilding the team and isn’t concerning himself with “fixing” positions of “need”. That’s the way it seems to me anyway. We will be a better team for much longer through his plan, IMO.

do we know last years draft was a failure and how are we going to know that this years draft was a success right after it takes place? You said it yourself that we the fans are largely uniformed, just reading general scouting reports on the web. If you expected a lot of production from our class in their rookie year than you had your hopes way too high. I think this years draft will be better because it is perceived that the talent pool is larger and thus it is a deeper draft. It seems that drafts alternate every other year from shallow to deep. That being because a deep draft is usually when a lot of juniors declare early, therefore the next year the Senior class isn’t as strong. I know they are going to make the right decisions, I just hope we can get more draft picks.

I couldn’t agree more. On a personal note, I’m going into this year’s draft a lot more open minded about who we might take. Last year really caught me off guard. I was pretty bummed out following the draft. This year I’m taking more of a “I can’t wait to see who he takes” approach as opposed to the “He better take this guy” approach that I have had in the past.

That having been said, he better take Berry if he’s there. :-)

I love reading your posts because you’re insightful, in-depth and you make no excuses for your reasoning … awesome stuff! I may not always AGREE with you (Clausen) but I do appreciate your work

I do think we all “expect” a better draft this year, and your post shows in clear detail why there’s no question of that … it does upset me (still) that Pioli would NOT listen to the “leftover” scouts LAST year … this year, at least, that won’t be an issue

in terms of his efforts on FA, you said you’re “ok” with it (not great but not bad) … I’m a bit more “forgiving” on it, actually, but then I’ve never been a “Big Name Free Agent” guy myself, so I think what he’s done already is on the “plus” side of average (if he signs Ryan Lilja I’ll give him an A for the FA season)

as for the upcoming draft itself, there’s (almost) no way he could screw it up, with so much talent available at so many positions, the draft being so deep, and the team having so many needs … and he WILL have Crennel and Weis in his ear (I get a mental image of Pioli on draft day with a tiny little Crennel Devil on one shoulder and a tiny little Weis Angel on the other, both whispering in his ear – “pick Berry!” “don’t listen to Romeo, get Okung!” “Berry, go ahead, you know you wanna” “YOU’LL be sorry!” “Berry Koolaid” “Cassel on his back, think about it!”)

whatever happens, however it goes … as long as he fills the holes and the team improves, we’re golden!

thanks for ALL your hard work, Jon!

I’ve had the same feelings on this issue, but you actually did some searching and reasoning then eloquently put it down in writing.

I will say that I’m not unhappy with last years draft.
I believe all will improve with proper coaching and development, which I believe we now have, along with having a full season under their belt.
Rd. 1- Tyson Jackson, he played exceptionally at times last season, especially in the last part of the year. Once he began getting tutored by Anthony Pleasant, his production went up, now Mr. Pleasant is his full time D-line coach. Get some improved NT play and I think we’ll really see why we spent the #3 pick on Jackson.
Rd. 2- (Trade) Cassel/Vrabel, can’t forget about this. An offensive and defensive leader for a second round pick. Their play isn’t too shabby either.
Rd. 3- Alex Magee, depth on the d-line is key. The big-uglies don’t start the whole game. How long did Jarvis Moss play the reserve role in New England? Moss was a vital part to their success. Magee, although he obviously didn’t blow me away, did nothing to disappoint me.
Rd. 4- Donald Washington, he flashed that raw potential. I really believe that Emmit Thomas is going to do wonders for him and Carr.
Rd. 5- Colin Brown, he got hurt so it’s unfair to analyze him. He’s like an extra rookie this year.
Rd. 6- Quinten Lawrence, he showed off his speed, made some good plays. We’ll see if he shakes out this year and is able to make the team. I almost see him as a pet project of wide receiver fanatic Todd Haley’s.
Rd. 7- Javarris Williams, the draft pick I was least impressed by. He’s got the measurables, he seems to have the speed, but he showed absolutely no vision. I’m hoping that he might improve with improved O-line play.
Rd. 7- Jake O’Connell, he really came on at the end of the year. Definitely had some growing pains getting started, but I’m looking forward to his improvement after learning the ropes.
Rd. 7- Ryan Succop, we’ve found our answer at kicker. How long have we been searching for that? Since Nick Lowery left.
*Acquiring 2010 2nd Rd pick for Tony Gonzalez

How many teams can say that they have their entire 2009 draft class still on their roster?

I do believe that the 2010 draft will offer more in terms of immediate impact players, but overall 2009 was pretty good.

I’ve achieved a higher level of optimism this year, mostly because this draft has a lot of guys at positions KC could really use, and lots of them should be available at the #5 pick without being reaches.

To me, it looks like Pioli would actually have to try pretty hard to screw this one up.

It might still be too early to say Crennel and Weiss are entrenched in the process. They were brought on during the offseason and will probably not be fully entrenched into the draft until 2011. That being said, I am sure they will still have a voice in the war room and I think they have been here long enough to at least have some ideas.

I like Pioli and am mixed on Haley so maybe I am too positive but I really like the direction this team is headed in.

If you gather together all the quality ingredients, you can make a pretty damn good cake.
Between coaching, scouting & attentive students our future does have a little more light shining through.

Which I made a fanshot out of… I couldn’t agree more with you, Jon. Rectified!

Seems to me like more weight should be placed behind the idea behind having your own, like-minded scouts in place that know the types of players you’re already looking for. It’s been beaten to death around here whether the success of Pioli’s first draft as our GM should be asterisked by the fact the he did not have his own scouts in place — guys that had a clear map of the team’s needs based on Pioli’s vision. Quotes like the one below made by Harbaugh lead me to believe that GMs have to trust their scouts more than we (or I) thought. And it is important to be on the same page with them in all facets of how personnel is to be evaluated and what the guys building the football team want in their players.

“You’re not going to come out of here after a 15-minute interview and say, ‘okay, I know this guy inside and out,’” Harbaugh continued. “I kind of think that (the Combine) is like a meet and greet. We’re going to meet and greet 60 guys as coaches. Our area scouts have known these guys throughout their whole careers, but now (the coaches) get a chance to shake hands and the process begins for us.”

We switched offensive blocking schemes last year with an offensive coordinator who was wearing too many hats. We improved near the end, but it’s not stellar. Interior help is needed. Offensive weapons are set, outside of another receiver.

So we fix defense early. Outside of CB and DE, we need help. Pioli knows this now, as opposed to last year, when there was little idea as to what/where guys could play in a new 3-4 defense. It was a crapshoot as to who we’d need last year, so he took the most solid 3-4 DE he could. I have no qualms with that. He picked Magee in case Dorsey didn’t work out. I have no qualms with that either.

This year, he’s observed who didn’t work out and where the weaknesses are. I’ll be fully behind S, ILB, OLB, and NT…whomever they may be. Positional value is important to this team right now, and I think he proved last year that he’s not afraid to draft as such.

I wouldn’t totally buy Gretz’s point that Pioli “ignored” the Chief scouts. He doesn’t know what Pioli was thinking, and he has an agenda against Pioli for firing him from kcchiefs.com, so every once in a while he’ll “tweak” him. He bases that entire argument on Pioli selecting Colin Brown, who wasn’t on the Chief’s scout’s board that Gretz talked to. That’s flimsy evidence that he “ignored” the Chiefs scouts.
Like others have stated, it’s Waaaaaaaay to early to define the 2009 draft. I think T-Jax will be exactly what they thought he’d be. He was showing it by the end of the season. Magee was drafted for insurance, in case Dorsey didn’t make the transition well to 3-4 DE. But he did, so now Magee can be our Jarvis Green at a fraction of the cost.
Donald Washington was a long term, physical package prospect, so who knows.
Colin Brown- Injured, so who knows. If it was a “fake” injury, then the chiefs must have seen something they liked well enough to not risk losing him on waivers in an attempt to get him to the PS.
Lawrence has tremendous speed, and is a long term project that needs to develop agressiveness.
Williams probably is one and done at RB.
O’Connell is similar to Washington and Lawrence. Physical talent, long term project that Haley clearly likes. Showed his athleticism with a punt block.
Succop was the best value pick in the 2009 draft.
Overall, I am very optimistic about the 2009 draft.
In 2010, the only way Pioli can blow it is drafting a LT at #5, but I don’t think he’ll do that, with at least 1 of Berry, Suh, Dan Williams, or McClain on the board at #5, any of which would fill a major need, unlike LT.