Chiefs' Third Round Pick Jon Asamoah Will Be Fighting Long Odds

With a tip of the hat to WTexKC, I was just reading Adam Teicher's latest article and noted an interesting tidbit. 

While talking about the Kansas City Chiefs' third round pick G Jon Asamoah, Teicher said, "The last lineman drafted by the Chiefs below the first round to become a solid player for them? Try Will Shields, selected in the third round in 1993."

Yep, the Kansas City Chiefs are going on seventeen years without finding consistent o-line starter outside of the first round of the draft.

Let's take a look at some of those guys drafted outside of the first round and see what we find:

1994

No offensive linemen drafted.

1995

No offensive linemen drafted, except for Trezelle Jenkins in the first.

1996

Two centers, Ben Lynch and Jeff Smith, were taken in the seventh round. Smith spent a couple years as a primary starter but Smith didn't see the field much. Both players did play in a quite a few games over the four years they were Chiefs (50+) but do you remember their names? I don't.

1997

T Nathan Parks was taken in the seventh round and played in two games.

1998

No offensive linemen drafted, except for Victor Riley in the first.

1999

G Eric King was taken in the seventh round and didn't play a game. John Tait was drafted in the first round that year though.

2000

G Darnell Alford was taken in the sixth round and only played in two games. 

2001

T Alex Sulfsted was taken in the sixth round and played in 17 games. Not too shabby but not a solid contributor either. 

2002

Forget about this draft. Just forget it ever happened.

2003

Tackles Brent Williams and Jordan Black were taking in the fourth and fifth rounds respectively. Wiliams didn't do much in KC but Black did spend one year as a starter and played in 65 games. 

2004

Seventh round pick T Kevin Sampson played in sixteen games over three seasons. Not much of a contributor though.

2005

Tackles Will Svitek and Jeremy Parquet were taken in the sixth and seventh rounds respectively.  Svitek was the only real contributor of the two - playing in 29 games over five seasons.  He was a role player at best and a backup at best. 

2006

Sixth round pick Tre Stallings played in one game as a Chief and didn't do much else after that. 

2007

T Herb Taylor had promise amongst Chiefs' fans but he's no longer a Chief. He played in 18 total games over two seasons before bouncing around the league.

2008

Sixth round pick T Barry Richardson is another fan favorite who hasn't done much beyond sixth round expectations. He's played in sixteen games over two seasons before being cut in September '09.

2009

Last year's draft test of this theory gets an incomplete. T Colin Brown was drafted in the fifth round by the Chiefs and never took the field, gettng on IR before the season started.

2010

Jon Asamoah is it. Will he buck this seventeen year trend and become a multi-year starter in KC? It's most definitely possible, especially with Brian Waters leaving soon. 

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Yep, it's a whole lot of nobodies outside of the first round of the NFL draft for the Chiefs. Asamoah has a long line of average players and busts to outperform to become the first Chief o-linemen in seventeen years to become a contributor.

You think he can do it? Before we've seen him play any downs or have any other info on him?