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Here are my quick thoughts on the non-Poe portions of our draft. Mostly, this is just summarizing...

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Here are my quick thoughts on the non-Poe portions of our draft. Mostly, this is just summarizing what I've read here and elsewhere around the web, so there's not much original content here. * OG Jeff Allen (Rd 2) - I'm hearing lots of praise for this pick. OurLads.com had him as the #2 guard in the draft, Mike Lombardi (nfl.com) lists him as his top value pick in this draft, and even Mel Kiper liked the pick (though it's unclear what Kiper's hair thought). Also, Allen played OT in college, but they've already said he's going to play guard for us. He projects as our top backup guard this year, and the eventual successor to Ryan Lilja. * OT Donald Stephenson (Rd 3) - The general buzz is that he's raw, but he has the upside to be a good starting tackle in the NFL. If he turns into that, that's a bargain in the 3rd round. For now, he's probably competing with David Mims to be our top backup tackle. Also, he's a local kid, having gone to Central and Blue Springs for high school. * WR Devon Wylie (Rd 4) - He's short, fast, quick, and white - so yes, he's this year's "next Wes Welker." He's had some injury issues in college, but if he can stay healthy, he'd give us some speed and quickness out of the slot. (Some folks have pointed out this is what Dexter McCluster was drafted for, too, so maybe this is the Chiefs' admission that McCluster is a RB, not a slot receiver.) * CB De'Quan Menzie (Rd 5) - Although he played CB in college, he'll probably be our nickel safety, probably specializing in covering opposing TE's. In other words, he'll take over Jon McGraw's role in our defense. There seems to be some sentiment that we got good value here, with Menzie dropping in the draft due to a slow 40-yard time at the Combine. (Interestingly enough, Kendrick Lewis also dropped to us in the 5th round after a slow 40-yard time at the Combine.) * RB Cyrus Gray (Rd 6) - Supposed to be a good all-around back with good size. I'm thinking he's the Jackie Battle replacement as our 4th RB (behind Charles, Hillis, and McCluster). SB Nation likes this pick and has him as our sleeper pick. * DT Jerome Long (Rd 7) - I know nothing about this guy, and I've heard almost nothing since he's been drafted. The one thing I saw was that he's a DE in our 3-4 (instead of DT). * WR Junior Hemmingway (Rd 7) - Supposedly, he has the upside to be a good big-body WR in the NFL. What hurt his draft-stock was playing in a run-heavy offense at Michigan. The other thing of note is that combined with Dontari Poe, 610 Sports was calling this our "author" draft. Buh-dum-dum. So overall, I think my early take is I like this draft. Yes, it was a needs-driven draft (despite all the pre-draft talk about how we were going to just take the best player available), but I still think we got some good players, and there seems to be reasonable upside in this draft. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that by 2014, this draft might have produced our starting NT, two starting offensive linemen, our starting slot receiver and primary deep threat, and our nickel safety. I would call that a very good draft.