Kansas City Chiefs hope to correct Knile Davis' fumbling issues

The first round is for players who are going to be stars. The second round is where you find more starters and role players. The third round is when, as this National Football Post article says, you roll the dice on a player. The Kansas City Chiefs did just that with Travis Kelce and Knile Davis, both third round picks. You can debate how much of a roll of the dice either one was.

Chiefs GM John Dorsey spoke to the National Football Post's Dan Pompei about those selections and I found one nugget in there very interesting. The question mark on Davis entering the draft was, among other things, his fumbling problems.

According to Dorsey, that's something the Chiefs were aware of and investigated.

So before the draft, he spoke with three or four running back gurus who told him they thought Davis' ball security problems were correctable. One of them was Chiefs running backs coach Eric Bieniemy.

"Eric liked the kid a lot, felt very confident in him," Dorsey said. "I have a lot of trust in Eric, how he motivates men, his teaching."

I can only hope that Dorsey talked to the same person responsible for fixing Tiki Barber's fumbling problems. Barber had a fumbling issue early on in his career but was able to put that past him. He remains the best example of someone correcting this issue. Several years ago, Barber was asked about curing his fumble-itis, and he said: It's mechanical. You have to figure out how to incentive-ize guys to do it. Coach Coughlin was great with me."

More to the point: "If you fumble, you're not playing," Barber told the Boston Herald three years ago. "That was easy."

I suspect Andy Reid, like all NFL coaches, hates fumbling.

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