Mel Kiper, Todd McShay don't think Kansas City Chiefs 2015 draft was driven by needs

Best player available or best player available at a position of need? That's the question we ask before the NFL Draft with fans usually focusing in on the best player available at a position of need. The Kansas City Chiefs 2015 draft class seemed to hit on needs throughout the draft, at least the needs we thought the team had. So that has many of us thinking that the Chiefs did factor need into their draft picks.

ESPN's Mel Kiper and Todd McShay, who spoke with the media following the draft, don't think the Chiefs draft was necessarily needs-driven.

"I don't think they did," Kiper said. "I saw wide receiver was their key need, and they didn't take one at 18 or 49. They waited until the third round to take Chris Conley and then the seventh round to take Da'Ron Brown. I thought it was a really good pick for Brown in round seven. I thought maybe wide receiver earlier so I think they went with a corner and then a swing man in (Mitch) Morse and then took the wide receiver. They didn't force need to go wide receiver. Had they forced it, they would have taken wideout in round one more than likely."

"I had wide receiver, inside linebacker, offensive line, basically offensive tackle and guard / center as the two and three combination there and then corner would've been the fourth and fifth," McShay said. "And then they ended up drafting two corners in the first four picks. Maybe we were off on the needs a little bit. I just thought they were a little higher on their younger guys in Phillip Gaines and (Jamell) Fleming. I know Sean Smith enters a contract season and they only had six interceptions last year. Clearly, it was a need but I didn't think it was something they were chasing necessarily."

The Chiefs seem to place a higher priority on cornerback than receiver. In John Dorsey's time in Kansas City, the Chiefs signed free agent cornerbacks Dunta Robinson and Sean Smith to multi-year contracts. They have spent a first round pick (Marcus Peters) and third round picks (Phillip Gaines, Steven Nelson) on cornerbacks. They just now seriously addressed the receiver with Jeremy Maclin and draft picks in the third and seventh rounds. It could be that we just overrated what the Chiefs thought about their own needs at receiver.