Chiefs Draftmas List

EDGE Dorance Armstrong, Kansas | EDGE Hercules Mata’afa, Washington State | Guard Isaiah Wynn, Georgia | Safety Kyzir White, West Virginia | WR D.J. Moore, Maryland | S Jessie Bates III, Wake Forest | Jaire Alexander, Louisville | Tarvarus McFadden, Florida State | TE Mike Gesicki, Penn State | DL Tim Settle, Virginia Tech | EDGE Josh Sweat, Florida State | EDGE Kylie Fitts, Utah

Well, this offseason hasn’t been boring.

If you read my article last week, you know I liked the idea of Sammy Watkins. I was a little surprised at the figures, but still, he’s a perfect fit. Good luck trying to cover Watkins, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. Oh, and two powerful running backs. A lot of pressure is off Patrick Mahomes, so now he can just go out there and play. It’s going to be hard to not have a favorable matchups for him or the run game to exploit.

It sounds like Zach Fulton and Albert Wilson are getting paid. Good for them, and good for the Chiefs’ compensatory formula. Any big contracts give them a chance at some compensation. Those two are likely canceled out by signing Anthony Hitchens and Watkins, but getting two on the ledger for the formula helps them with squeeze a few out of the equation when it’s all said and done. I still expect a net negative return, thus an extra pick or two. I’m as anxious to see how the free agency period plays out from here on out.

We’re a little over six weeks away from Draftmas. Things are really going to be heating up here in a couple weeks. I’ll be here with a weekly Draftmas article like this one, and a new episode of the AP Chiefs Draft Show (now available on iTunes as well) every Friday until the big weekend.

Another defensive prospect to the Draftmas List this week. This week’s addition is a draft crush of one of our fellow draft nerds:

Justin Reid, Safety

Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

6’ 207, Stanford

Projected Draft Range: second round

Games watched: Rice, San Diego State, Utah, Oregon

Prospect grade (out of 100): 86.3

I would take him in the: early second round

One sentence bio: Early entry into the draft whose brother is current NFL free agent safety Eric Reid

One sentence scouting report: Fluid, athletic, smart safety who can be asked to do a lot of different things on the field.

One play (courtesy of @ChiefinCarolina who definitely doesn’t have any other aliases he goes by on a Chiefs blog):

Why he fits in KC: This is KelceKrazies’ son. I’m a huge fan of him as well, hence the near-first-round grade I have on him. Reid might be a guy that pushed himself out of range of the Chiefs in the second round after posting a 96th percentile SPARQ score at the Combine. However, someone a lot of us like will probably be available at 54. It happens every year. With safety not always being the most valued position, it very well could be a guy like Reid.

Reid can do a lot of different things on the field. He’s a freakish do-it-all kind of player that is still young and can develop into a very good all-around defender.

He can play single-high, as a nickel and near the line of scrimmage. Whatever you need him to do, Reid should be able to provide it. Positional versatility is much needed for the Chiefs, especially at the safety position. Bob Sutton likes to use his safeties in a variety of ways, and Reid is an ideal chess piece, especially in coverage. I wish the Chiefs had Reid last year. He would’ve been able to help fill the void left by Eric Berry better than anyone on the 2017 roster.

Reid is smart, especially in the pass game. He was a little more susceptible and late to react to play action than you’d like, but overall, he’s able to position himself well enough to make plays on the ball. He can take inconsistent angles at times, and isn’t an overly physical hitter, but those aren’t glaring weaknesses.

If the safety position isn’t valued highly in this draft, and there’s a run on, say, quarterbacks and offensive lineman, the Chiefs could be positioned to find great value with a guy like Justin Reid. I personally might even be willing to move up a few spots for him if he fell into the 40s.