Welcome to your Kansas City Chiefs-specific big board

As the draft season draws to a close, most analysts scurry around trying to fill out one, final mock draft.

Everyone jams in last-minute additions on film or grades and spend an absurd amount of time reading into other teams’ press conferences to try and decipher what is real and not real.

I am guilty of all of this too. But I have another tradition—finalizing a big board and twisting it up to make it specific to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Rather than list my generic top 150-plus players in a big block, which you may find in The KC Draft Guide, I organize the board horizontally. This sorts players into groups or tiers rather than a hard numerical ranking and allows you to quickly and easily see how that player stacks up in their position group or how that position group stacks up against others.

Maybe it’s a year that has five EDGE players in the first round but only two cornerbacks; rather than sifting through 20 players’ names and counting for yourself, this layout is more easily digestible.

It doesn’t just end there for me, as I try to tailor it to the Chiefs as closely as possible. I then go through the Chiefs’ depth chart and place all the players on the active roster into the same big board so that during the draft it’s a quick and easy find to see how the current roster and depth align.

See a current Chief ranked ahead of a prospect at a position that doesn’t need multiple players? Then you are less likely to covet that prospect over other players that are in the same tier.

The process

To get to this point, the prospect’s grade undergoes a few different conversions that differ from his initial grade. Using the player grades from The KC Draft Guide, I started with a players’ raw grade and then they went through a positional-value algorithm to help emphasize the positions we feel are more important in today’s NFL.

(Note: A position where this becomes very noticeable is interior offensive line. Players that have first-round grades tend to slide down about half a round on average from where their raw grade initially placed them.)

Once positional value is applied, there are two team-fit sweeps made to further asses value.

• The first is broad, position-wide adjustments made to position groups the Chiefs are either lacking on their current roster or have shown interest in throughout the pre-draft process.
• The second sweep is made player by player adjusting those that have the skills and traits that align with what the Chiefs’ covet at that position. Given that there is some newer blood and that we can’t be in the room with the Chiefs, both of these adjustments are made more on a personal feel and thought process than an analytical one.

(Note: A position group that has effects from both of these adjustments is the cornerback position. As a whole, the position group got a slight, less-than-a-half-a-round bump, just from the Chiefs’ need for help there. The second adjustment—scheme fit—helped players like Justin Layne, who show more prowess for zone coverage than David Long, who played almost exclusively in man coverage.)

Finally, the current rostered players are added in with a slightly-adjusted grading scale to account for the development they have already undergone or started to undergo in the NFL.

The board

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Here is a direct link to the Google document that has both the offensive and defensive big big boards, as well as both grading scales used in the process.

The link should stay live and allow anyone to view it, my plan during the draft is to update it by crossing out players that are taken. It serves not only as a way to track the draft but also gives a live value at which players are going when the Chiefs are picking.

Noteworthy players

Guys I’m higher on than most:

Hakeem Butler - WR - Iowa State

Foster Moreau - TE - LSU

Cody Ford - OL - Oklahoma

Connor McGovern - IOL - Penn State

Porter Gustin - EDGE - USC

Trysten Hill - IDL - UCF

Chris Slayton - IDL Syracuse

Jahlani Tavai - LB - Hawaii

Sean Bunting - CB - Central Michigan

Saquan Hampton - S - Rutgers

Guys I’m lower on than most:

Darrell Henderson - RB - Memphis

Marquise Brown - WR - Oklahoma

JJ Arcega-Whiteside - WR - Stanford

Jace Sternberger - TE - Mississippi State

Greg Little - OT - Ole Miss

Montez Sweat - EDGE - Mississippi State

Charles Omenihu - EDGE - Texas

Amani Oruwariye - CB - Penn State

David Long - CB - Michigan

Taylor Rapp - S - Washington

The Chiefs will likely have a quiet night Thursday, but Friday should be a ton of fun.

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KC Draft Guide

With the Chiefs not drafting until day two of the NFL Draft, for now, make sure you familiarize yourself with some day-two guys. You can find all the information you need in the first-ever edition of the KC Draft Guide! You can purchase it for only $9.99!

We have over 225 prospect write-ups like this one, with specifics about how prospects fit the Chiefs. There are more than 300 grades on players, mock drafts, positional rankings and features — all specific to the Chiefs. Grab your copy by clicking here!