Arrowheadlines: Chiefs could go offense early in the NFL Draft

The latest

Draft preview: Chiefs will still look at offense. Here are prospects they might target | Kansas City Star

While the Chiefs head into Thursday’s NFL Draft perhaps without glaring needs offensively, that doesn’t leave them without ways to improve. If they elect to supplement that side of the football — and they will at some point during their five picks —here are three positions they can pinpoint and some players they could target at each.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire, LSU (5-7, 207 pounds). The size jumps out. Edwards-Helaire is just 5-foot-7. But the film leaves a similar lasting impression. He is an all-around talent who racked up 1,867 yards from scrimmage and 17 touchdowns for the national champions. He caught 55 passes last year alone, his only season as LSU’s starter. Some scouts actually see his size as having one advantage — he runs so low to the ground with physicality that he’s difficult to tackle.

The draft is filled with surprises, but Edwards-Helaire’s stock will be tougher to gauge than most. Are teams willing to take a chance on him early despite his size? The Chiefs might have just one sensible opportunity to pull the trigger — the 63rd overall pick in the second round.

Three-round 2020 NFL Mock Draft: Chargers pass on QB; Justin Herbert, Jordan Love fall to bottom of 1st round | CBS Sports

Round 1 - Pick 32

Cesar Ruiz OL

Kansas City

The Chiefs don’t have many needs, but Ruiz is the best center in the country and Austin Reiter is entering the final year of his deal in Kansas City.

Rhett Lewis 2020 NFL mock draft 1.0: Four WRs picked in top 15 | NFL.com

32

Trevon Diggs - CB

School: Alabama | Year: Senior

The Chiefs have one of the most talented offenses in the NFL. Let’s try to get the defense up to that level by bringing in Diggs from Alabama.

A Historical Look at the Chiefs’ Second-Round Draft Picks | The Mothership

Ten of Kansas City’s second-round picks since 1967 have earned a Pro Bowl nod with the Chiefs: Hardman (2019), wide receiver Dexter McCluster (2010), cornerback Brandon Flowers (2008), center Tim Grunhard (1990), Okoye (1987), linebacker Dino Hackett (1986), Delaney (1981), quarterback Mike Livingston (1968), linebacker Jim Lynch (1967) and Lanier (1967).

Buffalo Bills: Why the Chiefs traded with the Bills for Patrick Mahomes | Buffalo Low Down

Based on Miller’s commentary, it appears that the Chiefs, as well as the Houston Texans, were competing for Patrick Mahomes. The Texans were sitting at 12th overall and that is why the Buffalo Bills spot became of interest to the Chiefs as they were two picks ahead of the Texans.

It was also interesting to hear that the Chiefs were floating the idea out there that they wanted a linebacker, and not Patrick Mahomes, which at the time made sense. The Chiefs had a decent quarterback in Alex Smith, who just led the Chiefs to a 12-4 record, and was coming off a Pro Bowl season.

The fact that the Texans had Mahomes number one and reports starting coming out that the Kansas City Chiefs were trading up to select a linebacker, wouldn’t create any urgency on the Texans part to move up past 10.

Jordan Love-Patrick Mahomes Comparisons Are Lazy and Premature | 12 Up

Love is a solid prospect worthy of a first-round selection. His stats falling off from sophomore to junior year can be attributed to Matt Wells, an Air Raid guy, leaving for Texas Tech, while his top running backs, receivers and tight ends all graduated. Even with those numbers, he showed off some beautiful touch and confirmed he has a howitzer for a right arm. Having said that, he is NOT in Mahomes’ class as a prospect, nor is his ceiling that high.

He has some traits that Mahomes also possessed, but his athleticism and solid deep ball accuracy are more reminiscent of a player like Ryan Tannehill than the best quarterback in football.

Mahomes’ dominant season extends to store shelves | Kansas City Business Journal

But NFLPA list shows that Mahomes was the king when it came to other types of merchandise. His rankings included:

First in Hallmark Cards Inc. ornaments

First in Fathead wall decals and cutouts

First in Hawaiian-style shirts

At the head of the class for sales of bobbleheads

First in youth apparel from Outerstuff

Tops in sales of socks

Far ahead of the pack in sales of Wincraft pins, koozies, posters and stickers (three times more than No. 2 Baker Mayfield)

Around the NFL

Teams interested in Yannick Nkagoue were under impression he wasn’t available | Yahoo Sports

Buried in the highly entertaining back and forth between Jaguars owner Tony Khan and Jaguars defensive end Yannick Ngakoue lies an important nugget. Khan essentially has confirmed that Ngakoue is available, at the right price.

Per a league source, that’s a contrast from prior messages the team was sending. Multiple teams had been under the impression that the Jaguars weren’t inclined to trade Ngakoue, at all.

Ngakoue has made no secret of his desire to leave town, and it was believed when the Jaguars traded him that, like the Chiefs with Dee Ford and the Seahawks with Frank Clark in 2019, the tag was a precursor to a trade. But it didn’t happen and it hasn’t happened and if it’s going to happen this week, Ngakoue first needs to sign his franchise tender, which he hasn’t done.

Colleges with the most overall No. 1 picks in NFL Draft history | NCAA

Now, the Cincinnati Bengals are on the clock to open the 2020 draft and 2019 Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow is a likely option for the top pick. Should the Bengals take the LSU quarterback, he’d become the third Tiger to be drafted No. 1 overall. The selection of Murray in 2019 pulled Oklahoma into a tie with Notre Dame and Southern California for the most top picks in draft history. Here are the schools with the most No. 1 selections since the NFL Draft began in 1936.

The NFL’s virtual mock draft was a mess. The real one should be fun | SB Nation

At this stage, we’ve all made some jokes about what could happen during the NFL Draft, but what are the very real scenarios we might see on Thursday night?

The draft is disrupted by hackers.There isn’t much financial incentive in disrupting the NFL Draft, but it’s possible a group targets the league for publicity or to make a statement. Security vulnerabilities have been discovered in a wide variety of teleconferencing software, and that could become a major problem.

Colts’ Super Bowl V hero Mike Curtis dies at 77 | ESPN

Curtis was born March 27, 1943, in Rockville, Maryland. He played at Duke University before being the 14th overall pick as a fullback by the Baltimore Colts in 1965.

Mike Curtis’ interception late in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl V helped the Colts set up a game-winning field goal to beat Dallas. Focus on Sport/Getty Images

Curtis eventually moved to linebacker, where he was a four-time Pro Bowler, two-time First-Team All-Pro and AFC Defensive Player of the Year in 1970 with the Colts. Curtis had 21 interceptions, including two he returned for touchdowns, and eight fumble recoveries while starting 105 of the 125 games he played with the Colts during his 11 years with the organization.

49ers seeking potential deals for 2 first-round NFL draft picks, GM John Lynch says | ESPN

“I’m comfortable saying that there’s scenarios where we are going to be open at both of those picks to moving back,” Lynch said. “It’s out there for everyone to see. We have two firsts, and then we don’t have a pick until the fifth, where we have two picks, and then a sixth and two sevenths. So with those picks, there’s a big gap in there, so maybe you don’t want 10 [picks], but a couple more might be nice just to close that gap.”

As it stands, the 49ers aren’t slated to pick after No. 31 until No. 156. They traded their second-round pick to the Kansas City Chiefs last offseason for defensive end Dee Ford and sent picks in the third and fourth rounds to the Denver Broncos for wideout Emmanuel Sanders and a fifth-round choice at midseason.

New England Patriots release new uniforms for 2020 | NFL.com

Look familiar? It should. The Patriots are doing what the internet has asked them to do for the last two years: Make the sharp color rush alternate uniform the standard.

They did, but this isn’t simply a promotion of a color rush look to primary. New England has changed a few key details, including introducing an entirely new road uniform. Gone is the white jersey the Patriots have worn on the road since 2000, replaced by a new white shirt that mirrors the elements of the team’s popular (former) home alternate. Instead of running silver piping down the side of the home jerseys and over the shoulders and blue down the side and over the shoulders of the road tops, the Patriots are replacing the detail with cleaner triple shoulder stripes (commonly known as UCLA stripes) first shown in this century on the team’s throwback tops before being included on the color rush uniform. They’ll appear in a pattern of red-navy-red on the white jerseys in a detail that harkens back to the franchise’s earliest days in the AFL.

In case you missed it at Arrowhead Pride

The top five Chiefs draft classes of all-time

2. The 2017 draft

Significant selections: Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon, and running back Kareem Hunt

This ranking is all about quality over quantity. While most of the class has had minimal impact on the franchise, 2018 MVP and Super Bowl LIV MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes was taken 10th overall — and he has already solidified himself as the best draft selection in franchise history.

After decades of failure to draft a long-time quarterback, the Chiefs traded up 17 spots to secure the polarizing prospect from Texas Tech in 2017. The rarity of drafting a franchise quarterback makes the class as a whole one of the greatest.

Besides Mahomes, defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon played a key role down the stretch of last year’s championship season — and running back Kareem Hunt led the NFL in rushing as a rookie.

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