Now that I’ve had a couple days to stew and rant to whoever would listen, I think I’m off the ledge. Our first-round pick, while not ideal, wasn’t a Glenn Dorsey-style blind throw at a dartboard. Scott Pioli has a very specific plan, and I’m reasonably confident Tyson Jackson will help see that plan to fruition. That doesn’t mean I’m happy.
My problem isn’t with Tyson Jackson. I’m sure he’ll be a good player, and the Chiefs believe they need him to fill a role vital to their new 3-4 defense. Fine. But we could’ve had Jackson 10 picks later, maybe more. Pioli says nobody was calling, but he spent the last week talking about bold trades and decisive action. Surely the plan wasn’t to just sit by the phone and wait for someone to call. What is he, the fat chick on prom night? Why wasn’t he the one making calls? The mad scientist/trade guru image looks laughable in hindsight.
Apparently, Pioli just isn’t a risk-taker. That’s not necessarily a terrible thing, but what he was saying certainly contradicts what he actually did. If he really was a bold genius, there were moves to be made. I still think the best play would’ve been to draft Mark Sanchez and wait for the offers to come rolling in. The Jets were obviously dying to get him. They would’ve given us whatever we wanted. We certainly could’ve gotten at least what they gave Cleveland. Then we could’ve used their first round pick to draft Jackson and picked up a bonus second rounder, maybe more. Worst-case scenario we hang on to Sanchez for a year. We all saw what happened last year with the Browns and Brady Quinn. There was talk of teams giving up 2 first rounders for Quinn before he’d ever even stepped onto the field. Eventually we would’ve been able to reap a rich bounty had we drafted Sanchez. Instead we got a run-stuffer.
Actually, we got 2 run-stuffers. We used our third round pick on Purdue DT Alex Magee. I’m not gonna lie, this pick pissed me off. Lord knows we’ve seen enough picks wasted on defensive linemen the last few years. Check this out:
“To make it in the pros, Magee needs to add a lot more power to his frame. Otherwise, when he misses a beat off the snap he can be pushed around. Will sometimes allow blockers into his chest. Gets completely immobilized by double teams. Inconsistent effort and will go long stretches without making an impact.”
Oops. That could’ve sounded better. Obviously, I’m not high on Magee. But his selection is interesting for what it tells us. Apparently, our new decision-makers have deemed that EPK construction’s previous glut of defensive line picks are a bunch of junk. Hardly surprising. If they thought the Flab Four (Dorsey, Turk, Tank and Hali) were even average they would’ve used at least 1 of their first 2 picks to address one of our many other needs. I always said the most exciting part of having a new coach and GM was getting a fresh set of eyes on all Herm’s “young talent”. Well, those eyes are here, and they’re seeing exactly what we’ve always seen. Hali and Turk are working with the linebackers and Dorsey needs to get into better shape if he even wants to “contribute” (Haley’s words). The verdict is in: EPK construction’s biggest project was a massive failure. I’m hoping drafting Jackson and Magee was an indicator of an intention to trade Glenn Dorsey, but its much more likely just an indication that he sucks.
I’ll say this: Kone Dawg was right about Pioli’s draft strategy. If he believes these are his guys, then he was right to pick them. He can’t let the previous clowns’ ineptitude prevent him from picking who he wants. But oh boy were these picks telling. It seems Pioli and Haley’s opinions of EPK’s drafting are exactly the same as ours. I guess thats something.
Tune in tomorrow night for my recap of our late-round picks. It’s actually a little more positive than this one.
Also, in an unrelated note, check out Whitlock’s thoughts on Herm’s draft-day commentary. Pretty hilarious. I spent the entire weekend wanting to punch Herm in the face, but I think the mental anguish inflicted by a few of Frey’s fake punches would do more damage than any actual punch of mine ever could.
5 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
The best part of the chiefs 2009 draft is the fact that we added two more guys who can eat up blocks. This means we now have between 12-15 guys who just eat the shit out of blocks. If you think about it, we now have so many block eaters that opposing offenses are going to have one hell of a time blocking our guys. Which in theory will free up the rest of our defenders.
The donald washington pick says one thing, bye-bye maurice legget.
The colin brown (man mountain) pick was another reach. But i am kind of turned on by the running back and the wr/returner they drafted late.
My grade for the ‘09 chiefs draft F+
Solid Boom.
Magee? I don’t get it. At all. This is an undersized DT, who can play “both positions”. How about we go get a huge DT to play DT, and we get good 3-4 ends to play DE? Crazy enough for you guys? I don’t want ‘hybrid’s” or “combo’s” or “versatile” or “tweeners”. I want fucking DT’s to take on 2 blockers, and DE to get upfield so our LB’s can come off the edge. Let’s work on that. What the hell does Magee offer us at DT? This guy better be a full time DE (as should Jackson) when we are in the 3-4. I know they are still talking about doing some 4-3, so I can see him and Dorsey playing some DT here, but I just wish we would pick a system and roll with it. Yeah, I get having options, but do you really think Magee and Dorsey will be effective ends in a 3-4 and effective tackles in a 4-3. Seriously? Sounds like a CABG philosophy.
Donald Washington is tall and could jump over Katz without any steps. But can he play football? He didn’t even start for OSU as a junior last year and decided to come out early…Interesting. Especially because Pioli strikes me as a guy who take players based on film and not on the combine. Oh well, prolly better than Leggett.
I like the Colin Brown pick (obviouis MU bias) just because I hate Sackmyqbtosh. 6′7″ 340 lbs – Obviously the size is there. He was also 2 time all big 12 at Mizzou, so he is more than just size. Hopefully he can be an impact player like my boi Will Franklin was last year.
Can’t wait to see our “power back” steal from the 7th round. Peace out LJ, we’ve upgraded bitch.
Who names there kid dietpepsi? LJ ain’t going nowere. He’s still got game. Allow me to make a prediction: Larry will be the best running back in the leege next year.
Chuck E.
Anyone care to venture a guess as to who Chuck E. Chiefs is? It’s a pretty funny answer. I don’t want to give it away for fear of ruining the joke, but if one of you gets it right I’ll text you and let you know.
BoomBoom’s hilarious vent reflects some frustrations we’re all feeling right now I’m sure. All we can hope is that these guys ACTUALLY eat up blocks, as opposed to fake eating up blocks (see Dorsey, Glenn). We’ve been poisoned against that phrase because it was a go-to lie for the Lie Guys, but if we really did have some players who initiated* double-teams that could be useful.
*players rarely simply “command” double-teams. You can be sure most offenses don’t plan on using 2 guys to block one player very often. They only have so many blockers. This is one of the many reasons Herm’s assertion that Dorsey was drawing double-teams was absurd. If a player is getting doubled, its because he’s forcing the offense to do it during a play, even though they would obviously prefer not to**. One way to do this is to beat your guy on the pass rush. Thats the obvious way. The less obvious way is to attack the guy next to the guy who is blocking you. For instance, if you’re lined up across from the guard, attack the center next to him. This is hard to do and requires a lot of strength or else the man in front of you, “your man” as it were, can push you over. But if you can pull it off, you’re essentially forcing the second man to commit to you and deny his other responsibility. I would imagine this is what the Chiefs have in mind for Tyson Jackson. We’ll see if it works out.
**When an offense calls a play, do you really think that play was ever drawn up to include 2 guys blocking one guy? Lets not forget that these are plays drawn up by an offensive coordinator. He’s not gonna create many plays that immediately limit his available blocking resources. Those plays would fail. So its not like the QB is like, “OK, we’re running red 63, now don’t forget to double team____”. It’s forced by the action. The only time a double-team would veer be called is if a pass-rusher was just owning some poor scrub (mcIntosh) and he needed some help.
DP, I have a response to your comment, but its very long and will likely require its own post. Rest assured though, its coming.
i heard defenses will occasionally call a double-team on big mac so that a third guy has a chance to get to the quarterback. is this true?