From the FanPosts. -Joel

Drafting players is always a bit of crapshoot in the NFL. In the early rounds GMs look for players with uncanny measureables or tremendous statistical production from the best college conferences. In rounds 4-7, teams have to make bets on smaller; slower players, kids who didn't go to dynasty schools; or perhaps were playing out of position.

Sometimes this gambles pay off. Chiefs fans are certainly spoiled in this regard. In recent years the last four rounds of the draft have produced a crop of bona fide studs such as Jared Allen (rd. 4), Brandon Carr (rd. 5), Kendrick Lewis (rd. 5) and Ryan Succop (last pick rd. 7). Many of these players, however, never pan out. After a few years of scraping the bottom of the roster or practice squad, they wash out of the league.

Scott Pioli took over as vice president of player personnel for the New England Patriots in 2002, giving us a nice ten year sample of late round draft selections. Let's see what trends we can uncover from the last decade of Pioli picks.

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Everyone has their own favorite players in the 2012 Draft. The Chiefs roster looks pretty good. At every position we have a player that most of us would feel comfortable starting week 1. But there are still openings on the final 53 man roster at several positions. I took a look back at Steve_Chiefs excellent post Numbers to get a better idea of what positions need to be filled via the Draft or as a stopgap—the second round of free agency.

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With the Draft a week away, I'm pretty tired of rehashing the same discussions about the same few players over and over again. When the dust settles and the blue-chip guys are all gone, the Chiefs, like every other team will start selecting project players in later rounds. Many of whom even the most diehard fans have never heard of.

One selection in last year's draft class caught me completely by surprise: 5b Gabe Miller, DE Oregon State.

One of the fastest ends in the Pac-10 Conference ... recorded the fasted 10-yard dash time on the team during testing last spring ... originally a tight end, but made the move to the defensive side prior to the 2009 season ... co-team captain.

Let's take a closer at the selection that completely befuddled me and the Draft pundits:

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Reading Mock Draft post #31,592 the other day, I was about to comment that I wouldn't be mad about drafting a defensive end in the first round. My understanding is that finding players big, tall and athletic enough to excel at the 5-technique defensive end position in a 3-4 defense are rare, so historically they're drafted early.

I then realized that I had no idea if that were actually true. So I bit my tongue and didn't post the reply. Instead I did a little digging to try to determine if my opinion was borne out by the facts.

My Hypothesis:

5-technique DEs prospects require a rare blend of size, strength and athleticism in order to excel in the NFL.

Because players who possess these traits are rare, they are typically drafted early.

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From the FanPosts. This is an awesome post. Great work. -Joel

For many football fans, free agency and the NFL draft are just as much fun as the games themselves.

With all the talk about free agents and news on prospects from the NFL Combine, I thought I'd re-post some quotes from Michael Holley's book "War Room" that give some insight into the way Scott Pioli and Bill Belichick evaluated players in New England and covers Pioli's first few drafts here in Kansas City.

Special thanks to brahmabull43, who made the original post back in November.

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We all had high hopes. We have a talented young football with dynamic playmakers at many key positions. The opening day loss to the Buffalo Bills was tough. I hate losing, especially at home, especially to Tim Tebow and the Broncos. I'm disappointed, but I'm not losing my head.

After a season like this, somebody will get fired—somebody should get fired. But I don't think that somebody should be Todd Haley, here's why...

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From The FanPosts -Joel

Everyone but the most starry-eyed homer knows that the Kansas City Chiefs over-achieved last season. It was clear skies and blue water sailing because two of the biggest factors in last year's 10-6 campaign were ones that are impossible to predict and control: injuries and turnovers.

While it's easy to find things to dislike about the Week 1 beating behind the woodshed that the Bills handed us, it's important to acknowledge that injuries and turnovers played a role in it. Statistically we were due for an uptick in both.

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Quarterbacks will get hurt.

We were lucky that Matt Cassel, QB #7 only missed a single game this past season, thereby limiting the damage done by Brodie Croyle. With Brodie's inability to win single game in his NFL career most fans agree it's time to acquire new options for Matt Cassel's replacement/backup.

A recent trend in the league has been to sign former starters to back up their QBs. This has worked well for teams like the Dallas Cowboys (Jon Kitna), Cleveland Browns (Seneca Wallace), Baltimore Ravens (Marc Bulger), Pittsburgh Steelers (Charlie Batch, Byron Leftwich) and Detroit Lions (Shaun Hill).

Are there any veteran free agent QBs who might tempt Pioli? After all it might save a pick for a mid-late round gem.

For the sake of fairness we'll look at the Chiefs options sans names after the jump.

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The NT vs. SOLB draft debate got me wondering what the biggest hole in our defense is.

I wanted to see an apples-to-apples comparison of all the 3-4 SOLBs in the league. All the attention gets paid to the flashy WOLBs generating the sack numbers. In fact you'll see that the two 3-4 SOLBs who made the 2011 Pro Bowl did so because of their sack numbers not because of their all-around defensive play.

The results really surprised me...

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Much has been made of the injury to Detroit Lion safety Louis Delmas. The popular opinion around here is that we trade Jarrad Page to the Lions for a middle round pick.

But with DaJuan Morgan currently running with the 3rd team he looks vulnerable in deep and talented backfield. Could Detroit simply scoop him up off the waiver wire if we cut him?

via i33.tinypic.com

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Is Tyson Jackson living up to his potential as a 3-4 defensive end and Top 3 pick?

After reading the article about Tyson Jackson being one the 50 highest-earning American athletes made me think about his performance up until now. 

It seems like most people in the press consider T. Jax's rookie performance lackluster, with a few more controversial bloggers and writers throwing around the dreaded B-U-S-T word. 

Let's compare his performance to that of some historically good modern era 3-4 DEs. 

via i27.tinypic.com

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via blog.cleveland.com

Every GM has to gamble a little. There are big-name blue-chip pro-bowlers who never play at a high level again and injury prone journeyman players who click with a team and win championships. Measuring risk and making smart gambles is why Scott Pioli makes the big bucks.

Which brings us to Shaun Smith. A lot of us on AP were disappointed that the Chiefs didn't draft a nose tackle. There was however, a certain degree of relief when Pioli picked up veteran NT Shaun Smith from Cincinnati. Unfortunately there's a good chance that Shaun Smith is Mike Goff 2.0

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via cdn.picapp.com

The Washington Redskins traded a third or fourth round pick for Saints offensive tackle Jammal Brown. He's only 29 and went to the Pro Bowl in 2006 and 2008. He hadn't missed a game in his NFL career until a hip and sports hernia knocked him out of all 16 games last year.

Should Scott Pioli have tried to make a move on Jammal Brown?

Obviously this is trade involves a certain degree of risk and the Redskins aren't exactly known for their personnel moves. But not too long ago Jammal Brown was the guy people mentioned as the prototypical left tackle.

The guy is a mountain with ballerina feet. In the 2008 season he was best run blocking left tackle in the NFL and only allowed 3 sacks. Because he's quick and has high football intelligence he's considered an ideal tackle for a zone blocking scheme.

Knowing that tackles can play well into their 30s, could Brown have been the answer to the Chiefs leaky RT position Ryan O'Callaghan's been holding down?

Hell wouldn't he be nice insurance policy if Branden Albert got hurt?

If anyone has any insight into the extent of his injuries that would make for some lively discussion too.