3 Scenarios for the Chiefs' 2012 Draft

Well it's finally here. After what felt like months of speculation and mountains of mock drafts, probably because that's what there was, round one of the crazy, one-of-a-kind circus of the 2012 NFL Draft is here. In less than an hour, war rooms will be making the kinds of decisions that will make or break entire franchises for years to come. We'll see Pro Bowlers, Super Bowl MVPs, and maybe even a Hall of Famer or two picked over the next few days. For fans, it's like Christmas morning. For the prospects, it's a great chance to wear the most expensive and ridiculous suits they will ever own, as well as compete in the annual "Who Can Wear the Biggest Watch" tournament. My money's on Dontari Poe. I wouldn't be surprised if he shows up with a grandfather clock strapped to his arm.

Anyway, on to my predictions before they become useless. Presented here are three different full-draft scenarios I can foresee the Chiefs pursuing.

Scenario #1

1. G David DeCastro

2. NT Alameda Ta'amu

3. WR Marvin McNutt

4. TE Michael Egnew

5. FS Trenton Robinson

6. RB Terrance Ganaway

7a. CB Omar Bolden

7b. T James Carmon

For the first time in years, the Chiefs have no glaring weaknesses on the roster. I'd be pretty happy going into next season with what we've got right now. That means that we are in a position to just draft the best player available at each of our picks. #11 overall may seem high for a guard, but DeCastro is one of the most polished, can't-miss prospects in the whole draft. He could step in and be a day one starter, helping solidify our O-Line as one of the best young lines in the AFC. Ta'amu in the second provides a massive bulk to plug in at nose tackle, capable of stuffing the run and eating up double teams so our linebackers can make plays. McNutt is a big, tough receiver who is a little faster than he looks. He'd provide good depth and competition to the WR corps, and we all know that Pioli loves Iowa guys. Egnew was kind of a homer pick, sure, but he was an absolute beastmaster his junior year. He fell off a little last year as James Franklin and the rest of the offense found its stride, but the talent is clearly there. If he'd come out last year, I wonder if he'd have been a 2nd or 3rd rounder? Paired with Moeaki, the Chiefs would have two legitimate receiving threats at TE. Ask the Patriots' opponents from last season how big of a weapon that can be. Robinson is a versatile safety from Michigan State who can contribute to stopping the running game as well as showing good coverage skills, especially in a zone. He would be a special teams starter and help bolster a safety squad that looked pretty thin last year after Berry went down. Ganaway is an interesting prospect because he's so big. He could bulk up a little and become a fullback, or shed some weight and become a big bruising RB to complement Jamaal Charles's speed. Either way he'd be useful for KC. Bolden is a bit of a risk. He has the talent to start and would likely have been a first rounder this year if not for a torn ACL in Spring practice that made him miss the whole 2011 season. If he's healthy, he has the speed and intelligence to make it as a 1 or 2 CB in the NFL and can return kicks as well. He's worth taking a 7th round flier on. Carmon is an absolutely enormous human being at 6'7, 330 lbs. with a huge wingspan to help shield the edge against outside pass rushers. He's raw, but he works hard and as the tired old saying goes, you can't teach size. I'd love him as a project pick to be coached into a starting role in a year or two.

Scenario #2

1. MLB Luke Kuechly

2. G Kevin Zeitler

3. NT Josh Chapman

4. OLB Jonathan Massaquoi

5. T Joe Long

6. CB Isaiah Frey

7a. RB Davin Meggett

7b. WR Devon Wylie

Kuechly was a friggin' machine at Boston College. Input hate, output tackles. He piled up ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE TACKLES in 2011, bringing his career total to 532. In three years. Insane. But he doesn't just hit; he also has the speed and instincts to be useful in pass coverage, and he brings intelligence and leadership qualities to the table as well. He's the best LB in the draft and is as much of a sure thing safe pick as DeCastro would be at G. He would be an instant upgrade over Jovan Belcher in the middle, and would likely be the heart and soul of the defense in a year or two. A real quarterback of the defense type. Zeitler in the second provides a lot of the things that DeCastro does, but his ceiling is lower. He'd still be a great prospect to groom as the starting left guard in 2013, if he didn't beat Ryan Lilja out for the job this year, which would be a distinct possibility. Lilja has lost a step and would be better as a backup at this advanced stage of his career. Chapman, like Ta'amu, gives the Chiefs another option for the rotation at nose tackle. He's stout against the run, but his pass rush leaves some to be desired. That's okay, in our scheme his job is just to be an immovable object that occupies as many blockers as possible. Massaquoi is a quick, explosive OLB that can get to the QB. The Super Bowl champion Giants have shown us that you truly can never have enough pass rushers, and the Chiefs were pretty pathetic in that regard last year until Justin Houston came on and put up five sacks in the last five games. Joe Long is the little brother of one of the best tackles in the NFL, Miami's Jake Long. He won't ever be as good as big bro, but he's a good prospect in his own right. He was the Division II lineman of the year, started 45 straight games for Wayne State, and would be a good project with a fairly high ceiling. Frey was a solid cover corner for Nevada. He could start on special teams right away and help out in nickel and dime packages, with upside to be a starter later if things break right for him. Davin Meggett is the son of former NFL kick return ace Dave Meggett. He's a bowling ball, weighing as much as the ridiculously-jacked Trent Richardson despite being listed three inches shorter. He'd be Thomas Jones's replacement, providing the thunder to Charles's lightning. Wylie is a guy that stuck out to me when I was watching the NFL Combine. He had great speed and hands, made a couple of incredible catches in the drills, and looked really confident. As a stats-guy, I don't go in much for gut reactions, but he just looked like he belonged. He would be a nightmare to cover in the slot and as a kick returner.

Scenario #3

1. NT Dontari Poe

2. OL Kelechi Osemele

3. QB Brandon Weeden

4. RB Robert Turbin

5. CB Coryell Judie

6. DE/OLB Frank Alexander

7a. TE/FB Drake Dunsmore

7b. MLB Vontaze Burfict

This draft scenario is incredibly unlikely. Pioli isn't known for going after high-risk/high-reward types in the draft, and he loves high character guys. Practically every one of these guys could be in the Pro Bowl in three years, or selling insurance. I mostly did this one for fun. I'm not entirely sure that Dontari Poe is human. He's 6'5, 350 lbs., but he ran the 40 yard dash in 4.87 seconds. That's otherworldly. If you don't believe me, go ahead and time yourself running 40 yards from a dead stop. He's twice your size and probably twice as fast as you. He also benched 220 lbs. FORTY-FOUR times. The knock on him is production. Despite being supernaturally fast and strong, it didn't really translate into a lot on the football field. Still, if some coach teaches him how to harness his powers for good, watch out. Osemele is another big fella who could back up any position on the offensive line. He played left tackle for Iowa State, but his best fit in the NFL is probably at guard. Everybody knows the story about Weeden. If he weren't a senior citizen, he'd be a top 10 pick. This may be true, but if he picks up the game quickly at the NFL level, he could be Kurt Warner 2.0. He has the arm strength and accuracy to do it. Chiefs fans who wanted Peyton Manning wouldn't have much to say against this pick since Weeden is eight years (and five neck surgeries) younger than him. Turbin is very fast and strong, but he played against weak competition at Utah State. Still, if he puts it all together he could be an all-purpose workhorse RB--a steal in the 4th round. Judie is a bigger CB who can cover some of the tall WRs in the AFC West, but he still has the speed to keep up with the burners. He has injury concerns, and since he missed big games last season, I'm not sure what he would have done against top flight talent like Justin Blackmon. Alexander is a bit of a tweener. He was productive as a DE for Oklahoma, but he's too small to fit there in the NFL, especially not for the Chiefs' 3-4 scheme. If we took him I'd see us converting him into a pass rushing OLB like we did with Tamba Hali. Dunsmore is a guy that can wear a lot of different hats: FB, TE, H-back... he is big, can block, has decent speed, and can catch the ball. He could be used in a similar fashion to how the Redskins used Chris Cooley. Finally, we have Burfict. Before last season started, anyone would have laughed at me putting him as barely getting drafted at all in the back end of the 7th round, but he has a lot of issues. First of all, he has trouble keeping his focus on the field. It results in a lot of bad penalties and obvious personal fouls, as well as blown coverages. He also showed up to the Combine in terrible shape, looked awful in drills, and was as impressive in interviews as Will Farrell and John C. Reilly were in Step Brothers. In other words, the guy is stupid. But good lord is he frightening sometimes on the field. He hits like he wants to put the ballcarrier in the hospital if not an early grave, and when his head is in the game, he flashes incredible instincts. Burfict's future is in the Hall of Fame, or behind bars. I don't see much of an in-between for him. If dropped into the perfect situation, with strong veteran leadership and coaching to keep him in line and develop his ridiculous raw ability, he'll be mentioned in the same breath as Tom Brady as far as all-time great draft steals.

RNTKY: April 11-22, 2012

Well, that didn't take long. Much like the Royals, I came out talking a big game, guns a-blazing. I was going to to a recap of every single one of the 162 games this season. But then, they lost in historically excruciating fashion in their third game against the A's, got humiliated in their home opener two days later, the Blues started their playoff series against San Jose, I moved back to Columbia, and somewhere in all that, writing about the Royals got lost in the shuffle. The losses started piling up, each one seemingly more pathetic than the last, and it became an increasingly daunting task to recap them all. But at this stage in my writing career, I need to be practicing every day, and the almost daily grind of covering a major league ballclub is a good fit. The fact that it's such a putrid team may actually end up being a boon--great art comes from great suffering, right? And no one in baseball is suffering more right now than Royals fans.

So instead of giving up on my promise to myself to write about all the games, I'm going to do a great big roundup here to commemorate our 10th straight loss, 9 of which came at home. Hang on, let me just... get this bottle of whiskey open... ah, there we go. I could write several hundred words about each game, believe me. There is plenty of material to rant about. But in the interest of actually doing it so I can get caught up, and as a bit of a thought experiment, I've come up with another way. Introducing: White and Blue Haiku.

April 11, a 4-5 loss to the A's in Oakland

Enter Jon Broxton.
He finds a new way to lose:
Walk-off HBP.


April 13, a 3-8 loss to the Indians in Kansas City

First game at The K.
A seven run  first inning.
Why even finish?


April 14, a 9-11 loss to the Indians in Kansas City

Sanchez chokes early.
Royal comeback fails, surprise!
"Never forget" score.


April 15, a 7-13 loss to the Indians in Kansas City

Four Cleveland homers!
Question. Which blows more: the wind,
Or this Royals team?


April 16, a 2-3 loss to the Tigers in Kansas City

Duffy spins a gem
But draws the short matchup straw:
Justin Verlander.


April 17, a 1-3 loss to the Tigers in Kansas City

Chen tames Tigers, but
Royals leave Smyly smiling.
Dude, where's my offense?


April 18, a 3-4 loss to the Tigers in Kansas City

Ten runs for Detroit?
Enough for a three game sweep!
Only the Royals...


April 20, a 3-4 loss to the Blue Jays in Kansas City

Blue Jays batters say
"Pass the Dutchie," crush Holland
Happy 4/20!


April 21, a 5-9 loss to the Blue Jays in Kansas City

Rasmus goes yard twice
Despite looking like that guy
From Workaholics.

April 22, a 3-5 loss to the Blue Jays in Kansas City

Brett Lawrie steals home
Yost sez: "Changes may come soon"
Let's make it ten more!

There you have it. We're all caught up. I'll probably elaborate a little more on the streak later, but thinking about this team for as long as I have is making me feel awful, like I've been kicked in the nuts by Sebastian Janikowski in the middle of a nasty hangover. I'm taking an aspirin and going to sleep. Hope I don't have nightmares of anemic hitting, appalling defense, absurdly stupid baserunning decisions, and crappy pitching.

RNTKY: April 10, 2012

Royals won a weird one tonight in Oakland. The rain was pouring down all night, resulting in a 45 minute delay in starting the game. When they did take off the tarp and told the boys to play ball, the rain was still falling steadily. The precipitation proved baffling to both the A's grounds crew (which, apparently, exists) and to the Oakland offense. The fives of A's fans still in attendance were treated to the sight of their team collecting a grand total of one hit in 7 innings. In the middle of the 8th, the umps told them to drag the tarp back out and started another delay at around 11:45 PM Central time. After almost another hour of completely pointless waiting, the umps met up, decided to do everyone a favor, and took this game out behind the shed to put it down. They called the game on account of rain, and suddenly the Royals were winners. Thus even though they didn't even play a full nine, the game took something like 4 hours. Blegh.

The big story tonight was Danny Duffy. Duffy was one of the myriad of rookies called up to KC last season. He has the potential to be, if not an ace, at least a #2 starter in the big leagues. A lefty with wicked stuff, including mid-90s heat, he was largely ineffective in his starts in 2011. His self-confidence was shaky, and instead of dominating hitters by pounding the strike zone, he nibbled tentatively at the corners and tried to get guys to chase pitches out of the zone. The result was a lot of walks and a real inefficiency problem-- he struggled to even make it to the 5th inning without hitting 100 pitches in a lot of his starts. The Royals really need him to trust his arm more and go out there with an executioner's mentality so he can start approaching his tremendous ceiling. Their rotation in 2012 is as follows: former first round bust, extremely volatile high strikeout/walk guy, crafty (read: crappy) soft-tossing veteran lefty, total wildcard guy trying to completely change his pitching approach at the age of 29, and him. As you can see, it would be huge for this team if he can step up and become a leader of this ragtag bunch of misfits and castoffs.

Perhaps he was burgeoned by facing a team with approximately one and a half hitters that belong in a major league lineup, perhaps he was helped out by the cold, wet air pushing the ball down, or perhaps a pitching prospect is actually, for the first time in history, actually going to work out for the Royals, but for whatever reason, he had it working tonight. There were really only a couple of instances of good contact off of him. One was Cliff Pennington's double, the only hit the A's got in the whole game. The other was a screamer to deep right center that Lorenzo Cain made a fantastic play on, grabbing it on the warning track at a full run, bouncing off the wall, and then getting the ball back into the infield to force out Collin Cowgill at first base. He had taken off assuming there was no chance in hell Cain would get to that. He was wrong. Double play. Inning over. Duffy looked good, but there were still some ominous signs of his 2011 mediocrity. He had to use 103 pitches to get through six innings, which isn't awful but isn't great, either. He finished with 8 strikeouts, but also 4 walks. Still, this was a very encouraging debut for him this season and will be a good confidence builder going into the beginning of the season. To me, Duffy will only be limited by himself. The pitching talent is there in spades, but he has to have the balls to use it against major league hitters.

There were lots of moments in the game where he showed the kind of mettle he's going to need to succeed. The confidence with which he strutted around the mound after a strikeout, the cool nonchalance of turning his head, spitting once, and stomping off the field after sending Yoenis Cespedes to the bench with a swinging strike three on a disgusting curveball in the dirt, the look in his eyes after he whirled to 2nd base and picked off the only player that dared get a hit against him. Those were the eyes of a killer. Duffy was showing us what kind of pitcher he can be. Now he just needs to have that mindset every night; every pitch. If he can consistently harness what's going on between his ears, look out. I'm excited to see Duff-Man thrust in the direction of a lineup with actual hitters on it.

The hitting for the Royals tonight was merely adequate, but that's all it needed to be. Gordon still looks like he couldn't buy a hit if he was George Jung's best friend, but there were some encouraging signs. He worked a walk, smashed a couple of hard luck liners right at A's fielders, and limited himself to only one horrifically embarrassing strikeout. The top of the 4th was the big one for the Royals, with Butler cranking a double, Francoeur singling to put runners at the corners, and Moustakas hitting another double to deep center. Calling it a double is a little generous because it bounced off Cespedes's glove hand and rolled all the way up his arm, with the slow-mo replay requiring only the addition of Yakety Sax to become a comedy sensation, but it most likely would have been a home run on a night without the rain and cold air, i.e., any other game at the Coliseum. Billy scored, Francoeur moved to third, and a sac fly from Quintero gave the Royals an insurmountable 2 run lead. Mitch Maier pinch hit for Lorenzo Cain, who ended up injuring his groin on the aforementioned awesome play in center field, in this inning. He ended up popping out weakly to short, but the next time he came up, he crushed one into the (completely bereft of human life) right field bleachers. Meeyotch cares not for your poor atmospheric conditions or hilariously tiny amount of playing time. It ended up being an insurance run that didn't matter, but I still love watching Maier succeed. He's a man's man and a pro's pro, being carried for all 162 games by the Royals last year but getting a lilliputian 163 plate appearances in 45 games. Still, he never complained once about his banishment to the bench. In the pre-Cain days, he was the best defensive CF on the team, and many times over the last couple of years has appeared to be the only hitter on the team willing to take pitches and work himself deep into counts. He's a useful bench player who deserves more opportunities, and I won't mind seeing him getting some extra playing time while Cain is healing up.

It bears mentioning that the Royals ran into two more incredibly idiotic outs on the basepaths. It's already gotten way out of hand. Even though he's been met with a small mountain of evidence that his naked aggression when it comes to steals and hit and runs is failing miserably, Ned Yost doesn't give a shit. He's going to keep on doing it no matter how much it hurts the team, critics be damned. It is exactly this kind of willful, stubborn stupidity that has kept this franchise down for two and a half decades, and I'm sick of it. It didn't cost us a win tonight, but check this out: in the top of the 6th, Billy Butler singled to lead off the inning. Now, it's important to know that Billy is a good hitter, but as is almost guaranteed of any man who still refers to himself as "Billy" at the age of 26, he is rotund. He moves with all the speed of a tranquilized sloth with a refrigerator strapped to its back. With no one out, a two run lead, and the A's looking hopeless at the plate, the hitter is Jeff Francoeur, who never met a pitch three feet out of the strike zone he didn't want to chop at futilely. Early in the AB he swung at one that the catcher had to dive to his right to stop from rolling all the way to the backstop, so he clearly isn't seeing the ball well. At this point, with the slowest runner in major league baseball at first and a first-class hack artist at the plate, Yost gets a wild hair up his ass and decides to put on a hit and run. I dare you to make less sense. See if you can guess what happened. Go ahead, I'll give you a second to think. If you guessed that Frenchy would whiff mightily for strike three on a ball he couldn't get to swinging an oak tree, and Billy would get thrown out by approximately 12 light years, you're correct. You win a fifth of Wild Turkey, which will be necessary to make it through another game of baserunning like this. Not to be outdone, Chris Getz got picked off of first base one inning later. It's cool though, because he hits like a 4-year-old girl with one arm, and fields like one, too. Seriously, the greatest contribution Getz can make to this Royals team would be to lean into a pitch and break his elbow so Yost can't use him anymore. At least that would get us a runner on first, but even that would probably backfire because Dayton Moore would trade for Ronnie Belliard or something. Whatever keeps Johnny Giovatella toiling in Omaha. He's hitting .296/.387/.444 right now with no errors while Getz continues to be an abject failure in all aspects of baseball. Unbelievable.

So the Royals won once again in spite of their humiliating shenanigans on the basepaths. Duffy looked great, Crow was downright unhittable and got a weird save because the game was called early, and Mitch went yard. This one was considerably more fun to watch than yesterday's farce, and for that I am thankful. The quest for 160-2 continues tomorrow with a pitching matchup that will have people wondering how the hell there weren't more runs scored. Bruce Chen gets his second start for KC, and he'll be opposed by Brandon McCarthy. As a baseball nerd, I am obligated to like McCarthy because he supposedly turned his career around by studying sabermetrics and transforming himself into a groundball specialist. He was awarded with the best season of his career, a contract extension, and the cover of ESPN the Magazine for his troubles. I would not be surprised if tomorrow's game closely resembles the first one of the series, with the Royals getting themselves out with weak grounders all over the place. I would also not be surprised if neither starter tomorrow is able to touch 90 MPH with his fastball. I can't wait to see what kind of lineup Yost assembles for this, the first day game after a night game of the season. The only thing we can know for certain is that Chris Getz will be there, as inexorable as death and taxes.