Most NFL fans that I know all go back and look at past drafts and think what if my team would have selected this player instead of this so-called bust. Exhibit A: Oakland Raiders picked JaMarcus Russell first overall when Calvin Johnson was available. Another prime example is the 1983 draft: John Elway was selected first overall. That’s fine of course, but Todd Blackledge, Jim Kelly (who would end up going to the USFL first) and Ken O’Brien were all selected before Dan Marino. As a Chiefs fan I hate that draft. Does anyone remember Todd Blackledge? A quarterback out of Penn State from Canton, OH ironically enough. He threw 38 interceptions to 29 touchdowns and had an overall rating of 60.2. Not the best considering that Kelly and Marino were available and even O’Brien had a better career.
However, this isn’t about the 1983 NFL Draft or even the 2007 Draft, this is about 2011. The 2011 NFL Draft was a pretty solid draft in some areas and featured players like Cam Newton, Von Miller, A.J. Green, Julio Jones, Aldon Smith and J.J. Watt to name a few. The Kansas City Chiefs did not draft any of these players obviously. In 2010 they had experienced some success under Todd Haley and finished with a record 10-6 but lost in the Wild Card to the Baltimore Ravens. That was Dwayne Bowe’s best season statistically. He had 15 touchdowns and 72 receptions for 1,162 yards, all with Matt Cassel throwing him the ball. That last sentence sounds pretty crazy in 2016, huh?
For the 2011 draft, the Chiefs had Dwayne Bowe and felt like they just needed one more receiver and that would put them over the top. Tony Gonzalez was no longer a Chief by that point in time so the Chiefs receiving corps was Dwayne Bowe, Terrance Cooper, Chris Chambers, Kevin Curtis, Jeremy Horne, Quinten Lawrence, Verran Tucker, Jerheme Urban and Chandler Williams. Some of you might recognize Chris Chambers but that was near the end of his career so Kansas City needed a number two receiver badly.
Kansas City had the 26th overall pick in the 2011 draft and Julio Jones and A.J. Green were both long gone by this point in time. They needed to pick a receiver and they went for Jonathan Baldwin out of Pitt. If you remember at that time Baldwin wasn’t considered a bad pick, but hindsight is always 20/20. It would be difficult for the Chiefs to pass up a 6’4″ receiver who some people were labeling the next Randy Moss. How do you pass that guy up? He would be terrific at the jump ball and since the Chiefs traded down to get him they had an extra pick in the third round.
He would go on to play just two seasons with the Chiefs and record only two touchdowns in those seasons. In 2013, the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers would trade their “bust” receivers to each other so Jonathan Baldwin left KC in favor of A.J. Jenkins. They had hopes that maybe they would fit better on another team and hopefully both would show improvement. Baldwin would go on to record three catches for 28 yards on his one season with the Niners. Jenkins would play for Kansas City for two seasons had 33 targets in those seasons for 223 yards and no touchdowns. He was one of the receivers for the Chiefs when they recorded the famous “no receiver caught a touchdown pass all season” stat.
As all NFL fans sit in anticipation waiting for the 2016 draft that one day we will all look back onto previous drafts saying “well, if our team would have just drafted this player over that player our team would have succeeded.” Remember, it is just a giant crap shoot. Yes, the Chiefs could have drafted Randall Cobb instead of Jonathan Baldwin, but it could be worse. They could have selected Titus Young as he was the next receiver selected and we all know how he turned out to be.
The Chiefs might have chosen wrong with the first pick but they did make up for it with some of their other picks. Rodney Hudson, Justin Houston, and Allen Bailey were all later round picks that year so they did have some good picks in that draft as well. So with every bad pick hopefully your team will have a couple good picks to make up for it as well. I know we are all waiting to hear: “with the first pick of the 2016 NFL Draft the Tennessee Titans select…”
