Even without a pick in the 2021 NFL Draft's first round, Brett Veach and the rest of the Chiefs' front office were able to put together an impressive draft class. As the first wave of Monday morning draft grades begin to trickle in, league analysts and insiders seem to be (mostly) in agreement about Kansas City's weekend. Here's what they're saying:
Factor in the Orlando Brown Jr. trade, and this crop looks nice. Landing Powell and Smith late were the cherries on top of a very solid class. Bolton and Humphrey could start as rookies, and Brown was the tackle the Chiefs needed.
Factoring in the Brown trade and getting a potential starting center in Humphrey means this grade bumps up a little bit, but with only six picks, the Chiefs can't afford to have many misses. They also weren't able to get an impact edge rusher or receiver.
They traded their first-round pick to get left tackle Orlando Brown and followed that by taking two players in the second round in Bolton and center Creed Humphrey who will push for time as rookies. Counting Brown, it's a solid draft.
The Chiefs didn’t have a first-round pick and selected just six players overall. Yet they very well might have come away with at least two immediate starters. That’s pretty good.
If we account for the addition of offensive tackle Orlando Brown―as Kansas City acquired him from the Ravens in exchange for its 2021 first-round pick―then this draft class looks outstanding. But it’s a quality group even if we don’t.
Noah Gray, the fifth-round pick out of Duke, stands out as a noteworthy pick. After getting walloped in the Super Bowl up front, the Chiefs didn’t really have a foundation with 12-personnel and thus didn’t seem comfortable going double-tight end in order to bolster their protection.
The Chiefs moved down from 31 to 58 as part of the trade for left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., in addition to sending third- and fourth-round picks to the Ravens (and swapping late-round picks). It's not a cheap price, but given the results of Super Bowl LV, when Patrick Mahomes was running for his life, it is an understandable deal.
The Chiefs did their best with their limited picks. Bolton is ideal for their front seven, while Humphrey and Smith were great additional assets for their amazing one-offseason offensive line rebuild. They could have thought about wide receiver and tight end depth earlier, but Gray and Powell were decent values for Andy Reid and GM Brett Veach.
Bolton isn’t the athlete some other linebacker prospects are, but he has exceptional instincts and can flow to the football and make tackles that stick. On his tape, there are plays of him tracking down and snaring Kadarius Toney in the open field when he played Florida, showing that he can hold his own against elite athletes and ball carriers.