Chasing the Chiefs: Rest of AFC West made their first-round picks. Did they close gap?
The AFC West has been chasing the Chiefs for five years. Did they get closer on Thursday in the first round of the NFL Draft?
The Chiefs didn’t have a first-round pick, sending it to the Baltimore Ravens last Friday as part of a trade that brought offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr., to Kansas City.
The Broncos, Raiders and Chargers did have pick, though, and Denver went ninth overall. The choice? Not a quarterback as some had speculated, but Alabama cornerback Pat Surtain II.
That leaves the Broncos at quarterback with last year’s starter, Drew Lock, the Lee’s Summit native and former Missouri star, and recently acquired Teddy Bridgewater.
Or ... could the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers be in play?
Rodgers, the reigning MVP isn’t happy with his team, according to an ESPN report, and has told some in the organization that he doesn’t want to return to Green Bay.
If that’s the case, Denver could be a landing spot and history could repeat itself. Peyton Manning spent his first 13 season with the Indianapolis Colts. In 2012, he signed with the Broncos as a free agent, and in his final four seasons, the Broncos went to two Super Bowls with one victory.
The Chargers are set at quarterback with Justin Herbert, last season’s AFC Offensive Rookie of the Year. So they sought to protect him by selecting Rashawn Slater, an offensive tackle from Northwestern, with the 13th overall pick.
Slater’s father, Reggie Slater, is a former professional basketball player who logged eight NBA seasons and among his final stops in pro ball was with the minor league Kansas City Knights.
The Raiders, picking No. 17, pulled off a surprise, relative to several mock drafts. They went with Alabama offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood. Many believed he would have been taken later in the first round or the second with other offensive linemen rated ahead of Leatherwood.
The Chiefs have won five straight division championships and parlayed the regular-season success into Super Bowl appearances over the previous two seasons.
The division has been playing catch-up. Last season, the Chiefs finished 14-2. The Raiders were second at 8-8 followed by the Chargers 7-9 and the Broncos 5-11.
Denver hasn’t been to the playoffs since their Super Bowl L triumph. During the Chiefs’ streak, the Raiders and Chargers have played in the postseason once each.
The draft went according to script through the first two selections with Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence going first to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Brigham Young quarterback Zach Wilson going second to the New York Jets.
The first big mystery was solved at No. 3. The San Francisco 49ers were going to select a quarterback, but which one among North Dakota State’s Trey Lance, Alabama’s Mac Jones and Ohio State’s Justin Fields?
The 49ers selected Lance, who has played only 17 college games, including just one last season as the pandemic ravaged the schedule, all on the Football Championship Subdivision level. But he won them all and has one career interception.
Just before the Broncos selected Surtain, the Carolina Panthers picked the first defensive player in the draft, South Carolina cornerback Jaycee Horn. He’s the son of former Chiefs wide receiver Joe Horn.
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 9:47 PM with the headline "Chasing the Chiefs: Rest of AFC West made their first-round picks. Did they close gap?."