Kansas City Chiefs: Re-Drafting biggest misses of past decade

Draft Class: 2010, Continued

In the third round, at pick 68, the Chiefs selected a guard out of Illinois: Jon Asamoah. Asamoah appeared in 15 games his rookie season, starting one. In the following three years, he was a consistent starter on the Chiefs’ offensive line, starting 40 games at right guard.

After the 2013 season, he and the Chiefs parted ways, and he landed in Atlanta. For the Falcons, he started 15 games in 2014 before getting cut. He’s not played since.

One pick after Asamoah, the Oakland Raiders selected offensive lineman Jared Veldheer out of Hillsdale, which is a real school, I checked. While Veldheer has bounced between Oakland, Arizona, and Denver, he’s started 113 games over nine seasons. He just concluded the final season of a five-year extension he signed in 2013.

Two picks after Veldheer, Georgia Tech safety Morgan Burnett went to the Packers. Burnett played in Green Bay for eight seasons before signing a three-year deal with Pittsburgh last offseason. Throughout his nine-year career, the one-time Super Bowl champion has started 104 games, collected 747 tackles (including a whopping 143 in 2014), defended 50 passes while intercepting nine. He’s also recovered 10 fumbles and recorded 7.5 sacks.

The Chiefs big miss in the third round, though, came with tight end Tony Moeaki. While the former Hawkeye, taken with the 93rd pick, had a solid rookie campaign in which he hauled in 47 passes for 556 yards and three touchdowns, he’d play only one more season in Kansas City. His final three seasons came with three different teams, a period in which Moeaki caught a grand total of 11 passes.

By taking Moeaki, the Chiefs passed on two guys still playing at a high level today. The first was taken two picks later, at 95 to the New Orleans Saints: Miami (FL) tight end Jimmy Graham. While Graham hasn’t had the type of career that Gronkowski has enjoyed, he’s still played well for Saints, Seahawks, and, to a lesser degree, the Packers.

Graham has been voted to five Pro Bowls and been named All-Pro once. He’s caught at least ten touchdown passes in four different seasons, including a league-leading 16 in 2016. In 2011 and 2013, he had more than 1,200 receiving yards.

The second guy passed on is Everson Griffen, the longtime Minnesota Vikings defensive end taken with the 100th pick out of USC in 2010. The linchpin of the Vikings defense has collected 66.5 sacks in his career, including three seasons of at least 10 sacks, the last of which was 2017 when he tallied a career-high 13. Before missing time in 2018, the three-time Pro Bowler had appeared in every game since his sophomore campaign.