Kansas City Chiefs: Re-Drafting biggest misses of past decade
By Cullen Jekel
Draft Class: 2011
Player Drafted: Jonathan Baldwin, Wide Receiver, Pittsburgh, Round 1, Pick 26
Re-Draft: Cameron Heyward, Defensive Lineman, Ohio State, Round 1, Pick 31
Jonathan Baldwin. Yikes.
For his (brief) career, Baldwin caught 44 passes for 607 yards and two touchdowns. Again, that was for his career, which lasted all of three seasons, two in Kansas City and one in San Francisco. Suffice to say, Baldwin is one of the Chiefs’ all-time first-round busts, up there with the likes of Todd Blackledge, Trezelle Jenkins, and Brian Jozwiak.
Instead, Pioli could have selected Cameron Heyward, the defensive lineman from Ohio State who collected 37.5 tackles for loss and 15.5 sacks during his time in Columbus. The Steelers grabbed Heyward five picks after the Chiefs selected Baldwin, and he’s still playing for Pittsburgh.
Heyward has made back-to-back Pro Bowls these past two seasons while earning All-Pro status in 2017. Overall, he’s racked up 45 sacks, 68 tackles for loss, and 94 quarterback hits in his eight-year career.
Besides Heyward, the Chiefs could have also selected Temple’s defensive tackle Muhammad Wilkerson, who spent seven solid years with the Jets (who selected him at number 30) before moving on to the Packers in 2018.
Other notables in 2011:
- Chiefs selected quarterback Ricky Stanzi in the fifth round at pick 135 with offensive tackle Marcus Cannon still on the board. Cannon went three picks later to the Patriots, and he’s been a consistent contributor to three Super Bowl winning squads.
- Also in the fifth round, with the 140th pick, the Chiefs grabbed Oregon State linebacker Gabe Miller. Remember him? Exactly. Nine picks later, the Eagles selected running back Dion Lewis out of Pittsburgh. It took him a while, but Lewis has turned into a dual-threat out of the backfield, first for the Patriots and now for the Titans.