Kansas City Chiefs: Re-Drafting biggest misses of past decade
By Cullen Jekel
Draft Class: 2015
Player Drafted: Chris Conley, Wide Receiver, Georgia, Round 3, Pick 76
Re-Draft: David Johnson, Running Back, Northern Iowa, Round 3, Pick 86
In 2014, Jamaal Charles had just accumulated over 1,300 yards for the Chiefs, scoring a total of 14 touchdowns. But he was also aging, and had touched the ball a ton the previous three seasons, including 246 times in ’14.
It was a little surprising, then, that in the draft, the Chiefs didn’t use any of their nine picks on a running back. So when Charles went down after five games in 2015, Kansas City instead relied on the likes of Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware. Quarterback Alex Smith finished the season second on the team in rushing with 498 yards behind only West’s 634.
Months earlier, the Chiefs passed on taking David Johnson, a Swiss Army knife of a running back out of Northern Iowa in favor of Georgia wide receiver Chris Conley.
Conley’s career with the Chiefs didn’t exactly go according to plan. In four seasons, Conley caught 104 passes for 1,238 yards and six touchdowns. He went two entire seasons without reaching the end zone. With the expiration of his rookie contract at the end of the league year, Conley becomes a free agent, one the Chiefs may not retain.
Ten picks after the Chiefs selected Conley, the Arizona Cardinals nabbed Johnson, and it’s paid off. Despite missing all but one game in 2017, Johnson is one of the more electrifying players in the league, a running back who excels in both rushing and receiving. Except for his abbreviated third season, Johnson has over 1,000 yards from scrimmage every year.
In 2016, he ran for 1,239 yards and added 80 (!) receptions for another 879 yards. Overall, Johnson’s found the end zone 42 total times in his career, including 11 receiving touchdowns. That’s five more than Conley in the same amount of time, and Johnson’s played in four fewer games.
All told, it was an opportunity missed for the Chiefs when they went with Conley over Johnson. Sure, there was no way to tell that Charles’ career was about to fall off the precipice, but then again, teams need to utilize the draft to build for the future. Kansas City failed to do that with the 76th pick in 2015.