Kansas City Chiefs select Khalen Saunders with 84th overall pick
The Kansas City Chiefs added depth on defense by selecting Khalen Saunders, a defensive tackle out of Western Illinois, in the third round (pick 84).
The Kansas City Chiefs needed to boost their defense via the draft and they’ve now spent two of their three selections on the defensive side of the ball. Their latest pick is Khalen Saunders out of Western Illinois.
Western Illinois might be a smaller school, but Saunders proved he can ball out. According to BJ Kissel (see tweet below), Saunders totaled 25 tackles for loss and 14 sacks in two seasons. The NFL Network crew said he was their guy during the Senior Bowl, so that’s obviously great to hear when it comes to a smaller school guy.
Saunders had two games where he totaled two or more sacks, which would be nice to have in Kansas City after their two best pass rushers departed this offseason. Yes, Frank Clark is in KC now and Chris Jones has always been a beast, but the more pass rushing threats, the better.
New #Chiefs DL Khalen Saunders had 25 tackles-for-loss and 14 sacks over the past two seasons for Western Illinois. Was a standout for @JimNagy_SB & company at the @seniorbowl this year as well.
— Chiefs Reporter (@ChiefsReporter) April 27, 2019
Great story.
Great personality.
His daughter was born the week of the #SeniorBowl.
Most of the early insight about this guy appears to be positive, but the truth is not many people probably followed Khalen Saunders during his collegiate career and that sort of takes the fun away from it.
Will Saunders be a good player? It’s very possible.
Brett Veach obviously saw something big from him and NFL.com had him pegged as a third or fourth rounder, so perhaps this wasn’t as big of a reach as it seemed to be at first.
Oh, and he can do backflips. Not gonna lie – That’s pretty boss, man.
So far, the Kansas City Chiefs have added a wide receiver, a safety, and a defensive tackle. They’re filling positions that need help, but defensive tackle probably could have been addressed later on due to the recent trade for Frank Clark.
It’s a bit surprising not to see the Chiefs go for a cornerback with one of their early picks. They grabbed Juan Thornhill with the pick prior to this and he can play both safety and corner, but it would have been nice to see a cornerback taken at this selection.
Overall, day two of the draft was incredibly underwhelming. What do you think of the three picks so far, Chiefs Kingdom? Sound off below!