Kansas City Chiefs: Three takeaways from 2019 NFL Draft

The 2019 NFL Draft has come and gone and the Kansas City Chiefs look like a better team as a result. Even without a first-round pick, the Chiefs made the most of their draft resources.

Let’s take a look at some takeaways from an eventful draft weekend for the Kansas City Chiefs.

1. Better than a first round pick.

For the second year in a row, the Chiefs did not make a pick in the first round of the NFL Draft. After moving up to draft Patrick Mahomes in the 2017 draft, the Chiefs gave up their 2018 first-round pick in the process. Fortunately, for Chiefs Kingdom, giving up that pick was well worth it to obtain the 2018 NFL MVP.

This year, general manager Brett Veach made an aggressive move in trading away the 2019 first-round pick and a 2020 second-round pick to acquire defensive end, Frank Clark. Unlike giving up the first-round pick for Mahomes, the Chiefs don’t know yet if their investment in Clark will pay dividends. Veach’s impression of Clark is that he has no weaknesses in his game, so hopefully, it will be a worthy investment.

The Chiefs obviously see something in Clark that is more special than any of the edge rushers in this year’s draft. He’s a proven veteran in the prime of his career and that puts the Chiefs on a faster track to win now than with an unproven rookie, even if it’s a highly talented rookie. Also, drafting at the 29th spot would have put the Chiefs in a position less likely to get that high talented rookie edge rusher.

Even though Frank Clark has yet to play a down in a Chiefs uniform, it appears like he’s better than what the Chiefs could have gotten with a first-round pick. Knowing that a bad defense is inevitably what kept Kansas City out of the Super Bowl, giving up an early pick to not let that happen again doesn’t seem like much of a price to pay.

Here’s to believing that Frank Clark turns out to be better than a first-round pick.