Kansas City Chiefs: Grading each selection in the 2019 NFL Draft
By Cullen Jekel
Round 7, Pick 216: Nick Allegretti, Interior Offensive Lineman, Illinois
With the team’s sixth and final pick of the draft, the Kansas City Chiefs added depth to the interior offensive line by adding Illinois’ Nick Allegretti. Allegretti, with experience as both a guard and a center, is a risk-free insurance policy behind the likes of presumed starting center Austin Reiter and guards Cam Erving and Laurent Duvernay-Tardiff.
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Allegretti has been praised as an intelligent team leader as he scored well on his Wonderlic and was a team captain for the past two years in Champagne. That intelligence bodes well for someone expected to learn the ins and outs of multiple positions along the offensive line. With such havoc along the trenches, expect to see plenty of the hulking Allegretti in 2019.
Grade: C+
Overall, after trades for Frank Clark and to move up in the second round, the Chiefs used six draft picks on new players in the 2019 NFL Draft. They landed a wide receiver, safety, defensive tackle, cornerback, running back, and interior offensive lineman.
As the team has often done under Veach and Reid, the Chiefs emphasized speed and/or versatility in their new players. Expect all of these picks, except for Saunders, to play some sort of role on special teams this upcoming season.
The Chiefs continued its re-tooling of the defense by welcoming three new defenders, one whom will hopefully start right away (Thornhill) and two who should see a decent amount of plays in certain packages and situations. But the team importantly didn’t ignore offense, adding a new speedy weapon while purchasing a potential lottery ticket in Thompson and a solid back-up in Allegretti who may develop into a starter in the years to come.
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In the end, not bad. Not great, but not bad for having just six picks. And that’s problematic right there: this team just had six picks. It needed more. But for having just the six picks, the team did okay, making some solid decisions to go with some questionable ones.