Kansas City Chiefs: Would Lane Johnson have been better pick in 2013?
The Kansas City Chiefs held the number one overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft and went with Eric Fisher. Would Lane Johnson have been the better choice?
After an atrocious 2012 season that saw the Kansas City Chiefs win just two games, they held the top pick in the 2013 NFL Draft and of course it was a draft where no quarterback was worth taking that high.
With no quarterback worthy of the top pick in that year’s draft, the Chiefs instead went with who was at the top of their draft board. Eric Fisher was the pick and he was the first offensive tackle to be taken number one overall since 2008. Fisher played for Central Michigan and the worry was that he played against lesser competition in the MAC.
The 2013 NFL Draft is highly regarded as one of the worst drafts ever and of course that’s the draft where the Chiefs held the top pick. When looking back at the first round picks, Fisher wasn’t a bad pick by any means, but Mike Phillips of FanSided feels like the best player the Chiefs passed on since 2000 was Lane Johnson, who went fourth overall in 2013.
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"The Chiefs got the first-overall pick in 2013, a year where there was no great quarterback or dominant player available.Eric Fisher was the route Kansas City went and he has been good, but they passed on a better tackle in Lane Johnson. Philadelphia got Johnson three picks later and has seen him become one of the best right tackles in football."
I get this logic, but honestly the 2013 NFL Draft was a lost cause no matter what and the Chiefs have gotten quite a bit out of Fisher. When he was injured during the 2019 regular season and Cameron Erving had to take over at left tackle, the Chiefs struggled immensely to protect Patrick Mahomes and Matt Moore during his three games under center.
If the Chiefs had taken Johnson – who spent his college career at Oklahoma and had a slowish start to his career – they wouldn’t have signed Mitchell Schwartz, who has been a showstopper for them at right tackle.
Johnson has been a good player for the Eagles and as Phillips said, has become one of the best right tackles in football. The Chiefs would have loved to have had him along their offensive line and maybe they still would have signed Schwartz and moved Johnson to left tackle instead.
Fisher hasn’t been perfect, but he’s still with the team who drafted him and has been a nice piece along the offensive line. In that year’s draft, there wasn’t much talent and the only player I’d have advocated for them taking instead would be De’Andre Hopkins, who went 27th to the Texans. Hopkins in this offense (assuming he stuck around through all of the Alex Smith years) – Straight fire.
The Kansas City Chiefs unfortunately held the number one overall pick in one of the worst NFL Drafts ever, but Eric Fisher has been a good player for them and they shouldn’t kick themselves for how things played out at all.