The 2024 NFL Draft is less than a week away, and teams are scrambling to go through final scouting reports to ensure that they can secure the top talents in this year’s class.
The Kansas City Chiefs will have to deal with many variables before making decisions on draft day, but general manager Brett Veach has endured this ordeal many times.
Ahead of the Annual Player Selection Meeting, many of the top wide receiver prospects have been linked to the Chiefs in various mock drafts. Kansas City led the league in dropped passes last season and is facing uncertainty at the position while Rashee Rice remains under police investigation for a car accident that occurred in Dallas, Texas earlier this month.
Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. recently sat down with Hall of Fame receiver Tim Brown to discuss the increase in drops around the NFL and advice he would give to this year’s wide receiver prospects.
“They’re built differently than we were back in the day,” Brown explained about the plethora of drops around the league. “I mean, these guys are long arms and taller guys for the most part. We had Randy Moss, but besides him, most of our guys getting it done were six-foot, 6-foot-1; we are talking about 6-foot-3, 6-foot-4, 6-foot-5.
“The range to reach out to catch a ball all changes, and it makes a big difference. I’ve always said that I think the perfect receiving size is six-foot-one because that guy has long enough arms to make stuff happen. But not long enough arms; that ball will be back down because his arms are so long.”
The Chiefs had the most dropped passes in the 2023 regular season with 44, and top receiver Rice dropped eight on 102 targets during his stellar rookie year.
“I think it makes a difference with these guys getting more opportunities too, and maybe back in the day, our quarterbacks wouldn’t have thrown certain passes because that’s not what we do,” Brown continued. “Not that’s not happening; today’s football balls are coming out, so I think you get put in a bad position with all these other things I mentioned. Things can happen like drops. Drops will happen.”
Names of possible interest from the Chiefs leading up to the draft include Georgia’s Ladd McConkey, South Carolina’s Xavier Legette, Florida State’s Johnny Wilson, and more. Brown shared his advice for the incoming class.
Said Brown:
“These guys are so talented; they come into the league totally different than the way we came. they come in very polished and ready to roll. I think the thing that really separated me and a lot of the great receivers from the rest is the film study that we put in and knowing your opponent better than he knows himself. Knowing exactly what he’s gonna do on third and four, third and eight, or third and ten. All these different things you’ve watched enough film on him, that you know, he’s gonna drop with his left foot and then try and hit you with his right, all these little things about him that make it very comfortable for you to go out and play the game and I don’t know if a lot of kids really (watch the film), I’m watching a game sometime, and I say he didn’t watch film.”
Brown broke every major Raiders receiving record throughout his sixteen seasons with the franchise. He was known for his professionalism and always being prepared to perform at the highest level on game day.
To Brown, preparedness is paramount to execution.
“It’s like you could tell the way he ran that route on that particular (play) you didn’t know exactly what he was gonna do,” said Brown. “You knew he was gonna be on you. You’re the number one guy, but so I think that part of the game probably goes overlooked at this particular point. But I think it is a huge part of being very successful on the football field.”
The Chiefs will have plenty to consider once they are on the clock in Detroit and with so many solid options in the draft pool, their decision could go a long way in defining the franchise’s future.