The Kansas City Chiefs could start the season tomorrow and they’d probably feel pretty good about their running back group.
They have playoff superstar Damien Williams leading the pack, with Darwin Thompson and Darrell Williams behind him. They’ve added a number of players to compete for one of the RB spots this offseason including Marcus Marshall, Elijah McGuire, and Mike Weber. They have plenty of competitive depth on the team, but are they leaving too much to projection?
Looking to the future, the only player under contract beyond 2020 is Thompson. They need to explore adding another successful, young and controllable player in the draft. Here’s a look at some of the players they could consider adding in each round of the 2020 NFL draft:
Round 1 – Wisconsin RB Jonathan Taylor
Taylor has been the most productive running back in college football over the past three seasons. During that time he’s amassed over 6,500 scrimmage yards and 55 touchdowns on 968 touches. That’s a crazy amount of production, but also a lot of mileage, which is something NFL teams take note of. Another area of contention is that Taylor isn’t much of a pass protector compared to other prospects. Something else that’ll be a problem with NFL teams is that he fumbles, with 18 fumbles during his career.
Kansas City Chiefs fans wouldn’t be too thrilled if the team took decided on RB in the first round, but QB Patrick Mahomes might be singing a different tune. Mahomes is a fan of college football and he appears to be a fan of Taylor too. He didn’t just give Taylor a shoutout during the Heisman Trophy race, but he also took notice during Taylor’s eye-popping performance at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
You know what they say in situations like these: Game recognizes game. Maybe Chiefs Kingdom would warm up to the idea of drafting a running back in the first round if it’s one that has the endorsement of the MVP.