On Tuesday, CBS Sports writer Pete Prisco re-graded the 2022 NFL Draft. Back then, he thought the Kansas City Chiefs had made excellent choices in the draft. But now, he thinks they were even better.
Kansas City Chiefs
2022 Grade: AThe Skinny: They had 10 picks in this draft and all but one are still with the team heading into 2025, with five definite starters. They had two first-round picks, thanks to the Tyreek Hill trade with Miami, and landed corner Trent McDuffie with one of them and took edge George Karlaftis with the other. McDuffie is a top corner in the league, while Karlaftis is a good edge player. The other starters they got in the draft were safety Bryan Cook (second), linebacker Leo Chenal (third) and running back Isiah Pacheco (seventh). They also got backups in second-round receiver Skyy Moore and corners Joshua Williams (fourth), Jaylen Watson (seventh) and Nazeeh Johnson (seventh). All three corners have started games for the Chiefs and will compete for a job this year. They killed this draft.
How I did: I loved the picks of Karlaftis and McDuffie, but didn’t like the Chenal pick. I was wrong about Chenal. I also liked the Moore and Cook picks, although Moore hasn’t worked out.
New Grade: A+
My take
I agree with many fans: re-running a draft — the dreaded “re-draft” — is pretty stupid.
But there’s nothing wrong with taking another look at a draft after a few years have passed; I often say this is the only way to really evaluate them.
Here’s the problem: fans immediately want to know how well their favorite team did — so everybody does draft grades right away.
And Prisco does it, too. But unlike many writers, he isn’t afraid to revisit what he said about each team’s draft. So every spring, he looks at his grades from the NFL Draft from three seasons before. I really respect this approach, and it’s always fascinating to see where he was right and wrong.
In the case of the Chiefs, Prisco was hardly alone in 2022. Many other pundits thought Kansas City Chiefs’ general manager Brett Veach had done a terrific job — and if you asked them today, they’d probably agree that Veach’s choices panned out even better than they expected.
I’ve encountered more than a few people who are lukewarm about Veach. Sometimes I think they’ve never gotten over the Breeland Speaks pick in 2018 — and yes… that one didn’t turn out well.
I make no claim that Veach is perfect. But anyone who goes into a third season with nine of 10 drafted players on his roster must be doing something right. Most GMs would be lucky to have nine of 10 on the team just a year later.
So maybe — just maybe — it’s time to let the Speaks pick go.
By the way… can you name the player the Chiefs took in 2022 who is no longer on the team?
It’s Kentucky tackle Darian Kinnard, a fourth-round pick inactive for all but three games of his rookie season (getting on the field in just one game) before spending 2023 on the Kansas City practice squad. The following February, the Philadelphia Eagles signed him to a reserve/future deal. He made their roster, appearing in two 2024 games.
So while Kinnard hasn’t yet made much of an impact, he’s now just the second player who has won a Super Bowl ring in three consecutive seasons. The first was linebacker Ken Norton Jr., who won Super Bowls with the Cowboys in 1992 and 1993 before winning another with the San Francisco 49ers in 1994. Unlike Kinnard, Norton was a starter in all three seasons. But like Kinnard, Norton’s new team beat his old one in the following year’s postseason — in his case, for the NFC Championship.
