Chiefs’ 10-man NFL Draft class defined by potential but also by what it has overcome
.jpg "The Chiefs used their first-round selections in the 2022 NFL Draft on cornerback Trent McDuffie, left, and defensive end George Karlaftis.")
By all appearances and a virtual consensus of national experts in such evaluations, the Chiefs did sensational, not to mention essential, work assembling the 2022 NFL Draft class that was part of a rookie minicamp from Saturday through Monday.
Navigating a pivot point in the Mahomes Era with a quest to shed salary and get younger, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach addressed their greatest deficiencies with a 10-man group that seems largely to be straight out of coach Andy Reid’s central casting studio:
▪ Young men with a certain zeal for the game, as embodied in cornerback Trent McDuffie’s stated intent to run around the field with his hair on fire (which goes nicely with his notion that putting on the Chiefs jersey for the first time made it “light like a flame under me”) … and defensive end George Karlaftis rapid-fire description of how he loves everything about the game (“Pre-snap, after the ball snap, during the play, whether it’s executing your assignment, making the play, doing the right thing, having the perfect technique and having to do that over and over again and being perfect”) … or linebacker Leo Chenal frequently proclaiming how much he loves “violence” on the field.
▪ And young men seemingly at ease with another Reid partiality to allow their personalities show, which could be seen in offensive lineman Darian Kinnard letting on that he’ll be changing the dye in his hair from Kentucky blue to the colors of his new team (“This will turn red eventually”) … and cornerback Jaylen Watson regaling the media about working for his mother at a Wendy’s restaurant and “running full speed down the street” when the Chiefs called … and running back Isiah Pacheco letting on that he was so excited when he got the call from Reid that he forgot to hang up when the TV announcement was made and put the phone in his pocket.
Only time will tell what this all means for the legacy of a group that apparently already is bonding as it seeks its place in the future of the Chiefs.
“Everybody is kind of a brotherhood already,” McDuffie, selected 21st overall, said on Saturday. “It kind of felt like I’ve already known these guys for a while, and I just met them the other day.”
McDuffie also called the group unique.
And that’s more so than he might even know yet.
This group not only is promising and engaging but has an inspiring undercurrent coursing through it.
That theme perhaps was visible before they all converged the last few days, but it was amplified by most of them speaking with the media on Saturday and Sunday:
No one of them had it made, or even had it easy, on his way here. And many of them have endured piercing losses and tribulations that formed and drove them.
We are just getting to know many of their stories, of course, through only brief group media sessions so far. And there isn’t much in-depth background on the journeys of several of them, particularly those who attended smaller schools.
But safe to say this class is defined by some combination of negotiating crucibles and an improbable passage, something Pacheco spoke to with succinct eloquence.
“My confidence,” he said, “comes from my hardships.”
In his case, that was the separate murders of two siblings back home in New Jersey. That fuels him to make proud the lost brother and sister “looking down on me,” as he put it Sunday, and to honor the family he leans on.
Alas, though, he’s not alone in suffering shattering losses.
McDuffie’s older brother, Tyler, died when the new Chief was in eighth grade. Tyler wore No. 22, a jersey number McDuffie wore with pride at Washington.
“I was like ‘This is something that I’m able to share my story with, share part of my family, part of my history with the rest of the world,’” McDuffie said via Zoom the night the Chiefs drafted him.
At least for now, McDuffie will wear No. 21 for the Chiefs because Juan Thornhill already wears 22. But “the number for me was more than just wearing it,” McDuffie said on Saturday. Smiling and noting he’s “all marked up” with it and wears jewelry commemorating it, he added, “People already know the story, so it’s OK.”
Karlaftis, the 30th pick overall, was an unfathomable NFL prospect in many ways. He was born in Athens, Greece, a country where only five future NFL players had been born, and his father, Matt, had disavowed football after suffering a devastating head injury playing at the University of Miami.
Water polo was Karlaftis’ sport in Athens, where he became a member of Greece’s 16-and-under national team. But when his father died after suffering a heart attack in June 2014, his American-born mother moved Karlaftis and his family back to Indiana — where football became crucial to his assimilation even as he understood himself in a new way.
Just after his 13th birthday, he told ESPN, “I had to become a man overnight and be the protector of my house overnight. That comes with a lot of responsibility, but also you’ve got to be mature enough to handle that.”
Handling tragedy also part of life for cornerback Joshua Williams, whose mother died from what Cassiuslife.com described as heart complications when he was six months old. His father, George, raised him and a sister.
“I feel like that really made me the man I am today, and that’s who I model myself after … a Godly man and a hard-working man,” Williams, the first player since 1976 drafted out of Fayetteville State (among Historically Black Colleges and Universities), told Cassiuslife. “I couldn’t be more blessed to have him in my life.”
You could hear the same appreciative sentiment echoed by Watson when it comes to his mother, whose love was particularly vital when academic issues had him in limbo for a year between junior college and ultimately attending Washington State.
And you certainly could feel that loving gratitude in the story of Kinnard, whose mother, Mandy Headrick, was 19 when he arrived two months early at five pounds. According to Fox Sports, she had been on her own since she was 16 and overcame “a destructive lifestyle” while protecting him from an abusive biological father.
Now, Headrick is a registered nurse with four academic degrees … and a son who considers her his best friend; on Sunday he called her “my rock.” And he has vividly explained in the past how that relates on the football field.
“With it just being my mom and me, I needed to be the man of the house,” Kinnard told Fox Sports. “I think being (an offensive lineman) was the best fit for me as a protector. It sounds stupid, but the quarterback is like my mother, and (playing offensive line) is like protecting my family.”
Actually, it sounds quite touching and revealing on multiple levels. Including how it’s representative of a draft class that to a man had no inevitable track here.
There is more to each of these stories, of course, and much to be learned about others in the group that include Chenal, who grew up with 15 siblings. And receiver Skyy Moore, who landed at Western Michigan because he was lightly recruited. And safety Bryan Cook, who transferred to Cincinnati after his only scholarship offer out of high school was at Howard University (the HBCU previously graced by Terez Paylor). And Nazeeh Johnson, who was a walk-on at Marshall.
Each still is a saga unfolding.
But as for how they came to be here, anyway, maybe Cook inadvertently summed it up best the day he got drafted when he described how he came to love the game.
“I’ll tell you a story, but I don’t want to take up too much of your time,” he said. “I got smacked and then things got turned around. That’s how I turned into who I am today.”
And largely how this draft class came to be.
This story was originally published May 9, 2022 at 12:55 PM with the headline "Chiefs’ 10-man NFL Draft class defined by potential but also by what it has overcome."