BREAKING: Chiefs Targeting These 2 Hidden Gems in the 2024 NFL Draft!
The Kansas City Chiefs don’t need to do much to improve their team.
Clearly. They just won the Super Bowl for the second season in a row. But if there was a spot the Chiefs could improve, it would be their wide receiver corps.
While Patrick Mahomes has been able to get it down without star talent at that position over the last two seasons since the Chiefs traded away Tyreek Hill, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be looking to get better at that position.
Ladd McConkey and Malachi Corley could be worthwhile targets the Chiefs could look at in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Skyy Moore has not panned out yet the way they hoped. Kadarius Toney started racking up healthy scratches after the Chiefs traded a third-round pick for him. Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Justin Watson are primarily just deep threats.
Rashee Rice came on during the second half of the season, but he had a pretty limited role and route tree as a rookie. His average depth of target was just 4.8 yards, which ranked 99th among wide receivers according to playerprofiler.com. That’s not great, but Rice did average 2.52 yards per route run, which ranked 10th at the position. That is great.
Rice was a big hit for the Chiefs, but they need more dynamism at that position. The best place for the Chiefs to look to find that is the NFL draft. If the Chiefs want to wait until after the first round to find potential receivers, then players like Ladd McConkey and Malachi Corley should be high on their draft boards.
Ladd McConkey, Wide Receiver
The Chiefs badly need a more dynamic deep threat and big-play receiver than what they’ve gotten from Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Justin Watson. Patrick Mahomes averaged just 6.5 air yards per attempt in the 2023 season. That was the lowest average of his career.
Part of that is teams playing almost exclusively cover 2 shell defense against him to limit the number of bombs Mahomes drops over their heads. Another is that teams just don’t fear Chiefs receivers to beat them over the top the way they did with Tyreek Hill.
Well, Ladd McConkey could help in that department. McConkey has jets in his legs and showcased it often at the University of Georgia. He averaged over 14 yards per reception in college and 3.62 yards per route run in 2023. Only LSU’s Malik Nabers had a better average.
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What helps McConkey’s efficiency is his route running paired with his elite speed. That helps him win deep down the field.
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If corners play McConkey for his deep-threat ability, he is also great at breaking routes off and just taking what the defense gives him, too.
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Georgia also got McConkey the ball in open space frequently too. He had 13 carries in his college career and turned those into 216 yards and four touchdowns. Mahomes and Andy Reid thrive on getting the ball to their receivers in space and McConkey is great in that department too. He looks like a perfect fit who could elevate the Chiefs’ offense to another level.
Malachi Corley, Wide Receiver
Another receiver who looks like he’d fit great with Kansas City is Western Kentucky’s Malachi Corley. Corley is a dynamo with the ball in his hands. He’s arguably the best runner after the catch in this entire draft class. At least that is what the numbers suggest.
The film backs the numbers up.
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Teams dare Mahomes to march up and down the field and want to minimize the number of deep shots they relinquish against him. Mahomes is the master improviser and Andy Reid is great at scheming players open. They’d be able to maximize Corley’s skillset. He looks like a sleeper that the Chiefs could unlock if they find a way to draft him.
