Setting up the Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes apparently wasn’t enough for the masochistic Bills.
The NFL draft often creates strange bedfellows when it comes to trades, but few are as hard to explain as the Chiefs-Bills deal late in the first round Thursday night that gifted the fastest player in the class to Mahomes and speed-obsessed head coach Andy Reid.
Xavier Worthy, who recorded an NFL combine-record 4.21-second time in the 40-yard dash, was selected No. 28 by the Chiefs, who traded No. 32 and a third-rounder (No. 95) for No. 28 and a fourth-rounder (No. 133). The teams swapped seventh-rounders, too.
The Chiefs were in the market for a receiver even before last year’s top rookie Rashee Rice was arrested, which possibly will lead to a suspension.
The Bills unknowingly handed the Chiefs their biggest nemesis during a 2017 draft trade that landed Mahomes in Kansas City.
Since then, Mahomes has eliminated the Super Bowl-minded Bills from the playoffs three times and become the obstacle preventing counterpart Josh Allen from reaching his full potential.
Now, the Bills will have to figure out how to cover Mahomes’ deep balls to Worthy and how to get Worthy on the ground during punt returns, too, to get through the Chiefs in the playoffs.
The Bills later traded out of the first round completely.
Drafts are kind to Eagles receiver A.J. Brown.
He was a second-round pick of the Titans in 2019, he was traded to the Eagles and signed a $100 million extension during the first round of the 2022 draft, and he signed another three-year, $96 million extension just before the first round kicked off Thursday.Â
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Before drafting their rookies, the Patriots and Vikings inquired with the Chargers about the availability of star quarterback Justin Herbert, according to an ESPN report.
The thinking was that Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh might be interested in reuniting with quarterback J.J. McCarthy after they won a national championship together at Michigan.
The Chargers were not interested, and the Vikings drafted McCarthy.
More than 275,000 fans attended the draft Thursday in Detroit, breaking the Day 1 record set in 2018 when there were more than 200,000 fans crowding the streets of Nashville, Tenn., per the NFL.
Receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and left tackle Joe Alt — whose father, John, was a two-time Pro Bowl lineman in the 1990s — became the first two NFL legacies to be drafted in what is expected to be a class full of second-generation professionals.
Harrison (Cardinals) and Alt (Chargers) were picked back-to-back at No. 4 and No. 5 as the first two non-quarterbacks off the board.
Harrison’s father is in the Hall of Fame. So is Brenden Rice’s father, Jerry. And Frank Gore Jr.’s father should be there soon.
In addition to the younger Rice and Gore, other expected Friday or Saturday picks with Pro Bowl DNA include receiver Luke McCaffrey (father Ed and brother Christian), linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr., defensive back Micah Abraham (father Donnie), defensive tackle Kris Jenkins (father Kris), edge rushers Ron Stone Jr. and edge rusher Jonah Elliss (father Luther).
The Raiders fired Josh McDaniels as head coach last season, but they might need his old Patriots’ offensive coordinator playbooks from the time when tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez were teammates.
After using a second-round pick on Michael Mayer last season, the Raiders surprisingly picked Brock Bowers at No. 13. To maximize both tight ends, the offense will need a lot of lesser-used formations.
There were five trades Thursday, which did not approach the first-round record of nine despite some buzz that it could happen.
Why? Teams mostly stuck to their spots in the first 16 picks because of the flurry of quarterback picks (six of the first 12) pushing top talent down the board.