There is no substitute for speed and the Kansas City Chiefs certainly have proven that they understand that… and continue to understand that.
According to NBC Sports’ Peter King, the Chiefs were hoping that Alabama wide receiver Henry Ruggs III would fall to them in the draft.
“The Chiefs were seriously considering drafting Alabama speedster Henry Ruggs in April if he plummeted in round one,” King wrote in his Football Morning in America column on Monday. “Instead, [Ruggs] went 12th overall to the Raiders. Gluttonous? Maybe. But for Reid and Veach, the idea that you can’t have enough speed is not a cliché.”
More than likely Ruggs would not have fallen to the Chiefs at the end of round one, but who knows if they would have traded up if Ruggs III had fallen into the latter half of the first round. The bigger lesson from the story is that some of the smartest minds in football understand that speed is important and you can never have enough.
Tyreek Hill, Mercole Hardman, and Ruggs III would have been a nightmare for secondaries to defend – especially with a quarterback that can throw the ball nearly the length of the field.
Fortunately for the Raiders and everyone else, that ain’t happening.
twitter: @raidersbeat