PHOENIX — The three main ingredients in building a sustainable NFL dynasty are securing the right head coach, quarterback and draft classes.
Andy Reid? Check. Patrick Mahomes? Double check. And now it looks like Chiefs general manager Brett Veach has checked off that third box, too.
The Chiefs led the NFL with the most cumulative games played by their 2022 draft class, according to Pro Football Reference. Those 10 picks combined for the third-highest “Approximate Value” score — PFR’s numerical value assigned to every player in every season — of any 2022 class.
So, while the Chiefs will have young players in key spots Sunday in Super Bowl 57, the time for excusing rookie mistakes is over.
“That’s what the coaches told us ever since the postseason has been here,” cornerback Jaylen Watson said. “All the rookies [were] thrown in the fire pretty early in the season.”
Nowhere has the impact been greater than the secondary, where rookies — led by first-rounder Trent McDuffie, second-rounders Bryan Cook and Watson, and fourth-rounder Joshua Williams — combined to play more than 2,000 snaps, which reminded Reid of when Ronnie Lott and other rookie defensive backs helped the 49ers to the Super Bowl in 1981.
“When you draft somebody in the first round, there’s some higher expectations there. I feel like Trent has met them in what he’s done,” defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said. “The other guys were a little bit unknown, although what we liked about them and what Brett identified was the length and some speed.”
With Mahomes, defensive tackle Chris Jones and left tackle Orlando Brown eating almost $82 million of salary cap space, there is an emphasis on supplementing the starting lineup with cheap productivity through the draft. Chiefs rookies played 418 snaps (including special teams) in the AFC Championship game, which was the most by any team’s rookies in a victory this season and the most in any team’s playoff win in at least 15 years, according to CBS Sports.
“It’s special, especially since you can understand what it took for us to get here,” McDuffie said. “Coming in as a huge group, knowing that there was a lot of obligations, a lot of things that these guys wanted out of us. I remember in OTAs there was so many days where at the end of the night it was just all the rookies together just going over and over and over playbook language because to us it was all new and it was difficult.”
Watson and Williams both intercepted the Bengals’ Joe Burrow and rookie second-rounder Skyy Moore’s 29-yard punt return set up the game-winning field goal to punch the Super Bowl ticket. Moore lost the returner job earlier in the season.
“It was so good to see redemption for him,” special teams coordinator Dave Toub said. “After we put him on the bench, he didn’t give up … and his confidence was getting better and better and when we needed him the most, he stepped it up.”
