The Quarterback Project, Part ???

As I've shared in this blog a thousand times, I do work very hard to avoid any Chiefs chatter about anything except on game day when the game is actually on. I confess, though, that it gets a bit difficult around draft time. I have been actually pretty resolute in not paying attention to Chiefs draft items, except for seeing somewhere somehow who the Chiefs got with their first pick. Even then I pretty much look at nothing else about any given draft item.

I can't help but put a post up here at this time -- and yeah, I usually do put up at least one related to some draft pick remark each April (and now May) but it is usually just to say how I feel about whatever things I'm usually talking about in game day posts anyway.

Anyway, this time it has been a bit different. I'm not even going to mention who we got first, or second, or whenever because for one, again, I still know nothing about these guys. But I will mention who I found we got in the 5th round, and I was pleasantly surprised with our pick.

It was Aaron Murray, a studly QB from Georgia, about whom I was actually thinking about last year how nice it would be for the Chiefs to get this guy if he came out a year early. For the most part I know far less about college football than I do about the pros, but for some reason this particular QB was touted as a top flight guy. At least that's what I'd heard.

Great! Love it!

Still, why did he drop to No. 163 where we got him? Was it the ACL injury? Was it his being not over 6'2"?

And then there's the Chiefs QB situation, I happened to pick up that contract talks with Alex Smith are stalled. Ergck. Ergck ergck ergckk...

There is just so much emotion in all of this, perhaps too much, yes. But I can't believe there is a genuine Chiefs fan out there who isn't feeling it deeply with all this.

And one of the reasons, yes, has to do with The Quarterback Project. This is indeed my term for all the information about quarterbacks being drafted and developed for success in the NFL with specific attention to the Chiefs place in that -- which is... pretty much non-existent.

A phenomenal piece with lots of gruesome graphics was posted at SB Nation the other day, just before the draft, which puts the essence of The Quarterback Project into neat tidy chart form, which is, still, extraordinarily ugly. Take a peek. It is here. (Warning: viewer discretion is advised.)

From this you can see in bright brilliant colors why the Chiefs are one of the few teams since the merger in 1970 who've never been to the Super Bowl. And not just that, but crazy-ass not-even-close. In fact one of the things that is stunning about that first chart is that it only encompasses the period after 1984. I can almost guarantee you that the time period before that was just as abysmal.

So yeah, we're all wondering, is this it? Is he the guy? Will Aaron Murray finally be a guy who can actually be a -- gulp -- drafted-by-the-Chiefs developed-by-the-Chiefs winner-for-the-Chiefs? I mean, it just seems so preposterous -- no Chiefs fan has ever experienced that. Do you realize that? None! Ever! In the entire history of Kansas City Chiefs football the words "drafted," and "developed," and "quarterback who wins Chiefs games" have ever been put together in the same sentence.

I say this, this stuff about it all being so preposterous, in all seriousness. You'd think that now, finally it just flat-out has to be. That after Smith plays fine for us for next however many years we can get him for, Murray steps in and is -- finally finally glory-be -- the man. Our own man -- valiantly taking us to the promised land! (Yes, I do say all this with that glisten in my eye and goofy smile on my face.)

Of course, there is that utter failure to suspend my disbelief. There's that part of me that thinks of Fuller and Blackledge and Elkins and Blundin and Croyle and on and on and on it goes, just convinced that Odin has already determined centuries upon centuries ago in the halls of Valhalla that this was just never to be for the Chiefs. Never ever, never ever.

I mean. Murray dropped to the 5th round. The fifth round! How many 5th round QB picks ever pan out? Hardly any. Yeah, hardly any, I've checked! It's depressing. Virtually none, really.

But then this is Aaron Murray. Last year when he said he might come out early he was spoken of as maybe, maybe a first overall pick! So what's with that?

Ergghck. I just don't know what to think.

All I can do is just hope, at this point. That's all there is, really. Just hope that we had a good draft this year.

Can't do anything but anything right now.

That's cool.

Just the hope is fine.
_