Had an NFC Personnel executive tell me “He reminds me of J.J. Watt, when Watt was coming out. An explosive and versatile playmaker who has a high motor and can line up at 3,5, or 7. Very strong kid” #NFL#NFLDraftpic.twitter.com/5qM3g6OrMr
Power rusher with an elite first step. I'm not as excited about him as McDuffie, but he should be a solid player for us. The kind of guy you team with a speed rusher on the other side.
The nice thing about his power rush is that he should pair well with Chris Jones. He's more apt to push a RT into the QB's lap rather than go around, which means they'll more naturally maintain their pass rush lanes while collapsing the pocket. Theoretically. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
So I typically try REALLY hard to find guys who are a bit under the radar when making comps, especially as the rounds progress.
Comparing someone like Karlaftis to Allen or JJ Watt is nuts. Karlaftis isn't going to be DPOY or go to the HoF, fellas. I'd put just about any amount of money on that. So let's try to find something reasonable here.
I think I've come up with a couple I really like.
Reasonable 75th percentile projection: Jabaal Sheard. Sheard played for a decade and was a capable 6-8 sack sort of guy most years. A little shorter armed, won mostly with power (especially as he aged) and wasn't the most bendy dude you'd see out there. He was never a superstar but he was always a pretty damn good player and someone you were happy to have on your roster.
Bottom 25% projection: Chauncey Davis. Same kind of player, just wasn't as good at it. Played 100 NFL games, started a couple dozen of them. Obviously this would be a disappointing outcome and I think Sheard is the far more likely scenario, but it's not as though a 100 games played floor is a disaster of a pick. When that's something of a worst case scenario for a guy, that's pretty solid.
Since we hired Spags, our best DEs opposite Clark have been two old ****s in Melvin Ingram and Terrell Suggs. Chris Jones at end didn't work. We tried to be "just good enough" with Okafor, but he kept getting hurt, and he was washed up when he came back this season from New Orleans. Kpassagnon wasn't good at all. We remember him as nothing special, but he was actually kind of bad, just not as bad as he was in Sutton's 3-4. And then Danna has been an okay bench guy in the rotation, but should obviously not be starting.
Karlaftis in his rookie year will already be a breath of fresh air on the strong side. It's going to make a difference, even if his stats are a little slow to come by at first. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Detoxing:
Power rusher with an elite first step. I'm not as excited about him as McDuffie, but he should be a solid player for us. The kind of guy you team with a speed rusher on the other side.
The nice thing about his power rush is that he should pair well with Chris Jones. He's more apt to push a RT into the QB's lap rather than go around, which means they'll more naturally maintain their pass rush lanes while collapsing the pocket. Theoretically.
Right.
So you think he lines up outside of Jones? [Reply]
Just wanted to say hello to all the people from 2025 and beyond who revisit this thread to laugh at the fools who criticized this pick.
Most of us were smart enough to realize what a great pick Karlaftis is, but I went as far as to say that he's going to be one of the best defensive players to ever wear a Chiefs uniform. His potential was apparent right from the beginning to anyone who was really paying attention. And I'll take it a step further and say that his incredible attitude and work ethic will have rubbed off on the entire defense within a year or two and that we'll turn into one of the best defenses in the league because of it.
Originally Posted by TwistedChief:
My wife just told me that it's a a high school friend of her's daughter from high school and they've been dating for 5 years and plan to get married.
So he should be more drama free perhaps than Frank 'Uzi' Clark.
That’s great. He seems like a very old school type of dude.
And she was sexy as fuck, but looked classy. Definitely looks like wifey material. [Reply]
