{"id":759008,"date":"2026-07-12T18:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/759008\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T18:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:58:08","slug":"chiefs-strike-out-on-top-players-at-key-positions-in-espn-survey-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/759008\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs strike out on top players at key positions in ESPN survey series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">As the NFL offseason draws near its end, it is a good time for ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/49306202\/top-10-nfl-players-every-position-2026-jeremy-fowler-best-quarterbacks-running-backs-wide-receivers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">unveil top-10 positional rankings<\/a> based on a survey of league executives, coaches and scouts, with more than 70 voters submitting ballots this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The interior duo\u2019s ranking will be covered and analyzed further by the Arrowhead Pride staff soon, but there is a theme among the Chiefs players named so far: none of them play a \u201cpremium\u201d position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Jones\u2019 talent transcends the \u201cdefensive tackle\u201d label to be considered a premium pass rusher, but Kansas City struck out on players at the following positions:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Now with the <a href=\"https:\/\/turfshowtimes.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Rams<\/a>, former Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie ranked fifth among NFL cornerbacks in the survey, ranking as high as No. 3 for some football minds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Kansas City is clearly hoping rookie cornerback Mansoor Delane can quickly earn a mention in this annual discussion, and the same could be said about last year\u2019s first-round pick: left tackle Josh Simmons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">After starting only eight games in 2025, Simmons did not do enough to be considered here, but Chiefs Kingdom can see that he has the talent to be in this discussion in the future. He just needs to prove it further and more consistently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">For edge rushers, however, the Chiefs seem to be settled into investing in quantity at the position over quality. Ideally, defensive end George Karlaftis is at least mentioned in this yearly exercise, so his absence is a reminder that Ashton Gillotte and rookie R Mason Thomas are almost as important to the position\u2019s success as Karlaftis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">With the versatility of Jones and rookie Peter Woods to consider on the edge as well, the team can piece together effective edge-rushing play, but the lack of premier players at both the cornerback and edge-rushing positions could be a fatal flaw for Kansas City in the 2026 season, if not longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the NFL offseason draws near its end, it is a good time for ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[142521,15977,349,99],"class_list":["post-759008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-analysis","tag-kansas-city-chiefs-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}