Listen. I'm not here to tell Kansas City Chiefs fan that last year's playoff season was a fluke, or that this year will be much tougher on them.
No, what I'm saying is that they are getting extremely ahead of themselves when it come to First Round draft pick Jon Baldwin.
Baldwin is the big, strong receiver out out of Pittsburgh who wowed at the combine with his athletic ability but reportedly has extreme character issues.
He was drafted in the first round at No. 26, which is a reach, albeit a very slight one.
At first, reviews were mixed from Chiefs fans. Many felt they could trade back even further and grab him. As time went along, however, many began to warm up to the idea of Baldwin in a Chiefs uniform as a complement to star Dwayne Bowe.
That's great. Everyone is talking about Baldwin's combine performance or how he has all the talent in the world to succeed.
What many fail to see is that Kansas City fans are being extremely hypocritical.
During the 2009 NFL Draft, the Oakland Raiders took wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey at 8th overall. He was considered a reach; a player who could be had at the 18-25 range easily. He was drafted strongly due to physical ability and speed; at 6'2" and 210 pounds he ran a 4.3 40 yard dash.
Kansas City fans immediately jumped on the pick, talking about "bust this" and "bust that" before he'd even played a down in the NFL.
Heyward-Bey wasn't a huge producer in college. But, he did endure poor quarterback play all throughout his career in Maryland and definitely wasn't on the best team.
That sounds extremely like Jon Baldwin, who has very similar stats to DHB (although, Baldwin does edge out Heyward-Bey in some categories).
Baldwin has tons of questions surrounding his character. He has been quoted calling out coaches and teammates alike—a more significant quote here:
"Heck yeah I'm leaving. It can only get worse. They had me running a lot of deep routes [this year] and yards were hard to come by. I barely ran intermediate routes; it felt like they were purposely trying to disrupt my draft stock."
Wait, what? Uhh... okay.
Chiefs fans try to clarify Baldwin's actions by saying he's working out with Larry Fitzgerald and Darrelle Revis. That's great for him, but if a guy is a jerk, then he's a jerk. There's no changing that.
Before you Kansas City guys and gals start going off on how DHB was less productive than Baldwin or whatever, let me say this: Heyward-Bey played in a pro-style offense where he was the decoy to open up plays for other players. Baldwin was Pitt's one main weapon and they tried to put the ball in his hands on almost every passing play.
I'm not saying Baldwin isn't going to be a good player in this league. I'm saying Chiefs fans are enamored with this guy because of physical ability, although he has some questions surrounding him. Sound familiar?
What I'm asking here is, what happens when he gets angry at Matt Cassel, or the coaching staff, or even the front office? Then what do you do, Kansas City? Just what?
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