Kansas City Chiefs: Their Receivers' Original Scout Notes

Sometimes scouts are right, and sometimes they are wrong. It's the nature of the business.

With the trading of Tony Gonzalez and the addition of Todd Haley, it is likely that wide receiver will be an important position during the Chiefs' upcoming season.

The good news is that, with stability at the QB position plus the Haley/Gailey tag-team tandem, the Chiefs will have an excellent coaching system and good game-planning. That's great when you consider the Chiefs are "shaky" at the WR position.

Since I regularly follow the NFL Draft, I decided to look back at the actual scouting reports on four Kansas City recievers. It's up to each of you to take this information and decide if the reports proved accurate.

I am not including Dwayne Bowe and Bobby Engram. They are already established. Rather, I will concentrate on Mark Bradley, Devard Darling, Jeff Webb, and Terrance Copper, receivers who, so far, have not exactly set the world on fire.

I'm sure they'll be a few more moves before the season begins.

Devard Darling

At the NFL Combine, Darling ran a 4.52 40-yard dash, and he had a vertical jump of 37 inches.

Positives: "Transferred from Florida State to Washington State where he had a few productive years....Deep threat....Built for speed....Easily beats press coverage....Good burst out of his breaks....Can pluck the ball with ease....Prefers intermediate routes. Strong runner after the catch."

Negatives: "Doesn't protect the football when catching in a crowd....Has poor awareness and makes poor adjustments to passes that are not on target....Will take plays off and [has] not give much effort when blocking....Scored 19 on the Wonderlic Test, which is average....Has a chance to be special but will require at least three years of good coaching to reach his potential."

Terrence Copper

At the Combine, Copper was timed running a 4.46 40-yard dash with a very good 38-inch vertical jump

Positives: "Very durable in college never missing any time due to injury....Tough guy with the explosive running style to break tackles like a running back....Has played all WR positions....Can beat the jam and hit top-end speed quickly....Can turn a short catch into a long gain....Can stretch the field but is excellent over the middle....Good hands."

Negatives: "Struggles to sink hips and has trouble making sharp cuts....Doesn't play as fast as his 40-time."

Mark Bradley

Bradley ran a 4.37 40-yard dash at the Combine with an excellent 40-inch vertical jump.

Positives: "Promising despite only fair production in college.....Well-built and built for speed....Best on out patterns, comebacks, slants, and screens....Strong, willing blocker and excellent gunner on special teams."

Negatives: "Body catches the ball too often and lacks confidence in his hands....Struggles to beat the jam....Despite his speed prefers to not run deep and has to use double moves to blow past defenders....Has a lot of problems catching over the shoulder and is almost useless on fade routes."

Jeff Webb

In the 40-yard dash, Webb was timed anywhere from a 4.4 to a 4.55. He had a 36-inch vertical jump.

Positives: "Good at beating the jam....Has good solid hands and catches the ball in stride....Makes big plays on deep outs....Good production.

Negatives: "Needs motivation....Is not a team player....Poor focus on the field....One-speed runner with little burst out of his breaks. Trouble getting separation from defensive backs....Hates going over the middle and prefers to have his catches along the sidelines to avoid contact....Has trouble learning the playbook....Had one of the lowest scores ever on the Wonderlic Test and had problems with academics."

Final Thoughts

These are all the scouts' words, not mine. Maybe if we had studied film more often, we would see just how far this group has come.

However, based on overall statistics, they have not come far enough. Hopefully, this year will be the breakout year for a few of them. As a Chief fan, I certainly hope so.