The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles have been the two best teams in the NFL all season and will square off against each other in Super Bowl LVII. It is a fitting matchup between two organizations that know how to put together a winning football team.
There are several things that the Chargers can learn from the Chiefs and Eagles. While there are different ways to win in the NFL, there are similar underlying traits that can be applied to any football team and the Bolts should recognize that.
With the 2023 NFL Draft just over two months away, Tom Telesco should be doing some internal reflection about his draft process and the selections he has made over the years. If he does that, he will come to realize that there are two massive common denominators that the Chiefs and Eagles have when it comes to drafting talent.
2 huge draft lessons the Chargers must learn from the Chiefs and Eagles:
1. Trading back is not a bad thing!
Howie Roseman is the best general manager in the NFL. Period. You don't win a Super Bowl, completely strip that team down, and then build a new Super Bowl contender four years later if you are not a great general manager.
There is not a GM in the league that has maximized his draft capital more so than Roseman. Philadelphia rarely stays put in the NFL Draft as the team has realized that building depth from the draft is the best way for sustainability both for the cost of the assets and the fact that they are not landing over-the-hill free agents.
Kansas City has not done as much moving in the NFL Draft but they have not been shy in moving around the draft order to maximize what they need. Last year they traded up to select Trent McDuffie and then traded back down in round two get Skyy Moore and an extra draft pick.
The Chargers have never traded down in the NFL Draft while Tom Telesco has been general manager.
2. The defensive line is the second-most important thing on a football team — so draft it!
The most important thing on a football team is the quarterback position. If you do not have a great quarterback, you are not a contender. Sure, there are examples of mediocre quarterbacks making a run with such a great supporting cast around them but those are few and far between.
The second-most important key to success is how you counter great quarterback play: the pass rush. The ability to get pressure on a quarterback while only sending four is the best ability a team can have away from the QB position. It is not an accident that the final four teams in the Conference Championship games all had great defensive lines.
Kansas City and Philly have poured resources into drafting on the defensive line. Not every pick ended up working out, but the process of investing into that position group is what creates a talented, deep pass rush. Sure, the Chargers have Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack but the depth is atrocious.
The Chiefs have taken a defensive end in the last three NFL Drafts. The Eagles have taken a defensive end in each of the last eleven NFL Drafts. Even in 2011, the only draft in which the Roseman didn't take a true defensive end, the team took three linebackers to potentially help the pass rush on the edge (none worked out, but it is the process).
The biggest lesson that stands out to me from looking at the way the Eagles do things in the draft is how intentional they are with adding to the pass rush every year. This has not been the case for the Chargers under Tom Telesco and needs to be addressed. https://t.co/VlIuLUfNoA pic.twitter.com/cbVfaEDwaE
— Steven Haglund (@StevenIHaglund) February 11, 2023
Even when Kansas City didn't take a defensive end they took a defensive tackle. You would have to go back to 2014 to find the last Chiefs' draft class that didn't have either a defensive end or defensive tackle.
Since taking Joey Bosa in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft, the Chargers have drafted a grand total of one defensive end/edge rusher (Chris Rumph). One. In the last three years specifically, the Chargers have taken only one other defensive lineman aside from Rumph: Otito Ogbonnia.
MORE: Why the Chargers won't cut Keenan Allen
This is a problem that directly causes the lack of depth on the defensive line for the Chargers. It needs to change.