Borgonzi Free Agency, Trades, and Draft Picks as Assistant GM with the Chiefs

[Thrill]

Here are all the Chiefs draft picks while Borgonzi was assistant GM: 

 

Rnd    Player    Pick    Pos    All Pro    ProBowls    Years as Starter    Games    Univ
2    Nick Bolton    58    LB    0    0    3    57    Missouri
2    Creed Humphrey    63    OL    1    3    4    68    Oklahoma
4    Joshua Kaindoh    144    DE    0    0    0    3    Florida St.
5    Noah Gray    162    TE    0    0    0    67    Duke
5    Cornell Powell    181    WR    0    0    0    3    Clemson
6    Trey Smith    226    OL    0    1    4    67    Tennessee

2022
1    Trent McDuffie    21    CB    1    0    3    43    Washington
1    George Karlaftis III    30    DE    0    0    3    49    Purdue
2    Skyy Moore    54    WR    0    0    0    36    Western Michigan
2    Bryan Cook    62    S    0    0    2    45    Cincinnati
3    Leo Chenal    103    LB    0    0    2    51    Wisconsin
4    Joshua Williams    135    CB    0    0    0    50    Fayetteville St.
5    Darian Kinnard    145    T    0    0    0    3    Kentucky
7    Jaylen Watson    243    DB    0    0    1    38    Washington St.
7    Isiah Pacheco    251    RB    0    0    2    38    Rutgers
7    Nazeeh Johnson    259    S    0    0    0    27    Marshall

2023
1    Felix Anudike-Uzomah    31    DE    0    0    0    34    Kansas St.
2    Rashee Rice    55    WR    0    0    0    20    SMU
3    Wanya Morris    92    OL    0    0    1    31    Oklahoma
4    Chamarri Conner    119    DB    0    0    0    32    Virginia Tech
5    BJ Thompson    166    DE    0    0    0    1    S.F. Austin
6    Keondre Coburn    194    DT    0    0    0    20    Texas
7    Nic Jones    250    CB    0    0    0    10    Ball St.

2024
1    Xavier Worthy    28    WR    0    0    1    17    Texas
2    Kingsley Suamataia    63    OL    0    0    0    15    BYU
4    Jared Wiley    131    TE    0    0    0    7    TCU
4    Jaden Hicks    133    DB    0    0    0    17    Washington St.
5    Hunter Nourzad    159    OL    0    0    0    17    Penn St.
6    Kamal Hadden    211    DB    0    0    0    2    Tennessee
7    C.J. Hanson    248    OG    0    0    0    1    Holy Cross

 

2021 - Bolton, Humphrey, Smith are all pretty spectacular picks. This was his first year as assistant GM, though.

2022 - McDuffie was a great pick. Karlaftis is also pretty great. He's about as good as you can hope for with a late first Edge rusher. 

2023  - Anudike-Uzomah is a complete bust but getting Rice at the end of the second was pretty great. The rest of this class is pretty underwhelming so far. 

2024 - Too early to tell but Xavier Worthy does not look as good as McConkey and maybe not as good as Pearsall who went a few picks later (raises some questions about drafting for upside/traits vs guys who are pro ready). Hicks seems like an emerging DB. 

 

I would go through all the free agency decisions they made, but they basically never gave out more than 10 million a year to any free agents besides Jawaan Taylor and that was only after letting Orland Brown Jr walk in FA. So the only time they opened up the checkbook was for an offensive tackle. This was two years after the chiefs gave up a 2021 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 2022 5th for Orlando Brown, a 2021 2nd, and 2022 6th round picks. So clearly tackles were always a top priority. The next year they traded Tyreek Hill and basically recouped everything they lost in the Orlando Brown trade getting back a 2022 1st, 2nd, and 4th and a 2023 4th and 6th round pick (much better return than our fucking AJ Brown trade). And finally they completed two trades with us last year receiving a 3rd for Snead and sending back a 4th or 5th (can't remember) for Hopkins. 

All together, this stretch jives with his conservative, build through the draft approach. The only splurges the chiefs made during this time were for Offensive linemen and the only major busts were defensive linemen, which is kind of a big swing in itself late in the first round. I don't love the Xavier Worthy pick but it's too soon to tell and he's certainly not a bust, even if he's not as good as the guys drafted right after him. The 2021 draft was incredible and 2023 may have been a whiff, especially if Rice doesn't get his shit together. Pretty good track record drafting offensive linemen and cornerbacks. Decent with the defensive line and receivers. 

I anticipated being a bit more pessimistic when I went into this exercise, but honestly, that's about as good of a draft run as you can expect for a team drafting at the end of the first every year. It will be fun seeing Borgonzi getting another reasonably high draft pick next year as he's had so few in his time in KC. Similarly, he's never really had money to blow in FA (even if that's against his philosophy). 

[SleepingTitan]

I don't think you can really learn anything from this data because he didn't make the picks or hire the scouting staff

[NashvilleNinja]

4 minutes ago, SleepingTitan said:

I don't think you can really learn anything from this data because he didn't make the picks or hire the scouting staff

 

Borgonzi has had his fingerprints on all of their big decisions for the last 10 years, ever since he was made Director of Player Personnel in 2015, even if he didn't have final say. This includes the era of scouting that brought them Mahomes. And he only moved higher up the pecking order over that time.

[ctm]

As quiver chins found out, it's much, much harder to draft at the bottom of a round than the top.

[Starkiller]

2 hours ago, SleepingTitan said:

I don't think you can really learn anything from this data because he didn't make the picks or hire the scouting staff

All the good decisions were by Borgonzi and all the bad ones were someone else…

[SleepingTitan]

37 minutes ago, Starkiller said:

All the good decisions were by Borgonzi and all the bad ones were someone else…

Exactly. That's why he left that shithole to come here!

[Number9]

7 hours ago, SleepingTitan said:

I don't think you can really learn anything from this data because he didn't make the picks or hire the scouting staff

True that.  But he has seen how a championship franchise operates.  His experience compared to Ran and JRob is vast.  

 

Borgonzi arrived in Tennessee with 16 years of experience with the Kansas City Chiefs. During his final four seasons in Kansas City, he served as Assistant *General Manager.  

[TheBukafax]

33 minutes ago, Number9 said:

True that.  But he has seen how a championship franchise operates.  His experience compared to Ran and JRob is vast.  

 

Borgonzi arrived in Tennessee with 16 years of experience with the Kansas City Chiefs. During his final four seasons in Kansas City, he served as Assistant *General Manager.  

Jrob was with the Pats for the first 10 years of their dynasty.

[Number9]

57 minutes ago, TheBukafax said:

Jrob was with the Pats for the first 10 years of their dynasty.

Going to get the coffee. He was in the scouting department.  He was young and did a reasonably good job. Henry as his second pick in round two. Got Tanny for cheap. 
 

But he drafted Wilson. He got way more credit than that than for drafting AJB. JRob was a master at bringing in talent after a player went down. 
 

JRob had little support. Compare the support Bonz is starting with JRob’s.  night/day.  
 

Here we go again. BC can cry and Vrabel was a meathead. lmao. Last season. Paw put his seal of approval on a LT. We needed a LT.  If JRob did that?  
 

When you just lay blame on people without looking at the big picture you can get a confused answer. 

[Dangermode]

Man, that 2019 draft was LOADED with Day 2&3 wide receivers. Deebo Samuel, AJ Brown, Mecole Hardman,  DK Metcalf, Dionte Johnson, Terry McLaurin, Hunter Renfrow, Darius Slayton, Jakobi Myers, Scotty Miller, Olamide Zacchaeus, Dionte Harty and Kavonte Turpin. 

Literally 9 Pro Bowlers.

 

And the Pats took N’Keal Harry in the first round before all of them lol. 

Edited September 3, 2025 by Dangermode

[OILERMAN]

Patrick Mahomes/

[oldschool]

1 hour ago, Dangermode said:

Man, that 2019 draft was LOADED with Day 2&3 wide receivers. Deebo Samuel, AJ Brown, Mecole Hardman,  DK Metcalf, Dionte Johnson, Terry McLaurin, Hunter Renfrow, Darius Slayton, Jakobi Myers, Scotty Miller, Olamide Zacchaeus, Dionte Harty and Kavonte Turpin. 

Literally 9 Pro Bowlers.

 

And the Pats took N’Keal Harry in the first round before all of them lol. 

 

There are 4 good WRs on that list...

[Mythos27]

J-Rob was a good scout with a good eye for talent. Finding KB in the third and then Hooker in the 4th are the types of picks you see from good scouts. His struggles came in the other parts of the job. Might hurt his ego but if he really wants to be close the game he should go back to a senior scouting role. 

[ctm]

23 minutes ago, Mythos27 said:

J-Rob was a good scout with a good eye for talent. Finding KB in the third and then Hooker in the 4th are the types of picks you see from good scouts. His struggles came in the other parts of the job. Might hurt his ego but if he really wants to be close the game he should go back to a senior scouting role. 

There are reasons he can't get a scouting job.  He's terrible.

[Thrill]

18 hours ago, ctm said:

As quiver chins found out, it's much, much harder to draft at the bottom of a round than the top.

That’s the most impressive part of the chiefs run. Like yes, they’ve bombed a few picks, but they’ve been able to build through the draft even with late picks every single year.