Cris Collinsworth Thinks The Chiefs Should Draft A Quarterback With Their First-Round Pick

The Kansas City Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. The NFL’s reigning Most Valuable Player is football’s big bad final boss right now, the guy who has essentially taken the mantle from Tom Brady as the QB who needs to be beaten for any team in the AFC with aspirations of winning a championship. Last season, no one was able to do that, and Mahomes lifted the Lombardi Trophy for the second time in five seasons as a starter.

Cris Collinsworth knows this, but despite that, he thinks the Chiefs should use their first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft on Hendon Hooker, a quarterback out of Tennessee. While Hooker is a very good player — Collinsworth said he couldn’t leave him out of his mock because “I like him too much” — well, yeah.

The logic that Collinsworth uses here is that the only thing that can prevent Kansas City from being a contender over the next few years is Mahomes getting hurt “for four or five games,” meaning that he believes that Hooker is essentially insurance against a worst-case scenario.

“If you get Hendon Hooker for the next five years by taking him, Lamar Jackson-like, at the end of the first round, so you get him for that extra year, which you’re gonna need, I think he’ll be ready after the knee injury,” Collinsworth said. “He’s 25 years old, I get it, ACL, but he does a lot of good things.”

Collinsworth is certainly right about this, as Hooker was a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender for the Vols last season before he tore up his knee. And later during the full segment, it was pointed out that Mahomes’ longtime backup, Chad Henne, played an important role in the team winning the Super Bowl both times that they’ve won it during the Mahomes era. Henne retired this offseason, and Blaine Gabbert was brought in to fill in when Mahomes is out.

Still, taking a player on the off chance Mahomes can’t play for an extended period over using ie pick on a player who could help them when they’re at full strength is a curious decision, especially considering the fact that the team has needs at a few other positions. They could use a little help at receiver and running back (unless they’re really high on Isiah Pacheco after last year, which would make sense), their offensive line could always use some reinforcements, and two of their most productive pass rushers last year, Frank Clark and Michael Danna, are free agents. Add in that Mahomes is only two years and four months older than Hooker, and we are going to respectfully disagree with Collinsworth on this one.