Why the Chiefs Last Draft Pick This Year Was Their Most Exciting
The 2025 NFL Draft finished up this past weekend, but the fallout from it will carry far, far into the future. The performance of highly drafted players in this upcoming season, like number one overall pick Cameron Ward, will be watched intensely under a proverbial microscope as front offices and fans alike will debate if they got “The Guy” with their pick, drafted a bust, or landed somewhere in the middle. It is very rare for a pick’s value to become immediately apparent, so these highly drafted athletes’ value will be measured and debated over the next several years. For better and worse, high draft picks get all the hype and all the pressure, while late-round picks get essentially none of either.
If that’s the case, then why on Earth am I so excited to see what the Kansas City Chiefs do with the guy they drafted in the seventh round? With the 228th pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Chiefs selected Brashard Smith, a running back out of SMU. Smith had an equally interesting and productive college career. He spent all but one season of his time in the FBS at the University of Miami as a wide receiver before transferring both school and position to become SMU’s starting running back. The gamble to take on both a new team and a new role paid massive dividends, as Smith earned both First Team All-ACC and Third Team All-American honors in his lone season with Southern Methodist.
“That’s great and all,” you might be thinking, “but he was still just a seventh-round pick. If anyone had high hopes for him in the NFL, why wasn’t he drafted sooner?” My response to that is simple: Underestimating the gems a team can find in the last round of the draft is a massive mistake. You only need to go back a few years to see the value that the Chiefs have been able to get out of the seventh round. In the 2022 NFL Draft, the Chiefs had three picks in the seventh round, and all three of them saw major playing time with the team.
Jaylen Watson saw the field extensively as a CB in his rookie and sophomore seasons, recording a 99-yard pick-six during the 2022 regular season and starting in all three of the Chiefs’ playoff games on their road to a title win at Super Bowl LVII. Nazeeh Johnson established himself as a much-needed depth piece at safety, starting in multiple games for the Chiefs just this past season. Last but not least is the last running back the Chiefs drafted before Smith: Isiah Pacheco, who burst onto the scene as the Chiefs’ incredibly promising new starting RB. While there are still some lingering issues and doubts around Pacheco and the Chiefs’ running game at large, it would be ridiculous to say that Kansas City hasn’t gotten phenomenal value for “just” a seventh-round pick out of Pacheco.
With all that in mind, why am I so excited about Smith specifically? The answer is a single word: Utility. The immediate hope is that the smaller, very shifty Smith will pair well with the smashmouth power runs of Kareem Hunt and the world’s angriest runner, Isiah Pacheco. Yes, it seems obvious to hope that a running back will run the ball well for your team, but I don’t see Smith’s value as just someone to hand the ball off to. Brashard Smith’s unique time as a WR in college before his switch to RB has also given him the skills and practice to be just as much of a receiving threat as he is a rushing threat. Giving Patrick Mahomes another receiver out of the backfield would make the play action more versatile, let Andy Reid cook up some more beloved gadget plays for a dual-threat back, and maybe even establish itself as just what the offense was missing following the disappointment of the team’s pass attack this past season. Personally, just having someone fill the third-down receiving back niche that Jerick McKinnon dutifully held during his time with the Chiefs would be good enough for me.
Smith could also prove to be an invaluable contributor to Kansas City’s special teams. Before making the jump to SMU, Smith made a name for himself as Miami’s premier kick returner. There is a lot of precedent for the Chiefs to employ younger, less experienced offensive playmakers as returners, sometimes to great effect, like during Tyreek Hill’s thrilling rookie season. With Mecole Hardman departing for Green Bay, the Chiefs will want another quick returner to pair alongside the burgeoning but unproven Nikko Remigio.
I’m not saying that Brashard Smith is the second coming of Dante Hall, but I am saying that his unique talents and background bring a world of possibility. It is not hard to imagine the excitement that an offensive guru like Andy Reid would have thinking of goal-line or third-down sets with a player like Smith. Time will tell if the Chiefs have found yet another diamond in the rough of the seventh round. Oh, and as one last FYI: Bobby Bell was a seventh-rounder.
