There's an argument for not getting drafted and it goes something like this: sometimes it's better to be a free agent because a player can choose where he signs; a sixth- or seventh-round pick has no such luxury and if they end up on a team deep at the position they play, chances are, come August, they'll be looking for a new job.

This explains why former Florida quarterback Chris Leak, after going undrafted in 2007, signed with the Bears. Rex Grossman, Kyle Orton and Brian Griese weren't names that screamed "franchise players" even if Lovie Smith won't admit it. Leak was released midway through the '07 season, which might indicate that his professional calling lies somewhere outside the NFL.

Not yet. Another team with a young unproven quarterback, the Kansas City Chiefs, want to give Leak a look-see. From the Kansas City Star's Jeffrey Flanagan:

"He's been around, and we'll take a look at what he's got," Chiefs coach Herm Edwards said. "He's an excellent athlete who's been in some tough spots and has won."

Edwards said he will view Leak as a quarterback rather than trying to convert him to another position. "We're definitely looking at him as a quarterback," Edwards said. "He's got the arm strength. He's kind of got a different game than the other quarterbacks we have. So we'll check it out."

Kansas City Chiefs 2008 Draft Picks:

Round 1 (5): Glenn Dorsey, DT, LSU
Round 1 (15): Branden Albert, OG, Virginia
Round 2 (35): Brandon Flowers, CB, Virginia Tech
Round 3 (73): Jamaal Charles, RB, Texas
Round 3 (76): Brad Cottam, TE, Tennessee
Round 3 (82): DaJuan Morgan, S, North Carolina State
Round 4 (105): Will Franklin, WR, Missouri
Round 5 (140): Brandon Carr, CB, Grand Valley State
Round 6 (170): Barry Richardson, OT, Clemson
Round 6 (182): Kevin Robinson, WR, Utah State
Round 7 (210): Brian Johnston, DE, Gardner-Webb
Round 7 (239): Mike Merritt, TE, Central Florida

The Good: See all 12 picks above -- that's the good. Kansas City added value with every single selection they made, and addressed nearly every need they had. Glenn Dorsey was considered by some to be the number one player available, while Albert, Flowers, Cottam and Robinson (special teams) all add significant talent to positions in need. And what about the other nine players selected? They all have tremendous upside as well and each represented solid value at the position they were taken.

The Bad: Is there any? The Chiefs made 12 picks this past weekend and on paper, it looks like they made every single one of them count. If there's one knock on anyone, it's that Braden Albert will be a "work in progress." Still, that's hardly a negative for someone who figures to be a quality NFL starter for a very long time. Beyond that, the only other negative that presents itself was the failure to draft another quarterback.

The Grade: A. In comparison to the other 31 teams, Kansas City left Radio City Music Hall on top. They had a fantastic draft and appear to have secured a bright future. Although they may not make it to the playoffs this coming season, they've certainly given their fans something to be excited about.

Click here to read other draft grades.

Virginia Tech cornerback Brandon Flowers was generally recognized as the best of the second-tier cornerbacks. There were the big four of Mike Jenkins, Leodis McKelvin, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Aqib Talib, and then Flowers was supposed to be at the top of the next tier.

So it's a little surprising that Flowers fell behind not only the big four, but also behind Antoine Cason, who went to the Chargers with the 27th pick. In any event, the Chiefs took Flowers with the 35th pick, and he's the third potential 2008 starter the Chiefs have added today. With Glenn Dorsey and Branden Albert in the first round and now Flowers in the second, you have to like what you saw today if you're a Kansas City fan.

Previously on FanHouse:
Herm Edwards Wants the Chiefs to Have Every Pick in This Weekend's NFL Draft

Okay, so it looks like Herm Edwards and Carl Person do, in fact, have a plan. After two first-round picks and a little draft-day maneuverin', Kansas City has a franchise defensive tackle AND a franchise left guard/tackle. All before 5 p.m. Honestly, I didn't see that coming.

Of course, acing the draft grades won't mean jack once the season starts, but if nothing else, Chiefs fans can enjoy a weekend for the first time in three years or so. This morning, Edwards was bloviating about how he wanted 75 percent of the team's 13 picks to be starters this fall. That worked out to roughly 10 players, which is, well, insane.

Well, two down, and after trading up from 17th to 15th to grab Albert, the Chiefs are down to nine picks, so maybe it's not as ludicrous as it originally sounded. Still, even if Kansas City pulls this off, they will be extremely young next season, and unless they draft a quarterback later today, there will still be questions at the position (hell, they'll be questions even if they do take the next Brodie Croyle because, well, he'll be the next Brodie Croyle).

But assuming the Chiefs bust out another four-win season in 2008, at least the franchise will finally be moving in the right direction. And with Clark Hunt unwilling to fire anybody, Peterson and Edwards should be around to accept all the backslapping should the team actually show improvement. So there's that too.

The only question about Virginia's Branden Albert is whether he's a guard or a tackle in the NFL. At Virginia he played guard, where he was dominant, but NFL teams usually don't take guards this high in the draft, and that the Chiefs would trade up for him strongly indicates that he'll be a tackle in the NFL.

The above video was made by a fan hoping the Cowboys would take Albert, but that didn't happen, and it's actually surprising that he lasted until the 15th pick, which the Chiefs acquired in a trade with the Lions.

Previously on FanHouse:
FanHouse Mock Draft: Kansas City Chiefs Select OT Ryan Clady No. 5
Herm Edwards Wants the Chiefs to Have Every Pick in This Weekend's NFL Draft
Top-5 Picks Don't Go as Far as They Once Did
NFL Draft: Brian Brohm in the First Round?

A lot of the talk leading up to the draft the last couple of weeks had to do with the Saints' frantic attempts to work a deal that would allow them to draft Glenn Dorsey.

They proved those reports correct, offering the Chiefs their 10th pick, their second-round pick (40th), and their first round pick in 2009 to move up to the Chiefs' spot. Despite Herm Edwards' insistence that the Chiefs would try to acquire more draft picks, that fortune was obviously not enough to dissuade them from taking Dorsey. If you're a Chiefs fan, I'm not sure how much you love that news, no matter how great Dorsey can be.

The Saints quickly went to Plan B, and worked a deal with the Patriots to move up for Sedrick Ellis, probably 1b on their board. They had to land one of those two tackles, and Ellis quickly becomes a quick impact player in a defense that's needed a powerful presence in the middle.

Ellis was recruited to USC by Ed Orgeron, who's now the Saints' defensive line coach, so there's a familiarity there on both sides. It would have been a nice story for the local product in Dorsey to stay in Louisiana, but Ellis will help the team a lot too. Defensive tackle was their biggest need by far, and credit the Saints for doing what it took to fill it.

Update: The Saints send their 10th overall pick and third-rounder to the Patriots for their 7th overall pick and a fifth-rounder.

Louisiana State defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey entered the 2007 college football season as the top pro prospect on most draft boards. Then he suffered a knee injury when an Auburn offensive lineman cheap-shotted him, and then questions surfaced about a stress fracture dating to 2006, and all of a sudden there was talk that Dorsey would drop.

But the fact is, the Kansas City Chiefs, who chose Dorsey fifth overall, just got a good football player, and a football player who will be healthy enough to go at full-speed right away. Last year there were all sorts of whispers about Adrian Peterson not being healthy enough to play. How did that work out for the Vikings?

Dorsey is mostly known as a run-stuffer, but he had seven sacks in 2007 and is a better pass rusher than he gets credit for. He's a complete player.

Previously on FanHouse:
FanHouse Mock Draft: Kansas City Chiefs Select OT Ryan Clady No. 5
Herm Edwards Wants the Chiefs to Have Every Pick in This Weekend's NFL Draft
Top-5 Picks Don't Go as Far as They Once Did
NFL Draft: Brian Brohm in the First Round?

NFL Network and ESPN are roughly 18 hours into the 2008 NFL Draft coverage (2009 preview shows air Monday at 7pm!), and I just stumbled across Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards' master plan to rebuild the franchise: accumulate an obscene number of draft picks, hope, and pray.

Thanks to the Jared Allen trade, the Chiefs now have 13 picks, but as I pointed out last week, there are only 53 roster spots and limited funds to sign all these new faces.

Kansas City's open to trading down, which seems smart, but here's what I just heard on ESPN:

"The Chiefs have 321 players on their draft board -- more than they've ever had before -- and Edwards ... said he'll be happy if 75 percent of the players picked this weekend are starting for his club on opening day."

Okay, let's see, 75 percent of 13 -- or, God forbid, 15 -- is 10 or 11 new starters. Who also happen to be rookies. This isn't even a good idea in theory, of course, Edwards could just be making stuff up. I mean, this is the same guy who thought it was a good idea to make faces as Matthew Estrella as he videotaped the Jets' defensive signals.

This is where the hoping and praying comes in.

In noting that the Saints are dangling Jammal Brown, MDS asks if it makes sense to trade a 27-year-old All-Pro left tackle for a rookie who will get massive guaranteed money right away. Usually, that question is a no-brainer. In this instance, I'm not so sure.

What many don't know about Brown is that he's got a degenerative knee condition dating back to his college days that teams were aware of. The word on the injury was that it wouldn't damper his play, but would most likely shorten his career significantly. I think that injury is in the Saints' minds right now, tempting them to deal Brown before he commands a huge contract he might not live up to.

The team is also deep at tackle, and love young backups Zach Strief and Jermon Bushrod. If Brown were to be dealt it would be Strief's job, which also fits into logic. Since Sean Payton arrived, the team has slowly converted their offensive line into a nasty, physical bunch. New-ish starters Jahri Evans, Jonathan Goodwin, and potential starter Andy Alleman all have that quality, and Strief does too. Brown's a finesse tackle.

So to me, at least, it makes sense to deal Brown while the Saints can turn his value into a potentially All-Pro defensive tackle, the missing piece that has resulted in such a consistently bad defense. But it might not be the Rams Brown is headed to -- perhaps he and the 10th pick go to the Chiefs, which should land the Saints Sedrick Ellis. In return the Chiefs get a great tackle and can replace Jared Allen with Derrick Harvey. Things that make you go "hmmmmm."

I admit to being a little skeptical when Herm Edwards suggested the Chiefs were going to blow everything up and rebuild through the draft. The "blowing everything up" part I got -- winning four games makes a pretty convincing case -- but I wasn't sold on the "using the draft to re-stock the roster" talk.

Well, Kansas City has unloaded its best defensive player, Jared Allen, on the Vikings, and received heir 17th, 73rd and 82nd picks in this weekend's draft. That brings the Chiefs' total number of selections to 13, which means that they can draft an entirely new offense and still have two picks to find the next Justin Medlock.

And while 13 seems like an obscene number of selections, it might not be enough for Kansas City:

Chiefs coach Herm Edwards said today the team might spend the days before Saturday's NFL draft examining the possibility of trading for even more draft picks. ..."It's not over," Edwards said. "Right now, we have 13. We might end up with more than that. Who knows?"