Chiefs draft WR Moore, S Cook during second round
By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Sports Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs selected Western Michigan wide receiver Skyy Moore in the second round of the NFL draft Friday night, giving quarterback Patrick Mahomes a replacement for Tyreek Hill, then added Cincinnati safety Bryan Cook to their new-look defensive backfield.
The Chiefs sent the No. 50 pick to the Patriots to move back to No. 54 and pick up an additional selection midway through the fifth round.
The target was Moore, whose 5-foot-10 frame, 4.41 time in the 40 and burst off the line will remind some of Hill, the three-time All-Pro that Kansas City shipped to Miami for a package of draft picks earlier in the offseason.
The Patriots also took a wide receiver in Baylor’s Tyquan Thornton. And the two teams ahead of Kansas City also grabbed wide receivers: Pittsburgh took Georgia’s George Pickens and Indianapolis picked Cincinnati’s Alec Pierce.
Moore was the seventh wide receiver taken in the first 22 picks of the second round and the 13th taken in the draft.
He played quarterback and defensive back in high school before moving to wide receiver at Western Michigan, where he became an immediate star. Despite never having played the position, Moore started 12 of 13 games as a freshman and had 53 catches for 802 yards with three touchdowns, and then improved those numbers each of the next two seasons.
He wound up catching 95 passes for 1,292 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Broncos last season.
The Chiefs began to replace the production of Hill in free agency, signing former Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and former Packers deep threat Marquez Valdes-Scantling. But the shifty, slippery Moore offers a different dynamic in the wide receiver room, giving Mahomes another target who has the ability to make things happen after the catch.
The Chiefs used their other second-round pick on Cook, a hard-hitting safety who excels in stopping the run. He joins the other two first-round picks by Kansas City — Washington cornerback Trent McDuffie and Purdue edge rusher George Karlaftis — in upgrading a defense that struggled down the stretch and in the playoffs last season.
The Chiefs, who lost All-Pro safety Tyrann Mathieu in free agency, signed former Texans safety Justin Reid earlier in the offseason. But he profiles as a strong safety whereas Cook has the versatility to play free safety.
The Chiefs also hold the 103rd pick in the third round Friday night. Their draft concludes Saturday with one pick apiece in the fourth and fifth rounds and four more in the seventh round.
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