KC Rising: Local Draft Talent Growing and Improving
You can build a Chiefs draft around local prospects
In 2024, the number one defensive lineman recruit in all of college football resided in the Kansas City Metro. Lee Summit’s Williams Nwaneri was one of the most sought after players in all of the country. The year before, North Kansas City’s Adepoju Adeboware was a highly touted, five star recruits that had offers from every major program you could imagine.
The talent in the metro gets better year over year. It’s hard not to see a correlation between the Chiefs’ success since Patrick Mahomes arrived in Kansas City to change the fortunes of fans and city, and raise the profile of the area. The talent pool is expanding as the success of the Chiefs grows. And it’s showing up with several players from the area with draftable grades from round one through seven in the KCSN Draft Guide.
What’s more, the local programs are seeing more success over the past few years as well. Kansas State has won a Big 12 Championship in the past three season, Missouri won a major bowl game against Ohio State after the 2023 season, and Kansas has seen a revival of their program under Lance Leipold and played home games at Arrowhead this year.
Missouri and Lee Summit North’s Armand Membou (a projected top ten pick at tackle), Lawrence, KS native and Jayhawk star running back Devin Neal, and Kansas State and Olathe’s Jacob Parrish were all thirteen years old when Patrick Mahomes was drafted by the Chiefs. Iowa State and Park Hill’s Jaylin Noel was fourteen.
The area has become a football crazed hot bed for talent, and it’s only growing. There’s a chance Membou could be repping the Kansas City Metro as early as the fourth pick in the draft. Local players and local schools will be hearing names called throughout all three days.
I was able to do a mock draft with all KC Metro and local school prospects. Here’s what I came up with.