Thursday is not unlike Christmas morning for NFL fans. Those of us who are Kansas City Chiefs fans get to open the first package. The thing is, we won’t know for sure what we got for Christmas until around January of 2016.

Above is Neil Smith. He was the #2 pick in the ’88 NFL draft. Smith didn’t contribute much in ’88 on a Chiefs team that was 4-11-1. Sometimes it takes a year or so to adapt from college to the NFL—even coming from the Southeastern Conference or in Smith’s case, Nebraska the Big-8. From 1989 through ’95, Smith played up to the level you expect from the second player taken in the entire draft.  Neil Smith was the best football player on the board and he also fit a huge need.

Shortly after 7 p-m Thursday evening,  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will step up to the microphone in New York and say something along the lines of…”With the first pick in the 2013 NFL Draft , the Kansas City Chiefs select Luke Joeckel, offensive tackle, Texas A&M”.  Or, he might say Eric Fisher, offensive tackle, Central Michigan.  An offensive tackle is a huge need in KC no matter what is really going on with Branden Albert, the Chiefs and-- according to speculation—the Miami Dolphins.

Remember Orlando Pace? The Rams took him as the overall #1 in 1997. Best football player in that draft and he filled a huge need in the Rams offense at the time. Without Pace in St. Louis, we don’t get to see The Greatest Show on Turf, Kurt Warner might be running a Hy Vee somewhere after dabbling in football and Marshall Faulk runs into the Hall of Fame in some other NFL city.

I'm a firm believer that great football teams are built starting at the line of scrimmage. Time for the Chiefs to get back to that on the offensive side of the ball. The moves since John Dorsey and Andy Reid came aboard appear to be a good start. Adding an OT on the #1 overall pick would be another sign that they're getting it right.

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