ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- The news about Jonathan Baldwin, that he had failed with another team, didn't cause much of a ripple at Kansas City Chiefs training camp. The Chiefs moved on from Baldwin last summer and tried to salvage what they could from a bad situation by trading him to the San Francisco 49ers for another wide receiver, A.J. Jenkins.
But Baldwin's release by the 49ers is just another reminder of what the Chiefs already knew. Baldwin is one of the worst first-round draft picks in team history. Credit to Chiefs general manager John Dorsey for quickly recognizing Baldwin's inadequacies last year and getting what he could in return.
Baldwin will try to resurrect his career now with the Detroit Lions but things won't go any better for him there than in either Kansas City or San Francisco. His career will be a failure and it's difficult to know what the general manager who drafted Baldwin, Scott Pioli, ever saw in him.
Pioli, now the assistant general manager for the Atlanta Falcons, has collected several of his former draft picks while he was with the Chiefs. Tyson Jackson, Jon Asamoah and Javier Arenas are now with Atlanta.
It's more than a little telling that the Falcons and Pioli passed on the chance to claim Baldwin. While Pioli was able to convince Atlanta general manager Thomas Dimitroff of the value of some other former Chiefs' picks, he couldn't do that with Baldwin.
Or perhaps Pioli is just trying to distance himself from that particular draft pick. I wonder whether he could have done so if he was still the Chiefs' GM, or whether Baldwin would still be starting because Pioli was trying to justify the pick.