Fearless Prediction: Ryan Lilja Will Be A Chief Today

I am going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction. Ryan Lilja will be announced as a Kansas City Chief by the end of the day today.I have no evidence to back up this claim, just a hunch.

As we told you yesterday, multiple outlets were reporting that Lilja would be visiting the Chiefs yesterday. All day long I obsessively checked Adam Schefter’s twitter account. I refreshed Pro Football Talk every other minute. Nothing. No news. Not even Josh Looney, who is inside Chiefs headquarters, had any news for us. All he could say was that as far as he knew, there was no ink yet.

Last night I was feeling pretty grumpy that the Chiefs hadn’t locked up Lilja yet when something occurred to me. I had felt this way before. I went through the same thing the day that Thomas Jones was supposed to be visiting the Chiefs. And then it hit me. Lilja will be signed today.Flimsy detective work and outrageous speculation  after the jump.

Ever since free agency began I have been keeping an eye on all the outlets that get news out the fastest. I mentioned all of them already. Thus far, the best and quickest way to find out if the Chiefs made a signing has been to watch Schefter, PFT and Lonney, as well as AA of course. =)

I have noticed that any time a player went on a visit to a city and left without a contract, Schefter has tweeted it. There was no such tweet about Ryan Lilja yesterday. There were no reports anywhere, that I could find, that said Lilja left KC yesterday. That means 1 of 2 things. Either no one saw him leave or he is still there.

I am going with the latter. When Thomas Jones was reported to be in KC we heard nothing all day long. The next day, in an interview with Nick Wright on 610 Sports, Scott Pioli mentioned that Thomas Jones was still in KC.

Later that day, Jones was a Chief.

It makes sense. If everything goes well and it looks like a contract is going to get done, there is no reason for the player to leave. All agreements are usually pending on the player passing his  physical. My guess is that Ryan Lilja will be having his physical this morning and by this afternoon, the news will break that he has signed with KC.

I’d be willing to bet my little finger but perhaps not my thumb, that Lilja arrived yesterday, had a good meeting with Pioli and Co., hammered out a contract and spent the night in KC so he could take his physical this morning. This is shaking down just like the Thomas Jones signing.

If I am wrong about this, I do not expect you folks to taunt me. Though if I am right, expect heavy gloating.