Maybe this approach is aimed at weathering a late season five-game stretch against New England, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Chicago and the New York Jets that will almost assuredly make or break the Chiefs season. But is this the right approach? Do you want you guys still learning the system during the first few weeks of the regular season?  It does not seem like the most efficient approach to me.

Right 53 doesn’t mean anything anymore, if it ever did.   Because no definition of “right 53″ includes Jonathan Baldwin, Justin Houston, Jared Gaither and Jerrell Powe.  These guys are the exact opposite of what that phrase was supposed to mean.  Upside lottery tickets.  Hey, I love ‘em.  But up until this season we all thought Pioli didn’t.  Its like some guy spent two years telling us he didn’t like ice cream and then when he finally had us over to his house his freezer was full of Cherry Garcia and Americone Dream.

Victor, Ladner, Merlin, and Randy after the jump…

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Holy crap we are about to have football again.  This Friday we will actually get to see the Red and Gold take the field for the first time in 7 months, and I am very excited.  Sure it’s only the preseason, and at best the first string players will only be on the field for the first series of downs, but after the craziness of this past off season it might as well be the freaking Super Bowl.

So all of this excitement has got me to thinking about the upcoming season, and I thought it would be fun for all of us to get some pre-preseason predictions on record to see just how close our expectations are to reality.  At the end of the season I will go through and tally up who had the most correct answers and they will be dubbed the winner of this little contest.  I will donate my entire months Arrowhead Addict salary to the winner (bad time to tell you all this is basically a volunteer gig…).

We will start after the jump.  Merlin, you can play so long as you leave the cover on your seeing stone.

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All seriousness aside, just what are we getting in Kelly Gregg? Will the addition of Queequeg and Powe, the rookie 6th rounder, be greater than, less than, or zero sum with the subtraction of veterans Sweet Ron and Perv? As to the second question, it’s a hard call at this point but we’ll nevertheless check what the stats have to say.

Crock Blocking

(we really gotta get Crock a feature logo)

I find it next to impossible that McCluster, under these circumstances, will ever justify where we drafted him.

But hope is not lost, not entirely.  And in the face of Wendler’s simple math, I think the Chiefs would do well to try to make the numbers fit, and give McCluster a serious chance to be an impact player.

Here are five ways I could see the Chiefs utilizing McCluster in productive ways. I’ve gone out of my way to assure that each way is not a gimmick, and can make repeat appareances week in and week out, rather than relying on surprise plays.

Jeremy, myself, Lyle, Taylor, and Nikolozi through the looking glass…

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For me the preseason games are an opportunity to see Arrowhead in a different light. The pace is slow. The traffic is light. The hurried walk to the stadium is a casual stroll. Your not in a rush because there isn’t anything to miss. Many fans stay an hour and go home. Others arrive just before its over. Many never even go into the stadium they must mill about on the parking lot, having found that strolling around a warm August night is more entertaining that watching the game.

 In the starting lineup, the secondary is the strength of the Chiefs defense. Berry, Lewis, Flowers and Carr have the potential to be as effective as the awesome secondary of Cherry, Burruss, Lewis and Ross. That unit was the best secondary unit the Chiefs have ever fielded. Will the current group be as good? I don’t know, but they could. Depth is a bit of an issue, but the starting lineup is good.

An external juxtaposition of the internal dichotomy within Ladner, Victor’s musings over redemption for an adversary turned consort, and the first half of a quid pro quo dialogue between Big Matt and Lyle after this rather verbose and sesquipedalian transitional sentence…

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By all accounts the deal is about done, and it seems to be something both sides can agree on.  I’m no lawyer, to pour over the minutiae and say who got the better of it.  I’m hopelessly biased against the owners in any case.  But, I mean, shouldn’t it be a given that you’re going to unanimously approve a plan you wrote?  I would guess all the disagreement pretty much gets weeded out during authorship, right?  Was a “we did it!” press conference before the players had even seen the proposal really necessary?

But that said, I am going to look at this lockout, after the fact, as a small blessing. Besides leaving the league and its players (and definitely its owners) in a better state for having hashed out their differences—and I really do believe that—it has given me a new appreciation that I didn’t think I’d allow myself to feel. It isn’t all just going to be ponies and gum drops and rainbows and chicken spiedini from here on. Some very bitter and lingering truths about the owners and the players (but mostly the owners) came to light, and as ticket prices and team profits continue to rise, much of the same fan frustration will remain.

Ladner, Merlin, and Randy after the jump:

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