Oct 23, 2011; Oakland, CA, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel (7) celebrates after running back Javier Arenas (21) rushed for a touchdown against the Oakland Raiders in the third quarter at O.co Coliseum. The Chiefs defeated the Raiders 28-0. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

It is an Arrowhead Addict tradition that we like to do special farewell posts to important Chiefs players when they depart the team.

And we usually do so with a song.

With today’s release of Matt Cassel, we knew it was time to dust off that old tradition.

What can we say about Matt?

He came to KC with much fanfare in 2009. Cassel was coming off a breakout season with the Patriots and Chiefs fans were convinced that the long-awaited franchise QB had finally arrived. After all, it was the Chiefs’ Bernard Pollard who knocked Tom Brady out of action, thus providing the opportunity for Cassel to step into the starting lineup in the first place.

The fact that Cassel’s arrival in KC was fate was not lost on the fans.

Only it didn’t work out.

Early during Cassel’s tenure, debate raged between those in the “Cassel is good, he is just surrounded by terrible players” camp and those in the “terrible players or not, he still sucks” camp.

In 2010, Cassel presented a bit of a problem for everyone. He still wasn’t terribly impressive but there was absolutely no doubt he was improving. Even the staunchest of Cassel’s critics (cough, this guy, cough) had to admit that they might have been wrong about #7.

In 2011, however, Cassel took a step back. Sure, there was the excuse of injuries happening to key players, but the truth remained that Cassel wasn’t good enough to lift up his team in the face of adversity.

In 2012, despite the writing being on the wall, then-GM Scott Pioli and the fans tried to convince themselves that if Cassel was just surrounded with enough talent that he could flourish.

Well, you know the rest.

Cassel gave Chiefs fans some great moments. His return from an appendectomy to lead the Chiefs to a victory over the St. Louis Rams was both gritty and inspiring. His performance later that season, vs. the Tennessee Titans, to put the Chiefs in the playoffs, was perhaps his best performance in Kansas City.

There were also some bad moments. The inexplicable interception on a screen against the Chargers with the game on the line. The hat fumble. All the interceptions to Eric Weddle.

But it wasn’t all bad:

We took some requests for Matt’s farewell song. There were some really great suggestions but we just had to go with Phil Collins. Nothing quite sums up a complicated situation quite like Phil Collins.

And so, we bid farewell to QB Matt Cassel. I think we can all agree Cassel is a standup guy and a tough-as-nails competitor.

Matt, we’re sorry it didn’t work out. Chiefs Nation wishes you the best. Thanks for the memories.

Note: There is a random boob in this YouTube Video…well, more like a see-through t-shirt. See if you can spot it. Also, fair warning if you are offended by sort-of nudity.

Nov 1, 2012; San Diego CA, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel (7) reacts during the game against the San Diego Chargers Qualcomm Stadium. The Chargers defeated the Chiefs 31-13. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports

The Kansas City Chiefs have two new signal callers on their roster in former San Francisco 49ers QB and former New Orleans Saints backup Chase Daniel, which means incumbent (starter?) Matt Cassel is on his way out.

Adam Teicher of the Kansas City Star confirmed last night that the Chiefs are trying to trade Cassel. Now Ian Raporport of NFL.com is picking up the story (though with no mention of Teicher, at least that I’ve seen) and is shedding some more light on the situation.

NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports the Chiefs are actively trying to trade the quarterback, according to sources informed of the team’s plans.

Mr. RapSheet listed the Minnesota Vikings, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers as interested parties, but if the Chiefs can’t swing a deal, the team will release Cassel, who started 47 games over the past four seasons in Kansas City.

None of this comes as a surprise. The writing was on the wall as soon as Andy Reid swapped a pair of draft picks to the San Francisco 49ers for Alex Smith. On Tuesday the team added Chase Daniel as Smith’s backup, leaving Cassel floating in the wilderness.

Rapoport said on NFL Network that he expects a decision on Cassel to be made one way or the other, today. He keeps mentioning the Vikings and Cardinals as interested parties.

Do you think the Chiefs will be able to swing a deal for Cassel or will they be forced to release him?

November 12, 2012; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel (7) gestures at the line of scrimmage against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the third quarter at Heinz Field. The Pittsburgh Steelers won 16-13 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Kansas City Chiefs are trying to trade QB Matt Cassel.

KC will surely be moving on from Cassel, who the team traded a second-round pick for (along with LB Mike Vrabel) back in 2009.

Cassel was handpicked by former GM Scott Pioli. Unfortunately for Cassel, Pioli is now doing analyst work for NFL Network and the new regime in Kansas City has already traded the team’s 2013 second-round pick for former San Francisco 49ers QB Alex Smith.

The Chiefs also agreed to terms with former New Orleans Saints backup QB Chase Daniel, earlier today.

With Cassel’s time in KC clearly up, most experts expected the Chiefs to cut him.

Only the Chiefs haven’t done that.

We had speculated that the Chiefs might be trying to trade Cassel and now we’ve got confirmation that they are indeed trying to do so, courtesy of Adam Teicher of the Kansas CIty Star.

Getting ?s about why #Chiefs haven’t released Cassel. They’re trying to trade him

— Adam Teicher (@adamteicher) March 13, 2013

Just because the Chiefs are trying to trade Cassel doesn’t mean they will be able to. Cassel has a starters contract and any team he would be dealt to would have to be giving serious consideration to making him their starter. The QB free agent QB market is terrible but even so, it is hard to see a team dealing for Cassel unless they had a guarantee that he was going to restructure his deal.

Still, I can’t help but wonder if the Chiefs have some promising leads on Cassel and that may be the reason they are dragging their feet on releasing him.

Stay tuned.

Well, these new guys sure know how to keep us guessing.

When you think they’re going to zig, they zag. For weeks, reports were coming out about unproductive contract negotiations with the Chiefs’ unsigned stars and our new GM’s affinity for the “draft-and-develop” and “best-player-available” approaches. When the new regime traded our 2^nd rounder (and more) for QB Alex Smith, it seemed cemented that LT Brandon Albert would be allowed to walk, Bowe would be tagged and denied a long-term deal for another year and the Chiefs would draft the best tackle available.

Then, the team locked up all three of the team’s most important free agents – including Albert – in a day. Chiefs nation rejoiced. This made the offensive linemen a secondary need moving forward and freed our hands to do whatever we pleased in the draft. Then, just as suddenly, the team cut our second-best lineman at the opposite tackle spot.

RT Eric Winston’s $4.5-million salary was more than reasonable given his skill and the value of the position.  Did they need the cap space? Well, by restructuring DE Tyson Jackson’s contract, they doubled their cap space for 2013 and they still have Matt Cassel on the roster due $7.5 million next year. More head-scratching ensues.

Maybe they want to go young? Perhaps they’ll move Albert to RT, or start the 1^st-overall tackle selection there. But, they just traded a high pick for a veteran quarterback. Not exactly a rebuilding move. If there were any doubts that the new regime believes it can win now, those were certainly dashed by the signing of CB Dunta Robinson, who is 31 and will make an average of $5 million a year for the next three.

Josh D. Weiss-USA TODAY Sports

Immediately, speculation was rife that the Chiefs intend to move him to free safety. This of course did not stop CB Javier Arenas from mouthing off to a local blogger who had the temerity to suggest that the team that gave up 29 passing touchdowns last year (only four teams allowed more) could use some cornerback help.

After spending a few days trying to reconcile the seeming contradictory nature of these moves over the past week, I finally realized the simple truth that we can only see a portion of the plan right now. Free agency hasn’t really started and the Draft is still more than a month away. Trying to figure out what the new regime is doing is like trying to put together a puzzle with only about 10% of the pieces.

To me, this is what we are seeing:

Reid wants an O-line that can pass block

Overall, Pro Football Focus rated the Chiefs offensive line as the 12^th best in the league in 2012, but that ranking was pushed up for them being the 8^th best run-blocking unit. They were far less effective when you look at their pass blocking (14^th) and amount of penalties accrued (15^th). Winston was pretty much the embodiment of that. Winston is a gnarly run-blocker, but committed 10 penalties and isn’t at his best blocking for passers.

This is actually both a deep Draft and free agency year for tackles, so if HC Andy Reid and company think they can find better and cheaper pass-blocking tackles out there, then this move makes perfect sense. In the NFL, it is considered a gentlemanly move to cut players as soon as you are confident you will be moving on from them. Releasing Winston now gives him a jump on free agency and the best chance to get value for his services. Had they waited until after the Draft, most teams looking for right tackles would have likely already filled their roster holes and the money out there would be spent as well.

Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

The names I would keep my eye on are Gosder Cherilus of the Lions and Winston Justice, who previously played for Reid in Philly and will come cheap. The team is also reportedly arranging workouts with top tackle prospects Luke Joeckel and Eric Fisher.

The new regime respects this defense

I honestly expected a lot more turnover on the defensive side of the ball by this point. However, the fact that the Chiefs kept Jackson and reportedly want to hold on to DE Glenn Dorsey shows that they think that this defense doesn’t need to be fiddled with much. They picked up Robinson quickly after he was cut by Atlanta for a surprisingly reasonable price. Generally, players will get a bit more money before free agency opens up, because they are essentially allowing the team to fill a hole and narrow their focus before the floodgates open. Once it’s open season on free agents, everyone’s personal value goes down.

Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

That’s why, to me, the Robinson signing smacks of opportunism. The team knew they wanted to bring in a starting quality CB or two, they sent Robinson an offer not looking at him as a priority target and it worked. The contract isn’t huge, but having Dunta gives them some flexibility. I would be surprised if we don’t sign at least one more free agent D-back (the Rams’ Quintin Mikell is my best guess).

This is what GM John Dorsey means by “best player available”

BPA is the new zeitgeist phrase of the Chiefs blogverse. It’s what Dorsey lives by, and I think it’s been largely misunderstood. In order to pick whatever you believe is the best value out there, you need to have a solid team in the first place. If your fridge breaks, you don’t go out and buy a second washing machine just because it’s on sale. Very few people will be excited if the Chiefs use their 1^st-overall pick on an offensive tackle, but if Dorsey thinks that the guy is a future Hall-of-Famer and there’s no longer any gaping holes on the roster, I can live with it.

We still need to get ourselves a backup QB (ideally through the Draft) and fill in a bit of depth here and there, but I think we starting to see the new guys make their mark on this team. The O-line is going to be reworked (although we’re not quite sure how), but otherwise we will be a team that rewards their own and fights to compete every year.

My qualms with specific moves aside thus far, I’m increasingly optimisitic for where this franchise is headed.

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

The Kansas City Chiefs are at the 2013 NFL Scouting Combine checking out the prospects and rumors emerging from Indianapolis are that QB Matt Cassel is on his way out.

There has been some speculation in the media that Cassel would be offered a pay cut to stay in town as a backup.

A new report from USA Today Sports refutes that line of thinking:

Meanwhile, a person briefed on the Chiefs’ thinking in regard to Matt Cassel said the veteran quarterback has not been offered a pay cut from his slated salary of $7.5 million. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team hasn’t talked about Cassel’s contract situation in detail, said it seems Cassel is destined to be released soon.

For Cassel’s tenure in KC, the writing is on the wall. The fans have had enough of Cassel and it would probably be best for the team and the player to part ways.

If Cassel is indeed released soon, the Chiefs will have a barren QB depth chart. Last year’s starter Brady Quinn is a free agent, meaning the team would be left with Ricky Stanzi and Alex Tanney.

Stanzi and Tanney may get the opportunity to come to camp but neither likely has a realistic shot of being either the #1 or #2 QBs on the depth chart.

At this point, the Chiefs will probably try to add a least one veteran QB and one veteran from the draft.

With free agency looming on March 12th, the KC QB situation could begin to clear up in the coming weeks.

John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

Our friends over at Bleacher Report love to rank things and they just launched a new series where they are ranking 1000 NFL players by position group. Today they kicked things off with ranking 65 current NFL QB’s. Matt Miller, B/R’s lead draft writer handled the rankings and Kansas City Chiefs QB Matt Cassel came in #58 of 65.

Here is what Miller had to say on Cassel:

Decision Making15/30
Really struggled with interceptions and penalties in 2012. Cassel didn’t seem to fully understand the new offensive system in Kansas City. That led to far too many bad decisions and questionable throws. It ultimately cost Cassel his job.

Arm Strength14/20
Has an average NFL arm that keeps him from making big plays. Doesn’t always throw with ideal velocity, as passes can tend to flutter and shake when he has to throw with air.

Overall66/100
Cassel was outside his comfort zone in the Chiefs offense this season, and it showed in his lack of production and in the turnovers generated. Cassel’s interceptions and fumbles crippled the Kansas City offense and will serve as a cautionary tale to anyone hoping to sign the quarterback.

I’d say I have to agree with most of these assessments. Even in the best of situations, Cassel is only an average QB. He isn’t a true difference-maker at the position and in today’s NFL, that is what you need.

Cassel really came in at the bottom of the barrel.

Here is a list of QB’s ranked behind him:

59. Joe Webb, Minnesota Vikings, 60. Tyler Thigpen, Buffalo Bills, 61. Blaine Gabbert, Jacksonville Jaguars, 62. Tim Tebow, New York Jets, 63. Mark Sanchez, New York Jets, 64. John Skelton, Arizona Cardinals, 65. Ryan Lindley, Arizona Cardinals.

Check out the full rankings over at Bleacher Report.

I think it is safe to say that most Kansas City Chiefs fans approve of the Andy Reid hiring. I think one of the things that most fans like about Reid is his history of getting the most out of his QBs. There are a lot of opinions out there on what the Chiefs should do at QB next season, but even though there isn’t a consensus as to who the QB should be, there does seem to be a general trust in Reid’s opinion on the matter. In other words, a lot of KC fans seem to be taking an “I want (insert QB here) to be the QB next season, but ultimately I’ll trust Reid’s opinion on the matter” approach.

My question is, just how much trust do you have in Reid’s decision of who will be his QB?

Will you trust it even if he goes with your absolute last choice?

The recent quotes by Tamba Hali got me thinking, will you still trust his judgement even if he decides to go with Matt Cassel?

Now, let me start by saying that this is NOT a pro-Matt Cassel post. I don’t want Matt Cassel to be on the Chiefs roster next year, let alone starting games for the team I love. I’ve firmly established myself on the Geno Smith bandwagon, but if it’s not Geno I still hope they identify the QB that they feel is the best in this draft and take him first overall. I don’t care if it’s seen as a “reach” or “good value”. We need a QB and have a chance to get the best one in this class, there is value in that regardless of wether or not this year’s top QB is as good as previous #1 overall picks. That’s MY opinion. I know a lot of you agree and I know several of you do not. I’m not here to sway you to my opinion on drafting a QB #1 overall this week. I just wanted to clearly state for the record that I am NOT in favor of Matt Cassel being the starting QB so please don’t fill the comments section with angry rants about what an idiot I am for still backing Cassel.

Now that I have that on the record, let me lay out my “doomsday” scenario where Matt Cassel could be the opening day starter in 2013. This scenario starts with Reid breaking my heart and deciding that he doesn’t like a single QB in this draft enough to draft them with the first overall pick. He may pick one in the 2nd or 3rd round, but he doesn’t feel that they will be ready to start from day one as a rookie. That means that Reid will need a veteran to man the position until the rookie is ready. The options available to him will include keeping a current Chief like Cassel or Brady Quinn, acquiring a veteran from another team like Alex Smith, Matt Flynn, Mike Vick, or Nick Foles, or signing a free agent like Matt Moore or Jason Campbell. It’s also possible that Smith, Flynn, Vick, or Foles could be released by their current team for salary cap issues and would then be available via free agency but obviously their current teams would prefer to get something for them.

So in this scenario the first decision Reid has to make is if there are any free agent QBs that are better than Matt Cassel available. If none of the QBs currently under contract are released then this is debatable. I guess I would take Matt Moore over Matt Cassel just to have someone different, but do I have any faith that he is a better player? Not really. Their career numbers make them look like the same guy.

Matt Cassel: 58.9%, 6.6 YPA, 82 TDs, 57 INTs
Matt Moore: 59.1%, 6.9 YPA, 33 TDs, 26 INTs

Cassel is two years older and has many more starts, but there is very little evidence that Reid would be foolish to pass on Moore to keep Cassel who is already on his roster. So even though I don’t want Cassel around I’d have a hard time bashing Reid if he kept Cassel around instead of bringing in someone from this incredibly weak QB free agent group. Now, if Alex Smith were to be released and they could get him signed for a contract that was equal or less than Cassel’s I’d be strongly in favor of signing Smith, not because I think he’s clearly better than Cassel, but because he’d get a fresh start here and wouldn’t have the negative stigma attached to him that Cassel does.

While we’re on the subject of Alex Smith, let’s use him as the focus of our discussion on if they should trade for a veteran QB. If Chip Kelly decides Nick Foles doesn’t fit his offense and would like to deal him he’d be my first choice to trade for since he is young enough to be a possible QB of the future. After Foles though, Alex Smith is considered the next best option. I’ve already said that I would strongly be in favor of signing Smith if he was a free agent and Reid wanted a veteran starting QB, but would he be worth trading for? What if San Francisco wants a 2nd/3rd round pick for him? Is the difference between Smith and Cassel worthy of a valuable draft pick? Before you answer that, look at these three sets of numbers. First Cassel and Smith’s career numbers:

Matt Cassel: 58.9%, 6.6 YPA, 82 TDs, 57 INTs
Alex Smith: 59.3%, 6.6 YPA, 81 TDs, 63 INTs

Over the course of their careers these two are the same guy. Next, let’s look at their numbers over the past two seasons:

Matt Cassel: 58.8%, 6.4 YPA, 16 TDs, 21 INTs (in 18 games)
Alex Smith: 64.3%, 7.4 YPA, 30 TDs, 10 INTs (in 25 games)

Now that is a huge difference. If Andy Reid thinks that this difference is reflective of Cassel and Smith’s abilities then he very well may feel that trading for Smith would be worth while (I’m still not in favor of trading a 2nd/3rd rounder, maybe a 4th/5th). However, what if Reid thinks that Smith’s success was more of a factor of the coaching and stability that he received under Jim Harbaugh compared to his previous coaching staffs? What if we were to compare Smith’s two good seasons under Harbaugh to Cassel’s two good seasons under McDaniels and Weiss? Here’s what those numbers look like:

Matt Cassel: 61.0%, 7.0 YPA, 48 TDs, 18 INTs (31 games)
Alex Smith: 64.3%, 7.4 YPA, 30 TDs, 10 INTs (25 games)

Now we’re looking a little more comparable. Cassel is still behind Smith in completion percentage, YPA, and INTs but the difference is much smaller and Cassel actually has a sizable lead in TDs. When looking at these numbers, its not out of the question that Reid could think that these two are similar enough that it wouldn’t be worth giving up a draft pick in order to get Smith when he already has Cassel on the roster. Especially if he thinks he can have his draft pick ready to take over in a short amount of time.

So hear’s the question, is the current difference between Smith and Cassel reflected in their career numbers and numbers when they’ve received good coaching which are VERY similar or are they reflected in the numbers from the past two seasons which make Smith out to be the vastly superior QB?

The question is NOT which QB would Chiefs fans rather have. We all know the answer there would be Smith hands down (if they are the only two options). Andy Reid doesn’t have the negative stigma attached to Matt Cassel that we all do. I’m sure he knows that going with Cassel wouldn’t go over well, but ask yourself this “If Reid feels that Cassel and Smith are basically the same guy and the 49ers won’t release him, is it worth trading away a draft pick just to make us happy?”

As much as I DON’T want Cassel to be the starting QB next season I don’t think I want a head coach or GM that would trade away draft picks for the sole purpose of keeping their approval polls looking good either. Especially if he’s only looking for a short term solution until he grooms his next young QB. Of course he could avoid this situation all together by just drafting Geno Smith first overall and starting him from day one, but I digress.

So I’m putting the question out there to you guys. How much trust do you have in Andy Reid when it comes to the QB position? If he goes with someone you are strongly apposed to (be it Cassel or a free agent or draft pick you don’t like) will you still have faith? If he went with Cassel as a short term answer while he groomed a 2nd round draft pick would that effect how much you followed/supported the team? Maybe a better way to ask it is which runs deeper, your faith in Andy Reid with QBs or your hatred of Matt Cassel as the Chiefs QB?

I’m anxious to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!

Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

Kansas City Chiefs OLB Tamba Hali took to Twitter today to defend QB Matt Cassel.

Cassel was benched during the Chiefs’ disastrous 2012 season. With the arrival of new GM John Dorsey and new head coach Andy Reid, most experts think that Cassel’s time in KC is up.

That line of thinking makes sense. Cassel has only had one good season while with a new regime in town in the form of GM John Dorsey and head coach Andy Reid, it makes sense that the new guys would want to bring in their own guy.

Hali, who has been around long enough to see more than a few QBs pass through KC, seems to want Cassel to get another chance.

Here is what went down:

There are a couple of interesting things happening here. #1, Hali kind of seems to throw the current Chiefs offensive line under the bus little bit. His comment about Shields and Roaf almost make it seem like Hali doesn’t feel the current line is giving Cassel enough time.

He better hope Eric Winston doesn’t find out.

The other thing we have to ask is what prompted this outburst from Hali? Has Cassel been told that the team plans to release him? Did Cassel notify some of his teammates?

It is possible. Many NFL teams are in the process of unloading high-priced veterans they don’t plan to keep and don’t think they’ll be able to trade. Cassel’s contract, what is left of it, isn’t huge but it is pretty high for a guy that most expect to be a backup. Cassel’s stock is at an all-time low right now so it could be possible that he will be released.

Then again, Hali may have just gotten a tweet from a fan that mentioned ditching Cassel and that could have set the Pro Bowl OLB off on this little rant.

What this really shows is that change is on the way in KC. We already knew that but whenever there is change there is some resistance from the players. The Chiefs players went through a lot last year and I am sure that it will be hard for some of them to see their friends cut.

Still, as long as Reid and Dorsey can handle the transition better than Todd Haley and Scott Pioi (53 guys off the street could win two games) I think any issues or gripes will be minor.

What say you, Addicts? What is your take on Hali’s tweets?

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Kansas City Chiefs G John Dorsey was on the Danny Parkins show on 610 Sports Radio this morning and he did drop one quote that may have Chiefs fans starting to pani.

When asked if there was a possibility that Matt Cassel could return as the team’s starting QB in 2013, Dorsey said:

“Never say never.”

Now before you grab your torches and pitchforks and rustle up a mob to head out to Arrowhead Stadium, I suggest you take a deep breath.

Dorsey had to say that. Matt Cassel is still under contract with the Chiefs and as a decision about what to do at the QB position likely hasn’t been made yet, it would be utterly foolish and irresponsible for Dorsey to go on the record now as saying he is sending Matt Cassel out of town on a rail. Even if that is the case.

The Chiefs may decide that they want to restructure Cassel’s contract and keep him on as a veteran backup. They may try to trade him (good luck). Or they may simply release him outright.

Regardless it would be unwise for Dorsey to show his cards now.

So don’t start panicking yet. There are a lot of decisions that have to be made before we can even start sweating about this.

July 27, 2012; St. Joseph, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterbacks (left to right) Brady Quinn (9), and Ricky Stanzi (12), and Matt Cassel (7), and Alex Tanney (4) run drills during training camp at Missouri Western State University. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

The Kansas City Chiefs may very well have the worst collection of QBs in the NFL.

Let me be clear, they stink. BAD!!!

So when I ask you who you would like to see start at QB this Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, it’s about the same as asking you whether you’d like to be punched in the face, stomach, or somewhere south of the border. There is no great answer (although I’ve always felt like stomach would be the way to go).

My point is that since there is no good answer, which option will you find the least pathetic as the Chiefs slog their way through the remaining seven games of the season?

Here are your choices:

Matt Cassel

Matt Cassel is a horrible starting NFL QB. At one point in his career he looked like he could be a mediocre starting QB, but those days are long gone. He stinks on ice. REALLY, REALLY BAD!!!!!!!!!!!! (Yes, he’s caps lock and multiple exclamation marks bad.) However, the depressing thing is that he is probably the best QB on this roster. If your desire is for the Chiefs to be as competitive as possible and try to win as many games as possible, Cassel is probably your best bet. He is on a record pace for turnovers though and the fans are SO opposed to him playing that it probably hurts overall team morale when he’s on the field. With the SaveOurChiefs.com movement planning their “blackout” game this Sunday, I’m not sure starting Cassel coming off a game-losing interception will go over very well.

Brady Quinn

Brady Quinn has also shown himself to be a BAD starting NFL QB. At this point he has less proven “suckitude” than Cassel, but the fact remains that in training camp Quinn clearly looked worse than Cassel. He seems to have a better arm than Cassel, but he’s also proven to be a bit of a turnover machine as well. If Quinn could just not turn the ball over he would immediately be an upgrade, especially with his stronger arm. I don’t think anyone thinks there is a long-term future for Quinn in KC, so like Cassel, he would just be a placeholder until the Chiefs could find someone new next year.

Ricky Stanzi

Stanzi seems to be the most popular choice at this point. The common rationale being that he’s young and there could still be some upside there. He’s also the only QB on the roster with a strong chance to make the team again next season. Here’s the problem. On a team with HORRIBLE QBs, Ricky Stanzi was by far the worst looking in camp and preseason. When given a chance to run with the “twos” in the preseason he was AWFUL. How awful, you ask? He was so bad that Matt Cassel thought to himself ,”Man, that guy really panics under pressure!” Brady Quinn thought to himself, “Man, that guy’s so bad he would lose a QB battle to Derek Anderson!” So yes, giving Stanzi a chance would at least let us see if he has anything to offer, but it could also turn Chiefs games into an even bigger joke than they already are (and that’s saying something).

So who do you want out there this Sunday?

If it was my call, and he is healthy, I would go with Quinn. It allows us to move on from Matt Cassel, which is good because of his constant turnovers and the angry mob waiting for him at Arrowhead should he play and turn the ball over again. It also gives the Chiefs a better chance to be competitive down the stretch than if they went with Ricky Stanzi. That’s my take, now what’s yours?

November 12, 2012; Pittsburgh , PA, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel (7) calls a play at the line against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first half of the game at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Jason Bridge-US PRESSWIRE

The Kansas City Chiefs gave the Pittsburgh Steelers all they wanted and then some tonight, but in the end another HORRIBLE Matt Cassel turnover cost the team the win. Most experts and fans expected a Steelers blow out tonight, but KC actually showed some heart and determination. For the first time all season they actually played with a lead for a while, avoiding setting a new record that has stood since 1929. The defense played great, but did have some critical penalties including a TD celebration penalty on a TD that didn’t even count.

Overall, it was a much better product that KC put on the field, but stupid penalties, some horrible calls by the refs, a Cassel interception, a missed FG, and another KC loss leave most Chiefs fans still feeling very frustrated.

What do you think Addicts? How does this game leave you feeling? I’m guessing everyone is still 100% ready to see Scott Pioli, Romeo Crennel, and Matt Cassel leave Kansas City ASAP.

Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE

Say what you want about Kansas City Chiefs QB Matt Cassel’s play on the field, but off the field, he is a class act.

Cassel has a tough job. He plays the most important position on his team in a town with some of the most passionate and vocal fans in the NFL. It seems every couple of weeks we see a player in another NFL town slip up with the media, saying something in the heat of the moment that draws even more heat and criticism into the locker room.

Heck, we saw Eric Winston do it just a couple of weeks ago.

But we never see it from Matt Cassel.

Cassel’s play in KC has been inconsistent at best, but despite often harsh criticism, he has always remained professional.

“Am I going to say that I’m happy about this situation? Absolutely not,” said Cassel yesterday via comments posted on KCChiefs.com. “I’m frustrated, but at the same time, I’m a team captain on this team. I care about this team, and again, as we move forward, I’m a big boy. I’m not going to hang my head. I’m going to do what I’ve always done and work hard, tremendously hard. I’ve said this from day one, we’ve got a great room. My role has changed at this point. I’ll support Brady Quinn and get him ready to play. That’s my role as a teammate and as a captain of this team.”

While Cassel said he didn’t see his benching coming, he understands why head coach Romeo Crennel made the move.

“I can’t tell you that I saw this coming, but at the same time, when you’re 1-5 and your team is struggling and the coach wants to find a way to spark the team, he felt like this was the best way to do it. He made that decision.”

“This is the situation. Right now I am the backup. That’s my role on this team. I’ll embrace that role, and I’ll work hard and if my opportunity comes up to play, I’ll be ready to go.”

Good for Matt Cassel. He’s a competitor and no competitor wants to fail, but it is a credit to his character that he is able to handle the situation with honesty and class.

Let’s not feel too bad for Cassel. He’s made a fortune as the starting QB of the Chiefs. He got the opportunity to lead the Chiefs to an AFC West championship and to play in a Pro Bowl. He is still young enough, talented enough and experienced enough that he will be able to continue playing in the NFL, likely in a backup role, for a few more years.

As for the Chiefs, they’re lucky to have a person like Cassel on their roster and in the community.

Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Romeo Crennel shook up Chiefs Nation today when he announced QB Brady Quinn would be the starting QB for the rest of the season.

Matt Cassel is now the backup.

The move comes a fairly turbulent Bye Week for the Chiefs that saw GM Scott Pioli go on a media blitz following the team’s dismal 1-5 start.

Earlier this month, a group of fans paid to have a banner flown around Arrowhead Stadium calling for Cassel’s benching and Pioli’s head.

It looks like those fans are getting at least half of their wish.

Cassel was suffered a head injury and missed the team’s last game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Quinn did not perform well in relief of Cassel. He went 24 of 40 for 212 yards and two interceptions vs. the Bucs. His passes were often off the mark and the Chiefs lost the game 38-10.

Still, Quinn hadn’t started an NFL game since 2009, his final season in Cleveland.

Crennel cited changing the dynamic of the Chiefs as part of his reasoning for benching Cassel.

Now, it is time to let Chiefs Nation weigh in.

The Kansas City Chiefs continued to break our hearts this past Sunday, getting trounced by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Rumors have surfaced about Pioli’s (and even Crennel’s) future with the team. Though this article was pre-planned by a couple weeks, it’s actually as good a time as any to look ahead to the 2013 offseason to see how the Chiefs’ cards fall as it concerns the roster and salary cap.

To kickoff, let’s start out by listing which players’ contracts are expiring at the end of this season.

A few names that I’m sure have popped out are Albert, Bowe & Dorsey, as they’ve been the most talked-about players whose contracts will be expiring (such talk dating back to at least April), with a lot of that talk being related to how high of a contract these players may demand. Two other names that pop out to me (though whose contracts should be exponentially cheaper) are Colquitt and Gafford. Not only should a punter’s and long-snapper’s value to a team not be underestimated, but they’re among the only players who have been consistently performing up to standard all season.

A lot of how we view what player personnel changes should be made relies on a general idea of how much a player would likely demand and how much money is likely available for the team to use on these players. It’s the latter portion of this speculation that I (and my Spotrac-obsessed hind parts) primarily hope to shed light on this week.

At last announcement, the Chiefs had approx. $14.5 million remaining in cap availability; though I’ve indicated in past that some of this money many be promised to players in the form of NLTBE incentives (and thereby wouldn’t show up until next season after the player has earned said incentive, we’ll assume for the sake of this exercise that either such NLTBEs were not set or, if they were set, weren’t met. So the Chiefs should have at least $14.5 million in cap space available next season by rollover alone, but how else is the team looking?

Running the numbers on next season’s non-FAs (read: guys that’ll still be on roster), I’ve discovered that the team currently is set to be allocating approximately $117 million towards cap hitting player expenses. It is likely that next year’s league defined cap will be in the same range as this year’s set cap which is $120.6 million. So, before factoring in rollover money, the Chiefs are only set to have about $3.6 million freed up to spend on FAs (regardless of whether they’re the Chiefs’ own or from other teams). That’s not counting the estimated $7 million dollars that will be required to spend on next season’s draft class. So, without the rollover, the Chiefs are in the hole $3.4 million.

Looks pretty bad at first glance, but let’s tack on the rollover money: that would put the Chiefs $11.1 million under cap after the rookie class is taken into consideration. Okay, now that doesn’t look as bad, but there are at least three big names up for FA and $11.1 million cap availability looks to be able to sign only one.

There appears to be a way around this, but it’s one that Pioli may not like as it involves two of “his” players:

1) Tyson Jackson, through “help” of a contract escalator, is set to be making $14.72 million in base salary next season and has also caused additional cap hits through bonuses amounting to $2.525 million. According to NFL.com’s Brian McIntyre (formerly of Mac’s Football Blog), Tyson Jackson’s 2013 base salary is only guaranteed for $3.22 million. So it looks like a certain someone should probably be cut. In doing so, the Chiefs would free up $11.5 million dollars in cap space (as indicated in a previous article, bonus money has a way of becoming dead money, so we’re looking at $14.72 million minus the guaranteed $3.22 million the Chiefs would be required to pay Jackson out of cap hitting funds). Now we’re up to $22.6 million in available cap space in 2013.

2) Matt Cassel. Though I’ve been unable to locate how much, if any, of Matt Cassel’s base salary for 2013 & 2014 is guaranteed, we’ll assume for this exercise that none of it is, and the only Chiefs obligation would come from bonuses. Cassel is currently set to cause a $9.825 million cap hit in 2013. Were he cut (and again assuming that none of the base salary is guaranteed), the Chiefs would be looking to spend $4.2 million in dead money, freeing up about $5.625 million in 2013. This would bring the available cap space to $28.225 million dollars (assuming a Jackson cut… and, at his ludicrous 2013 salary, why shouldn’t we want to see Jackson cut?).

Now, I realize I just threw out a bunch of numbers in sentence-form, which, if you’re anything like me, makes it a little harder to follow and reference. So to make the presentation of this information a little bit easier, I’ve devised the following table

“EOS” refers to the summation of the expected cap hit Entering the OffSeason (includes both players on roster, including Jackson and Cassel, and the rookie pool of approx. $7 mil). Current rollover is what it sounds like: money that may be expected to be rolled over and help alleviate the cap room. The $11.5 million in the “Jackson” column is what could be expected to be loosened up in cap space were TJax to be cut; same with the $5.625 million in the “Cassel” column.

So the question arises: how should this potential cap money be spent? To help facilitate this line of thinking I’ve developed the following hypothetical situations.

NOTE: One thing to remember in doing these hypotheticals is that, of the 18 positions open due to contracts expiring, seven will be filled through draft (at least as of now, and whose cap hit has already been accounted for in the figures) and two (the lowest priced ones) won’t count towards the cap (cap is determined by the highest 51 contracts of the 53-man roster come the regular season), so nine spots will need to be filled through re-signing the Chiefs FAs, or signing FAs from other teams, or signing UDFAs after the draft. These nine spots will cause a minimum cap hit of $3.51 million [determined as the minimum (rookie) contract of $390,000 X 9 spots].

Hypothetical Situation #1

For whatever reason (brain damage, maybe?), it’s decided to not cut Jackson or Cassel. After taking into account player cap and rookie cap there is approx. $124 million in cap obligations. The $14.5 million in rollover money brings this down to $109.5 million. Assuming a league set cap of $120.6 million, you have $11.1 million left to re-sign players. Who gets re-signed? What positions get targeted in the draft?

Hypothetical Situation #2

You’re slightly less brain-damaged and decide to cut Cassel and leave Jackson be. After taking into account player cap and rookie cap there is approx. $124 million in cap obligations. The $14.5 million in rollover money brings this down to $109.5 million. Cutting Cassel frees up an additional $5.625 million in cap space. Assuming a league set cap of $120.6 million, you have $16.725 million left to re-sign players. Who gets re-signed? What positions get targeted in the draft?

Hypothetical Situation #3

You’ve decided to cut Jackson, but leave Cassel on board for back-up purposes (he’s an expensive back-up, but provides a veteran presence/experience at the position, so you think the harm to the cap outweighs allowing a rookie squad plus Stanzi to run solo). After taking into account player cap and rookie cap there is approx. $124 million in cap obligations. The $14.5 million in rollover money brings this down to $109.5 million. Cutting Jackson frees up $11.5 million in cap space. Assuming a league set cap of $120.6 million, you have $22.6 million left to re-sign players. Who gets re-signed? What positions get targeted in the draft?

Hypothetical Situation #4

You’ve made the decision to cut both Jackson and Cassel. After taking into account player cap and rookie cap there is approx. $124 million in cap obligations. The $14.5 million in rollover money brings this down to $109.5 million. Cutting Jackson frees up $11.5 million in cap space. Cutting Cassel frees up an additional $5.625 million in cap space. Assuming a league set cap of $120.6 million, you have $28.225 million left to re-sign players. Who gets re-signed? What positions get targeted in the draft?

Bonus: Hindsight Hypothetical

Not knowing how this season would play out up to this point, you decide to sign all the players in FA that Pioli decided to sign, but you’ve decided to tweak the offseason slightly by also re-signing Carr. The terms of the agreement are the same terms the Cowboys offered him. For the sake of this hypothetical we’re assuming matching these terms would be enough for him to re-sign with the Chiefs, childhood dreams be damned. This season, Carr’s contract hits the cap by $3.2 million; in 2013, it hits the cap by $16.3 million. The rollover money is now $11.3 million (the current $14.5 million minus the $3.2 million cap hit). In adding Carr onto the 2013 roster, and taking rookie cap into account, the new 2013 cap obligations amount to $140.3 million. After deducting the new rollover amount ($11.3 mil), you’re down to $129 million in cap obligations. The league defined cap is still $120.6 mil; you have to come into compliance. Cutting Cassel wouldn’t be enough to come into compliance ($129 mil minus $5.625 mil is still greater than $120.6 mil), so your hand is forced in cutting Jackson to free up that $11.5 mil. Without additionally cutting Cassel (yet), the cap obligations decrease to $118.5 leaving only $2.1 million in available cap (not even enough to re-sign Colquitt). Now by cutting Cassel the available cap can be increased to $7.725. Who gets re-signed? What positions get targeted in the draft?

____________

Of the four, still possible, hypotheticals, I’d personally subscribe to Hypothetical Situation #4. Cutting Jackson seems to me to be a no-brainer (no way is he worth $17.245 million, and I’d rather tie up $5.745 mil in dead money in 2013 for the sake of having the remaining $11.5 million available to help with re-signing players or potentially dabbling in FA with other teams’ players). Though, with Quinn entering FA, cutting Cassel leaves the team without a QB on roster with regular season experience, I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing the Chiefs “double-tap” the QB position in the draft (ideally, Geno Smith in Round 1 and, if he or someone like him drops so far, someone like Collin Klein in Round 3 – keeping in mind that the loss of Carr will likely earn the Chiefs a compensatory Round 3 draft pick); it’d be a risk, what with both players having no NFL experience, but it’s a risk I’d like to see be taken. I know, it’s probably crazy to draft two QBs such as the ‘Skins did this past draft with RGIII and Kirk Cousins, and especially crazy given the team I’m suggesting do it (our beloved Chiefs) given the team’s history in this regard, but God help me, if Klein is available later, despite the Heisman hype, I’d love to see a QB with his fight and passion as the #2 keeping guys pumped on the sideline, and I’d trust someone like him to not do any worse than the Chiefs QBs this year were a situation to arise where he’d have to play. I’m sure it’s a pipe dream, but that’s part of what this exercise is about.

As for how I’d like to see the freed up $28.225 million spent: I’d prefer to see Bowe and Albert re-signed for certain. Given the average costs of WRs and LTs of similar quality, this could cost as little as $8 million in 2013 (akin to Carr’s deal with the ‘Boys where he accepted an incredibly low base salary in the 1^st year of the contract, given that he still received $10 million in signing bonus this season, and just allowed the team to prorate it over the course of five seasons at $2 million a season) or it could cost as high as $20 million (taking the average cap hits of comparable players’ contracts). I’ll assume the 2013 costs to be somewhere in between at $14.225 total for both players (2014’s projected cap hit based on active contracts is only $84.894378, so a deal structure closer to Carr’s wouldn’t be nearly as damaging that year).

So, in my scenario, I’m down to $14 million available. I’d definitely re-sign Colquitt and Gafford who, combined, would likely hit the cap by $3.5 million in 2013, leaving $10.5 million available.

Given that I’d be cutting one starting DE (Jackson) and letting the other walk in FA (Dorsey), I’d probably re-sign Pitoitua (whose re-signing I’m estimating to hit the 2013 cap by $1.5 million) and would gun for a DE in either Round 3 (compensatory Carr pick) or Round 4 in the draft.

Down to $9 million in cap space, I might also bring back Edgar Jones and Lilja (estimating a $2.7 million combined cap hit in 2013, $800,000 for Jones and $1.9 mil for Lilja). Jones has been a boost to ST this year and provides okay LB depth (and is one less position to be targeted in the draft) and Lilja would provide reliable back-up depth, if nothing more, and would help keep the OL more intact as they continue to gel together in this year’s new zone blocking system.

Two cap-hitting roster spots remain in this scenario and I’ll assume they’ll be filled by rookie UDFAs (for a cap hit of about $800,000) bringing the remaining money down to about $5.9 million, which I might let ride into 2014.

For the draft I’d target: QB, ILB (I’m letting both Belcher and Siler walk after all), DE & DB (in that order of importance).

As for my thoughts on the “Hindsight Hypothetical”: Carr really doesn’t look like he’d have been worth it. With only $7.725 mil remaining, which is really only about $4.225 mil after deducting the minimum $3.51 mil for nine open roster spots (which I mentioned in my “note” up there), a ton of useful players would need to be allowed to walk and maybe one of Bowe, Albert or Dorsey (at absolute best) could’ve been re-signed. At risk to be replaced through rookies (by drafting or signing as UDFA) would’ve been QB (Cassel would’ve had to been cut, which looks like an inevitability now, but had he returned to 2010 form would be deemed a problem, and Quinn probably couldn’t be re-signed even if you wanted to), both starting DEs and one of the back-up DEs, two out of three starting OL positions (Albert & Lilja), star WR (Bowe), starting ILB (Belcher) and his best back-up option (Siler), the punter, the long snapper, and two veteran S’s (Daniels and Elam; leaving only current rookie Tysyn Hartman and rookie IR player De’quan Menzie as backups). That would be cause for a massive rebuild (all those positions can’t be addressed in the draft, and not early enough in the draft to be hopeful about the players’ ability to replace the lost players with an equal or higher level) and would put the Chiefs in a much, much worse position than the team currently finds itself in. Not signing Winston, Boss or Routt would’ve cleared up about a maximum of $10 mil to be rolled over into next season, and cleared up active contract requirements in 2013 to the tune of about $18.2 mil for a total of $28.2 mil. These are much nicer figures for signing at least two of the big three in 2013, but doesn’t address the issue of what to do about RT this season (whichever choice being made decreasing the rollover amount), or the depth at TE this season (a “contingency plan” being a top concern considering Moeaki’s early injury in 2011), and the secondary depth would still be the same it is today (meaning it would still not be good enough). Maybe things could’ve worked out, but considering it would require leaving nearly $24.5 mil in available cap this year (for the intent purpose of rolling the money over to help during the 2013 season), the heat from fans and media for any underperformance while having greater cap space availability would be even hotter than it is now; not to mention the heat turning up if Moeaki fell to injury without preemptive back-up efforts being made, or BRich received an extension.

As for whether or not the Chiefs should make a play on Matt Flynn or another prospect to help turn around this season now: just keep in mind that the acquisition of such a player would decrease the available funds for rollover into 2013, and that if such player had a contract for more than just this 2012 season you’d have to increase the cap numbers for 2013, too . This would also affect the hypotheticals and how likely it’d be to re-sign who you deem to be key players next year*. Trading for a QB or picking up a QB from FA (McNabb?? Garrard??) might not be as harmful as re-signing Carr could’ve been. The re-signing of Carr would have not only decreased how much cap was left to rollover into 2013 by $3 mil, but also would have added the obligation of a $16.3 mil cap hit to next season which is what would’ve made it so potentially damaging. So, if you feel a QB now would be worth the cost, feel free to hypothesize in the Comments section, just be mindful that how money is spent in this season does have an effect on what personnel moves may be made next season.

*Assuming that all that changes hands are Flynn and draft picks. If someone like Bowe were traded for Flynn directly, or traded to MIA for picks, and picks traded to SEA for Flynn, then the loss of Bowe’s salary would make up for the addition of Flynn’s. In that case both Albert and Dorsey could be re-signed next year, if so chosen, what with Bowe out of the mix.

Let me hear your thoughts. Which hypothetical would you use? Who would you re-sign? What positions (and maybe even who, specifically) would you target in the draft? After seeing a more comprehensive look at the cap figures, do you think signing Carr would’ve been more trouble than it was worth? Are you still frustrated about this year’s available cap space, even after seeing situations in which it might be put to better use next year? Do you feel a different QB now would be worth the cost elsewhere?

Let me hear it all; I’m curious as to what options my fellow Addicts think would be possible in terms of player personnel moves intended to make the 2013 Chiefs a more competitive team. Despite being mostly realistic, I was admittedly a little pie-in-the-sky with my hopes of drafting both Geno and Klein; feel free to do similarly (but let’s try to not go too extreme into complete delusion, as euphoric as it might be, and keep it more in the realm of realism and where we think our Chiefs might be headed).

Sound off, Addicts!

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Kansas City Chiefs QB spoke to the media yesterday for the first time since suffering a concussion at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens a couple of weeks ago.

A whole lot has happened since we heard from Cassel.

By now you know the story. A few jerks booed when they saw Cassel was injured, RT Eric Winston over-reacted and called out all Chiefs fans in a rant in front of the media. The national media, as they are wont to do, jumped all over the story like a pack of rabid dogs fighting over some roadkill. Media members who so often take the low road used the incident as an opportunity jump up onto the high road, soapbox in hand, so they could bash the good people of Kansas City. After the fans pushed back, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt released a statement defense of Chiefs fans, though by then it was too late.

Through it all, Cassel was silent.

Until now.

“I’m not really going to speak to what happened last week,” said Cassel, via the KC Star. “All I’ll say is, look, I live here year round. I’ve had nothing but support from the people in Kansas City, from the people we’ve met, my wife has met and my children go to school with. The fact of the matter is, Kansas City is a great place to play. We have a passionate fan base. I’m sure that they’re frustrated. We’re frustrated as well. But we’re working and doing everything in our power to get it corrected and moving in the right direction.”

Everyone involved in this situation, from the fans to Winston and the media, should take a page out of Matt Cassel’s book. Here is a guy that is under a lot of heat in KC. His play has been poor. He’s had to endure tons of criticism, some fair, some not. The day Cassel got injured, a group of fans paid to fly a banner over the stadium calling for him to be benched. He’s taken it all in stride and handled it with class and professionalism.

I sure wish Matt Cassel was the QB the Chiefs needed. It’s unfortunate that it hasn’t worked out.

But off the field, Cassel appears to be a first-class human being.

Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

As the Kansas City Chiefs head into the Bye Week at 1-5, head coach Romeo Crennel refuses to comment on the team’s starting QB situation.

Speaking with reporters yesterday, Crennel was asked if Matt Cassel would regain his starting role once he was cleared to play. The Chiefs started backup Brady Quinn last week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because Cassel was out with a concussion. Quinn arguably played as bad, if not worse, than Cassel has this season.

For his part, Crennel wouldn’t commit.

“That’s a hypothetical and Matt has not been cleared to practice yet,” said Crennel. “When Matt is cleared to practice football, then we’ll evaluate it and then we’ll make the decision at that time.”

While he isn’t endorsing either QB, it is clear that Crennel isn’t sold on putting Cassel back under center. If that was the case he could have easily said that Matt Cassel is the team’s starting QB and that when he is ready to play, he will be the guy.

Despite his poor performance, the Chiefs may want to see more of Brady Quinn. Cassel has had plenty of snaps and the evaluation on him should be complete. Quinn, on the other hand, despite being a veteran, has limited NFL experience.

The unfortunate thing for Chiefs fans as that it doesn’t appear to matter which QB is under center.

The Chiefs stink either way.

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

According to Kansas City Star reporter Adam Teicher, via Twitter, QB Matt Cassel has not been cleared by doctors to practice today.

No surprise but doctors havent cleared Cassel. Won’t practice today

— Adam Teicher (@adamteicher) October 10, 2012

This is smart because the team needs to put Matt Cassel’s safety first. Head injuries are very serious and some heal much faster than others. For instance, Josh Cribbs of the Cleveland Browns took a very scary looking hit on a Thursday night and was cleared to play in the team’s next game. Kevin Boss, however, was placed on IR after a couple of weeks of evaluation by the doctors.

No Cassel today just increases the chances of Brady Quinn getting the start Sunday. If Cassel isn’t able to go tomorrow, I’d say that almost guarantees Quinn will start, as Cassel won’t have had enough time to prepare.

What do you think, Addicts? If Quinn plays well and the Chiefs win on Sunday, should he keep the job after the Bye Week? More importantly, do you think the Chiefs will let him keep it?

The time is now to see what Brady Quinn can do. Unlike the classless fools who were cheering the fact that Matt Cassel sustained a head injury, I am not happy that he got hurt. However, the fact that he is means that this is the most sensible to move things over to Quinn.

It can be justified by saying that they want to make sure Cassel is fully healthy before putting him on the field and if Quinn plays well, then no further explanation will be needed as to why he is out there. If he struggles, they can put a healthy Cassel back in there in a few games and claim it was the plan all along.

John David Mercer-US PRESSWIRE

But what are we really going to get out of Quinn? Quinn is a player who has played hot and cold his whole career and played in just 15 NFL games, throwing a total of 356 passes. But, since he threw almost all of those passes in Cleveland, he’s an unknown player for most NFL-watchers.

ESPN’s Scouts Inc. write-up on him notes, “He looks the part and puts up great numbers in workouts as well as the weight room but has struggled to transfer the numbers to the field. He does not have much of a feel for the pass rush and tends to hold on to the ball too long. He struggles to throw the deep ball with accuracy.”

That last bit sounds quite familiar.

One way or the other though I wanted to watch Quinn in a full game before passing judgment. Because we just played the Ravens, I thought it would make sense to go back and watch Quinn against his former division rival to compare him with Cassel. Quinn lost the job to Derek Anderson (which should tell you something) in the middle of the team’s Week 3 game against Baltimore. But, by the time the Ravens came to Cleveland in Week 10, Quinn was back as the starter.

But, after seeing the box score, I decided that game would be a snoozer. The Browns lost 16-0 and Quinn went 13/31 (41.9%) for 99 yards, 0 TD’s, 2 INT’s. Cassel’s line for the day yesterday was 9/15 (60%) for 92 yards and 2 INT’s. In other words, the last time Quinn played the Ravens he threw more and was less effective than Cassel.

But, I figured Quinn deserved a better look than that. So, I decided to go back a game. Cassel was also bad against the Chargers last week, and it just so happened that the Quinn-led Browns played San Diego in Week 13 of the 2009 season.

It turns out that this game was probably the best of Quinn’s career. He went 25/45 (55%) for 271 yards, 3 TD’s, 0 INT’s. While the Chargers were able to march all over the Browns putrid defense, Quinn kept them in this one to the end, eventually falling 30-23.

On the opening drive, Quinn looked sharp and the whole offense had an up-tempo feel. He ended up taking them down for a score and was 6/6 for 61 yards and missile TD to his tight end. It was exactly the type of opening drive that Chiefs have totally failed to muster under Romeo Crennel. With Brian Daboll calling the plays, Quinn in this game continued to look poised and in control, throwing several good 3^rd-down passes on his second read.

Watching a game from three seasons ago is a surreal experience and it shows you how quickly things change in the NFL. At the time this game was played, Indianapolis was 12-0. LT was still playing for the Chargers. S Abram Elam, playing for the Browns, allowed an easy TD to Mike Tolbert.

But, as brilliant as Quinn looked in the first quarter, as the game went on he started looking like Matt Cassel more and more. While he managed to not fumble the ball on a 4^th-down QB sneak, he allowed himself to be stripped while scrambling on 3^rd & Goal. In the end, he finished the first half with 12/20 (60%) for 159 yards, 1 TD, one fumble. All and all, not bad.

Although he managed to get another couple touchdowns in the game, he looked downright bad during large stretches of the second half. Most of his yardage came from YAC after checkdowns. Due to his inaccuracy, at some point Daboll put Josh Cribbs in for an entire drive of wildcat, which Quinn capped off with a short touchdown.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Everyone knows he has guns, but he seemed too eager to show it. All of his throws are bullets, which causes a high amount of drops because the receivers don’t have time to adjust to the ball and it comes in with such a velocity that it bounces off their hands. He beaned his TE in the head on a slant when he wasn’t even looking. Granted, the Browns have had a motley crew of awful receivers for a decade, but he missed several of his guys by a mile. Overall in the game, he missed everything he threw deep and even managed to miss his running backs on checkdowns several times.

And, again, this was probably his best game.

The moral of the story is that the Chiefs need to put Quinn in. Cassel is hurt and hasn’t been very effective. It’s possible that Quinn has improved his game in the last three years. Still though, if his tape is any indication, Quinn is not going to be an improvement over Cassel.

But, I’m not sure he necessarily needs to be more skilled than Cassel, just more efficient. If he can keep the ball moving and not turn it over, than the Chiefs “brawling” (to borrow a phrase from Eric Winston) gameplan can work.

I’m excited to see what he can do, but I think Chiefs fans should have no illusions – this guy is not going to take us to the promised land.

The Kansas City Chiefs lost again on Sunday. They lost at home, AGAIN. Matt Cassel playing poorly, AGAIN (when the team even allowed him to throw). In fact, the offensive game plan clearly showed that the team no longer has any faith that Matt Cassel can help them win games. In the first 30 plays the Chiefs offense had 26 running plays and a mere four passes. That really tells you all that you need to know about KC’s trust in Matt Cassel. The Chiefs basically decided that they would be better off with no passing game at all than a passing game led by Cassel. Matt Cassel simply isn’t a good NFL starting QB. You may have been thinking that based on the title of this piece, I would be arguing otherwise. I’m not. If you were planning on getting in a “should Matt Cassel start another game for KC” debate at the close of this piece you won’t get any argument in favor of Matt Cassel coming from this author.

So what do I mean when I say that this isn’t Matt Cassel’s fault?

I mean that directing your frustration, anger, and sometimes outright hatred at Matt Cassel is misguided. Does anyone argue that Matt Cassel isn’t a good guy? Isn’t Matt Cassel a good teammate? Does anyone question Matt Cassel’s work ethic? How about his desire to win? Aren’t those really the only things a player can control? Matt Cassel’s problem has never been about the stuff that he can control. Matt Cassel’s problem is that he isn’t any good. It’s not from a lack of trying, the guy just doesn’t have the necessary skills needed to succeed at the NFL level. It’s an ability issue.

So why be so mad at Cassel?

Think of it this way. Imagine your boss at work gives a coworker a promotion. The coworker lacks the abilities needed to do his new job and fails miserably. The coworker is doing everything he can to succeed, giving his all, but still can’t do the job. Instead of admitting the mistake and finding someone more competent for the position, your boss keeps the same guy there for four years. You would be frustrated and angry about it, but who would you be more upset with, your coworker or your boss that put him in that position and refuses to do anything about it.

My point is obviously that KC fans should channel their anger at Scott Pioli, not Matt Cassel.

KC fans are so frustrated with the state of their beloved team that they can no longer contain their excitement over a different QB playing for their team. I think the percentage of fans that want Matt Cassel to suffer physical pain are very small. These fans, literally want revenge for the frustration that Cassel’s play has caused them. If you are in this group I feel sorry for you. That seems like a pretty bitter and hateful way to view the world. However, I think more fans would fall under the heading of “excited to move on from Matt Cassel.” Some of these fans cheered when Cassel was hurt, not because they wanted Cassel to be in pain, but because they were SO desperate for anyone other than Matt Cassel to play QB for the Chiefs that they couldn’t contain their excitement when Quinn had to come in. Was this in bad taste? Yes, it was. Was this situation created by Scott Pioli? Yes, it was. Do you think, for one second, that the crowd would have reacted that way if it was Kyle Orton who had been out their struggling after being re-signed in the offseason to replace Matt Cassel? I don’t. Do you think that if it had been a struggling first-round draft pick laying out there on the turf that the fans would have cheered? I don’t.

That’s what outsiders, the national media, and perhaps even Eric Winston don’t get. KC fans aren’t so much upset that their QB isn’t playing well. It’s that the SAME QB that has been underwhelming fans for the better part of four years is still out there struggling and the powers-that-be continue to deny that it’s an issue. Fans want a light at the end of the tunnel and thus far the Chiefs’ higher ups have refused to give it to them. Then when Cassel was laying on the turf and Quinn started to come onto the field they saw a small flicker of that light off in the distance. KC fans (at least most of them) don’t actually think Brady Quinn is some great savior that will salvage this pathetic season and lead the team to a Super Bowl. They just see a possible light at the end of the “Matt Cassel tunnel.” Some fans think that an injury is literally the only possible way to get Cassel out of the lineup. They’ve lost hope in the decision makers for their team to do what is right. It’s sad that an injury was some fans’ only hope for this team, but unfortunately that is where we are at.

Things are turning ugly in Kansas City. If fans don’t see some change soon they may explode. Every fan is responsible for their own actions, but if the explosion does happen, it will be in part because Scott Pioli provided fans with the metaphorical matches and gunpowder by not finding this team a competent starting QB in his four years on the job. I’m not in favor of change just for the sake of appeasing the fanbase, but at some point the Chiefs must prove to their fans that they are willing to admit their mistake and move forward. Not starting Matt Cassel for the rest of the 2012 season regardless of his health would be a step in that direction.

I am hoping for two things to come out of this situation. The first is that Scott Pioli comes to the realization that I just mentioned and moves on from the Matt Cassel era. The second is that Matt Cassel makes a full and speedy recovery, because no “win” or “game” is worth the long-term health and happiness of a fellow human being. All Matt Cassel has ever done is try his best to win games for the team that I love. I am grateful to him for that. I wish him nothing but the best in his life going forward. I just want the people that run the Chiefs to realize that he shouldn’t be the starting QB for my team anymore. That should be something that we can all agree on, no matter how unhappy we are with the product that the Chiefs have put on the field.

I still think that KC has the best fans in the world. I hope the next time the Chiefs take the field at Arrowhead that the fans earn that reputation. I also hope that the Chiefs treat the fans like they deserve to be treated and prove to them that they are committed to putting players on the field that can actually help them to win games. I no longer think that Matt Cassel is one of those players, but I still wish him all the best and a speedy recovery.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Kansas City Chiefs Matt Cassel suffered a concussion in Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens.

The NFL is being more cautious about concussions than ever these days. Cassel will likely be evaluated throughout the week but I’d say his status for Sunday’s game is questionable at best.

It is hard to tell whether or not Cassel will be ready to go. For instance, Kevin Boss is out for the year after a blow he took to the head. Over in Cleveland, WR Josh Cribbs took a scary looking hit to the dome last Thursday night but he was cleared to play Sunday.

The Chiefs need to let Cassel sit. The team is 1-4 and is one game away from its week off. Regardless of what you think of Cassel’s play, the offense as a whole just hasn’t been effective with him running the show. By having Cassel sit next week, the team will be able to evaluate the play of backup QB Brady Quinn while also allowing Cassel nearly three weeks to heal from his head injury.

If Quinn plays poorly, the Chiefs can turn back to a fully healthy Cassel after the off week. If Quinn plays well and the Chiefs win, Kansas City will be in a position to get back in the AFC West race during the second half of the season.

Injury or not the Chiefs should probably have benched Cassel this week. Now that his health is at risk, there should be no question about who should start at QB next week against the Bucs.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

The Kansas City Chiefs bungled their way to yet another loss today, falling to the Baltimore Ravens 9-6.

In a game that saw the long-awaited appearance of backup QB Brady Quinn, the Chiefs couldn’t get out of their own way.

QB Matt Cassel had another bad day, throwing two interceptions before being taken to the locker room with an apparent head injury.

Quinn came in and sparked the offense. He threw what appeared to be a TD pass to WR Dwayne Bowe but the play was negated because of a penalty on WR Dexter McCluster.

That was the story all day for the Chiefs. Every time they did something right, they did two things wrong. The day included five fumbles (one of which occurred on the goal line), two interceptions and eight penalties for 60 yards.

The Chiefs came out trying to run the ball. It worked. They totaled 214 yards rushing and attempted just 18 passes.

Cassel finished the day 9/15 for 92 yards with two picks and no TDs. Quinn attempted three passes, completing them all for 32 yards.

The Chiefs move to 1-4.

One has to wonder if Cassel will ever start another game for the Chiefs. Should his injury keep him out next week and should Quinn play well, the Matt Cassel era in KC could officially be over.

Through four games, the 2012 Kansas City Chiefs are a failure. They aren’t a slight failure. They aren’t a couple of plays away from being 3-1 instead of 1-3. They are a REALLY bad football team. When a football team struggles, the primary targets of the fans’ wrath are the starting QB, the head coach, and the GM. All three are currently taking justifiable criticism for their performance this season, but starting quarterback Matt Cassel is clearly public enemy number one in Kansas City. At this point, Cassel has very few supporters left. My stance so far this season has been that Cassel may not be a very good quarterback, but this team was supposed to be built to win in spite of that.

Here’s the problem with my previous stance. It relied on three things: The Chiefs being able to control games with their rushing attack; the defense keeping the other team out of the end zone; and Matt Cassel not making huge mistakes that hurt the team. Say what you will about the failures of Cassel’s supporting cast (I’ll get to them in a minute), but Cassel has been a complete failure at protecting the football. In 2010 when KC went to the playoffs, Cassel was responsible for eight total turnovers (seven INTs and one fumble lost) in 15 games played. Thus far in 2012, Cassel has already turned the ball over 10 times in only four games.

You can really trace the turnover problem all the way back to the end of that same 2010 playoff season. In his first 14 games played that season, Cassel only had six total turnovers. That’s only 0.43 turnovers per game. In those 14 games the Chiefs were 10-4. Starting with the final regular season game of 2010 (vs the Raiders) and including the playoff loss to the Ravens, Cassel has turned the ball over 26 times in 15 games. That’s 1.73 turnovers per game. In those 15 games, the Chiefs are 5-10. Is Matt Cassel solely responsible for all 10 of those loses? Of course not, there is plenty of blame to go around. However, since that Raiders game, Matt Cassel has simply turned the ball over too many times and has only been able to win one of every three starts that he has made in the last year and a half. That’s just not good enough.

If you are going to try and win with a quarterback with a limited upside like Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson, that QB simply CANNOT turn the ball over. When they do, the team has to play out of a hole, and that usually means passing the ball and putting more responsibility on the QB that the team wanted to just be a “game manager.” Matt Cassel is doing just that, and it is costing the Chiefs dearly. It’s like NFL quicksand and Matt Cassel keeps stepping in it.

So, as of today, I am no longer going to defend Matt Cassel to anyone. Yes, I still think the rest of the team is putting him in a horrible position, but Cassel deserves the heat he is getting. Do I think Brady Quinn is more talented than Matt Cassel? No, I don’t. I think he lacks the talent to win at the NFL level, too and could possibly be even worse than Cassel. Before you say “Nobody is worse than Cassel!” let’s take a moment to remember the Tyler Palko debacle. However, if Quinn could simply not turn the ball over he would be an upgrade over Cassel and put the Chiefs in a position to win games the way they originally set out to this season, with their run game and defense. That’s assuming that the run game and defense are able to handle their end of the bargain.

Which leads me to my next point.

The rest of the offense around Cassel and the defense deserve just as much criticism as Matt Cassel does. The offensive line was supposed to be a strength on this team. To their credit, they have opened an occasional crease and allowed Jamaal Charles to break a long run. However, I (like many others) expected the line to be good enough to run the ball between the tackles even when the other team is ready for it. That hasn’t been the case. The Chiefs offensive line has simply looked weak at the point of attack all season. Our young guards Asamoah and Allen have both been overpowered so severely at times that they almost tackled the running back themselves. The only time that KC seems to be able to run with much success is when KC is down big and the other team is keying in on harassing Matt Cassel.

The pass protection has been equally disappointing. Cassel has been sacked 13 times in 4 games. That’s 3.25 sacks per game. Last season with Barry Richardson at RT and Casey Wiegmann at C, the Chiefs allowed 2.44 sacks per game in Cassel’s nine starts. So statistically speaking, the offensive line is worse so far this year at protecting the QB. Eric Winston replacing Richardson was supposed to be the biggest upgrade of the offseason and thus far it has been a complete disappointment.

The running backs and wide receivers have had their share of the blame as well. The Chiefs’ playmakers have lost five fumbles (including three against the Chargers) and a couple of Cassel’s interceptions have been caused by WRs or TEs that deflected passes up into the air when they could have made the catch. Basically, the entire offense has been a total failure with the exception of a couple of big plays by Jamaal Charles.

Simply drafting a first round quarterback will not fix all of these issues. Do I want to see a new QB in KC? You bet I do. Would Geno Smith and his 600+ yards passing and eight TDs in one game get me excited if he was wearing red and gold next season? Without question it would. However, if you think simply swapping Cassel for Geno Smith fixes everything, you’re dead wrong. Geno Smith playing with an offense that performs the exact same way that the Chiefs have thus far in 2012 would be equally bad. Yes, Smith might create more plays, but a rookie starting his first NFL season is also likely to make a lot of mistakes, especially if the rest of the team is putting the whole game on his arm as the Chiefs have often done with Cassel this season.

Finally, I can’t leave the defense out of this either. Yes, they have shown flashes in stretches these last two games. Yes, the offense has hung them out to dry on multiple occasions. That having been said, they are allowing 34 points per game and have only created two turnovers. They’ve been flat out bad and are every bit the failure that the offense is. The pass coverage in particular has been embarrassing. Wide receivers and tight ends can simply run across the middle and catch balls all day long. Eric Berry has been exposed as still having major coverage issues and the Chiefs linebackers have been equally horrific in coverage. The defensive line has done a horrible job of creating pressure. Although, Ropati Pitoitua did come through with two sacks on Sunday. For the record, that’s two sacks in one start for KC (2.00 sacks per start) while Dorsey and Jackson have combined for six sacks in 99 starts (0.06 sacks per start). Maybe KC should consider starting Pitoitua in the base defense and use Dorsey as a pass rushing DT in the nickel and dime packages (not that he’s shown much of an ability to excel in that role).

KC simply must find a way to get more out of all of their players or heads should roll. If Crennel can’t fix the defense (his specialty), then he should be fired. If players can’t do a better job, then they should be cut, regardless of their draft slot or contract. The Chiefs need accountability. Say what you will about Todd Haley (he was crazy, messed up the play calling, messed up spring training, he was REALLY crazy, etc.) but at least he held people accountable. At least I didn’t feel like I was more angry about the team’s failures than the head coach was. At least he held every single player accountable, no exceptions. If the players really like Crennel as much as they’ve said, they better start playing for him because so far the “wise old Grandpa Romeo” act isn’t cutting it.

Finally, Clark Hunt should hold Scott Pioli accountable for this mess. If this keeps up much longer Arrowhead will quickly empty and Hunt will start losing money. It’s time for Pioli to stop trying to out-think everyone else in the room and just follow good, old-fashioned, proven-to-work, NFL strategies. If you don’t have a good QB, find one; no matter what the cost. If a player (or coach) isn’t producing, replace him even if it means admitting that you made a mistake in drafting/signing him. Finally, stop trying to draft guys that you think you have figured out are secretly good and pick more guys that are proven playmakers. Look at Justin Houston, he’s not a guy that Pioli would have ever drafted in the first round, but he fell into his lap and now his TALENT is winning out. It seems to me that we could use some more of that kind of talent at QB, ILB, and safety right about now. If Clark Hunt doesn’t think Pioli is capable of making those changes then Clark needs to fire him.

This collection of players, coaches, and management are turning our beloved team into a joke. The Chiefs are dead last in turnover differential. The Chiefs have been outscored by 174 points dating back to the start of the 2011 season. They’ve been outscored 78-29 in the first half this season. They’re the only team that hasn’t drafted a first-round QB in the last 25 years. There are younger fans that literally haven’t seen this team win a playoff game since they started following the team. I’m considered a “homer” by most, but at some point there is only so much that you can take.

KC fans have a right to be upset about how this team is producing. There is plenty of blame to go around. But if it makes you feel better to blame it all on Matt Cassel, fine, I won’t argue with you anymore. He has been bad and I hope the Chiefs are finally willing to admit it and move on. However, making Matt Cassel the lone scapegoat for this team would be a mistake and would take the heat off of the players, coaches, and GM that are also very much to blame.

Here’s to hoping that this team gets held accountable this week and can drastically improve their performance against the Ravens next week. I’m one of those fans that the Chiefs love because no matter how bad they play I’ll still be back next week cheering them on 100 percent. That doesn’t mean my eyes can’t see the problems that are there in front of me. If KC doesn’t get them fixed quick, the Ravens are capable of making things look even worse than the Chargers did. For all of our sakes, let’s hope that I don’t have to write a 2013 draft prospect post next week after only five games.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going into yesterday’s game, I thought it was entirely possible the Chiefs would lose. In fact, the Bills were viewed as more or less equal to the Chiefs in terms of talent, so the safe pick in this game was probably Buffalo, given that it was their home opener and they also wanted to make a statement after a blowout loss.

Still, although a loss is just a loss whether you lose by a point or a million, it does matter how you lose, and that’s what stood out most in this game.

Once again, a defense that was supposed to be in the top 10 in the league got carved to pieces. Coverages were routinely blown. Tackling was poor. We had no pressure on the quarterback, and made no plays in the secondary.

After Week 1, I suspected that ILB Derrick Johnson might not yet be fully recovered from his ankle injury. This game pretty much confirms that. He definitely did not show the speed and athleticism that makes him a dynamic player in the middle of his defense. He could not keep up with Buffalo’s running backs and he was horrendous in coverage. Belcher continued to be a huge liability when defending the pass and Flowers looked far from 100 percent.

Timothy T. Ludwig-US PRESSWIRE

No one in the ACL crew looked like they had their 2010 spark back. TE Tony Moeaki was never getting separation and only caught one pass on four targets. Jamaal Charles was totally ineffective in the run game and was put on ice, possibly due to a yet undisclosed injury. S Eric Berry was virtually invisible out there. We now have to consider the possibility that some or all three of those players may never fully recover from their bad knees.

Who would have guessed that S Kendrick Lewis would be so missed?

I presume everyone will now pile on Matt Cassel for this loss, but as with last game, I don’t see it. His stat line was 23/42 for 301 yards, 2 TD 1 INT. In a win, this would be considered a pretty good performance. No one on either side of the ball stepped up when called upon.

I’m just going to say it right now, Jon Baldwin may be a bust. We had high expectations for him given that he was lighting it up in camp, but after seeing how the Chiefs D-backs have been playing, anyone on the AA staff could have come out of St. Joe as a training camp sensation. He wasn’t even targeted against the Falcons and did not look good against the Bills.

Kevin Hoffman-US PRESSWIRE

Baldwin never seems to run his routes with confidence and always expects to be able to outmuscle defenders in jump ball situations with his body skills — except that he doesn’t, and one way or the other, we need him to catch and run, not loiter around on the sideline as if he’s playing some elaborate form of Keep Away. In the second half, it was clear that Cassel was forcing the ball to him in the hopes of making something happen deep downfield. Baldwin was never open, never ready and only reeled in half of the balls thrown his way. He got us 62 yards, but in the worst way. I hope I’m wrong about him.

Dexter McCluster, again, was KC’s only reliable receiver, consistently getting open and catching four passes on five targets. TE Kevin Boss again caught a pretty pass, but I’d be surprised if he doesn’t miss time after getting knocked out cold after a nasty blow to the head (which wasn’t really a penalty, but the refs gave us that one). As has long been the case, WR Dwayne Bowe emerged in the second half as the Chiefs’ only big-play threat, catching eight passes for 102 yards and 2 TDs.

Timothy T. Ludwig-US PRESSWIRE

This too, however, has a dark undercurrent to it though, as BJ Kissel pointed out on the Chop Talk postgame podcast. It is currently looking like the Chiefs will have to franchise Bowe again this year, to which he will likely respond by holding out again. The alternative is to pay him big bucks that Pioli doesn’t want to shell out and honestly may be more than he is worth. Still, as Kissel said, “This offense is scary to think about without Dwayne Bowe on this team.”

The offensive line, which was also supposed to be a great strength of this team in 2012, floundered. Cassel was under near-constant pressure and took five sacks. In his short, but illustrious career, this is the first time that Bills DT Kyle Williams has gotten two sacks in one game, and he also drove G Jon Asamoah into Charles for a 5-yard loss. Congratulations, Kyle.

RB Peyton Hillis, who was supposed to be the safe, pounding runner, gave up a critical fumble on the 1-yard line.

But, what killed the Chiefs most in this game was not the poor play of individual players or units, it was the shell-shocked reaction of the entire team to the Bills’ initial success. Early in the second quarter you could see the team as a whole shaking their heads and looking at the scoreboard as if to say, “Well, I guess this just isn’t our game.”

This is unacceptable, and it was by far the most infuriating part of this game. This team seemed to be totally unprepared and they gave up early. That’ll happen in high school. It’ll happen in college. This is unacceptable in the pros.

Special teams gave up another long kickoff return for a touchdown at the worst possible time allowing the Bills to seal the victory in the third quarter. Even my wife, who is still learning the game, correctly pointed out that no one looked focused.

Cassel, the usual scapegoat, was also strip-sacked and was never even close to saving us in the game, but he also scrambled well and showed toughness while getting what little was there. In the end, Cassel, McCluster and Bowe seemed like the only players still interested in playing the game by halftime.

Kevin Hoffman-US PRESSWIRE

This is where the coach is supposed to come in. Not only did the Chiefs seem unprepared, they looked utterly outcoached on defense. With as bad as DJ has looked against the pass, how could Crennel put him in coverage on TE Scott Chandler – one of Ryan Fitzpatrick’s favorite weapons – in the red zone, allowing him to give up an easy touchdown on virtually the exact same play that Tony G scored with last week?

Comparatively, Brian Daboll’s scheme overall looks like it will get us places this year. I liked some of the matchups he exploited, but I can’t honestly say anything positive about the defense.

After halftime, I was expecting the Chiefs to come back fired up, and, while I knew likely wouldn’t be able to catch up to the Bills, I expected them to at least play like professionals. Instead they came out flatter than before. Crennel, who is known for his friendly, soft-spoken demeanor, was unable to get rally the troops. In that situation, the players didn’t need a friend; they needed leader that would kick them in the ass and tell them to go out and play with pride.

Kevin Hoffman-US PRESSWIRE

When it was time for the Chiefs to pick a new head coach after the 2011 season, I was one of the few who went against the grain in suggesting that Crennel was not the best choice. In addition to the fact that he had been unsuccessful in the top job before, many of the things that doomed Todd Haley’s tenure in KC – namely blowout losses – were failures on Crennel’s part as well. Getting torched for lopsided losses is as much the defensive coordinator’s fault as it is the head coach’s. Crennel has now presided as DC over two seasons of disgustingly poor defensive play in the opening games.

Although he engineered big wins in the last three games of the season, not much else stands out in his resume other than the fact that he is from the New England system and the players seem to like him.

After the game, Crennel said he didn’t really know how or why the Chiefs got so thoroughly demolished in the game. Paddy quoted him as saying, “I’m gonna say that I thought we would be better. I really thought that we would be better but we’re not so we’ve got to figure out why that is.”

This is very distressing.

Now, because I have just spewed 1,300+ words of negativity, here’s some happy thoughts for anyone still reading:

1.) The Chiefs came back from blowout losses and crucial injuries in the first two weeks of the season last year, and stayed in division contention to the end. So, if you haven’t blacked it out of your memory, you will recall that you felt this bad after Week 2 last year and it got better.

2.) The Chiefs aren’t the only team that has allowed a league-high 75 points so far in the 2012 season. We are tied with the New Orleans Saints and we play them next week.

3.) Kansas City is currently fifth in the league in total offense, fifth in rushing and 11^th in passing. So, hey, at least that’s not our biggest problem anymore!

4.) As bad as the Chiefs’ loss today was, the Raiders’ beatdown was worse. They got crushed 13-35 against the Miami Dolphins, considered by many to be the worst team in the league.

5.) Speaking of the ‘Phins, it took the team half of the season to learn Daboll’s complicated offense, but after playing awful in their first seven games, Miami went 6-3 starting in Week 9 (against the Chiefs) with a combined score of 222-131. In other words, don’t worry. The Chiefs are just going to be late bloomers.

6.) Remember that Arizona team that we mowed over in the preseason? Well, they just beat the New England Patriots in Foxborough. If they’re good enough to do that, then we must have something.

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Some Kansas City Chiefs fans were once again calling for QB Matt Cassel’s head following three turnovers in a Week 1 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, but if the experts at ESPN are to be believed, Cassel was the week’s 7th best signal caller.

ESPN has released their weekly QB rankings and Matt Cassel came in 7th and he is with some elite company. The KC QB came in just behind his old pal Tom Brady, with a rating of 87.1. The QBs ranked ahead of Cassel were:

Matt Ryan, Mark Sanchez, Joe Flacco, Peyton Manning, RG3 and Brady.

My guess is that ESPN realizes what I’ve been saying since the game ended: the loss wasn’t Cassel’s fault. In fact, while he is charged with three turnovers, really only one of them was on him. The fumble was Branden Albert’s fault, Cassel never had a chance. The tipped pass that got intercepted was on Tony Moeaki’s guy: on the play, the Atlanta LB was clearly early. Cassel’s throw was on target but Moeaki couldn’t bring it in.

Caseel had a great game for the Chiefs. He accounted for three of the team’s four TDs, throwing two and running in one himself. Failures on special teams and defense eventually doomed the Chiefs.

It is just one game, but it appears Cassel is primed to flourish in Brian Daboll’s offense.

Yep, the second half of the game yesterday was pretty painful.

Paddy has already laid out a lot of the good that came out of the game and I don’t want to repeat the same points, but I have to say that, overall, I was also encouraged.

Last week, I wrote that this game would answer the burning question for the Chiefs – whether or not they could score and keep up with high-flying offenses. In the comments, I said, “if they put 28 points on the board and we still lose this game I’ll be satisfied, because at least they will have shown that they are able to get into the end zone. They’ll be getting their defensive stars back soon, and if that’s the only reason they lose this game then it’s nothing to worry about going forward.”

Although we fell slightly short of that, I stand by it and am basically satisfied.

At halftime, the Chiefs were hanging tough with the Falcons, answering them score-for-score at 17-20. Then, the Chiefs were hit with a stream of extremely bad luck. The Chiefs’ second half possessions ended: missed field goal, fumble, interception, interception, punt, touchdown, end of game. Considering neither team punted in the first half, it was clear that there was zero room for error in this game and we couldn’t afford to not score on a single drive. Therefore, when things went awry, it was obvious that the game was going to get out of hand quickly.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Turnovers on three consecutive possessions (especially on your own 20) is enough to kill pretty much any team in any game. If you consider the fact that a missed field goal is essentially a turnover as well, the Chiefs had four in a row. Not all were Cassel’s fault as some have suggested and generally he played a good game.

Simply put, this game was a one-off. LB Justin Houston showed some good moves and got a sack and two QB hits, but we still cannot create consistent pressure without Hali. Having reserves Jacques Reeves and Abram Elam in for CB Brandon Flowers and S Kendrick Lewis is more than a step down, it’s a lifestyle change – our strength was suddenly a weakness. We went from being a Wall Street exec to being a bum, eating a hairy fish on the bus in a Santa suit. There are quite a few teams the Chiefs can beat while eating fish in a Santa suit (cough – Arizona!), but those teams don’t have Roddy White and Julio Jones. We had no answer for those two.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Sometimes the game is just stacked against you and you’re going to end up getting kicked in the mouth. That’s what happened here. For me, the low point was Gonzo dunking on us in the end zone as the Falcons went up by 17. Tony G was my childhood idol – I even played tight end and wore his number at Topeka High – and I for some reason thought he wouldn’t do it. Basically he gave into his quarterback’s urging, which he probably couldn’t refuse, but like the thousands of Chiefs fans booing at Arrowhead, I felt betrayed.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

But don’t get down on yourselves, Chiefs fans! As Grandpa Romeo assured us on Twitter, “No one panic…. The Steelers, Saints, Packers, Giants are all 0-1 #StepAwayFromTheLedge.” The vaunted Steelers defense allowed 31 points to the Donkeys. The Saints got smacked around by a rookie at home. But you know what sure feels good after a loss like this? Revenge. No, I’m not suggesting we sleep with Tony Gonzalez’s wife. (But, seriously, if you have her number, do pass it along.)

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Next week, teed up for our enjoyment are the Buffalo Bills, who just got utterly pummeled 48-28 by the Jets and the hapless offense of Mark Sanchez. Chiefs might also remember, somewhere in the deep recesses of your repressed subconscious, that in last year’s opener, the Chiefs got hammered by the Bills 41-7. We also lost Eric Berry for the season to a low hit from Bills WR Stevie Johnson.

Andrew Weber-US Presswire

Week 2 is our chance to erase the hurt from both of these awful games with a resounding win over the upstate New York Bison. I’m sure Buffalo fans are good, well-meaning people. In fact, they have suffered for the past two decades with similarly disappointing franchises. That said, when the Chiefs come back and trounce Buffalo in their own house, I am going to be screaming at the top of my lungs “IN YOUR FACE!” No score is too high, no celebration too excessive. We will all dance a magnificent obnoxious dance in our crushing victory. Not because it’s the right thing to do, but because it will be effective, and necessary therapy.

Can the Chiefs score points?

Of all their successes over the last three years, the one thing the Chiefs have never been is a scoring machine. Last year, the injury-riddled Chiefs were 31^st in the league for scoring with a miserable 13.2 points per game, which was actually a worse performance than the team’s 4-12 season in 2009. Believe it or not, the Chiefs’ total point differential in that failed campaign was only slightly worse than last season at -130 vs. -126.

Even when the Chiefs were healthy and on fire in 2010 they weren’t exactly blowing teams away. Our point differential was just +40, meaning we were scoring just 2.5 more points per game than our collective opponents. It is no secret that this needs to change.

Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

Overall, the Chiefs are built to control the ball and play stout defense. But, again, we haven’t done the best job of that: last year the Chiefs averaged 310.9 yards per game while allowing 333.3. During the triumphant 2010 season, this indicator wasn’t radically different at 349.7 to 330.2 – gaining 20 more yards than your opponent does not a domination make.

Still, the Chiefs have found success in the recipe of playing everyone close, controlling the ball and wearing down opposing defenses to eventual 4^th-quarter victories. In short, get a little bit ahead and hold on for dear life. But, the other issue with the Chiefs possession-based style is that the Chiefs absolutely must score at the end of their long drives. This recipe can work if the Chiefs are able to play offense efficiently enough to rack up points while chewing up clock and have a defense that is consistent enough to thwart opposing offenses in doing the same. As long as the Chiefs are leaving points on the field with stalled drives, red zone inefficiency and turnovers, the team has to rely on the opponent being just as ineffective.

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Last year, the Chiefs were dead last in red zone efficiency at 33.33 percent. Given that statistic and the fact that the Chiefs had a -126 point differential, it is truly miraculous that this team won 7 games.

The good news is that the Chiefs are now finally built to be the kind of team that they’ve been trying to be. Jamaal Charles is clearly the most dynamic player on offense, but he’s a boom-and-bust runner. He’ll gain 25, then get stuffed in the backfield. Then he’ll get you 6 yards only to get stuck for two consecutive 1.5-yard gains. He’ll give you magic, but he won’t always keep the ball moving. That’s why Peyton Hillis is such an important addition. His power allows him to be a much more consistent 1^st-down runner. The development of Dexter McCluster as a reliable slot receiver provides another move-the-chains weapon to keep the ball in Kansas City hands.

Jeff Hanisch-US PRESSWIRE

But, they still need to put it in the end zone.

In the preseason, the Chiefs looked good running the ball and have been overall effective moving down field. But, they still haven’t shown the ability to keep up in scoring. And, when experimenting with throwing the ball heavily against the Seahawks, they showed that they will have a hard time catching up in games if they get behind by more than one touchdown.

Therefore, Atlanta is going to be the perfect test for whether the Chiefs can put points on the board. Not only do the Falcons have two good receivers that are constant downfield threats, but the Chiefs are likely to be without their pass defense players. It’s looking like CB Brandon Flowers and S Kendrick Lewis will be out with injuries and Tamba Hali will be serving his one-game suspension.

Honestly, I think the Chiefs should hold out Lewis and Flowers – it is absolutely not worth it for them to aggravate their injuries to a point where they could potentially be lost for extended time. But, without them, the onus is going to be on the offense to keep up with Atlanta’s deadly air attack.

This matchup will tell us a lot about the 2012 Chiefs. It’s a test.

Let the games begin.

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

The Kansas City Chiefs got spanked by the Seattle Seahawks. As infuriating as it is to write that sentence, there’s no way around it. So, who’s to blame? [This is a cue for the Matt Cassel detractors to skip to the Comments section. This article is probably not for you. I’ll wait.]

…

Now that I’ve cut down on my readership (which in hindsight was probably a terrible idea), I will say that I think only a small amount of blame should fall on Cassel. WRs dropping passes that should by all means be caught dead to rights is much more a WR failure than a QB failure. Cassel’s fumble occurred from behind as a result of pass blocking failure, and, if he were standing around like a slouch it’d be one thing, but it’s harder to blame Cassel for not protecting the ball when he was reeling up to launch it (I’m actually incredibly curious what the end result would’ve been had Cassel been able to get the pass off, and, right before the fumble, instantly noticed that despite being under pressure and stepping forward Cassel didn’t lose track of where the line of scrimmage was and such a pass would’ve remained legal). And, though it’s never good to see your team’s QB throw a pick, the Chiefs were down by 23 points at the end of the third quarter and in a third down situation, facing certain sack Cassel made a choice that many NFL QBs (including ones among the elite) would’ve made by trying to dump the ball to the only teammate capable of catching it and keeping the drive alive, it just failed in the worst way possible. If the game were closer, I think we should be more upset at the end result (pick six), but in this particular situation, I’m inclined to cut him a break; if he does it in the regular season when the score is closer, or there’s more time left in the game, then I’ll start calling for his head.

Through the first two preseason games, Cassel looked like a better, more confident QB than we’re used to seeing. Does he still checkdown? Yes, but when that habit has been combined with a supporting run game, the Chiefs have been quite successful this preseason. I don’t think checkdowns are a problem when the plays are called right. In fact, one of the most absurd observations I heard following this last game’s blowout is that, during the only TD drive Cassel engineered, he checked down on all but maybe one pass, which I find absurd because why should anyone complain about checkdowns when the end result is a TD? Trying to throw a deeper ball got the team nowhere, after all. Besides that, a checkdown-laden, successful drive makes the opponent’s D more tired, the Chiefs’ D better rested, and yields less time on the clock for the other team to counter with points of their own.

The offensive playcalling witnessed in the Seahawks game was definitely off compared to the much more successful playcalling in the previous two games. Overall, I think the talent is there, and keeping the playcalling of the first two games and slowly working in the bolder plays of the last game will reap rewards over the long haul, so we shouldn’t be too worried going forward, despite this last game’s final score (offensively).

What fans should be worried about is the secondary. Jalil Brown may or may not have unrealized potential, but a CB replacing Brandon Flowers needs more than unmet “potential” if the Chiefs’ secondary wants to be more than a sieve. And the sieve-like tendency isn’t restricted to this year; going over last year’s statistics, it appears there should be less worry over the run defense, and more worry over the pass defense.

I’ve decided to compare the 2011 Kansas City defense to the Top 3 defenses of the season (Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Houston) to see how the Chiefs stacked up. We’ll start with examining the run defenses.

As can be seen, the KC had the greater numbers across all categories, which looks pretty bad at first glance. But note that opponents tended to run the ball a lot more against KC’s defense than against the other three teams. To even the playing field (so to speak), I decided to determine the likely results of a rushing attempt against KC versus a rushing attempt against the other three teams; this requires generating a TD% and 1^st Down% for each team. [TD% is equivalent to the TD stat divided by Attempts; 1^st Down% is equivalent to 1^st Downs divided by Attempts. As you’ll note, Y/A has already been calculated and included in the table, as this is a more commonly broken down statistic.] The determination of this breakdown is as follows:

As can be seen, the Chiefs still had a significantly higher than desirable TD% having allowed 2.76% of rushing attempts to result in a TD; however the team fared better than most of the other three teams only having allowed 18.9% of the rushing attempts against them to result in a first down, with Baltimore being the only team performing better. As can be seen in the first table, the Y/A average is negligible, and shouldn’t require too much improvement to match a Top 3 defense. Overall, there is still room to improve the run defense to the level of a Top 3 defense, but, as you’ll soon see, the difference is a lot more lopsided when comparing pass defenses.

The pass defense stats for each of these teams are as follows:

Looking over the table you’ll see that, despite having had less attempts made against them, and having allowed less completions, the Chiefs defense allowed the highest number in each of the remaining categories. So, right off the bat you should know the comparison isn’t going to bode well at all for Kansas City. But keeping with the formula used in comparing run defenses, I’ve calculated the TD% and 1^st Down% to determine the likely results of a passing attempt against KC versus a passing attempt against the other three teams, throwing in the pass completion percentage, as well.

Not only were opponents significantly more likely to complete a pass against the Kansas City defense than the other three teams, but they were also significantly more likely to see that completion turn into a TD or 1st Down, and by a much greater margin than when comparing run defenses. These numbers are unacceptable, and should have us a lot more worried about the team’s pass defense than their run defense, especially when you consider that last year’s secondary consisted of Brandon Carr, Brandon Flowers and Kendrick Lewis, none of whom are currently able to play for the team (Flowers and Lewis over those pesky injuries, and Carr over that pesky “on another team’s roster” thing).

Only so much of last year’s pass defense failures can be blamed on the rotating starters at the SS position, and on Belcher (a/k/a the defense’s Matt Cassel), and while I think that Routt will adequately replace Carr, and Elam will be a suitable fill-in for Lewis, not even the return of Eric Berry will fully make up for the (albeit temporary) loss of Flowers and the subsequent promotion of Jalil Brown to starting CB.

As the defensive situation currently stands, mobile QBs certainly seem to be an Achilles’ heel, as do better WRs than Jalil Brown can handle (such as Amendola). Only time will tell how Kansas City’s secondary will shake itself out, but make no mistake about it, the Chiefs’ pass defense should be a primary cause for concern, and three above average players in the secondary will be lucky to duplicate last year’s disappointing figures, let alone improve on those numbers. With Berry knocking off more of the rust accrued from not playing last season, and the front seven improving in the pass rush (Hali’s suspension for the Atlanta game notwithstanding), we may have more hope than I’m letting on; however, let us still hope that Lewis and Flowers (especially Flowers) find their way onto the field sooner rather than later, or the Chiefs will very likely be in for a rocky start.

When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong.

After his first two lackluster seasons, I was ready to write Dexter McCluster off. The selections of WR Devon Wylie and RB Cyrus Gray in the 2012 Draft seemed to indicate that the coaching staff felt the same. This preseason has proved me to be utterly wrong.

In April, looking back on McCluster’s career, I wrote:

[T]he numbers don’t lie. McCluster just doesn’t make big plays, which is his only purpose. RB Jackie Battle was a guy who was able to get what was already there with the ability to break a tackle or two. McCluster basically gets what’s there plus 3 yards due to his speed, but he won’t be breaking any tackles and he’ll get stuffed at or behind the line of scrimmage for a few serious losses a game. Even Battle beat him as the KC running back with the biggest ground gain of the 2011 season with a 34-yarder against Denver.

The 2010 Scout’s Inc. report on McCluster said “he has good ball skills but will struggle when competing for the ball in a crowd. He needs a lot of work on his route running and setting defenders up and will settle into crowded zones at times rather than find a window for the quarterback to throw though.”

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Indeed that seemed to be his biggest struggle during his rookie season. Making the position switch from running back to slot receiver took longer than anticipated. Not only was it a new position, but he was learning to do it against NFL-quality defenders. In end, he had trouble consistently getting separation, which is a problem due to his small size overall. He ended the season with 21 receptions and 18 carries for a total of just 280 yards.

In 2011, Dex filled in at RB primarily because the Chiefs’ wretched depth was exposed after Jamaal Charles went down. The team was left with Thomas Jones and Jackie Battle – two guys who can pick up yardage through wide-open holes when they’re there, but neither is going to do anything special for you. Dex provided a spark, and was a popular option when the Chiefs knew they needed some dynamism. They gave him the ball 37 times on 3^rd down. But, although he was a better target than Battle in those situations, he was also inconsistent. On his 16 carries on 3^rd and 6+ yards, he averaged 5.4 yards per carry – just enough to not make it most of the time.

Still, he improved his overall skills and Scouts Inc. described him in their 2011 report as “explosive and extremely nimble, but lacks the great top-end speed to be a consistent home run threat. He is very elusive when he gets the ball in the open field and has excellent vision and instincts. He is a natural receiver out of the backfield as well as on downfield routes. He also shows good ball skills and the ability to reach out and pluck the ball away from his body.”

I for one was a bit worried when reports came out of training camp that McCluster was working exclusively with the wide receivers, because it seemed to me that they were forcing him back into a role that wasn’t his strong suit.

Then came this preseason.

McCluster currently leads the team in receptions with 13 receptions for 129 yards and a touchdown in the first three preseason games. Furthermore, he is has shown himself to be the most reliable target for Matt Cassel. Against the Seahawks, Cassel stalled in consecutive drives due to drops by generally sure-handed targets in Bowe, Moeaki and Baldwin. Then he turned to Dexter. In a long drive that would gain the starting offense its only touchdown, he targeted McCluster over and over again. Like most KC fans around the world, I was also shouting, “Just throw it to 22!” The week before, when Cassel was forced out of the pocket, in a situation that would have normally been a throw-away situation for him, he found McCluster open for a 1^st down.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

If McCluster can keep this up he can serve a role that is just as important as the #1 receiver on the team. As the league has gradually changed, one major evolution that few people talk about is the emergence of the slot receiver. The ability to make quick high-percentage throws to quick receivers matched up on linebackers has become the cornerstone of effective offenses. The Patriots pioneered this with Wes Welker. The Chiefs saw the effectiveness of a high-end slot receiver when they got carved to pieces by Sam Bradford’s security blanket, Danny Amendola, in Week 2 of the preseason.

Whatever you think about Matt Cassel, I think everyone can agree that he can benefit greatly from having a reliable outlet guy for short, high-percentage throws. Perhaps even more importantly, if opposing defenses begin to view McCluster as a major threat that needs to be covered by a safety or CB, it will both take pressure off Dwayne Bowe and draw defenders away from the running game.

He's even a KU fan! Showing good judgment uncanny intelligence is important to the Pioli regime. Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

The Chiefs may have had an overall uninspiring performance over the last two games, but that’s not the story for me. To me the biggest story of this preseason is the rise of the midget – McCluster’s transition from liability to security blanket, and I can’t wait to see how this goes with him moving into the regular season.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

When the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Seattle Seahawks tonight at Arrowhead Stadium, QB Matt Cassel will be going for a hat trick.

No, not that that one.

Cassel will attempt to put together his third impressive outing in a row tonight.

In the first preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals, the Cassel-led Chiefs offense looked unstoppable. Cassel was five of six passing for 67 yards and a TD. He led two TD drives and then took a seat.

Last week against the St. Louis Rams, Cassel was solid again, even though the guys around him were not playing well. Cassel completed 13 of 18 passing attempts for 142 yards with no TDs or INTs. The KC offense scored ten points in the half that Cassel played, despite miscues like a fumble and penalties that derailed drives.

Tonight is the game that is often called the dress rehearsal for the regular season. Coaches tend to play their starters into the third quarter and the game planning is often a lot more complex than any of the other preseason games.

The Seahawks feature the best defense the Chiefs have played all preseason so if Cassel can have another strong outing, it should go a long way toward building more excitement around the 2012 Chiefs.

Cassel should have all his toys at his disposal. Dwayne Bowe is back and is expected to see limited action. Romeo Crennel will also probably try to get Jamaal Charles a few extra touches this week as well so that he is ready for the regular season. The star RB had only two touches in last week’s game.

What do you think Addicts? Will we see another impressive offensive performance from “Zombie Cassel” or will he come back down to earth a bit this week?

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Peter King of SI.com visited the Kansas City Chiefs for his training camp report a while back and in his column he has some very interesting quotes regarding QB Matt Cassel and former Chiefs head coach Todd Haley.

Other than Bill Belichick, Cassel only ever played under Haley as an NFL player. One could argue the Cassel’s two best seasons in the NFL were when Haley had the least control over him; his first season in NE and his 2010 Pro Bowl season in which he was working with Charlie Weis.

King doesn’t have any quotes of Cassel bashing Haley but he does have one where Cassel seems to indicate that life is much better under Brian Daboll.

“I like how he lets me play the quarterback position,” Cassel said. “I’m not afraid to give my opinion, or to change the play. Some other times, I’ve been afraid to do that. But [Daboll] says, ‘You’re the quarterback. If you see something different out there, you’ve got to act on it.’ ”

Hmmm. If that wasn’t intriguing enough, one Chiefs player (anonymously) came right out and said he thought Haley’s ways were impacting Cassel.

But there’s little doubt these players are breathing easier with a coach they like and respect more than Todd Haley. “It had to happen,” one player said of Haley leaving and Romeo Crennel replacing him. “Players were afraid of speaking up. The environment just wasn’t healthy. I think it really wore on Matt.”

Cassel has been excellent so far in the preseason. As King points out, he has completed 75% of his throw thus far in the preseason. More importantly, the KC offense has been finding the endzone, something they had a hard time doing while Haley was the head coach.

It is way too soon to predict how Cassel will perform once the games start counting but the early returns of the Daboll offense are encouraging.

What do you think, Addicts? Was Haley holding Cassel back?

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that the NFL preseason is like a bizarro world version of the NFL. Generally, it’s inconsistent play all around, which allows some players to look good while entire units look lost. Amid all that chaos, it’s really hard to judge anyone or anything accurately. The only way to get around it is with large sample sizes.

Two weeks into the preseason, I think there are only a few things you can assert confidently about the Chiefs:

1.)    Put very little stock in the fact that the Rams were able to get on the board quickly this weekend. As Paddy rightly pointed out, the best indicator of how teams are going to fare in preseason games isn’t the quality of the talent on each side, but rather which coach actually cares about winning the game. Many coaches couldn’t care less. They are throwing darts randomly at a board. “Hmm, ok, let’s see this guy in this play against a first-team defense and see what happens.” “Mmm, ok, let’s see what this guy can do.” They’re not game-planning, they’re not scouting matchups on the other team, because to do so would be a waste of valuable time coaching up players and refining general techniques.

There is an argument for trying to win preseason games if you are a very young team, and/or a team with lots of new players and you are trying to foster team-spirit and get the band of strangers in a winning attitude before the regular season starts. That is the exact situation St. Louis is in right now. Not only do they have more new players on their 90-man list than any other team in the NFL at 56, but they are also the youngest team in the league. Furthermore, Jeff Fisher is known to like to win preseason games. He has the second-best career record in the preseason among active head coaches at .608, beaten out only by Mike Shanahan with .681. Not to mention, the Rams got mauled 38-3 the week before by the similarly young and hopeless Indianapolis Colts. Fisher knew he had to get some good vibes going with his team, and give young quarterback Sam Bradford some confidence.

Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

On both the big opening pass to slot receiver Danny Amendola, and the subsequent touchdown pass to TE Lance Kendricks, LB Jovan Belcher was covering. In both cases, I couldn’t really tell if it was zone coverage or man-to-man, because, quite frankly Belcher was so far off. Both times, a safety rushed in to try and break up the play but even Berry couldn’t get there in time. Now, I, of course, can’t prove that Fisher game-planned the first couple series or scouted the Chiefs. All I know is that if you were going to design plays to attack the Chiefs’ defense – that’s exactly how you would do it. By far our biggest defensive weakness is when Belcher is caught in pass coverage on fast, pass-catching tight ends or slot receivers. As stout as he is in the run game, he is just not fast enough to keep up with those guys. As such, Belcher is never put on those guys and is generally not even on the field on likely passing downs. Even in situations where Belcher would be on the field, the Chiefs would have likely adjusted from the beginning to put a safety on the TE or slot guy. The Chiefs started the game in standard base defensive sets and not only did the Rams’ play-calling target Belcher for big gains right off the bat, they ran the plays on 1^st down when he was likely to be on the field as a probable rushing down.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I believe that often times when something happens where motive and opportunity meet, well, it’s no coincidence. They got what they wanted — two quick, injury-free scores, and an ego-boost for their QB. Immediately afterwards, their starters left the field feeling like they had won. And again, it’s not like it’s a crime to game plan in the preseason to try and show something against soft competition with nothing on the line. There’s a chance Brian Daboll was doing the same thing to boost Cassel’s confidence and make sure the Chiefs came out with a bang against the Cardinals last week.

2.)    Unless Matt Cassel has a total meltdown or gets injured, he is going to go into the regular season with strong momentum. Hidden among the general Chiefs’ shock about how good the Rams played against the Chiefs’ first-team D is the fact that Cassel has hit on 75 percent of his passes so far. Against the Rams, he even nailed the kind of play that we have seen very rarely out of him – flushed from the pocket on 3^rd and long, under heavy pressure, he chucked a dart to McCluster (his smallest target) in tight coverage for a first down.

3.)    In limited action, Charles has shown he still has it. Chiefs fans likely won’t be happy with Jamaal Charles’ recovery until he busts out a huge gainer, but, with the additional weapons that KC has accumulated, we no longer need him to be THE dynamic threat. Hillis has shown himself to be worth every penny, and the Chiefs have a plethora of receiving options. So far this preseason, Charles has had 6 rushes and 3 receptions for 6.4 yards per touch, including 9.7 yards per catch. If we are facing 2^nd and 4 every time by getting to ball to him, I don’t think anyone will be complaining even if he’s not streaking down field for big plays. But don’t worry, he will be.

Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

4.)    Glamorous he is not, but Brady Quinn looks like he can help us in a pinch. Look, he’s not Tyler friggin’ Palko, alright? Do I need to say anymore? Ok, fine. 12/19 151 yards 1 TD, 1 INT, good for a 83.44 passer rating. Amazing? No, but how good does a backup on a run-heavy defensive team need to be?

5.)    The Chiefs are going to have to make their hardest roster decision on the D-line this year. KC will probably only keep six or seven defensive linemen on their 53-man roster. I think it is safe to say that Glenn Dorsey, Dontari Poe and Tyson Jackson are staying with the team. So, who gets the remaining three spots? Allen Bailey is probably not going anywhere either as the team’s only true nickel rusher. That leaves two spots for a number of standout backups. Anthony Toribio currently holds the starting NT job and presumably the Chiefs want another passing-down rusher. Amon Gordon was the consistent jack-of-all-trades last year, but he hasn’t shown it so far in camp or in preseason games. Ropati Pitoitua has impressed in camp and has seen the field early preseason action (there’s also an unwritten NFL regulation stating that every team must carry at least one scary dude with an unpronounceable name). Brandon Bair has also shown some sparks in that role too, however.

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

And finally, although it may not make the most sense at the moment, I like the idea of keeping Jerrell Powe. He has finally come on as a penetrating NT, which is what they want Poe, his homonymal brother, to become. He was consistently getting pressure in the last two games, and may also be effective as a rotational guy at the other positions. Who knows, with another year of development Powe might even turn out to be straight-up better than Poe, and these types of man-monsters don’t grow on trees. The painful part is that I know that at least a couple of these guys are going to be scavenged off the Chiefs as soon as they’re moved to the practice squad because there is a league-wide demand for such players and a DL-deprived team like the Broncos will be more than happy to take them off of our hands.

Well, KC fans, that wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for Saturday night was it?

The Chiefs team, as well as its fans, got knocked off their collective “high horse” by the Rams. The question now becomes “who are the real Chiefs?” Are they the team that looked so good against the Cardinals or the team that got punched in the mouth by Sam Bradford, Steven Jackson, and the St. Louis Rams? The truth, of course, probably lies somewhere in the middle.

Being the veteran arm chair quarterback that I am, I think I’ve seen enough to make some assumptions about the Chiefs this season. Earlier this summer we played a little game called “Tell Me I’m Wrong“. Now that the Chiefs have packed up and left St. Joe and headed back to KC, I thought it was time that we play again. So I’m going to lay some of my opinions out there, and you tell me if I’m wrong.

Here we go!

1. Matt Cassel will be a good NFL-caliber QB under offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.

Cassel has looked really good through two preseason games, going 18-24 (75 percent) for 209 yards (8.7 YPA), 1 TD, 0 INTs, only one sack, and four scoring drives. The best part is that he and Daboll seem to be on the same page. Daboll seems to understand Cassel’s limitations and is playing to his strengths. Daboll is opening up the field with multiple targets, especially on short to intermediate routes. By my count, Cassel has already completed passes to eight different guys (McCluster, Boss, Charles, Draughn, O’Connell, Hillis, Baldwin, and Moeaki) in less than three quarters of play. Cassel will need to complete more passes down the field to his WRs than he has thus far to keep defenses honest, but the return of Dwayne Bowe should help in that department. Finally, Cassel has proven in the past that with a good offensive coordinator and weapons to work with, he can produce.

In 2008 with New England and 2010 in KC, Cassel had good offensive weapons at his disposal and offensive coordinators who played to his strengths. In those seasons he completed 61 percent of his passes for 7.0 YPA with 48 TDs and 18 INTs. In 2009 Todd Haley fired his offensive coordinator right before the season started and called the plays after. In 2011 Haley promoted Bill Muir to what looked to be a “figure head” offensive coordinator while Haley, Muir, and QB coach Jim Zorn appeared to have a “staff meeting” between plays to debate what play should be called. In those seasons Cassel also had less weapons at his disposal thanks to a bad overall roster in 2009 and injuries to Charles and Moeaki in 2011. The result was Cassel completing only 56.6 percent of his passes for 6.1 YPA with 26 TDs and 25 INTs in those two seasons. I have seen enough this preseason that I feel comfortable saying that Cassel is going to produce like the QB from 2008 and 2010 and have another good (not elite, but good) season under Brian Daboll.

Tell me I’m wrong!

2. Ricky Stanzi is a cool guy and a proud American, but not that great of a QB.

KC fans are SO desperate for the Chiefs to draft and develop their own franchise QB that they become instantly obsessed with any guy that shows the slightest glimpse of making that dream come true. I like Ricky Stanzi as much as the next guy, but anyone who has watched him play those first two preseason games has to admit that he’s the third best QB on a team that most don’t think has very good QBs. If you need someone to give you hair care tips or hang out with on the 4th of July, Ricky Stanzi is your guy. However, if you need a QB to take over if Matt Cassel goes down, that guy would be Brady Quinn.

Tell me I’m wrong!

3. The Chiefs can be a top ten defense without Kendrick Lewis, but not without Brandon Flowers.

I was as worried as anyone when I saw Kendrick Lewis on the sideline, visibly upset, and holding his shoulder. Lewis is a good, up-and-coming player that really seemed to improve as last season went along. That having been said, if he does miss significant time (that news may have been released by the time you’re reading this), I don’t think it will be near as big of a blow as losing Berry was last year or if Flowers doesn’t come back in time from his foot injury this season. In a nut shell, Romeo’s secondary consists of the CBs locking up WRs in man coverage on the outside, the SS is the “wild card” that sometimes is up in run support and sometimes drops into coverage, and the FS often plays “center field,” looking for the players that have gotten past their defenders.

Good man-to-man corners are hard to find, and shut down ones like Flowers are incredibly valuable. Likewise, a player like Berry that can be so good in run support and has CB like coverage skills are impossible to replace. Although the Chiefs may not have a single player that can produce at Lewis’s all around level at FS, I think a combination of Abram Elam (run support) and Travis Daniels (playing “center field”) can fill his void without a major drop off in production (as long as Berry stays healthy). On the other hand, if Flowers is out or hampered with his foot injury for any amount of time, it will really hurt the Chiefs defense. Jalil Brown and Javier Arenas may be solid as a 3rd or 4th CB, but neither can take away a side of the field like Flowers can. Obviously, the worst case scenario would be both Flowers and Lewis missing extended time. In that case, the expectations of the defense would be greatly reduced.

Tell me I’m wrong!

4. Jovan Belcher is the most under-appreciated KC Chief.

As I mentioned above, the mere possibility of the Chiefs developing their own QB has led to a cult like following of young Ricky Stanzi. Stanzi is 24, has never thrown a pass in a regular season game, and hasn’t even looked very good in preseason action. Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Belcher has two years of NFL starting experience and has showed consistent improvement since he joined the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent out of Maine (yes, Maine). Belcher has been a solid, but not spectacular starter since he earned that spot two years ago. Romeo talks highly of him. Derrick Johnson has said multiple times how vital Belcher is to his success. Yet many KC fans entered 2012 hoping Belcher would get beat out for his starting spot by 26-year-old Brandon Siler. Siler has less starting experience, less proven production on the field, a major injury to over come, is older than Belcher, and wasn’t developed by KC. I don’t get it! Belcher is only one year older than Justin Houston and Kendrick Lewis. Why isn’t anybody excited by Belcher as an up-and-coming player? I’ve got news for you. There is no “battle” for the starting ILB spot next to Derrick Johnson. That spot belongs to Jovan Belcher. Brandon Siler needs to worry about Leon Williams who has looked faster and more productive than Siler.

Tell me I’m wrong!

5. The Chiefs need to try Jerrell Powe in the sub package on passing downs.

Okay, here’s the situation as I see it. Jerrell Powe is low on the Chiefs depth chart at NT because he doesn’t play the position the way Romeo wants it played. The KC NT is suppose to “2 gap”. This means he lines up over the center and is responsible to stay put and “plug” both gaps on either side of the center if the play comes his way. Thus far, Powe has stood out at NT because he is penetrating into the backfield on a regular basis. This has led some KC fans to think he deserves more playing time at NT. The problem is that when Powe penetrates through one of the gaps on either side of the center it leaves the other gap open for the running back. It means that for every play Powe stuffs or disrupts there is another that hurts the defense. Romeo is not a fan of this kind of inconsistency. At the rate things are going, I won’t be shocked if Powe were to not make the final 53 man roster. Anthony Toribio is playing the position “how Romeo wants it played” and Dontari Poe was the #11 overall pick. That leaves Powe as the #3 guy at a position where teams don’t usually carry more than two.

So my question is, if Powe is showing the ability to get good penetration into the backfield, why not try him in the sub package on passing downs? Thus far, I’ve seen KC use Bailey, Poe, Jackson, Gordon, Pitoitua, Bair, and Long in the sub package. Surely they could find a couple snaps in the second half to give Powe a shot too. All I know is that I’ll be furious if they cut Powe this year and he goes on to be a disruptive force in the middle for another team. The Chiefs need to give him a shot on passing downs. Besides, being able to have the Po(w)e Boys pushing the pocket on passing downs would be fun to say. You know it’s the kind of thing they would like to say on ESPN.

Tell me I’m wrong!

So there you have it, Addicts. I’ve laid it out there for you. Now I’m daring you to tell me I’m wrong. If you think so I can’t wait to read your arguments in the comments below.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With their thumping 27-17 win (with the score 17-0 as the starters left the field), the 2012 Kansas City Chiefs have made their presence known, and while I always anticipated the Chiefs to be improved this year, it was clear that this game was all about surprise.

Suddenly, the national media have looked up from their Peyton Manning talking points and realized that there is another team in the AFC West – one far more likely to be playoff bound. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen said as much after the game via Twitter, “I’m starting to agree with #Chiefs fans – national media (ESPN included) has fallen asleep on KC. They may be team to beat in AFC West.”

It’s important to remember that the Chiefs and the Cardinals were considered to be evenly-matched teams before this game. In fact, Pete Prisco of CBS Sports had the Cards ranked 16^th in his July 25 power rankings, with the Chiefs at a lowly 22^nd, justified by a rote comment about Matt Cassel defining the team’s overall worth (the laziness of what passes for analysis by national football writers astounds me at times).

But, it wasn’t just surprising that the Chiefs were impressive, or even that they gave Arizona a shellacking – it’s how they dominated. WR Dwayne Bowe wasn’t on the field. Neither WR Steve Breaston, nor WR Jonathan Baldwin, who has been blowing up training camp, caught a single pass. RB Jamaal Charles had just three carries for 12 yards. OLB Tamba Hali had zero sacks, and NT Dontari Poe barely registered his presence. And the Chiefs dominated.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Matt Cassel looked polished and comfortable, going 5/6 for 67 yards and a TD. RB Peyton Hillis, coming off a down year, looked fantastic running for 41 yards on four carries plus an 11-yard touchdown pass. WR/RB Dexter McCluster showed his skills as a matchup nightmare, reeling in three passes for 45 yards. On the other side of the ball, the Chiefs defense started with back-to-back 3-and-outs followed by an interception and tallied seven sacks on the night. In the limited amount of time that the Chiefs’ starters were out on the field, it was a massacre. In the late first quarter, I wrote in my notes “THIS IS CHILD’S PLAY!”

This game was also all about surprise because of the play-calling of OC Brian Daboll. I already love this man. Most notable was his fantastic call on 4^th and 3. The Chiefs lined up with heavy personnel in a goal-line formation. As the defense began stacking the box to charge in up the middle, Cassel motioned all the backs and TEs out wide making it a five-receiver set with an open backfield. This threw the defense into chaos as they tried to adjust to coverage in panic. While they were still yelling at each other, Cassel slid in behind C Rodney Hudson for a sneaky conversion. I cannot tell you how much I loved that play – great design, perfectly executed.

Ever since Daboll was hired, we at AA and across Chiefs Nation have been pondering what Daboll’s offence “based on matchups” really meant. I think we’re now beginning to figure that out. While I think this game confirmed my assertion that Hillis could end up the Chiefs’ biggest free agent acquisition, I’m already eating my words about WR Devon Wylie and RB Cyrus Gray replacing McCluster. Dex’s move to being a pure slot receiver already looks like it will pay off dividends in 2012. On two big plays, Daboll drew things up so that Baldwin – the #1 target – would force a one-on-one on McCluster, who has now definitely shown that he has improved his route-running and ability to get open.

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Most fundamentally, as Paddy pointed out, it’s clear the Chiefs generally grasp his offense and are executing it well. During the second half, GM Scott Pioli was in the press box talking about how the Chiefs now run like a well-oiled machine, getting plays in on time and communicating efficiently. As much as his image as a disciplinarian and ultra stickler for detail put me off, it is clear that the overall culture he is trying to install works. Players were always walking with confidence out there, and coaches seemed to be able to communicate well without wasting time with petty bickering.

The other big surprise is how deep the Chiefs seem to be at nose tackle. While Poe showed he still has a lot to learn, former practice-squader Anthony Toribio showed why he has taken the starting spot. He consistently got off blocks and single-handedly stuffed a running back in the backfield playing against the Cardinals’ starters. Meanwhile, Jerrel Powe was also impressive, getting penetration several times and even notching a sack from the nose tackle position. Poe clearly pushed the pocket on a few downs, but often times seemed to be playing patty-cake with the O-linemen – still unsure of how to use his hands effectively. He seemed to either be focusing too much on his hands or not enough. But, at the very least, he did get double-teamed nearly every time, which was a large part of why KC racked up so many sacks on the game.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

The only negative surprises in this game were in the play of the Chiefs’ backup QBs. Although they are in a tight competition, neither played well. Still, neither arguably played worse than Arizona’s two quarterbacks competing over the starting job. I look forward to seeing Tanney bank some passes off the uprights for a touchdown in Game 2 of the preseason.

Generally speaking, it was hard to come away with anything but positive vibes after this game. The Chiefs are back with a vengeance this year and they have shown that they can beat you in any number of different ways. Wherever you are weakest, that’s where we will strike, because we have the tools to get you anywhere, anytime.

In 2011 the Kansas City Chiefs were coming off a 10-6 season and a division title. The NFL was coming off a lock out that wiped out the entire offseason program. Every team in the NFL was scrambling to get ready for the coming season. Then head coach Todd Haley decided that these special circumstances warranted a new approach to training camp and the preseason. Haley decided that instead of jumping right in and hitting, he would put an emphasis on conditioning. He wanted to get his team in shape and try to protect them from injuries that might occur if they rushed into things before the players were ready.

Let’s just say that thing didn’t go quite as he had planned. The Chiefs looked horrible in the preseason, going 0-4 and getting outscored by a margin of 90-42. Unfortunately, the hangover from the preseason lasted into the regular season where KC would be outscored by a whopping margin of 89-10 in the first two weeks. To make matters worse, not only was the team not ready to play, but also his plan to protect his players from injury was equally unsuccessful. By the time the curtain closed on week two of the regular season the Chiefs had lost three vital players in Jamaal Charles, Eric Berry, and Tony Moeaki. The early season blows proved too much for both KC and Todd Haley to take. The Chiefs finished 7-9 and in last place in the AFC West and Haley was fired with three weeks left to go in the season.

Fast forward to 2012 and it doesn’t take an expert to see that the Chiefs have a different approach this season. In fact, it literally appears that KC is dead set on making sure that no trace of the “Haley Way” of doing things can be found. The Chiefs started having physical practices right out of the gate in training camp. The Chiefs came into the first preseason game and looked ready to play football. The first team players got extended looks and even seemed to run plays that might be used in the regular season instead of the “vanilla” play calling of the Haley era.

What really caught my attention during the game were the quotes from both Clark Hunt and Scott Pioli as they sat in the announcers’ booth at different points in the game. I’m paraphrasing here, but Clark Hunt pointed out that the Chiefs underachieved last year and Pioli commented on how much more prepared the team was this year and specifically pointed out how much more effective the staff was at getting the plays in to Cassel (a clear shot at Haley’s OC by committee disaster last season that often led to Cassel barely having time to get the play off). Hunt and Pioli did everything but say, “Todd Haley really messed things up last season and now that he’s gone we think we’ll be a lot better.”

Does the blame for last season lay solely at the feet of Todd Haley? I don’t know. He certainly deserves a lot of the fault, but was it his idea to keep Barry Richardson at RT, Thomas Jones at RB, Tyler Palko as the primary backup QB, and Sabby Piscatelli as an NFL player? We’ll never know how much of that was on Haley and how much was on Pioli. What we do know now is that the anti-Haley approach to training camp and the first preseason game this year produced un-Haley like results.

In other words, the Chiefs won.

In Haley’s three seasons as the Chiefs head coach the Chiefs went 0-3 in preseason openers and 1-11 overall in the preseason. Not only did the Chiefs go 0-3 in preseason openers, but they scored only 6.7 PPG in those games and didn’t score a single first quarter point as they were outscored in that quarter a combined 20-0. That’s a far cry from Friday night when they scored 27 points and led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Does this mean that KC will play better when the games count? I don’t know. I do know that last season’s preseason opener against Tampa Bay was one of the worst preseason games I’ve ever seen and the Chiefs followed that up with one of the worst regular season openers I’ve ever seen (a 41-7 home loss to the Bills). The sad part is that Tampa Bay went on to finish 4-12 and Buffalo only 6-10. So even if Arizona isn’t very good this season, the Chiefs are still clearly off to a better start after one preseason game.

How much better? Take a look for yourself.

Basically, everything was heads and tails better this year. The one area that looks worse is rushing yards allowed and that’s only because the backups allowed one 67-yard long run by William Powell. The interesting (or sad) thing is that TB was actually the worst team Haley faced in the preseason opener in terms of their end of the year record that season (4-12). KC also lost 20-10 at Atlanta (13-3) in 2010 and 16-10 to Houston (9-7) in 2009. If you average out the numbers from those 3 games and compare them to Friday night it is still equally favorable.

Finally, Matt Cassel’s play was by far the best we’ve seen in a preseason opener. In the other three preseason openers combined Cassel has gone 8-13 for 40 yards and no TDs or INTs. So on Friday night when Cassel went 5 of 6 for 67 yards and a TD he threw for more yards and TDs than he had in his other three preseason openers combined. He also led his only two first quarter TD drives in a preseason opener.

All in all, Friday really couldn’t have gone much better than it did. Again, we don’t know if that will lead to more regular season wins. After all, Tampa Bay had a FANTASTIC preseason opener last season and ended up going 4-12. The only thing we really know is that the “Todd Haley Way” is no longer the Kansas City Way. Based on the early results, it looks like that might be a very good thing.

Other random observations from Friday:

I REALLY like Brian Daboll. Based on what I saw at training camp and how he called the game and had the offense ready on Friday I think there is every reason to be excited about KC’s new offensive coordinator.

I stand by my prediction that Peyton Hillis will end 2012 with more touches than Jamaal Charles. Not because Charles won’t be healthy or effective, but because Hillis will be productive and KC will try to keep Jamaal fresh and explosive.

Steve Maneri could just be a starter in the making. I expected him to win the third TE job because of his blocking ability (and Jake O’Connell stinks), but if Maneri can catch (and run) like he did Friday he could become more than just a third TE. Imagine if KC lines up in a three TE power/short yardage set and then goes play action, who is going to get the least attention from the defense in coverage? Maneri, of course, and if he can consistently catch the ball like he did Friday it gives Daboll one more toy to play with.

The offensive line gets a great big thumbs up from me. They made me eat my words. I reported that pass protection looked bad the day I was at training camp, but they didn’t allow a single sack. Not only did the first string look good, but the backups held their own as well. That’s a HUGE improvement over last preseason when poor Ricky Stanzi ran for his life on every single snap.

Justin Houston beat Tamba Hali to the QB for a sack. Just take a moment and think about how scary that is for the teams KC will face this year.

Abram Elam, welcome to KC. Donald Washington, say hello to Sabby Piscatelli for me.

Did anybody else notice that Matt Szymanski booted every kickoff he did for a clear touchback and then did a pretty good job punting as well. There’s no place for him on the roster, but keep that guy’s number on speed dial in case something should happen to one of our kickers.

I think that’s it for this week. Let’s hope the good times keep rolling against the Rams this weekend.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A favorite pastime for Chiefs fans this offseason has been debating whether or not a Matt Cassel-led Kansas City Chiefs can achieve Super Bowl glory. Abounding arguments eventually degenerate to: you need an elite QB to win a SB, and Matt Cassel is not an elite QB.

Some of the more brazen fans would allude to the possibility that Matt Cassel still might become elite. While there still may be time for him to develop, and it’ll be interesting to see how Tom House’s work with Cassel on his throwing mechanics will translate to the field on game day, the odds of eliteness aren’t too good. However, with all the changes we hope to see, we should be looking at a Top 20 passing offense at the least.

“Big whoop,” I imagine you saying. “In what world does a team with a QB lucky to break the Top 20 have a real chance at a Super Bowl title? Sure, Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson did it. But two teams in the past 12 years are not the kind of odds to hang your hopes on.”

Methinks you doth protest too much.

I’m not gonna rehash the little factoids such as Rex Grossman getting the Bears to the SB in the 2006 season. Or that just this past season we were poor special teams play away from witnessing two non-elite QBs in the big game. Though go-to favorites, we’re all Addicts here, and those arguments are old hat.

But what if I told you that the ’00 Ravens and ’02 Bucs weren’t the only teams to win a SB in the past dozen years without elite QB-play? That three other teams made it happen in a way our very own Chiefs could well duplicate this year? I present to you the ’01 Patriots, the ’05 Steelers and ’07 Giants.

“Wait just a minute, slappy; Brady, Roethlisberger and Eli Manning are all counted among the elite.” Yeah they are… now. But let’s take off the rose-tinted glasses and go back in time to the years these QBs got their first SB rings… And it’s not nice to call me “slappy”…

The date is Feb. 3, 2002: Rams vs. Patriots. After Drew Bledsoe suffered a serious injury in Week 2 of the season, the Patriots had been left to play a sixth-round pick out of Michigan that only just entered his second year as an NFL pro. He hasn’t done too bad over the season, but, still, the Patriots finished off the season ranking only 22^nd in passing. By comparison, they ranked 13^th in rushing, and their defense 6^th in points allowed. Brady has only posted 2,843 passing yards on the season (a career low in seasons he saw significant playing time), 18 TDs (another career low), and a 2.9 percent INT rate (a career high). Further, the Patriots barely made it through the playoffs, and were fortunate that their divisional round game against the Raiders was officiated by a team of refs that were aware of an obscure rule that kept what could’ve been a fumble merely an incomplete pass, opening up an opportunity for K Adam Vinatieri to make an insanely long kick in terrible weather conditions… the kind of kick Hollywood would glorify, but moviegoers would think to be too highly unlikely, if not impossible, to happen in real life. Following up on that near loss, the Patriots met trouble in the AFC Championship game against the Steelers. Brady went down to injury and Bledsoe came back in and was able to save the day.

So it was a rough road, but the Patriots were able to make it into the Super Bowl. Let’s see how Brady did: completing 16 out of 27 passes (a 59.25% completion rate), Brady had 145 yards passing on the day and one TD (an eight-yd pass to David Patten). Not quite yet the showing of an elite QB. So where did the win come from if not on the back of the QB? I see they rushed for a combined 133 yards, almost matching their passing production (not too shabby). Still, the Pats total combined offense didn’t surpass Kurt Warner’s passing offense (365 yards), and chipping in 92 yards rushing for the Rams just adds to the lopsidedness. Guess the Pats’ defense is owed a lot of credit considering all that production didn’t result in more points. Okay, and Ty Law had a 47-yd INT return for a TD. That would definitely help. And Vinatieri shows up again with 37-yd and 48-yd FGs; the 48-yarder getting the win. Guess we know who’s getting the MVP… Wait! It was Brady?!?! I guess giving the K his due would offend your QBs delicate sensibilities. But what about Ty Law, or someone else on D that shut down the Rams when it was needed the most? “What’s that? Defensive players get the SB MVP with the same frequency they win the Heisman, and Ray Lewis just got MVP in the previous SB?” Okay. Let the history book insinuate that Brady was better than he was that early on; in the meantime, sports photographers will make a killing selling Vinatieri pictures and prints to the New England fans that knew better.

Moving on, let’s examine Roethlisberger and the 2005 Steelers. You know what? This one’s easy. The Steelers finished the season ranked 24^th in passing offense, 5^th in rushing offense and 3^rd in Defensive Points Allowed. They had as many TDs rushing as they did passing (21) and four of those passing TDs weren’t even thrown by Roethlisberger. Big Ben had 2,385 passing yards on the season, and had a pathetic showing in the SB, posting a Passer Rating of 22.6. Seriously. Ben completed 9 of 21 passes for 123 yds in the SB, and 2 INTS. The only Pittsburgh TD reception came on a WR pass from Antwaan Randle-El to Hines Ward. If the 2002 Bucs are proof that a team can win it all with a disgustingly high scoring defense, the 2005 Steelers are proof perfect that a team with a shutdown defense and a top notch running game can win it all.

The 2007 Giants are perhaps the toughest to defend. Eli finished the season with 3,336 passing yards (right around Cassel’s top end). While he did post 23 TD receptions on the year, he led the league in INTs with 20… by no means a good ratio, let alone an “elite” QBs ratio. He also completed only 57.7 percent of his passes (Cassel’s career average is 59 percent). All in all, the Giants passing offense on the season was ranked 21^st, their defense 17^th in points allowed (though 7^th in yards allowed), and 4^th overall in rushing offense with their RBs contributing 15 TDs on the season. So their defense was about average, their running game well above average, and their passing game considerably below average.

What makes a tough point to argue is that Eli put in a significantly better SB performance than either Brady or Ben in their first go-rounds (especially Ben… 22.6 Passer Rating?!?! C’mon!) Eli completed 19 of 34 passes (a 55.9% completion rate) for 255 yds, two TDs and one INT. What shouldn’t be overlooked is the fact that the Patriots were having a perfect season, losing no games and averaging just shy of 37 points per game and despite this, the Giants’ defense really stepped it up and held the Pats to 14 points (including overcoming a near successful game winning drive in the final minute of play).

It should also be remembered that the Giants’ final drive was kept alive by David Tyree knowing enough to break his route and give Eli a target down-field before getting sacked… and also making a miraculous helmet catch that may well define the term “circus catch”. While Eli deserves some credit for staying on his feet; Tyree deserves the bulk of the credit for his situational awareness and making such an unlikely catch.

So, there you have it: three more teams and three more SBs, where the quality of QB play was much less elite and much more Cassel-esque. And while these players may be elite now, their production and circumstances indicate that in these years their teams won, not on the strength of their QB, but on the strength of the team as a whole. Be it a strong defense keeping the score low, a running game that pounded the ball and controlled the clock, or particularly good special teams play, these teams persevered and earned the coveted title.

Overall, our beloved Chiefs have the makings of such a team. Our defense is primed to crack the Top 10, if not the Top five. If Charles and Hillis return to some semblance of their 2010 form, the Chiefs are pretty much guaranteed a Top 5 run game, if not No. 1. And the increased talent and strength of our offensive line should keep the Richard Seymours of the world at bay long enough for Ryan Succop to keep us alive when we need it the most. Everyone wants a playoff win (and it has been a while), and as heartbreaking as it may be to hope for a higher goal and fall short, I see no reason why we can’t win it all this year and bring the Lombardi Trophy to where it would look best: Kansas City. Go Chiefs!!!!!!!!

With the Chiefs starting their first practices on Friday, the 2012 season has for all intents and purposes begun.

With any luck, by this time next week we will know more about how the 2012 Chiefs will look, play and prosper and you will no longer have to read articles rehashing past moves or talking about what might happen once the season kicks off. That’s right, ladies and gents. Very soon, there will be some real football to talk about.

But until then, let’s take one last look back at the 204 days that we have been without Chiefs football since we rained on Tebow’s playoff parade in Week 17. After all, back then the starting quarterback was Kyle Orton, everyone thought we were going to draft David DeCastro and Peyton Manning was still a Colt.

Best Arrest

Although Al Davis, sadly, has left us, his legacy lives on in a number of absurd debilitating moves that have kept the Oakland Raiders uncompetitive for a record stretch of time. One of Davis’ recent hits was drafting Alabama LB Ronaldo McClain 8^th overall in 2010 and signing him to a (pre-CBA) $40-million contract. On top of being an overall disappointment – even more so than his cousin LeRon McClain’s stint with the Chiefs – apparently, a fun night out for him can be described as “third-degree assault, menacing, reckless endangerment and discharging a firearm inside the city limits.” Due to all of that silliness, McClain was sentenced to 180 days in jail. Despite his mediocre play on the field, he is still the Raiders’ starting middle linebacker (for now) and it appears this sentence will keep him out of the whole 2012 season.

He's a lot cuter when he's not shooting a gun by your head. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

But don’t feel too bad for the guy; while in jail he’ll probably still be making around $5 million in guaranteed money.

Best Roster Move

While there could arguably be a debate over who the Chiefs’ best offseason acquisition was, clearly the best improvement in single position came with the signing of Tackle Eric Winston and the banishment of Barry Richardson to the St. Louis Rams (who apparently hate their quarterback). It is truly rare when a team is able to turn their weakest position into one of their strongest, but that is what KC pulled off this year. In addition to getting the guy that is quite possibly the best right tackle in football, adding Winston also instantly made the Chiefs O-line one of the strengths of the team. After years of god awful blocking, we now have one of the better units in the league with bookend tackles and a fairly deep bunch of young players in the interior.

Best League Scheduling Oversight

Due to rules governing prime time games, the Chiefs in effect get two bye weeks this season. In addition to their Week 7 bye, the Chiefs have an 11-day break between their Week 9 Thursday Night Football game against the Chargers and a Monday Night Football game against the Steelers.

Best Throw-Down Move in the Division

I’m not going to lie, while this sentiment is in no way based in any type of rationality, I love that Peyton Manning has joined the division after snubbing the Chiefs. Is this objectively good for the Chiefs’ chances of winning the division? No. Does it motivate me even more to crush the Donkeys? Yes.

My only complaint is that the Chiefs don’t get to face off against Manning’s merry band of mules until Week 12, and, in all likelihood, he will have broken his neck seven times by then. On the other hand, if his bionic neck holds up that long, it’s very likely that Week 12 is going to be a great game – one that will have major divisional and playoff implications. Although I have been watching Peyton carve up defenses for the last decade, I can’t help but mentally taunt Denver every day until that game comes. This year is our year. Bring it on. Throw-down time.

Best Offseason Prediction

I totally said that we should draft Dontari Poe and everyone complained about the suggestion and in the end we did draft him. So there.

Worst Offseason Storyline

Arrowhead Anxiety-gate. Although many of you have likely forgotten about this by now, the 2011 offseason started with a stunning expose by the Star’s Kent Babb about how Scott Pioli scared the bejesus out of most people who work for the Chiefs. Todd Haley believed he was wiretapped. He wasn’t alone. Employee turnover was extreme. Old people were swept out the door. Pioli picked up trash he found and creepily presented it at board meetings in evidence bags. Everyone, including business-side employees, was forbidden from getting a peek at anything going on at the practice field.

Not only was this bad press for the Chiefs, this was the kind of story that shook at the very base of all of our feelings about the Pioli regime. Sure, he’s been very effective, but he just might be an exiled dictator in an elaborate disguise. The fact that the publication of the story was followed by increasing rumors and comments by league figures that this is why many players choose to avoid Kansas City left a sour taste in my mouth. Was it Pioli and his reputation that made Peyton Manning decide to not even visit with the team, despite its playoff-ready roster? Was Todd Haley batnuts crazy because Pioli’s management style turned him into a paranoid schizophrenic? We’ll probably never know.

Worst Moment of Chiefs Fandom

Cassel getting booed at a celebrity softball game. Really, people? I’m not saying the guy’s a great player, but wait until he throws his 5^th check-down in a row or manages to toss a no-look interception on a screen pass while in field-goal range with the game on the line. Even then, I’d prefer you all to react the same way that I, as any gentlemen, acts in this situation. Let a single tear roll down your cheek, physically assault someone in the immediate vicinity and order another beer (note: I only cry because of the adrenaline).

Worst Overall Change

The uniform design. Look, it’s not that bad and it seems like the material is going to be a lot better, but I agreed with some commenter who said they look like red Browns jerseys. Now I can’t get imagine out my head and all I can think is “yuck” whenever I see them (I do dig the gloves though).

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Matt Cassel will start the 2012 season as the starting QB for the Kansas City Chiefs. That’s a guarantee.

But will he finish the season on the field or on the bench?

Before the you reach for your torches and pitchforks, please understand that I fully support Matt Cassel. He is absolutely the best option to start the season at QB for the Chiefs. He’s done more as an NFL QB in one season than Brady Quinn* and Ricky Stanzi combined.

*Though it should be noted that the one time Cassel met Quinn, Quinn came out on top.

The question with Cassel is can he rise with the talent around him?

He’s done it before. He led a very talented New England Patriots team to an 11-5 record and a less talented Chiefs team to a 10-5 record in 2010. He’s probably not a QB that can put his team on his back as is evident in his performances in 2009 in 2011.

But even in Cassel’s best seasons, the questions lingered. The 2008 Pats and 2010 Chiefs each had very easy schedules and Cassel performed poorly against quality competition.

The problem facing the 2012 Kansas City Chiefs will be whether or not, at some juncture, Cassel will become a liability.

On paper, this Chiefs team has enough talent to compete with just about any team in the league. They should have a very solid offensive line and a very dangerous passing attack. The WR core is loaded with talent, speed and size. The defense will feature perhaps one of the leagues best units. If everyone else on the team plays up to expectations, the Chiefs will be good enough to get the job done most weeks.

But what if they don’t? What if the Chiefs are playing well but start falling short because of the mistakes or limitations of their QB? An overthrow here, a bad interception there and the natives might start to grow restless. If KC is inconsistent early and loses some contests they should have won, Romeo Crennel could have a very difficult decision to make.

Crennel has dealt with a QB controversy before as a head coach and it did not turn out well. He is likely going to want to avoid a repeat in Kansas City at all costs. That means a decision to bench Cassel will probably not be made on a whim. It will have to be evident to everyone that there are no other factors at play and that it is Cassel that is holding the team back. Benching Cassel and turning the keys over to Brady Quinn or Ricky Stanzi would be final. Save injury, Crennel and Pioli would have to stick with the new guy come hell or high water.

Behind Cassel the Chiefs have some interesting options. Quinn is the experienced veteran and Stanzi is very green with high upside. Scott Pioli has gone on the record as saying that he believes Stanzi can develop into an NFL starter.

Should Cassel play well and go down to injury for a game or two, his replacement will likely be Quinn. The Chiefs will want the most experience signal caller on the field if they need backup help in the middle of a playoff race. Quinn is an excellent game-manager option to come in and keep the team on track while it awaits the return of Cassel.

If, however, Cassel finds himself on the bench as a result of poor play, the Chiefs should almost certainly roll with Stanzi, unless the second-year QB just simply isn’t developing. Given his track record, Quinn is unlikely to develop into an NFL starter. Stanzi is the wildcard. If the Chiefs believe in him and the benching of Cassel is final, Stanzi has to be the choice. Like Tom Brady in New England, Stanzi would have the chance to step in and play for a potential Super Bowl contender. He’d have excellent protection and support. He’d be in the ideal position for success.

Should Stanzi step in and fail, the Chiefs would still benefit from knowing that their course forward is clear. A QB would truly be the #1 priority for the offseason and nobody in the organization would have any delusions that Brady Quinn is the answer.

What can’t happen in 2012 is Tyler Palko 2.0. The 2011 Chiefs wasted a chance to evaluate Stanzi in favor of playing a guy that didn’t even belong on an NFL roster. Perhaps Stanzi wasn’t ready and there is always the chance that starting him too early would have stunted his development. The problem is, we’ll never know because of Todd Haley’s decision to leave Stanzi on the sideline despite downright atrocious play from Palko.

The Chiefs have to find out about Cassel this season and if they have the opportunity to find out about Stanzi, all the better.

Scott Pioli has set the table for Cassel to succeed in 2012. There isn’t a whole lot more he could have given him. Short of another snakebit season, the Chiefs should win at least 10 games. If at any point it becomes clear that Cassel can’t get the job done, the Chiefs have to pull the trigger on Stanzi and end the Cassel experiment once and for all. They owe it to their fans. The Chiefs are too talented to bang their heads against the wall for a whole season with a mediocre QB and they are too talented to enter another offseason with questions lingering at their most important position.

All that being said, KC’s best-case scenario is a season in which Cassel succeeds.

What do you think Addicts? We all know who will start the season at QB. Who will finish it?

Welcome back, Addicts, to the third and final installment of my NFL dead zone series “If You Ran The Chiefs.” In this series I simply lay out an often discussed topic in Chiefs Nation and you guys tell me what you would do if you were in charge. If you missed either of the first two posts here are the links:

Part 1 of the series was about what you would do with Dwayne Bowe.

Part 2 of the series was about what you would do with Tyson Jackson and Glenn Dorsey.

Even though we had a good discussion in the previous two posts, today’s post is really the one that most Chiefs fans get worked up about. Today we’ll discuss what you would do at the most important position on the field. I’m talking, of course, about the quarterback. No player on the Chiefs roster gets fans more worked up than current quarterback Matt Cassel. Some feel the guy is solid, while others are ready to run him out of town with torches and pitch forks. Again, I’m not here to sell you on my opinion this week. I simply want to lay out some options and have you tell me what you would do.

Before I lay out the options I’ll try to objectively put Matt Cassel in perspective. Unless you are the “homer to end all homers,” I think we can all agree that Matt Cassel in not one of the elite QBs in the NFL. You simply can’t put him side by side with the Drew Brees, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers of the world. The discussion is more about if Cassel deserves to be in the “solid but not spectacular” middle range of NFL QBs.

The chart below shows the career stats of Matt Cassel and nine other NFL QBs. I listed their career completion percentage, yards per attempt, and QB rating. I was going to list their career TDs and INTs, but since there is a wide range in games played I decided that TD percentage and INT percentage would be better. In other words, 4.3 percent of Matt Cassel’s pass attempts have been TDs and 2.5 percent have been interceptions. You can look below at how those percentages hold up. I included a wide range of QBs from the elite Eli Manning to the questionable Tarvaris Jackson. The QBs are listed in order of career QB rating, but obviously that doesn’t represent their actual ability.

So what, if anything, can we take from this chart. First, it’s clear that career numbers can’t paint the whole picture. Eli Manning has a career QB rating similar to Matt Cassel and Matt Hasselbeck but we all know that Eli has reached a point now in his career where he is playing at a much higher level than those other two. I purposely included Eli’s numbers just to show that QBs can develop as years go by. The question is if Cassel has peaked or if he could continue to improve?

I also feel the chart shows that Cassel is simply not a horrible QB as some may claim. Matt Hasselbeck took the Seahawks to the Super Bowl and Joe Flacco, Alex Smith, and Mark Sanchez have taken their team as far as the conference title game despite having career stats that are similar or worse than Matt Cassel’s.

Out of this segment of 10 “mid-level” NFL QB’s Cassel ranked seventh in completion percentage, eighth in YPA, fourth in TD percentage, third in INT percentage, and fourth in QB rating. If this group of QBs is a good representation of “mid-level” NFL QBs (you can be the judge of that), then it appears that Cassel is just that: a mid-level QB. His numbers certainly don’t show him to be better than this group as a whole, but they certainly don’t show him to be worse either. They seem to show that he’s somewhere in the middle of the “mid-level” QBs.

The question now is, is that good enough for him to remain the starting QB in Kansas City?

So what should KC do at QB going forward? It’s time for you to make the call.

Here are the options as I see them.

1. Stay committed to Matt Cassel 100 percent going forward.

Good QBs are hard to find and the Chiefs would be foolish to let him go in hopes that they find a Hall of Fame caliber QB. Elite QBs are so few and far between that you are much more likely to bust than find someone that is a clear upgrade over Cassel. A bust at QB could set the Chiefs back 3-4 years and by then the window to win with the talent currently on the roster will be closed. The Chiefs already have a good quarterback on the roster and fans need to get over the fact that he’s not going to throw for 5,000 yards and 40 TDs.

2. The future is Ricky Stanzi.

Stanzi has the ability to be a winner in the NFL and a clear upgrade over Cassel. The team should base Cassel’s time as the starter in KC on Stanzi’s development. Cassel is just good enough to keep the seat warm and not rush Stanzi before he is ready, but as soon as they feel Stanzi is up for it, the job is his.

3. Do whatever it takes to draft a franchise quarterback.

Super Bowl winners have elite QBs that they drafted (usually in the 1st round) and developed. Cassel will never be elite and even though Stanzi has a cult following in KC, he’s simply not an elite QB prospect. KC needs to draft a QB in the first round next year, period. If it doesn’t look like there will be one available where they are picking then the Chiefs should trade away whatever it takes to move up and get their man. It’s time to break the curse of Todd Blackledge.

4. Sign (or trade for) a veteran QB to be the starter next offseason.

The Chiefs are built to win now. If Cassel isn’t up for the job then the Chiefs don’t have time to waste on developing Ricky Stanzi or throwing a rookie into the fire. So next offseason whoever the top QB on the market is, he comes to KC. Pay whatever it takes and don’t take no for an answer. There are enough weapons on this team to make it a great destination for a veteran QB who wants a shot to win as long as the Chiefs are willing to pay them what they feel they deserve.

So which of these options would you go with if you ran the Chiefs? If you have an option that isn’t listed we’d all love to hear it too. Just post your answer in the comments below and let’s see just what Chiefs Nation wants to do at the QB position moving forward. I can’t wait to hear what you think.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, after Paddy put together a great piece on the crucial offseason question: “If Chiefs Were Characters from the Wire,” I felt it necessary to move this important thought-experiment beyond the realist, Dickensian epic about the failures of city institutions to the world of fantasy. If there are any of you out there who still haven’t gotten hooked on Game of Thrones, get on it (but watch the first two episodes before passing judgment; the first one is a bit scatter-brained).

Furthermore, if you aren’t acquainted with the show, STOP READING THIS NOW, this is going to be chalk-full of spoilers.

Tamba Hali as Sandor Clegane, “The Hound”

"I smell Philip Rivers."

Tamba Hali is a big, scary, not-particularly-pretty man. He has been loyal to the Chiefs through leadership changes, which have included a variety of eccentric characters on the throne. Although he terrifies everyone around him, everyone that serves at his side realizes he is a man of honor who lives to massacre quarterbacks – just don’t get fire anywhere near him or he’ll go all Frankenstein on you.

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Todd Haley as Joffry Baratheon

"We shall go forth on 4th down a 4th time!"

Egotistical, sadistic, deluded and an awful tactician when it counts. On the plus side, um … cool crossbow?

David Butler II-US PRESSWIRE

Matt Cassel as Daenerys Targaryen

"You're not just going to throw out my appendix after the surgery, right? Whew, what a waste that would have been."

Essentially sold in a marriage-trade that was meant to allow the Chiefs to reconquer Westeros, Cassel spent 2009 powerless, being repeatedly raped behind a horrid offensive line with no friends or allies to throw to. But, after facing down trials and tribulations, Cassel grew in strength and confidence, giving birth to dragons and … breaking his hand and watching his division rival ride out his team to the lost year’s best victories … this metaphor needs some work.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Casey Wiegmann as Ser Rodrik Cassel (absolutely no relation to Matt Cassel)

"Roadkill is the new black."

Old, wizened and dependable. If it wouldn’t have gotten in the way for Casey’s gameplay, these two men would have undoubtedly shared the same hairstyle as they held down the fort defending the House of Stark. However, despite their reliability, at some point, it was time for some young gun to behead them both.

Michael Hickey-US PRESSWIRE

Jon McGraw as Tywin Lannister

"I just one deep back safetied your mom."

Although respected and decorated, these veterans have been outfoxed by younger, faster competition. However, with the game on the line, these old hands know how to pull out a victory.

Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE

Dwayne Bowe as Bronn

"Right back at you Cassel. No, I don't think I'm going to aim for your 'general vicinity' with this one."

Not everyone likes him, his style or his attitude. But, everyone agrees, this man is damn effective at what he does.

Brian Spurlock-US PRESSWIRE

Scott Pioli as Petyr Baelish “Little Finger”

"As a matter of fact, yes, I do run a whore house."

The ultimate man behind the curtain, Pioli has used his suspicious seduction and mischief to build a winning team in record time. Everyone has to watch their back around this man.

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Dontari Poe as Gregor Clegane, “The Mountain”

"Ok, yes. I may have eaten one or two practice squad kickers. But, if you don't want me to eat special teamers, why do you leave them lying around all the time?!"

He is big, strong and furious. He can behead a horse with a single blow, and yet we’ve seen him do little more than lose jousts to effeminate challengers and guard a burnt-out prison camp. Will his amazing strength and power actually come to use on the battlefield?

Douglas Jones-US PRESSWIRE

Romeo Crennel as Tyrion Lannister

Seriously, why has no one made a similar mural for Crennel yet?

A master strategist with a heart of gold. While he has rarely gotten credit for his work, Crennel has been an essential part of the family and saved it from total destruction at the end of the season.

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Chan Gailey as Balon Greyjoy

"I left potato salad in the workroom fridge. I will take back what is mine."

What, you don’t see the resemblance? Aside from that, these two are bitter men who live in their cold miserable bitterness in the North, waiting to strike back revenge in Week 2.

Robert Mayer-US PRESSWIRE

Derrick Johnson as Khal Drogo

"My helmet protects you."

The Horse King will hurt you, and he will do it in the most badass way available to him. But, please, Chiefs medical personnel, do not resort to black magic to cure his infections.

Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE

Barry Richardson as Samwell Tarly

"Time for my signature move -- Contagious Incompetence!"

Fat, whiney and utterly useless. I hope the White Walkers got ‘im at the end of last season.

Michael Hickey-US PRESSWIRE

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

What are your expectations for the 2012 Kansas City Chiefs?

It is a simple question but I think our answers may vary a bit. We’ve been talking about expectations quite a bit around here lately when it comes to the Chiefs. (What the hell else is there to talk about?) The draft, the strong free agency period, the return of Berry, Moeaki and Charles predictably have people excited. Hell, there are so many weapons on offense that even some of the staunchest Matt Cassel detractors seem to be softening their stance a bit on just how many games the team can win with #7 leading the way.

We’re getting closer to the preseason and it won’t be long before we have a much better idea of what this team is going to look like. The Chiefs haven’t been stellar in the preseason in recent years and while the outcome of the games don’t matter, the way the starters look out there does. The last time I was impressed with what I saw from the KC starters in a preseason game was their third contest against the Eagles in 2010. I saw some flashes from the running game and I thought the defense was playing better than I’d seen in quite some time. The Chiefs got off to a rocky start in that game but I could see something was different.

Turned out it was.

So I for one and very interesting to see how polished this new crop of players looks this preseason. Depending on how things go our expectations could change quite a bit but right now I’d say Chiefs Nation is pretty optimistic.

But I want to hear directly from you. With full understanding that your opinion could change in just a few weeks, I want to know know what your expectations are for this team right now.

Here are mine:

I think the Chiefs will go 11-5, win the AFC West outright and will win a playoff game. Depending on how things shake out, they could find themselves in the AFC Championship game.

What do you got?

Well, my fellow KC Chiefs fans, welcome to the football dead zone. The stretch between the NFL Draft and the start of training camp is probably the least exciting time to be a die-hard NFL fan and definitely the hardest time to be an NFL blogger. Yes there are some interesting tidbits coming out of OTAs, but until they actually put pads on and hit somebody, everything is pretty much just speculation.

So what can we do to try and get some good old-fashioned football debates going?

Well how about we play a new game called “Tell me I’m wrong!” It’s easy, I’ll make some predictions that I 100 percent believe about the upcoming season and you tell me when you think I’m wrong. Then I’ll respond to your comment and tell you why you’re wrong for thinking that I’m wrong. It will be great, trust me (hey, it’s the offseason, what else are we going to talk about?).

Ready to play?

Here we go……

1. Stanford Routt will lead KC in interceptions.

I don’t think Routt is a better player than either Brandon Flowers or Eric Berry. However, I do think he will be the most thrown at player in the Chiefs’ secondary. My guess is that Routt may not be as consistent as Brandon Carr was, but he will make more big plays. Carr was a great cover corner but he never was a big interception guy (he averaged just two per season over his four years in KC). I think Routt will probably give up more big plays than Carr did, but will help make up for it by coming up with more big plays. Teams will be tempted to test him both because he may give up an occasional big play and because of Flowers’ great coverage skills opposite him. Plus Routt will be lined up a lot against #2 WRs (as opposed to last season in Oakland when he had to cover the other team’s #1). Because of this, I think Routt will be good for about five interceptions this coming season.

Tell me I’m wrong!

2. Amon Gordon will play more snaps at 3-4 NT this season than either of the “Po(w)e Boys”.

When the Chiefs drafted Dontari Poe with the #11 pick, most national commentators stated that Romeo Crennel would plug Poe in at NT from day one. I haven’t ever believed that to be true. I’m not bashing Poe, or even bashing the pick, just the logic that he would walk right in and be the starting NT. The NT in the Chiefs 3-4 is all about technique and leverage. Those two things happen to be two of Poe’s weakest areas coming out of college. Do I think Romeo and defensive line coach Anthony Pleasant can teach Poe the technique needed to be a starting 3-4 NT? Yes. Will it happen in one offseason? Probably not. Poe has been running with the first team nickel package, but is way down the depth chart at NT (even Anthony Toribio has gotten snaps ahead of him). So that leaves KC with either Gordon or last year’s 6th round pick Jerrell Powe as the starting NT to begin the year. I know fans are enamored of Powe, but the Chiefs have shown no signs thus far that they share that infatuation. Gordon was active over Powe all of last season and when the Chiefs base defense took the field for the first time in OTAs it was Gordon that lined up at NT. In addition, Gordon also has the versatility to play the 3-4 DE spots. So if Dorsey or Jackson were to go down mid-game the Chiefs could slide Gordon over to DE and play Dontari at NT (since he will be active for sub packages). The same could not be said for Powe who hasn’t played at all at DE or in the sub package. I won’t be surprised if Dontari Poe is the starting NT by the end of the season, but I still believe that Amon Gordon will lead the team in snaps played at NT when the season comes to an end.

Tell me I’m wrong!

3. Undrafted FA Josh Bellamy will beat out seventh round draft pick Junior Hemingway for the final WR spot.

I stated before that there really isn’t much that you can take from OTAs other than speculation. I think Josh Bellamy may be an exception. In Romeo’s presser following the undrafted player tryouts, Bellamy was the first player he mentioned when talking about players that got his attention. Then in this OTA update by the Kansas City Star’s Adam Teicher it mentions that with Bowe holding out and Baldwin missing a practice, Bellamy got a few reps with the first string (with no mention of Hemingway). Finally, in this locker room interview, Josh Looney talks about how Bellamy has experience playing defensive back and how that defensive experience helps him to excel on special teams. If Bellamy has flashed more as a WR thus far AND has a leg up on Hemingway on ST (where the last WR will see most of their action) I think Bellamy may be the clear favorite at this point despite the fact that Hemingway was drafted and Bellamy was not.

Tell me I’m wrong!

4. Peyton Hillis will finish the year with 100 more touches than Jamaal Charles.

I love Jamaal Charles. I think he is the most talented player on the team. That having been said, he has a small frame for a NFL running back and is coming off major knee surgery. The Chiefs previously were careful with Charles’ workload and that was before his knee injury. When the season begins, I wouldn’t be surprised if Charles only averaged 8-12 touches per game until the Chiefs start to feel comfortable that he is full strength. If the Chiefs are a run first team that could leave a solid 15-20 touches for Hillis. Plus, Hillis has proven in the past that he is a good receiver out of the back field so the Chiefs don’t have to take him off the field in passing downs. If the Chiefs let an ineffective Thomas Jones have more carries than a healthy Charles; I can’t imagine they wouldn’t let a more effective Hillis carry the load while they slowly bring Charles back. Over the course of 16 games 100 touches would only be an average of 6.25 touches per game.

Tell me I’m wrong!

5. Jonathan Baldwin will play well enough this season that the Chiefs will let Dwayne Bowe walk in free agency next offseason.

Part of the “Patriot Way” has always been knowing when to let a player go. Whether it was cutting Lawyer Milloy, trading Richard Seymour, or releasing Randy Moss, the Patriots have never been afraid to move on. Dwayne Bowe is an incredibly talented player who has always had a bit of a reputation as a “knuckle head.” Bowe may be wanting a huge long-term deal like the one Vincent Jackson signed this offseason, but I just don’t see Pioli giving him that kind of money. Listen to Pioli talk about the scouting process they use on draft picks. He always talks about the players’ “make up” and how they will mentally handle the NFL life and having millions of dollars in their pocket. Ask yourself this, would Pioli have been comfortable drafting Dwayne Bowe out of college based on those criteria? I don’t think he would have. The only way I see him giving Bowe big money is if he thinks he has no choice. Enter Jon Baldwin. Baldwin was a first-round pick by Pioli. He missed time last year on top of having a shortened offseason. Already in OTAs he is getting noticed for highlight-reel, big play catches. If Baldwin can carry that over to the regular season and looks like a #1 caliber WR, that is bad news for those wanting Bowe to stay in KC long term. I’d love to see both Baldwin and Bowe in KC long term, but if KC remains a run-first team they simply don’t need two #1 WRs. I think Jon Baldwin will show himself to be that caliber of player this year and give Pioli the leverage to let Dwayne Bowe walk.

Tell me I’m wrong!

6. Matt Cassel will silence his critics (well, at least some of them) by having his best season in KC.

I already made my case for Matt Cassel in my piece last week. The basis of my argument is this: Every time Cassel has had a good run game and at least an average defense he has put up good results. I think he has a chance to have the best defense of his career this coming year and if Jamaal Charles is healthy then KC could very well lead the league in rushing again. Plus, if you look at Cassel’s WRs in 2010 when he put up good numbers and even made the Pro Bowl (as an alternate), they were horrible after Dwayne Bowe. The additions of Steve Breaston, Jon Baldwin, and even Devon Wylie should mean Cassel has a significantly better core of WRs than he did in 2010. Plus, no one can question Cassel’s work ethic and you know that in the face of all the criticism he’s faced he will do everything possible to prove his critics wrong. I believe everything is lining up for Cassel to have his best season in KC.

Tell me I’m wrong!

So there you go, Addicts, I’ve given you loads of ammo to fuel a good debate in the comments section. Surely one of these made you go, “No Way That Happens!!!!” So let me have it in the comments. I look forward to hearing about how wrong I am.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week, I went back to watching the Chiefs’ 2011 game tape. While I had been primarily focused on losses to examine areas the Chiefs needed to improve, I had been saving one particular game as a snack somewhere down the road.

Beating the undefeated Packers was great. Stuffing the Donkeys to force them to enter the playoffs on a three-game losing streak made me happy. But, nothing could compare to the emotions I felt when watching our team rise from the grave in Week 8 on Monday Night Football to take the division lead against the San Diego Chargers.

Triumphant Zombie Chiefs they were. It was the exact midpoint of the season and it looked like the Chiefs were about to shake off their crap injury luck and humiliating start and go back to being the AFC Champs that they were.

For starters, what made the game great was that it was one of the rare times that it was absolutely clear that all Chiefs fans believed. Arrowhead has always been one of the loudest, most inhospitable places to play for visiting teams, but our fans took it to a new level that night. Even watching it on TV from tens of thousands of miles away, I could see the difference. After playing like the worst team in the sport for the first two and a half games of the season, the Chiefs had brought themselves to a place where they had to play a game against a rival on national television at home for the division lead. On Halloween. There is simply no better setup than that.

I also had forgotten previously just how good the Chiefs-Chargers rivalry is. Of course, I personally despise the Raiders and even the Broncos much more vehemently, but that comes mostly out of the irrational, non-competitive parts of my brain. Now, with a hall-o-fame QB at the helm in Denver, all the focus has been on them and the race to beat them out for the 2012 title. But, in all that talk, it is forgotten that the Chiefs and the Chargers have together won seven of the last nine division championships. That means that Oakland and Denver together have shared just 22 percent of the division titles over the last nine years. It’s anyone’s guess how strong the Chargers will be this year, but one thing is clear: for the last decade, KC and SD have owned the title.

Unfortunately, although KC had achieved an impressive three-game winning streak to get them to that game, that place in time, the offense indeed did play most of the game like the undead. The Chargers far outgained the Chiefs, and the difference in the game came down to capitalizing on San Diego mistakes. Still, there was some magic in the air in Arrowhead on Halloween. Dark magic.

First off, Tamba Hali didn’t just play like a man possessed. He was a man possessed. Whatever evil spirit took hold of him was just toying with the Chargers’ offensive tackles all game. He forced more than half a dozen penalties, had two sacks, a timely forced fumble, and overall terrorized the bejesus out of San Diego blockers.

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Cassel hit some really pretty passes.

Despite all of that, the Chiefs played a really poor middle part of the game. A signature of the Todd Haley era, the offense constantly struggled to get plays and substitutions in on time. This led to a comedy of errors at the end of the first half, in which the Chargers were on the run but KC was just far too discombobulated to do anything right. Eventually, everyone just scratched their heads and kicked a field goal. By the end of the game, the color commentators were repeatedly using the phrase “Poor Matt Cassel” as our beleaguered QB was having to basically organize the bloody mess himself.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Although I didn’t know this when I watched the game live, when McGraw went out down with an injury and Donald Washington went in to replace him, this spelled doom for the Chiefs. This time around, I knew automatically that this would be the turning point. Sure enough, San Diego came from 10 points behind to tie the Chiefs in the second half. After being totally ineffective in the passing game in the first half, once there was only one competent Chiefs safety on the field, SD hit big play after big play to drag themselves back into the game.

The game was also largely a microcosm of Jonathan Baldwin’s rookie year. He hauled in the catch of his NFL career (thus far) — a beautiful deep pass for a TD — but he also committed several mental errors. He dropped two balls, both of which hit him in the hands, and the second one bounced off of his breadbasket and into the arms of a San Diego defender for an interception. It was a Jekyll and Hyde game for what has so far been a Jekyll and Hyde receiver.

As much as Hali was playing out of his mind, when the Chargers were able to neutralize his pass rush (usually through unnoticed penalties), Rivers was as comfortable as if he had returned to his mother’s womb. Houston had not yet arrived to the scene.

And, while I am all for getting Houston to develop and mature into a legit pass-rushing threat, I am still not convinced that is what he is just yet. Three of his 5.5 sacks in 2011 came against the Bears – a bad quarterback behind a bad offensive line (seriously, Caleb Hanie finished with a worse 2011 passer rating than Tyler Palko).

This brings me to my next disturbing realization while watching this game. Like our match against the Packers, in this game, San Diego was playing like absolute dogcrap 80 percent of the time. They had nine penalties in the first half, they turned over the ball four times and missed an easy field goal. Given all of that, the Chiefs should have beaten them by 20. Instead, we beat them by a field goal in overtime.

In part, this is just how the Chiefs play. We keep every game close and work to go the extra mile by the end of the game. But that won’t cut it in the playoffs. Playoff teams beat their opponents into submission when they have the chance and are able to run their offense like a machine. While I have no doubt the Chiefs will be able to secure the division title again in 2012, this roster still has yet to prove that it can be dominant.

That is why I think it is important to remember the Zombie Chiefs and remember where we are coming from. We are not just coming off of an off year that was plagued with injures. No. We were a dead team that clawed its way back into the division race as ugly as it was, and played with every ounce of its potential to come within a single blocked field goal of the postseason again.

We need to remember that hunger of a zombie team that had been written off by the league. We need to remember what it was like to be the fans of a team standing behind the walls of the Alamo on Halloween, defending its title like champs when everyone expected it to fold. I know there has been a lot of gloating and optimism among myself and others on this site for all of the shrewd offseason additions and the swift recovery of our wounded stars. But, if we are going to take this team’s destiny to its full potential, we need to remember where we came from.

The 2012 season for me is just a continuation of our rise from the grave. The media can talk about Peyton Manning all they want. Tamba will be feeding on his brain and JC will be dancing in his end zone before long. To steal a motto from the Greyjoys, “What is dead can never die.” Long live the Zombie Chiefs!

Ask any NFL fan on the planet which player on the Kansas City Chiefs has the most pressure to produce in 2012 and you will get the same answer. Matt Cassel. There is no player more debated, no player more hated, and no player more crucial to a Kansas City playoff run in 2012.

Let me start by saying that I’m not a Matt Cassel homer (at least not any more). In fact, when it was announced that he was done for the year after week 10 last season, I did a post stating that Matt Cassel should never start another game in KC. However, after KC finished 7-9, putting them out of position to draft a franchise QB, and Peyton Manning chose the Broncos, the Chiefs had no choice but to go with Cassel again in 2012.

Some fans still have hope for Cassel.

Some fans have no hope for the Chiefs as long as Cassel is the QB.

A few weeks back I did another piece detailing how teams with a top 10 run game and a top 10 defense have good luck making and winning in the playoffs despite average and even poor QB play. My goal with that post was to convince people that even if they didn’t believe in Cassel that they should still be excited for the upcoming season.

This time I’m going a step farther. Even if you don’t believe that Cassel is a good QB, there is reason to believe he will put up very good numbers in 2012.

The reason for this is that Matt Cassel is a chameleon.

What I mean by that is that Cassel tends to take on the appearance of the team around him. Surround him with a good team and he looks pretty good. Surround him with Bobby Wades and Barry Richardsons and he looks pretty bad. Now, a true franchise QB is able to win without elite talent. Look at Peyton Manning, he won 10 or more games consistently in Indy and then when he went dow,n they were the worst team in football. Matt Cassel will never be that guy, but let’s look at the numbers he has put up when he’s put in a good situation.

What I’ve done this week is look at how the play of the rest of the team seems to affect Cassel’s performance. When Cassel first got here, it was easy to just look at his WR talent as the difference. In NE, he had Randy Moss and Wes Welker and when he got to KC he had Dwayne Bowe and some bums off the street. It’s also been popular to put the emphasis on who is calling the plays for Cassel. When Josh McDaniels and Charlie Weis were calling plays he did well and when Todd Haley and Bill Muir were calling plays he looked bad. Now even though I think those things do obviously make an impact, I think there is more to the story. Let’s look at the numbers.

Here are Cassel’s numbers in his four seasons as a starting QB.

59 percent completion percentage
208 yards/game
6.6 yards/attempt
74 TDs to 43 INTs
82.2 average QB rating

Pretty average, huh?

Here’s where it gets interesting. Cassel has had two very good seasons (2008 and 2010) and two not so good seasons (2009 and 2011). Here’s the numbers for those seasons.

2008 and 2010
61 percent completion percentage
220 yards/game
7.1 yards/attempt
48 TDs to 18 INTs
91.2 average QB rating

2009 and 2011
56.6 percent completion percentage
193 yards/game
6.1 yards/attempt
26 TDs to 25 INTs
73.3 average QB rating

That’s a pretty big difference. It would be easy to chalk this up to Cassel just being inconsistent, but when you look at the other team numbers in those seasons there are definitely some parallels. Before we get into the numbers let me clarify the numbers for last season. To be as accurate as possible I went through the game stats for the nine games Cassel played in 2011 and averaged them out instead of using the averages for the entire season. So the final 7 games don’t factor into the averages for last season.

First, let’s look at the run game.

In 2008 the Patriots had the #6 run game at 142.2 yards/game.
In 2010 the Chiefs had the #1 run game at 164.2 yards/game.
That’s an average of 153.2 yards/game for his two successful seasons.

In 2009 the Chiefs had the #11 run game at 120.6 yards/game.
In 2011 the Chiefs were averaging 124.4 yards/game (that would of ranked #11).
That’s an average of 122 yards/game in his two poor seasons.

That’s a difference of 31.2 rushing yards/game between his good seasons and poor ones.

Now let’s look at the defenses.

In 2008 NE ranked #10 in yards allowed (309 yards/game), #8 in points allowed (19.3 points/game), and #19 in yards allowed per play (5.4).
In 2010 KC ranked #14 in yards allowed (330.2 yards/game), #11 in points allowed (20.4 points/game), and #12 in yards allowed per play (5.1).
That’s an average of 319.6 yards/game, 19.85 points/game, and 5.25 yards/play allowed.

In 2009 KC ranked #30 in yards allowed (388.2 yards/game), #29 in points allowed (26.4 points/game), and #30 in yards allowed per play (5.8).
In the first 9 games of 2011 KC gave up an average of 364.3 yards/game (would have ranked 23rd), 24.2 points/game (would have ranked 23rd), and 5.9 yards per play (would have ranked 28th).
That’s an average of 379.6 yards/game, 25.6 points/game, and 5.84 yards/play allowed.

So in Cassel’s good seasons, his defenses gave up almost 60 less yards/game, 5.75 less points/game, and about 0.6 less yards per play.

What this shows is that when the team around Cassel is producing at a high level and the pressure isn’t all on him to win the game, Cassel thrives. When the rest of the team is struggling and Cassel has to go out and carry the team, he fizzles. Is that what you want in your QB? No, not ideally. However, if you believe that the Chiefs’ run game and defense should be good next year, then you have to admit that Cassel is likely to play well.

I think you can make a case that next year KC could field the best run game that Cassel has had to date. KC was averaging 124.4 yards/game with Thomas Jones, Jackie Battle, and Barry Richardson at RT. This year those three will be replaced with Jamaal Charles, Peyton Hillis, and Eric Winston. That bodes well for Matt Cassel.

As I stated before when Cassel went out last season the Chiefs defense was giving up 364.3 yards/game, 24.2 points/game, and 5.9 yards/play. However, the defense really started clicking in the second half of the season where they averaged 295.9 yards/game, 17.1 points/game, and 4.9 yards/play. If the Chiefs defense is able to average those numbers in 2012 it would also be the best defense Cassel has had to date.

So as the offseason and training camp go by, will I be watching to see how the WR core is looking? Yes. Do I think it’s important that Brian Daboll’s offensive system is successful? Of course. But I think history has shown that those aren’t the only factors that will have a dramatic impact on Matt Cassel’s success. The good news is that those “other factors” are all looking good for next season.

That is why I think Matt “The Chameleon” Cassel will thrive in 2012.

So what do you think, Addicts? Will Cassel look good again in 2012? Do you think there is a direct correlation between how the rest of the team plays and how Cassel performs? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

Matt Cassel is confident in his abilities, even if some fans in Kansas City are not.

“I believe in myself, and I know I’m a good quarterback,” Cassel told Sports Radio 610 in Kansas City on Monday.

After an offseason that saw the Chiefs pursue Peyton Manning, Cassel has come out of the gate swinging.

But will his confidence off the field translate to wins on it?

According to Cassel, it already has.

“Do I feel like I can go out there and win ball games? Absolutely,” Cassel said. “Do I feel like in the fourth quarter, do I want the ball in my hands with two minutes left? Absolutely. Have I done it before? Absolutely. I’m mean, the two years I’ve started full seasons, I’ve won 10-plus games, which is hard to do.”

That is partly true. Cassel basically started a full season in 2008 and won 11 games with the Patriots. He started 15 games for the Chiefs in 2010 and led the team to ten wins. He missed one game that season because of an emergency appendectomy. Cassel conveniently left out the 2009 season in which he started 15 games and won only four for the Chiefs. I can’t say I blame him for that omission. I’ve tried to forget about the 2009 season as well.

As for last minute heroics, Cassel has gotten the job done with the game on the line in Kansas City. In fact, Cassel seems to be at his best in overtime on Halloween. He led the Chiefs on game-winning drives on October 31 in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Still, it is Cassel’s shortcomings that have fans heaving criticism his way. Thus far in his career, when surrounded by talent, Cassel has been able to lead his team to victories over lesser teams. When faced with games against the league’s elite, however, Cassel hasn’t been able to get the job done.

The thing about Cassel is that when he’s good, he’s usually just ok and when he’s bad, he’s horrible. He doesn’t appear to be the difference-maker fans want in a QB and in a league where passing is more and more prevalent, a difference-maker appears to be what a team needs to win the Super Bowl.

Still, as the team prepared for another season under Cassel by going through their first set of OTAs, Cassel is taking the criticism in stride.

“Of course there are going to be criticisms and everything like that, and that’s part of the business,” said Cassel. “But at the same time at the end of the day I know that I’m going to go out there and I’m going to compete each and every day. I’m going to give you 110 percent. And hopefully it’s all going to go in the right direction, we’re going to win a lot of ball games, get in the playoffs, and ideally we’d like to win a Super Bowl.”

Talking about reaching the Super Bowl is one thing but getting there is something else entirely. For a team that hasn’t won a playoff game since Joe Montana was wearing red and gold, Cassel is going to have to bring more than words to the table in 2012 if he wants to win over the Show Me State. A playoff victory or two could go a long way toward raising confidence in Cassel’s abilities.

But another early playoff exit, or worse, missing the playoffs entirely, will all but guarantee Cassel will be giving 110% for some other team come 2013.

It’s that time of year – the time of year when there’s not really much to talk about in football, but we’re all the more starved for content about it. This is the time of year when sports commentators, myself included, spout mostly hypothetical nonsense and rehash the same offseason moves over and over.

Lucky for the Chiefs, there are no big celebrity players on our squad, but that doesn’t mean we are not going to be bombarded by “news” pieces about Tebow’s new pair of shoes or Tony Romo’s Caribbean vacation. Speaking for myself, I’m also too young to care about the Hall of Fame and too much of a cynic to care much about NFL players’ personal charities and community outreach. They all do it, it’s all heart-warming and we never really find out if any actually does any good. Part of the quid pro quo between sports reporters and players is that the reporters will hype players’ charities in the offseason and whenever else possible, and those players give good anonymous trash talk about their fellow players and coaches (especially if the target is Mark Sanchez).

So, although the fact that you are reading this means that you, like me, are still going to be inhaling ever bit of Chiefs news this offseason regardless of how useless it is, I’m going to give you a primer for articles to avoid (including those written by me).

These are the top stories you’ll be plenty sick of by the time real football starts up again.

1.) Any story with a headline ending in a question mark.

As a journalist by trade, this has always been one of my pet peeves. Generally, any headline ending in a question mark is shorthand for “filler article.” If the central thesis of the piece is so flimsy to scrutiny that you can’t even write it without a typographic shrug, then why are you writing it in the first place?

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

2.) Can Matt Cassel take this team to greatness?

Will it rain October 13, 2017? No one knows. This, of course, is why the question never goes away. Every Chiefs fan knows the score. Cassel has given us one and a half bad seasons, one good season and performed well for another team that was probably the best in the league at the time. The overall roster around Cassel is better this year. Everyone knows this is Cassel’s make or break season in KC.

But, Cassel is also well-respected in the locker room, which means that unless he undergoes a major personality change or a sudden and inexplicable drop in his athletic ability this summer, we are going to hear nothing but positive reviews about him coming out of Arrowhead. Therefore, we will have no more real evidence in this discussion until preseason begins in August. Lyle put together a great historical comparison of Cassel to other quarterbacks in similar situations, which makes the most positive fact-based case I’ve seen for Cassel thus far. But, even then, it relies on how other players performed. Every player is different. And, given how the goings-on at Arrowhead are more guarded than nuclear secrets, my bet is we will learn exactly zilch about Cassel’s ability in the next 16 weeks.

3.) Will Charles and Moeaki bounce back from injuries?

Will it rain October 14, 2017? This is also a subject on which we are likely to hear nothing but manically positive news until the preseason begins (which they likely won’t play in anyway). Coaches, agents and the players themselves are never going to come out and say, “Yeah, I’m really behind schedule on my recovery,” or “Yeah, I definitely don’t have professional speed anymore.”

There are only three things we need concern ourselves with on this subject – 1.) Neither have shown lasting or degrading effects from previous injuries 2.) Because they were injured so early last year, they are well within the recovery times for ACL tears to be able to come back full strength by opening day and 3.) This time around at least, we have the depth at their positions to overcome their absence.

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

4.) Will Dontari Poe live up to his physical potential?

Ask me in three years. Seriously. This guy is a major project, and unless he learns his position in record time and stuns the pants off the coaches, he will probably be a rotational player throughout the 2012 season. As much as we have all whined about the success rate of Chiefs first-round DTs, Glenn Dorsey has quietly developed into a top run stuffer and Tyson Jackson has shown the willingness to trim his salary down to something more accurately representing his production. Thanks to the CBA, Poe’s contract won’t kill us at least, and if he is among the 50 percent of first-round-picks that bust, we will march on.

There is only one thing we can be certain about with Dontari Poe – we won’t know how good he is this year, and probably not next year either. Even if he has a great season, he’ll likely regress or at least face a sophomore slump.

Anthony Gruppuso-US PRESSWIRE

5.) Will Bowe get extended?

This is the only one of the five above that I think is actually a legitimate discussion to be had. If Bowe wants Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson money, do we keep him? We’re paying him less than $10 million this year with the franchise tag, but if he wants a long-term deal with an annual salary in the teens, then the decision is less obvious. At the same time, don’t expect this to get done until midway through the season at the earliest. The two biggest factors in whether or not Bowe gets a deal are going to be the offense’s overall production with or without him, and the development of Jonathan Baldwin. If Baldwin has a breakout season and shows the ability of being a #1 receiver (which I think is highly unlikely, this season anyway) then I bet Pioli allows Bowe to test the market. If the Chiefs are tearing up the league and appear playoff-bound halfway through the year, the front office might feel like it makes sense to try and lock up Bowe early, because his value will only increase once he’s making clutch catches in post-season games.

Still, with so many variables and the fact that Bowe has already said that he will not hold out through training camp, this question is both unanswerable and somewhat irrelevant at this point. However, that does not mean we won’t be hearing about it. We are going to hear a lot about Bowe and the contract negotiations in the coming months but I’ll eat a shoe if they actually sign anything before the season begins. Mark my words.

So, that’s what I anticipate I’ll be sick of hearing about by the time we actually see some football played. Am I missing anything?

So in addition to being a wannabe sports writer, I also occasionally dabble in Chiefs highlight videos. No one will ever mistake one of mine for the work of Red Tribe Cinema, but that’s okay. You can check out my Arrowhead Addict video HERE and my Eric Berry injury tribute HERE.

Today, I’ve taken on the Chiefs 2012 offense. Enjoy!

You have to have a good quarterback to win in today’s NFL.

Matt Cassel is not a good quarterback.

Therefore, the Kansas City Chiefs can not win in today’s NFL.

That is the thought process of a lot of people out there when it comes to the Chiefs these days. You can find this line of thinking all over. Most casual NFL fans would agree with this. Many of the national media members agree with this, specifically Yahoo’s Michael Silver who recently ranked KC 28th in his post-draft power rankings. Finally, here amongst KC fans there are many Matt Cassel critics as well.

I’m not here to argue that Matt Cassel is a great quarterback. A great quarterback can lift his team to wins despite the limitations of the roster around him. Matt Cassel has shown that he’s not that guy. What he has shown is that when the team around him is good, he is good enough to win games. The problem is, KC fans aren’t just content with some regular season wins. What they really want is playoff success. It’s been FAR too long since KC won a playoff game and was seen as a force in the AFC. Ultimately, what every fan wants is to believe that their team has a chance to win a Super Bowl.

That is where many KC fans lose hope. If you look at the last nine Super Bowls, they were all won by QBs that will likely end up in Canton some day. In order from the most recent, they are Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli again, Peyton Manning, Big Ben again*, and Tom Brady twice. You have to go back 10 years to Tampa Bay winning with Brad Johnson to find a Super Bowl winner with a “game manager” at the most important position on the field.

*One could argue that Big Ben was a game manager in his first Super Bowl win where his defense carried him.

The general view seems to be that the days where you can win with an elite run game, a top 10 defense, and a “game manager” at QB are long gone. The game has moved more toward a passing league. So when some look at the Chiefs trying to win games with the strengths of their team being the run game and defense, they see a team that is doomed to fail in today’s game.

That having been said, there are definitely people that feel otherwise as well. Many KC fans (myself included), and even a few in the national media think the non-QB talent on this roster is good enough to overcome Matt Cassel’s limitations. As someone that has been labeled as a “homer” and a “Kool-Aid drinker” on more than one occasion I decided I needed something to back up my beliefs. So here’s what I did:

I looked over the statistics of the past five seasons. I only did five years because I wanted the results to be reflective of the new “pass happy” NFL. I looked over all five seasons (2007-2011) and found all the teams that finished the year ranked in the top 10 in rushing yards and defensive points allowed. I then looked at these teams’ records, how many passing yards/game they averaged, and how these teams did in the playoffs.

Before I go over the results, I should probably state that this entire piece is based on the premise that KC can finish in the top 10 in both rushing yards and points allowed. The Chiefs were #1 in the NFL in rushing just two years ago. Last year, with no Jamaal Charles, lots of Thomas Jones carries, and Barry Richardson starting at RT the Chiefs still finished ranked 15th. So basically, if JC returning and the additions of Peyton Hillis and Eric Winston can help the Chiefs average just 10 more yards per game then the Chiefs will be back in the top 10.

What about the defense? Well, last season KC allowed 21.1 PPG which ranked them 12th in the NFL. However, over the last eight games they only allowed 17.1 PPG which would have been good for fourth in the NFL. Even if you just take out the first two games, they still averaged only 17.8 PPG over weeks 3-17, which would have been good for fifth in the NFL last season. Now the Chiefs defense did allow those points. You can’t just dismiss those first two games, but between Todd Haley’s failed preseason conditioning plan and the let down of losing their two most talented players in those first two games, I think it is still realistic to think that the KC defense can play at the same level they did over the second half of last season. That should put them safely in the top 10 of points allowed.

So now that we’ve established that KC is a good bet to finish in the top 10 in rushing and points allowed, what can we expect that to translate to in terms of wins?

Here’s what recent history tells us.

Over the past five seasons there have been 21 teams that finished the year ranked in the top 10 in both of those categories. Of those 21 teams, NONE of them had a losing record. Four teams finished 8-8, but the other 17 teams had a winning record. The average number of wins for those 21 teams was about 10.3 wins. 15 of the 21 teams made the playoffs, that’s 71 percent. Of the six teams that didn’t make the playoffs, two of them still had 10 or more wins.

So even in today’s NFL, if you are good at running the ball and not allowing points, you usually win 10 or more games and make the playoffs. That’s good news for KC fans.

At this point, some of you probably have two main questions.

“Okay, so those teams ran the ball well and played defense well, but did they have good a QB too?”

and/or

“Okay, so those teams made the playoffs, but did they win any games when they got there?”

I’m glad you asked.

Let’s start with the latter. Of the 15 teams that made the playoffs, 10 of them won at least one game, that’s about 67 percent. Six of those 15 made it to the conference championship game, that’s still 40 percent. So 71 percent of the teams that finish in the top 10 in rushing and points allowed make the playoffs and 40 percent of those teams make it to the conference championship game? I’ll take those odds.

So how about the question of what kind of QB play were these 21 teams getting? I mean surely these teams that made the playoffs and went on to the conference title game had to have better QBs than Matt Cassel, right? Well, let’s look at the numbers.

The average passing yards/game for these 21 teams was just 201.7 yards per game.

Matt Cassel’s yards per game average since he took over for Tom Brady four years ago is about 208 yards per game.

“Okay, Graversen, but how many yards did the teams from that group that made the playoffs average?”

That would be 196.5 yards per game.

“Okay, how about just the teams that won playoff games?”

That would be 202 yards per game.

“Okay fine, but how about those six teams that went to the conference championship game?”

That would actually be the lowest passing yards per game of all at 185.3 yards/game.

So Matt Cassel has already put up passing numbers equal to or better than the QBs that have taken teams to the conference championship game on the backs of both a top 10 running game and defense.

I know, some of you are still not convinced.

“Passing yards are meaningless! Cassel is too inaccurate and can’t throw the long ball. That is where he falls short compared to the other QBs on your list!”

Had I not looked up the numbers, I might have bought that argument. Here’s what I found…

The six QBs to take their team to the conference title game in the past five years with a top run game/defense are Alex Smith in 2011, Joe Flacco in 2011 and 2008, Mark Sanchez in 2010 and 2009, and Philip Rivers in 2007.

Here are the numbers they put up in those perspective seasons and also Cassel’s averages for his career:

So for his career, Matt Cassel is right in line with these QBs. If they could do it, so can Cassel. It’s also interesting to note that Rivers’ numbers are actually one of the worst of his career, but they still made it farther in the playoffs that year than any other time since because they had a solid run game and defense.

Now, I will concede the one argument about Cassel and these QBs that I can’t defend.

“The ultimate goal is to win the Super Bowl and none of these teams did that.”

That’s true, of the 21 teams that finished the year in the top 10 for rushing and scoring defense, none of them won or even made it to a Super Bowl. That having been said, how long has it been since we won a playoff game? I’ll say it again. The odds say that if the Chiefs finish in the top 10 in both those areas, they have a 71 percent chance of making the playoffs and if they do, a 40 percent chance of making it to the AFC title game.

If you do the math, that means that about 28.6 percent of teams that have finished in the top 10 in both rushing and points allowed in recent years make it to the conference title game.

I’ll take that right now.

You have to learn to walk before you can run and at this point, I’ll take walking with Matt Cassel as opposed to just sitting around and doing nothing until we find a new QB.

If you’re a die hard stat nerd (like myself), here is a chart that shows all 21 teams that I’ve been referencing for this piece. It shows the teams by season, their rankings in rushing, points allowed, passing, their record that season, and their record in the playoffs that year if they made it.

An * in the record column means they made the playoffs. ** means they won their division. An * in the playoff record column means that they made it to the conference title game.

I understand that all KC fans wish that the Chiefs had an elite level QB. However, recent history says that a team with a great run game and a great defense will not only make the playoffs, but win some games when they get there. The track record is there and all Cassel has to do is just play at the level he has in the past. I think you can make a strong case that his supporting cast this coming season will be the best he’s had since he played for the Patriots. This should give all KC fans hope for the coming season.

Cassel fan or not, things are looking up in KC.

As always, thanks for reading and GO, CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you who can remember Chiefs football from the ’60s, it must sound strange to hear us talk about the ’90s as the halcyon days. After all, we never made it to a Super Bowl in that decade. In 10 years, a team actually has better than 50/50 odds of at least making it. Or they would, if all quarterbacks, coaches and payrolls were created equal.

Regardless, for most of us, halcyon days is exactly what they were.* Our greatest triumphs, our most heartbreaking defeats, our best players, our legendary (or infamous, depending on your perspective) leaders. Wins, wins, and more wins. After the years that followed, the ’90s began to look like the pinnacle of sports fandom. Our team won games? Every year? What an amazing experience that must’ve been!

*Maybe it would be more accurate to think of the ’90s as a quick break from our 40-year rebuilding program. Everyone knows it takes 45 years to really get your people in place, and give everyone a fair chance. If my calculations are correct, the rebuild should be complete in 2015. 

I’m as guilty as anyone of romanticizing that period. I talk about how great Marty was, how much I miss great defense. This is a popular sentiment among Chiefs fans.

And yet, at the time, opinion wasn’t nearly as unanimous. I’m sure we all remember the term “Martyball.” What we may not remember, at least not actively, is that “Martyball” was used as a term of derision at least as often as not. While Marty was here, even in the midst of his heyday, there were many who believed his philosophy was fundamentally flawed. He won many games, but fans lamented that he didn’t win big games. Some few seemed to think this was because of Marty himself, which I’ve always found ridiculous. The idea that his strategy was flawed, however, is an idea we should probably talk about.  Because for better or worse, it’s a strategy we’re about to resurrect.

(more…)

I could live with Matt Cassel as our starter this year.

There, I said it. And it’s true! It’s not that I think Cassel is good, or even that I like him. I don’t, and I don’t. Seems like a decent guy I guess; I’ve got nothing against him. He’s looked kinda good at  times, and really bad at others. The ceiling isn’t very high.

My QB of choice would be Peyton Manning. I’d definitely get pretty excited about Paddy’s boy Bob Griffin. Even Kyle Orton* would probably be an upgrade. I’m just saying, I won’t be lambasting the Chiefs if Cassel is the man in 2012.

*If you remember nothing else about Orton, remember this: mercurial AA quarterbacks expert Jackie Rubbinson is a big fan. So that’s something. I mean he’s no Chris Mortenson, but….

Would it be lame? Of course it would. Trotting Cassel out there for another year is the definition of lame. And if it goes down like that, it would mean there is at least a chance all this QB noise from 1 Arrowhead Drive is pure PR. That too would be the definition of lame. This team has done so many lame things recently, and I’m usually pretty quick to get on their case about it. Surely another year of Cassel would bring down my righteous keyboard wrath. I mean thats classic Big Matt, right?

(more…)

Well, Chiefs fans, today is Valentine’s Day, and that means only one thing: margaritas.

However, while it might be our tradition to spend every Valentine’s Night at a Mexican restaurant (the tacky-red-paper-hearts-per-person quotient is much lower), I realize everyone approaches this fake holiday in his or her own special way. Even back in third grade—which, frankly, is where the celebration of this day should begin and end—when societal norms and, more specifically, Mrs. Brockmeyer demanded that we give paper valentines to everyone in class, we had to decide which valentines best represented us, as well as which of our secret crushes would receive the more risqué—and risky—messages.*

*Was “You rock, Valentine!” coming on way too strong?

Just as a set of perforated Transformers valentines (“Let’s roll, Valentine! You’re a Mega Friend!”) perfectly represented who I was back in 1984, today’s Kansas City Chiefs fans need valentines that speak to us, that capture the angst and occasional joy of this tumultuous relationship in which we’ve entangled ourselves. And among all the boxes of Harry Potter, Shrek, and Smurfs valentines at the local CVS, I couldn’t find any. So—you can guess what’s coming next—I had no choice but to make a few of my own.

Feel free to print, perforate, and share as you wish. Perhaps—just like the Indianapolis Colts on draft day—you’ll get lucky.

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