A friend of mine was at a panel discussion recently where a few NFL players were around to answer questions from fans. My friend asked Rams RB Steven Jackson what his philosophy is when it comes to hitting his teammates in training camp. Without hesitation he said, “They ain’t my teammates until week one.”

Patriots T Nate Solder was also there and continued the thought, “If you don’t go full steam, someone will take your job.”

Those two quotes perfectly reflect what training camp is all about. Together, they capture the kill-or-be-killed mentality that is in these players’ minds, even as they’re beating up on guys they are sharing a locker room, possibly a dorm room and several meals with. For now.

A few players are safe, a few others can probably count on remaining on the roster at least, but most of 90 men at St. Joe’s have to fight. For the bottom 68, these next few weeks will be their best chance to prove their worth. For the bottom 45, this will likely be their only chance – 37 will be cut and the best eight will receive practice-squad offers.

Although this keeps them on the team, it all but ensures that they will have no shot of playing this season unless there is a catastrophic series of injures at their position. They will spend every practice this season trying to quickly learn a few plays and formations that the Chiefs’ opponents run that week, and will be trying to emulate those for the starters’ benefit. They will not spend time learning the Chiefs playbooks or breaking down game film. They will essentially be human tackle bags.

The preseason is a strange time because of this dynamic. On one hand, it’s the first glimpse of football us crazed fans have seen since the first week of February. On the other hand, it’s not real football.

When the starters are on the field, they are essentially testing their chemistry and trying not to get hurt. When the backups come on, it’s like some sort of disorganized Thunderdome.

From the fan perspective, it’s great because it’s the only chance we get to see our depth players in action. From the starter’s perspective, it’s awful because they get little pay and no glory for essentially the same risk of injury. For those fighting for a roster spot, it is the Coliseum.

I say all of this as a drawn out preface to everything else I am going to be talking about for the rest of the preseason. We have to understand that everything we see from backup and auditioning players in preseason games is like a peek into bizarro world. You can’t take it for face value, particularly at the quarterback position. Opposing backup DB’s are bad, but the 2^nd and 3^rd-string O-lines are just as bad. QB’s both have to dance around behind comically dysfunctional blocking while throwing to receivers slicing through similarly discombobulated coverage.

Nonetheless, through this crystal ball we must look to determine whether or not we think these players are worthy of the NFL – a league where the gameplay is totally different than this preseason silliness.

I looked back at all of Rickie Stanzi’s 2011 snaps to see how he did in preseason bizarro world. Overall, he did not bad – especially considering the truncated offseason programs. But, if he is going to beat out Brady Quinn and put some heat on Matt Cassel, he is going to have to improve quite a bit.

Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Pre-Snap, Pocket Presence

Stanzi was a known for his quickness at Iowa, and routinely made great throws off of scrambles and bootlegs. Posting a 40-yard dash time of 4.93 at the Combine isn’t bad for a QB, but that doesn’t qualify as speed in the NFL. In both the 2011 preseason film I watched from him and the reports I’ve seen so far from 2012 training camp, Stanzi has been off target on the run. At this level, DB’s are simply able to keep up with receivers, even if the QB extends the play. If he is going to continue to make this a key part of his game, he has to get a lot better at it.

He also had trouble sensing the rush last preseason – he either panicked and got rid of the ball unnecessarily or held it too long. In his defense, our backup O-linemen played awful.

He also seemed to be in over his head in making pre-snap adjustments. Cordell at The Film Room (a must-follow for you Twitter people out there) said, “Thing I liked about #Chiefs Tyler Palko was pre-snap…in preseason rarely ran a bad play…Stanzi was opposite, plays routinely blown up.” That’s right, when you’re being negatively compared to Palko, we have a problem.

But, that is what I often heard last year – that Palko was more confident and comfortable running the offense and making good decisions. Therefore, he started over Ricky. Still, the fact that Palko couldn’t throw a ball accurately more than seven yards should have also come into play in that assessment.

Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Technique

I’m not QB expert, but I saw Stanzi several times making the type of weird side-armed throws that Brett Farve and Tony Romo are known for. If you can be accurate with them, then it’s no problem. But, usually it is one of those college habits that needs to be unlearned as the player adjusts to exponentially better defenders.

Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Decision-Making, Throw Power

Against the Rams last year, Stanzi really put it together. Granted, St. Louis had one of the worst defenses on the NFL last year and Stanzi was playing their backups. Still, he showed poise and good decision-making. Although he definitely made some bad reads in the game, he diagnosed some good throws and executed them quickly. He relied heavily on TE’s and receivers going down the middle. My real concern was his arm strength, however. He took a couple of shots with long bombs, but both were lobbed as if they’d been fired from a mortar. When I looked back at his college tape, I saw much the same thing. All of his deep balls seemed to be from extremely high arcs. Furthermore, he threw a few balls that were a bit wobbly even on intermediate routes.

This to me means that he has roughly the same physical ceiling as Matt Cassel, which means he’s automatically out of the elite range of NFL QB’s even if develops all his other skills. However, if he can get better at all of the other things, there’s no reason he can’t be a very productive quarterback in this league. If he can outplay Quinn and Cassel with good, quick decision-making and accurate passing, we may even see him on the field this season. With big receivers and a run game that sets up play action well, he may not need to fire lasers deep.

What’s more, if he can get really good and fast at the short throws, he has a chance to be successful in the same way that Kurt Warner was able to be in his comeback as a Cardinal. This would mean that Stanzi will have to act and think like a veteran quick, but it’s certainly not impossible.

Either way, there are few players that I am more interested to see out there on the field for this round of bizarro world football than Ricky Stanzi.

Some KC locals think Tyler Thigpen is the answer going forward.  Everyone is allowed to have an opinion of course, but two wins compared to 11 pretty much seals the argument in Cassel’s favor.  Could he be the next Scott Mitchell? Sure, or he could be the next Tom Brady.  Cassel might end up like other QB’s who weren’t drafted by their current teams like Kurt Warner, Drew Brees, or even Brett Farve. (Farve was drafted by Atlanta originally in case your brain stuttered over that one.)

Considering KC’s track record of developing drafted QB’s, making a play for Cassel wouldn’t be a bad idea.  The Patriots have until Feb. 19 to franchise Cassel, so circle that date on your calendar.  The long and the short of it is that the Chiefs can afford Cassel, and they definitely have a need at QB despite Thiggy Smalls performance last season.  Having two starting-caliber QB’s is becoming vogue in the NFL now due to the massive amounts of injuries at the position. Chiefs fans would have to consider themselves lucky to have a Cassel and a Thigpen considering the ridiculous Brokie Croyle circus Herm brought to town the last few years.

In addition to potentially signing Matt Cassel, there are also rumors O’ plenty about shipping Larry Johnson and even Tony Gonzalez out of town on rails.  One, a malcontent RB who may well not have a lot left in the tank after signing a hefty contract.  The other, a wily veteran TE whose value may never be higher after another Pro Bowl season.  Public sentiment seems to be keep Citizen Tony and boot crybaby L.J. — diapers and all.  However, these opinions are formed with three parts emotion and one part logic considering LJ’s legal “issues” (which would maybe be non issues outside the KC fishbowl), and Tony G’s local celebrity status.

Don’t unbuckle those football helmets just because the Super Bowl is over just yet Chiefs fans…we have quite a few more things to look forward to this season, and expect them to come soon.

Brodie Croyle’s only hope to be a star in Kansas City is if the Chiefs and Royals suck so bad simultaneously that they create a black hole at the sports complex that is only reversed by David Glass and Clark Hunt simultaneously joining their open wallets together like Voltron creating the Kansas City Chroyles a merger of the Chiefs and Royals; a shittiest of the shitty combination of KC suck with Brodie Croyle as the pitcher and quarterback that always gets hurt the first game of the season.

Just think, the Chroyles could out-build Famous Dave’s Arrowhead Stadium* so big that it could encompass the K. For SuperBowl and ad considerations, we’ll shape the roof like a weber grill, even with a vent that open up in a circle to shine light down to the pitcher’s mound/50 yard line to illuminate our star pitcher/quarterback Brokie Croyle and Garth Brooks the next time he comes to town. Hell, we can have a golf cart with a spatula on the front, The Spatula-Mobile, come scrape Brokie off the field at each opener!

Local Radio Commercial in KC soon:

“Hai y’all, I’m Brodie Croyle, when I ain’t pitchin’ or playin’ quarterback for the Chroyles I do my shoppin’ for ammo, decoys and Ben Gay at Bass Pro Shop!”

Quick Hitters:

• 3 starting QB’s in the first 3 games has only happened 3 times…ever. (Guess good things don’t happen in 3′s.)

• A Chiefs-drafted QB hasn’t won a regular season game for us since ’83. (Dang 3′s)

• “Chiefs Apathy” from fans will do more damage than “Harm“* Edwards ever will.

• Watching the Chiefs play-honestly, I haven’t missed the halfback pass this bad since Tecmo Bowl.

*Harm = Herm, henceforth.
**I know Famous Dave’s isn’t HQ’d in KC- Carl will sell out to an out-of-stater in a panic after seeing the ticket sales report.

QB Carousel:

Week One
So we begin the season vs New England with Brokie Croyle, Brokie gets broke-ed in the first game. He beat my prediction of getting injured in the Denver Game by 2 games. Huard comes in and stinks too. Throw in a case of the dropsies by D-Bo and that’s L soup. “No Win for you!”

Week Two
Superbowl Ring Owner Damon “RainMan” Huard starts game two against what looked to be a totally hapless Oakland team that Denver embarrassed the week before. “RainMan” gets a phantom “head injury” that isn’t released until much later in the game. Harm Edwards decides to play Marques Hagans fresh off the practice squad along with boner-rific Tyler Thigpen who “set all kinda records” at Coastal Carolina University (which had just started football five years prior.) All you need to know is about 39 comments on “Worst Moment”

Week 3
Atlanta, a preseason pick for the worst team in the league, has started 1-1. Thigpen starts and accidentally hands off to the rushing Atlanta defender for 6. Hagans comes in and gets booed because the Atlanta crowd mistakes him for Michael Vick because he never throws and his tats. We do something that rhymes with “news”. Hint? It starts with “L”.

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