Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Tamba Hali’s verified Twitter account has suddenly started producing some very interesting tweets.

Recently, Hali took to Twitter to defend QB Matt Cassel. He mentioned the 49ers QB as a player that seemed to reach his potential once he found himself in the right situation.

Tamba’s tweets are usually pretty mild. They are also usually not in all caps.

Until today:

CHIEFS NATION WE HAVE ALOT TO BE EXCITED FOR. THE BEST LINEBACKER COACH GARRY GIBBS IN THE NFL, 3 PRO BOWLERS D. Johnson,J. Houston,T. Hali

— Tamba Hali (@TambaHali91) February 19, 2013

TRUE….THE BEST BEST SECONDARY BRANDON FLOWERS, ERIC BERRY, KENDRICK LEWIS, JAVIER ARENAS. TYSYN HARTMAN.

— Tamba Hali (@TambaHali91) February 19, 2013

BEST PUNTER DUSTIN COLQUIT.

— Tamba Hali (@TambaHali91) February 19, 2013

Ok, so innocent enough, right? Hali is fired up about his team and is tweeting about how good some of his teammates are. Other the sudden caps, nothing too crazy.

But then he said this:

JOHN MCGRAW AND BRIAN WATERS MIGHT COME OUT OF RETIREMENT WE MISS THEM CHIEF NATION WE DO.

— Tamba Hali (@TambaHali91) February 19, 2013

I’m sorry, what? McGraw coming out of retirement? Quick Draw? Now he’s just trolling.

It continued:

SINCE WE’RE AT IT GLENN DORSEY,TYSON JACKSON,AND SHAUN SMITH. These guys get the dirty work done. They all are in their prime.

— Tamba Hali (@TambaHali91) February 19, 2013

Hmmm. He may be upset to find out that there is a good chance all three of those guys won’t be back next year.

Then, the account felt the need to verify that these tweets were definitely coming from Tamba Hali.

No it’s me TAMBA HALI TWEETING. LETS GO.

— Tamba Hali (@TambaHali91) February 19, 2013

And then this:

AND WE JUST SIGNED THE BEST HEAD COACH IN FOOTBALL ANDY REED.

— Tamba Hali (@TambaHali91) February 19, 2013

Andy Reed?

But it’s all good.

MY BAD THAT SPELLING IS ANDY REID. IM RIGHT HERE WIT Y’ALL.

— Tamba Hali (@TambaHali91) February 19, 2013

JAMAL CHARLES, D. BOWE, D. MCLUSTER, TONY MOEAKI & JONATHAN BALDWIN ARE ALL GOING INTO BEAST MODE.

— Tamba Hali (@TambaHali91) February 19, 2013

D. McCluster? Did he think we were going to confuse Dexter with the team’s other McCluster?

Has Tamba’s account been hacked?

It’s possible. It happens all the time. He doesn’t really say anything too out of the ordinary here but if you look at his normal activity on Twitter, these new tweets tend to stand out a bit.

You can follow Tamba and his new loud tweets here.

Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

The Kansas City Chiefs are returning from their Bye Week with a new QB and according to starting OLB Tamba Hali, they’re also returning with a new attitude.

“Guys are ready to go,” said Hali in comments released by the team.  “We’ve got our feet under us. We’re coming back with a different attitude. Guys have shaken off all the negative off of them and I think we’re ready to go. We just have to execute in the game and stay positive. Things are not [always] going to go well. The things that go well we’ve got to build on them and that’s part of it. So we’ve got to treat it as the next play and go to the next play.”

The Chiefs have been swamped with negativity this season, though to be fair, most of that bad mojo is their own doing. KC entered the season as a trendy pick to win the AFC West. They were getting a bunch of injured players back and GM Scott Pioli had added depth with some strong free agent acquisitions.

Only things didn’t go as planned.

Once the team started losing, the frustration set in. Fans began calling for the jobs of QB Matt Cassel, head coach Romeo Crennel and Pioli. Then the whole incident with some fans cheering when Matt Cassel got hurt went down, and it seemed like the bad vibes were here to stay.

But the Chiefs still have ten games to play. They entered the Bye Week at what could be considered rock bottom. Sunday’s game against the Raiders is likely the Chiefs’ last chance to make something of their season. Even at 1-5, they’re only two games out of first place in the AFC West. They have a new QB in Brady Quinn. If they can start playing to their talent level, there is a chance they could turn things around.

Hali is right. It all starts with attitude.

Sunday, we’ll find out if the change in perspective ends in wins.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Tamba Hali is helping to heat up the Chiefs vs. Raiders rivalry by firing the first shot ahead of this weekends game.

Hali, in comments made to the Kansas City Star, called out the Raiders for dirty play.

“It’s a tradition,” Hali said. “The Raiders, they come in, they cheapshot, they hit you. I’m not saying (any) names. It is what it is. We’ve got to be ready to play and keep our composure, stayed poised and be able to get this win.”

Hali didn’t stop there. He said the guys that have been with the Chiefs for a while, know what to expect when the Raiders come to town.

“The core guys that have been here, they understand what we’ve got going on Sunday,” he said. “(The Raiders) are coming in and they’re a good team and a fast team and they play dirty. We’ve got to come out swinging.

“We’ve got to be ready for that. You can let these guys come in and if they do it and you let them do it, they’re going to enjoy themselves doing it and they’ll run over you. So you have to be prepared for that and stay with the game plan.”
Isn’t it refreshing to hear some Chiefs players talking about a game with some passion?

We can debate whether or not it is fair for Hali to label the Raiders dirty but what matters to me is that he is making it clear that he doesn’t like the Raiders. He doesn’t like the way they play and he wants his teammates to be read to kick the crap out of them.

It seems like a long time since any Chiefs player has been vocal and passionate about taking on a division rival. The Scott Pioli era has been full of boyscout soundbites about how every game is equally important.

Get out of here with that nonsense.

The Pioli Chiefs are soft, especially when playing the Raiders. Oakland has come into KC and manhandled the Chiefs on multiple occasions. While that may be fun for Raiders fans, it doesn’t make for a good game and it certainly doesn’t do anything positive for the rivalry.

The Chiefs need a leader on defense and it appears that the normally quiet and businesslike Hali is realizing that. KC’s defense is loaded with talent and some guys that are capable of playing a tough style of defense. If ever I’ve seen a team that seems to be thinking too much it is the Chiefs.

Maybe Hali is on to something. Maybe the Chiefs need to come out and play with aggression and instinct. Romeo Crennel is a big proponent of everyone playing technically sound football but it may be that the KC defense is too focused on technique. The whole point of learning the little things well is that when the time comes, you don’t have to think because you’ve already done the work.

The Raiders certainly aren’t going to appreciate Hali’s words. In fact, Radiers DT Richard Seymour has already responded.

“Any time you play the game, you should play with a chip on your shoulder,” Seymour said. “You should play with an attitude.

“But in terms of being dirty, going out to hurt guys, I don’t think I play that way or any of my teammates (play that way). I don’t stand for it. But we do play tough and physical. I do believe that’s the way the game is supposed to be played. I respect guys that play the same way.”

The Chiefs may be 1-5 and the Raiders 2-4 but it sure seems like the rivalry is alive and well.

Here’s hoping the good guys come out on top this time.

John David Mercer-US PRESSWIRE

Go ahead, double team Tamba Hali. Double him all day long.

Justin Houston dares you.

The Kansas City Chiefs appear to be developing one of the most dynamic pass rushing duos in the NFL and Tamba Hali doesn’t even have a sack yet.

The Chiefs got out of the gate slow but their defense appeared to be coming together Sunday in a 27-24 OT victory over the New Orleans Saints. Hali, long the team’s only consistent pass rushing option, was suspended for the season opener against the Atlanta Falcons. His absence showed as Falcons QB Matt Ryan torched the KC D. Then again, Ryan is doing a lot of torching these days.

This week, however, Hali and Houston really seemed to be hitting their stride. The Saints seemed well aware of how dangerous Hali can be and they double teamed him on multiple occasions. Houston, who is emerging as one of the league’s best young players, saw many a favorable matchup and he took advantage, finishing the day with three sacks (one for a crucial safety) and two pass defenses.

In fact, since a breakout game against the Denver Broncos in 2011, Houston has 46 tackles, five pass defenses and 9.5 sacks in an 11-game span.

KC fans may be concerned about Hali’s lack of sacks thus far but they shouldn’t be. KC’s defense struggled mightily in Hali’s first game of the season vs. the Buffalo Bills and the Saints paid so much attention to him Sunday that Houston was able to make a strong case for AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors.

Hali is going to get his. He has been one of the most consistent pass rushers in the NFL over the last five years or so and he’s done it with little to no help on the other side. With Houston quickly becoming a force, the Chiefs now have a two-headed monster coming after a QB near you.

And if the KC secondary can stick to their men long enough, more sacks could be coming in bunches.

For both players.

Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

Well, Kansas City fans, at this point during the week I’m sure we’re all a little exhausted of hearing about the the Chiefs’ failure against the Rams Saturday night. The Chiefs secondary was lacking in some things (to say the least), the injured status of Kendrick Lewis and Brandon Flowers has us all concerned and Ricky Stanzi performed miserably. To boot, we all have questions pertaining to just what caused Tamba Hali’s suspension. But let’s try to brighten up here. Bowe is back, Cassel is continuing to do well in Daboll’s offense and, at the pace he’s going, Peyton Hillis is looking to be a strong candidate for Comeback Player of the Year. Further, the Chiefs are better off seeing the weakness in their D now instead of, say, the fourth preseason game; the two remaining preseason games should provide us fans with a good litmus test for what to expect from our Chiefs at the start of the regular season now that Crennel knows just what kind of adjustments need made that could hamper some of the better QBs in the league, several of which the team’ll be facing right off the bat.

Before making my predictions last week, I considered how I saw the Chiefs’ 53-man roster fleshing out and drew the following conclusions:

ST: K – 1, P – 1, LS – 1

OFF: QB – 3, RB – 4, WR – 7, OL – 8 or 7, TE – 3 or 4 (8 OL & 3 TE, or 7 OL & 4 TE)

DEF: DL – 7 or 8, LB – 8, DBs– 10 or 9 (7 DL & 10 DBs, or 8  & 9, respectively)

When considering this structure, I felt a few position group numbers were a little high, but a quick look at last year’s roster, courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference, assured me that I’m pretty well in the ballpark. And, yes, having a minimum of nine guys in the secondary and a possible ten still seems a little excessive, but when you consider that last year’s active roster, at one point or another, included Brandon Flowers, Brandon Carr, Eric Berry, Kendrick Lewis, Jalil Brown, Travis Daniels, Javier Arenas, Reshard Langford, Jon McGraw, Donald Washington & Sabby Piscitelli, I’m not too far off base. Of the nine or ten DBs I expect to make the roster, do I expect all of them to be on the active roster come game day? No; just as I don’t expect the 7^th WR, 8^th OL, 8^th LB, or 3^rd QB to be on the active roster. Remember, though it’s a 53-man roster, only a maximum of 46 players may be active on game day (up from the previous CBAs 45-man limit), which leads us to this week’s predictions:

1.  With Flowers and Lewis out for an indeterminate amount of time, Crennel will take a hard look at the DBs on roster (I know, I’m friggin’ Nostradamus, right?). Chalking up Saturday’s problems to a secondary that is “young”, “inexperienced” and lacking “maturity”, Crennel will focus mostly on filling out the roster with the more veteran players. Though some of these players’ ceilings may not be as high as some of the newer guys, their consistency and reliability in the short term will prevail over longer term, but potentially better, developmental projects. As I see it the roster will consist of : 1. Flowers; 2. Routt; 3. Berry; 4. Lewis; 5. Abram Elam; 6. Travis Daniels; 7. Jalil Brown; and, 8. Javier Arenas. This leaves one maybe two spots to take on either Jacques Reeves and a project player, or two project players, with the likely candidates being Dequan Menzie, Terrance Parks and Tysyn Hartman. Dequan Menzie may be in the same boat as Junior Hemingway; an injury plagued camp may spell practice squad, but I think the odds of that are worse than with Hemingway, and choosing Menzie and either Parks or Hartman over Reeves to fill out the bottom of the roster wouldn’t be too surprising. That being said, I could somewhat understand if Reeves was chosen to stay on roster with the other candidates being practice squad eligible. In any event I would not be shocked to see all three of Menzie, Parks & Hartman keep ties with the team, even if one or two is/are kept in the capacity of practice squad player(s). The remaining options (Fenner, Fanor, etc.) just don’t strike me as making the cut in any capacity.  That includes Donald Washington, who despite being a veteran and “more mature”, seems to me to be too costly of a save at this point.

Scott Rovak-US PRESSWIRE

2. Stanzi will still make the roster, but as the No. 3 QB and only for the purposes of continued development. He’s just not looking that good right now, and if a playoff berth is still in the cards and push comes to shove (Cassel and Quinn are unable to play), Pioli has enough sense to make a powerplay for a much better QB. The three I could see getting the most consideration in this hypothetical situation are Matt Moore, Matt Hasselbeck and Mark Sanchez. Moore has the most (and recent) experience in a Daboll-driven offense and could slide in and understand the terminology, assignments, etc. the easiest. Hasselbeck, on top of the reasons Paddy pointed out, not only provides consistently good play, but given his age would not be perceived as a threat to Cassel. And I think Sanchez is simply better than he’s given credit for: he’s actually improved every year he’s been in the league, he has playoff wins under his belt, and given a more stable locker room and stronger supporting offensive cast, I think he would surprise. Obviously, this hypothetical scenario also takes place later in the season where Moore, Hasselbeck and Sanchez may be seen as expendable for the right price. In any case, I don’t see Stanzi taking the field if the Chiefs still have a shot at the playoffs; until he shows us significantly more than he has, I think I’d rather see Zorn suit-up and take the field.

3. Following another lackluster game performance, Josh Bellamy’s stock has dropped some, but he should still be counted as a candidate for the last WR slot (though arguments for Markshausen and, as KCMikeG pointed out, Jamar Newsome have gotten stronger). Bear in mind that a) the last WR isn’t likely to sniff the active roster, b) injury to Bowe or Baldwin will be overcome by Breaston resuming the role of the No. 2 WR, a role he held for most of his career (remember: Boldin played out of the slot in Arizona), and c) an injury to McCluster will result in Breaston, and eventually Wylie, being able to fulfill the role being carved out by Dex. If Breaston or Wylie get injured, it’ll be a blow, but likely not a humongous one. If any two of Bowe, Baldwin and Breaston get injured, the Chiefs would definitely be in trouble, but unless both of those injuries were expected to be long-term, I’d anticipate we’d see Daboll calling for more 2-TE sets until one of the guys returned.

Cary Edmondson-US PRESSWIRE

4. I’ve grown quite fond of Kendrick Lewis. As last year wore on after Berry’s injury, Lewis started to improve by leaps and bounds, and I firmly believe he is a better player now than he otherwise would’ve been at this point in his career had Berry not been injured. In the face of adversity, Kendrick rose to the occasion, and how can you not love a player capable of that? But that being said, I agree with AA’s own Lyle Graversen that the loss of Flowers is greater than the loss of Lewis. Abram Elam will provide adequate temporary replacement of Lewis until Lewis can heal up; however, one of the greatest disappointments concerning Kendrick’s injury is that the newly implemented defensive scheme of putting Lewis and Elam in at safety and letting Eric Berry roam freely and wreak havoc is in danger of not being utilized until his Lewis’ return. Enter Travis Daniels. I’ll admit, I was pretty indifferent to Travis Daniels prior to this season (didn’t love him, didn’t hate him), but since he switched to taking on safety duties, I have a little more hope in his capability to make significant contributions to the team. There are two preseason games left, and I would not be the least bit surprised to see Daniels tested harder at safety to see if he can provide suitable replacement for Lewis in the new scheme so it can start being effectively used before Lewis heals up and returns. With Tamba a certain loss in the Atlanta game, and Flowers and Lewis uncertainties as to whether or not they’ll play, Daniels being coached up enough so that the new scheme isn’t a liability may be integral to a Chiefs victory on opening day. That may be a lot of faith to put into Daniels, but a roving Berry may be the team’s best hope for a victorious pass defense without Flowers, Lewis and Hali in the mix.

Thus concludes my predictions/observations for this week, Addicts. If you disagree with anything I’ve said or proposed, or think that there’s a player I’m not giving enough credit to (or giving too much credit to, for that matter), let me hear it in the “Comments” section. And as always, 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

According to Chiefs “offensive weapon” Dexter McCluster, linebacker Tamba Hali has joined the wonderful world of Twitter.

Here’s the Tweet:

Welcome the newest @nfl @kcchiefs memberto twitter —–>>> @tambahali91 #chiefs follow da man!!

— Dexter McCluster (@dextermccluster) June 25, 2012

McCluster (account verified) has been tweeting about his attempts to convince Hali to join the social media outlet. Some fans were confused because there is a fake Hali Twitter account floating around out there. McCluster assured fans that it was indeed fake and that the real Hali was on the fence about joining. Later, he tweeted the above quote.

Hali’s first tweet was a picture of himself (shown above) holding a sign with his Twitter name.

Twitter is a great way to interact and follow your favorite players. There are a number of Chiefs on Twitter and most of them are really cool about answering questions from fans. If you aren’t on Twitter, I highly suggest you join. It is fun and a great way to keep up on news in the sports world.

Follow Tamba at @TambaHali91 and be sure to follow Arrowhead Addict!

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!

First off, an explanation of how I am approaching this: I don’t look at this list as the 10 most productive players necessarily, but rather how important they are to the team and how much their loss would be felt. This is not a list of the Chiefs best players. A way of looking at it is, “who could we least afford to lose to a season-ending injury.”

1.) OLB Tamba Hali

This one may be a shocker right out of the gates. I know many people would put RB Jamaal Charles as the most important player to the Chiefs if they want to make a playoff run, but I get to differ. The Chiefs still managed to come within a blocked field goal of the playoffs without JC (and a whole lot else) last season. The Chiefs still had the 15^th best rushing attack last year behind Jackie Battle, Thomas Jones and Dexter McCluster – not an inspiring bunch.

However, the Chiefs also only had 29 sacks (3^rd least in the league) – 12 of which were Tamba Hali. Hali also probably deserves an assist on most of the other sacks that Chiefs players racked up, as opposing teams shifted their pass blocking to eliminate the pressure from #91. OLB Justin Houston should continue to up his game this year, but it’s hard to know how many sacks he would have gotten in 2011 if teams weren’t so focused on Hali. One thing we know for sure – if Hali goes down, our pass rush will be less than half as effective as it is when he is on the field.

Tamba Hali tackles Chiefs -- err -- Broncos Quarterback Kyle Orton, forcing a fumble in the process.John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Furthermore, the AFC West quarterbacking got a heck of a lot better this year. We won’t be playing against FB Tim Tebow twice a year, Rivers will surely bounce back from his worst season on record, and we won’t be so lucky as to catch Carson Palmer straight off the couch. We’re going to be playing Peyton Manning, Rivers and Palmer in late-season games for the division title. We will need Hali for that, hands down.

2.) SS Eric Berry

To my great surprise, the Chiefs have not addressed the team’s dreadful safety depth with anything more than a 5^th-round CB who projects to the position and a handful of low-level journeymen and UFA’s. Berry going down last year spelled doom for the Chiefs defensive backfield, despite the fact that we have very talented corners. McGraw is dependable as a smart, slow veteran, but with both he and Berry out of the line up, Kendrick Lewis cannot make up the difference. The idea that Donald Washington might see the field for anything other than special teams this season keeps me awake at night.

3.) LT Brandon Albert

Our tackle depth is a mystery right now. While the Chiefs have a bunch of young bodies behind their bookends with Albert and Winston, there are no proven commodities among them. While LT’s are generally looked at as the guys who keep their QB’s healthy, Albert has also been vital to the Chiefs’ run blocking. The team was massively better running to the left than the right last year. If Albert were to go down, they would likely move Winston to LT, a position he is not ideally suited for, and we would be leaving a question mark at RT that could very likely be worse than Barry Richardson – as hard as that is to imagine.

4.) CB Brandon Flowers

What? Three out of the top four are defensive players? But our defense was strong and our offense was weak! True. But, with the exception of the Chiefs, the AFC West is going to be a passing division in 2012. Rivers is poised for a bounce-back, Peyton Manning is in Denver, and Oakland is going to be forced to pass due to the fact that they now have bad running back depth and they will be in shootouts with opponents because their pass defense was decimated in the offseason.

I still think Berry is more important than Flowers overall to the Chiefs pass defense, but losing Flowers would also put KC in a pinch. I am high on Routt, but he did not fair well as the #1 CB in Oakland and Javier Arenas and Jalil Brown should really stay in the slot. Travis Daniels could fill in for a game of two as the #2 CB, but he’s not athletic and would be a liability long-term.

5.) WR Dwayne Bowe

Jon Baldwin has yet to prove he can take on the #1 role. The Cassel-to-Bowe connection remains the entire passing offense.

6.) RB Jamaal Charles

Finally, you’re thinking, he gets around to mentioning our franchise player. I put Charles 6^th because we unfortunately don’t know what we’re getting out of him this year and because the Chiefs now have killer RB depth. Our offense is indisputably more dangerous with him on the field, but we will be able to soldier on without him. Still, out of the ‘backs in the Chiefs stables, he is the only one with true home-run ability and that is something that the offense lacks all around. If the Chiefs want to be a contender, we have to make some big plays.

7.) QB Matt Cassel

He may not be Canton-bound, but he can be very productive with the guys the Chiefs have on the roster. Quinn has been inconsistent in his career and Stanzi is a mystery box.

8.) LB Derrick Johnson

Rob Grabowski-US PRESSWIRE

DJ is the rock to the Chiefs’ defense. He’s a tackling machine and is a mean run-stuffer. He also can be counted on to make 1-2 phenomenal head’s-up plays per game.

9.) RT Eric Winston

Winston is here for the same reasons as Albert — he would be extremely difficult to replace. But, we also need to him to cover the Chiefs right side because effective pass blocking there will allow Moeaki and Boss to release and be additional targets for Cassel or to block downfield for Charles and Hillis.

10.) NT Dontari Poe

While I don’t think expectations should be too high, I’m betting that Poe ends up contributing for us this season. If we don’t get production out of Poe we will be relying on Amon Gordon – a decent starter at DE, but a substandard NT. Poe has the chance to make the entire defense stronger, or weaker.

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

According to Pro Football Focus, Tamba Hali had one of the 10 best games at 3-4 OLB in the NFL last season.

PFF is going through each positional group and picking out the players who had the 10 most productive games according to their grading system. Hali came in at #4.

Here is what PFF had to say:

When the Vikings came to town it seemed the Chiefs had a plan in place, with Hali attacking Phil Loadholt relentlessly. By the time the game was over, Hali had notched two sacks, two hits, and eight pressures as Minnesota couldn’t handle his speed off the edge. That qualifies as a big day.

What else is there to say? Hali is a force and is one of the best backers in the NFL. Now that Justin Houston will be entering his second season and with the addition of Dontari Poe, it is going to be even harder for defenses to spend all their time worrying about Hali.

Tamba not only impacts the game himself, he makes the other players around him better. That means if Houston continues his success from late last season, he could be in for a big year.

Whether it is Hali or Houston getting to the QB, the Chiefs figure to have much improved pass rush in 2012.

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.

 —————————————————————

—————————————————————

—————————————————————

—————————————————————

—————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————————————

—————————————————————

—————————————————————

photo by The Centaur, FJH

I, like most of you, have spent an inordinate amount of time in my life thinking about the KC Chiefs. I’ve been alive for three decades, and I think it would be accurate to say I’ve been closely following them for a full two. I may not have seen many playoff victories in that time, but the Chiefs have still provided me a rich history to draw from. So many memories. Endless memories, really.

Remember Benny Thompson acting like he was a dog peeing on a fire hydrant? Remember Marcus Allen as “Mufasa” and Greg Hill as “Simba”? Remember Chester McGlockton dumping a live ball behind his head as he trotted out of bounds? Remember Sean LaChappelle?

I could go on forever. We all could. So many players, so many laughs, so many tears. This is the first in a series of posts I’ll be doing this offseason, in which we revisit interesting moments and times from the Chiefs’ recent history.  I’ll be attempting to find current relevance in these glimpses of the past, although that will probably be a bit of a reach sometimes. This is mainly about remembering.

So come along, friends, and hop aboard (Ghost voice) Big Maaaaaaatt’s Tiiiiiiiiime machiiiiiiiine……….

(more…)

So, that happened. Another NFL season (and postseason) has come and gone. Forgive my lack of enthusiasm as I watched the New York Giants win the Super Bowl for the fourth time in my lifetime, and the New England Patriots lose it for the fourth time (to go along with their three championships). In fact, in the 38 Super Bowls I have lived through (not that I really remember Super Bowls IX through, oh, XV or XVI), 27 different teams have participated. Not one of them has been the Kansas City Chiefs—their Super Bowl appearances live in other people’s memories.

But the good news, of course, is that as soon as Tom Brady’s last “Hail Myra” pass landed incomplete in the end zone and Super Bowl XLVI officially came to an end, the Chiefs were immediately back in contention. All eyes, and odds, are now focused on 2012-13, and the earliest probabilities are already in. The MGM Grand Las Vegas and at least one leading gaming site have opened betting season with the Chiefs as 50-1 shots to win Super Bowl XLVII, which is as good or better than 13 other teams. Not quite as favorable as the 40-1 odds they were given a year ago, but much better than the one-in-100 chance set before the Chiefs’ 2010 AFC West Championship season.

In other words, the odds-makers don’t really know what they’re doing, at least at this stage—out of last year’s top five preseason favorites, three didn’t even make the playoffs. But for fans, it’s amusing to see just how favorably (or not) our team’s prospects are marked in the books of various distinguished sports-betting establishments, and ask ourselves, “What if…?”

Last year at this time, I made a list of the XLVI reasons the Chiefs could win it all. A number of those “reasons” are now no longer with the team or else tore up their knees within the first few weeks of the season. So I’ve learned my lesson—and I’m not about to try to come up with XLVII reasons now. After all, so many things can happen: the most important players can get hurt, the coach can go crazy, the GM can go crazier…I mean, what are the odds?

Ah. Good question. Why don’t we find out?

(more…)

Kansas City Chiefs linebackers Tamba Hali and Derrick Johnson have been elected to the Pro Bowl.

The teams were announced tonight. Neither Johnson nor Hali were leading in the fan vote. Thankfully, the fan vote accounts for only one third of the process. The NFL coaches and players also get to cast a ballot.

It’s kind of sad that typical NFL fans aren’t aware of how good Johnson and Hali are. The Chiefs had plenty of prime-time games this year so you think more folks would take note.

Ah, well.

The rosters are not set in stone. Since the Pro Bowl is now played before the Super Bowl, players on the teams that make the championship are taken off the rosters. That means we could see one or two Chiefs added to the mix before the Pro Bowl is played.

Is there anyone else on the team that you think was deserving of a Pro Bowl bid?

Somewhere in a dark room within the Chiefs practice complex a film projector is rolling.  In the room, instead of a group of players or coaches, Todd Haley and Kyle Orton sit alone.  Rolling on the projector is not film from last Sunday’s defensive battle* between the Chiefs and Bears, but an old game tape from late December in 1990 between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers.  Those of us old enough to remember or smart enough to Google it know that this game clenched the Red and Gold a playoff berth that year.  I’d like to imagine that Haley is talking to Orton not about how Chiefs QB Steve DeBerg played, but instead that he is pointing to the broken pinky on his non-throwing hand that had a peg driven through it.  He’s replaying every hit that DeBerg took.  Haley’s message is as blunt as it is clear: This is what is means to be a Chiefs quarterback.  We spent more than 2 million dollars making you a Chiefs QB to salvage the end of our season so you better man up and get on the field Sunday.

*Although it was indeed a spirited effort by the KC defense last Sunday, this is one of my most loathed euphemisms in all of sports.  It’s used to describe a struggle between two offensively inept teams that, despite having all of football’s rules changed to enhance scoring, still are incapable of moving the ball into the end zone.

It’s no secret that I am a big DeBerg fan, those of you that have been reading the site long enough may remember that I centered my first post around ol’ Steve-o being my favorite Chiefs quarterback.  Yet this article isn’t about how tough DeBerg was.  It also isn’t about saving the Chiefs’ season or the fact that I incessantly get shit from people here in Denver about KC picking up Denver’s garbage for one play while they all pray at the Tebow alter.  This article is about mental and physical toughness at the quarterback position, and whether or not Orton wants to salvage his career.

More after the jump…

(more…)

The Kansas City Star is reporting that Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Tamba Hali may have broken his hand in the team’s 10-3 win Sunday over the Chicago Bears.

From the Star:

Quarterback Kyle Orton wasn’t the only Chiefs player with a hand injury Sunday. Linebacker Tamba Hali has a possible broken hand, though he never came out of the game. Even if his hand is broken, Hali could play with a cast, depending on the type and severity of the break.

Todd Haley talked a bit about Hali’s injury in his daily press conference today. After calling Hali a warrior, Haley admitted that the linebacker was a bit banged up.

“Tamba’s pretty beat up,” said Haley. “But I didn’t see anything that alarmed me any more than other weeks other than some blood dripping all over the place.”

Haley seemed to indicate that Hali would probably be ok. The Chiefs put a big emphasis on players being on the field and most seem to get out there to play through injuries if they can. He might be in pain but I am guessing we’ll see Tamba on Sunday.

See how he's not blitzing!

Okay, forgive me for beating a dead horse here, but I’m not quite done with this pass rush discussion. This post started as a response to Paddy’s great piece on who’s rushing the passer for KC, but I quickly realized that I had a little more to say then would fit in a comment box. So here goes.

First off, if you haven’t read Paddy’s post yet, go do it. Otherwise this post loses some of its context. I actually almost named this post “Who Isn’t Rushing The Passer For The Kansas City Chiefs” as an actual counter post but thought this title was a little bit more of an attention grabber.

Here’s the deal, the numbers in Paddy’s post have most who saw them convinced that the case is closed on the Chiefs pass rush problem. Dorsey and Jackson are terrible at rushing the passer and the Chiefs have them rushing the passer way too much. The solution to this problem is to play guys like Gilberry more in their place.

No one can dispute this, right?

Wrong.

The problem has more to do with Stevie Johnson then it does with Glenn Dorsey.

I’ll explain after the break.

(more…)

The Kansas City Chiefs can’t rush the passer.

That is a fact.

Tyson Jackson goes out and Allen Bailey comes in on passing downs. Wallace Gilberry comes in too!

That…is speculation.

We got into a bit of a debate yesterday about the Chiefs’ pass rush and how to fix it. AA senior staff writer Big Matt suggested that the team needed more Wallace Gilberry and less Tyson Jackson and Glenn Dorsey. As the debate wore on, folks seemed to be getting confused as to who is on the field when.

It’s understandable. The Chiefs use more substitution packages than Matt Cassel uses cliché phrases in press conferences!

So what is really going on? Who is on the field for how many snaps? Who is rushing the passer and who is dropping into coverage?

We’ll use Pro Football Focus to find out. After the jump.

(more…)

U. G. L. Y. You ain’t got no alibi, you ugly, yeah yeah you UGLY! Look it would be easy to take a total doom and gloom approach after that game because it was in fact very, very, ugly. Was it horrible? Yes. Did it look WAY too much like the first two games of the season at times? Yes. Does it mean that the Chiefs are back to being one of the worst teams in the NFL again? No. Just last week the Saints lost to the winless Rams. It happens. It is definitely a disappointment though and makes the odds of the Chiefs pulling off a playoff birth or division title that much smaller.

Can you come up with reasons (excuses) as to why the Chiefs lost? Sure. The Chiefs were on a short week. The Chiefs were coming off a very emotional overtime win. The Chiefs were coming off back to back physical division games. The Chiefs were missing two DBs in Arenas and McGraw and their replacements were exploited. Are all of those things true? Yes.

So that means this loss was the result of a one time set of circumstances and we don’t need to worry about this happening again, right? Ummm….No.

I would guess that the title of this piece is probably a pretty big clue that I think there is a larger problem (or problems) at play. In my opinion this loss was not about short weeks or the huge hole left by an injured Jon McGraw (yes, that was sarcasm). See on paper (not looking at records) the Chiefs and Dolphins actually looked like a pretty even match up. The difference between the two had been that the Dolphins had found ways to lose games and the Chiefs had found ways to win some.

So how were the Dolphins able to dominate the Chiefs on their own home field?

Simple, the Dolphins sacked, pressured, knocked down, and harassed Matt Cassel all day long and Matt Moore’s jersey probably didn’t even need washed after the game. That was the difference.

Don’t think it’s that cut and dry? More after the break.

(more…)

Monday nights are usually when I sit down, reflect on what the Kansas City Chiefs did or didn’t do over the weekend just past, and pull something out of my ass together for my Tuesday post. But on this particular Monday night, it so happens I was a bit distracted by something rather compelling that I was watching on television. I only had time to jot down some observations during breaks in the action as it unfolded. So consider these my Quick Slants. Some of them are even football-related…

• Hey, nice graveyard rendition of Danse Macabre by the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City during the MNF intro (my friend Kristin was the Zombie bassist on the left).
• Not a big fan of all those not-so-terrible white towels. The idea was lame enough at Busch Stadium during the World Series and it’s no more impressive at Arrowhead. What? Is everyone surrendering? Or just waving their tighty-whities in the air? Hard to tell.
• Is that a five-inch Herm Edwards screaming at a couple of clueless tools to “ice down those Coors Lights, baby?” Finally—a coaching job worthy of Herm’s stature.
• Lamest Halloween costume seen in the crowd: Zach Galifianakis’s “Alan” with beard, sunglasses, and strap-on baby (with sunglasses) from The Hangover. Soooo 2009. (And there’s no good reason to remind Chiefs fans of 2009.)
• Did I hear that right about Chiefs center Casey Wiegmann? 10,502 snaps in a row? I wonder if that statistic about a routine, seemingly mundane element of the game will take on more significance later…
• Newest addition to Todd Haley’s nasty-as-he-wants-to-be ensemble: Navy undershirt with some kind of emblem that resembles either a grease stain or maybe a patch of sweat.

(more…)

The Kansas City Chiefs will try for back-to-back wins for the first time since last December when they travel to Indianapolis Sunday to take on the winless Colts.

For the Chiefs to do that, they are going to need to continue to rely on various play-makers to give them the spark they lost when guys like Jamaal Charles and Eric Berry were lost for the season.

Here are five players to watch this Sunday.

Branden Albert

Branden Albert may be having his breakout season. Albert has always been solid at LT for the Chiefs but he has never been able to dodge the offseason talk that he should be moved to RT or G. The fact of the matter is, Albert may not be a Pro Bowler yet but he is clearly the best tackle the Chiefs have. Moreover, he is pretty consistent and usually isn’t a liability like a guy like Barry Richardson.

Branden has played well the last couple of weeks, and he actually helped spark KC’s stagnant running game last week as well. Runs behind Albert averaged over seven yards.

The Chiefs will need him to continue his hot streak vs. the Colts. He’ll likely be dealing with Dwight Freeney, a player he was able to hold pretty well in check when these teams met a year ago. If Albert can do it again, he’ll give Matt Cassel a chance.

(more…)

The Kansas City Chiefs will try to get their second win of the season Sunday when they travel to Indy to take on the Colts.

Here is some really great analysis on Sunday’s game from NFL Network.

Every week, we go Inside the Numbers with our friends at Pro Football Focus to try to give you a more honest assessment of each player’s play during the previous Kansas City Chiefs game.

PFF grades every player on every play of every game. They assign players a grade for each play, from -2.0 (the worst) to +2.0 (the best). Keep in mind that to get a positive grade, a player has to do something extra or more than he is expected to do. To get a negative grade, a player has to fail at his assigned task. Thus, most players grade at a 0.0 for each play. Only when they do something good or bad, do they get a + or -. This is why PFF is a really great barometer for measuring how good a player is because it measures consistency.

You might remember a player for making one big play and thus conclude that he had a great game. But what about the other 60 or 70 plays? That is where PFF comes in.

How good was Tamba Hali Sunday? Did Tyson Jackson really have a “great game?”

Let’s go Inside the Numbers with Pro Football Foucs…and find out!

(more…)

The Kansas City Chiefs have released their final injury report ahead of Sunday’s game against the San Diego Chargers.

As expected, Jonathan Baldwin will not play. He is listed as being “out.”

There are only two other names on the injury report.

LB Tamba Hali is probable with an ankle injury and defensive lineman Wallace Gilberry is questionable with a neck injury.

Hali will obviously play, and my guess is that Gilberry will roll too.

Hopefully this is the last week without Baldwin. He made some progress this week by finally practicing, albeit in a limited capacity.

The Kansas City Chiefs will look to get their season back on track when they travel to Detroit today to take on the Lions.

Here are five ways the Chiefs can escape the Motor City with a victory.

1. Show Up

This normally would go without saying and thus wouldn’t need to be mentioned here but unfortunately, we have to. The Chiefs have yet to show up to play football this season. They didn’t show up for the preseason, and they most certainly didn’t show up for the season opener. The Chiefs need to start this game taking care of the football, making smart decisions and playing as a team. If they don’t, none of the rest of the items on this list will be relevant.

(more…)

Each week of the NFL regular season, win or lose, I hand out Arrowheads to Chiefs players who showed up and did a good job on Sunday.

I don’t like to break tradition so…here ya go.

Tamba Hali

Hali shook off the rust and managed to pull in a sack. The Bills made it a priority to stop him, and he was double teamed most of the game. The good thing is he still managed to generate some pressure and record a sack when the opportunity presented itself. The sad thing is, none of the rest of the “pass rushers” could do squat when Tamba was drawing two men.

Tamba also had two tackles for a loss, two QB hits and six total tackles. Too bad there aren’t two of him.

Or 11.

(more…)

WARNING: This post ends with a bad rap parody.

It’s hard to believe, maybe, that this week marks the four-year anniversary of the debut of HBO’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Kansas City Chiefs. In fact, to celebrate,* the NFL Network broadcast a HK:TCWTKCC marathon yesterday. For one day, it was August 2007 all over again, and the whole gang was there: Herm Edwards, of course, and Gunther “%&#^@!” Cunningham, along with the stars of the show: Turk and Tank. Boomer Grigsby. The Croyles (mostly Kelli). And poor, poor Bobby Sippio.

*”To celebrate” is one way to put it. “To kill six dead hours in the middle of a Monday” is another.

It can also be hard to remember that, at the time, things didn’t look so bad. There was hope. We were coming off a 2006 season in which the Chiefs—though some of you, I’m sure, got “this thing twisted and think we backed into this deal”—were a playoff team, with an All-Pro running back that had just lead the league in carries and finished second in yards. Meanwhile, All-World tight end Tony Gonzalez had been signed to a five-year extension. And now, HBO was reviving its acclaimed NFL training-camp reality series and wanted to feature the Chiefs and only the Chiefs—and had been spending the whole summer hyping it.

No, we didn’t know at that moment just how hard we would all be knocked over the next three years. As late as that Halloween, it still seemed like we would continue to have something to root for. First, there were those 24 unanswered second-half points in San Diego to erase a double-digit halftime deficit. Then, in a very sloppy game in Oakland, the Chiefs outlasted the Raiders to prevail 12-10, securing a 4-3 record and, heading into their bye week, first place in the AFC West. That was October 21, 2007.

The Chiefs would not win again until September 28, 2008. They would lose 12 games in a row and 28 of their next 30, getting outscored 808-499 during that stretch—though the close, late-game losses would be the most pathetic and painful.

(You know, just in case you didn’t remember all that.)

But the point is that now, four years later, though we may whine and moan about our young Chiefs’ growing pains, we also have much to cheer. Which means it’s time for another parody.

So with all apologies* to Jaz-Z for hijacking his original (and to Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin, who co-wrote the original original), please enjoy, if possible. Just don’t ask me to perform it for you.

(more…)

Kansas City Chiefs GM Scott Pioli had a good day yesterday and he deserves to be recognized for it.

After all, we aren’t shy about voicing our displeasure with moves the Chiefs make so it is only fair that we are just as quick to praise them when, in our view, they do well.

After what I felt were a couple of free agency strikeouts and mistakes by Pioli, the Chiefs’ GM came roaring back yester with two big moves that I think will greatly help the team moving forward.

First, he managed to outwait the Le’Ron McClain market long enough to still lock up the FB to a one-year, team friendly deal.

Why is the one-year deal significant?

(more…)

 

Why isn’t Justin Houston in training camp with the rest of his draft class?

There hasn’t been a lot of talk about Houston since football has returned. After all, we’ve been too busy worrying about free agency to worry about contract negotiations. Now however, with the days ticking by, I’m growing concerned.

Houston is one of the 2011 draft picks that I am most excited about. By now you should no Houston’s story but if you don’t, I’ll give you a quick recap. Houston was projected as a late first, early second round pick at OLB. He was particularly valuable because in his last year at Georgia, the team switched to a 3-4 defense. Houston went from being an undersized DE to a prototypical 3-4 OLB. He racked up a ridiculous 18.5 tackles for a loss that year and threw in 10 sacks for good measure. At the combine, a 270 pound Houston showed his speed by turning in a 4.68 40. He was a lock to be a top 50 draft pick.

Then he reportedly failed his drug test.

(more…)

Flowers and Carr are great together...but how long they will be together remains to be seen.

The Kansas City Chiefs proved in 2010 that they are a young team on the rise. While they may not yet be quite ready to contend for a Super Bowl, their worst to first turnaround last season put the rest of the NFL on notice that the Chiefs are a team full of young, emerging stars.

The catch?

Some of those young starts are coming to the end of their contracts.

One of the downsides to have a bunch of young, emerging stars is that sometimes the team is unable to afford to keep them all. While the Chiefs have a low enough payroll that they will probably have a pretty decent chance of retaining their current crop of stars, there is a possibility that they might have to let one go.

The Chiefs made strides toward locking up some of these players last season by signing star RB Jamaal Charles and LB Derrick Johnson to club friendly deals. With another one of their stars, Eric Berry, still locked up for years in his rookie contract, the attention turns to three of the team’s bigger names.

Brandon Flowers, Brandon Carr, Tamba Hali and Dwayne Bowe.

All of those players are going to need new deals in the very near future. Obviously Flowers, Carr and Hali are a huge part of KC’s improving defense and Bowe is pretty much the only legit receiver on the offensive roster.

Now I honestly don’t think the Chiefs can get by with only signing one of these four. I think for them to remain competitive, Hali must stat and at least one of either Flowers or Carr. While the team did just draft Jonathan Baldwin, he is unproven and the KC offense would be decimated if they lost Bowe. Realistically, the team will probably do everything they can to bring all of these players back and at least get three of them.

But what if they couldn’t? If you had to pick only one of the four to remain on the team, who would it be?

Flowers, Carr, Hali or Bow? Sound off.

Resigning Tamba Hali is the no-brainer of the offseason. The guy is our only real playmaker in the front seven and the best player on this defense. I know it’s not Pioli’s style, but I hope the Chiefs shower him with cash, lock him up until his mid-thirties and watch him become a hall-of-famer in red. Then, when we think he’s starting to decline, we’ll trade him to the Raiders for a 1^st round pick a few years down the road so they can replace Richard Seymour. And they’ll still suck.

The other no-brain resign is Brandon Carr. This guy is a star that no one outside the AFC West seems to be talking about. And he can flat out play — a master at the crazy deflection. There were games where he actually looked like the best Brandon on the field (Albert is a distant third). I hope he also gets a payday from the Chiefs, he’s earned it.

Still there’s a guy up for free agency that I think could be surprisingly useful to the Chiefs this year, and one other free agent who won’t be too expensive (nor too crazy like my previous suggestions) and I’d frankly be surprised if he doesn’t end up here.

See my selections after the jump. (more…)

With the NFL owners’ “slumber party” wrapping up in Chicago yesterday, all eyes now turn to an undisclosed location outside of Boston where various sources are reporting labor negotiations are continuing between the owners and players.

A lot of info seems to be leaking out of yesterday’s slumber party meeting and most of it is positive. We are hearing that the negotiating team presented some of the basic points of the proposed new CBA to the other owners and that there was almost no objection.

The big issue at the center of this whole mess has always been money. For about 20 years, the players and owners split revenue 50/50. When negotiating the new CBA, there were reportedly some owners that wanted the players to take a pay cut all the way down to 40%. What we are hearing now, from ESPN’s Christ Mortenson is that the owners are prepared to now bump that figure all the way to 48%. Once the revenue issues are settled, all the other dominoes (free agency, rookie salary cap, benefits, 18-game season, TV contracts) are likely to fall rather quickly.

(more…)

Though the Kansas City Chiefs made the switch to a 3-4 defense two seasons ago, I still can’t look at the current roster without wondering if they might be better off running a 4-3.

I don’t have anything against the 3-4 defense. Obviously, the 3-4 is what defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel runs and is comfortable with. The Chiefs have been drafting for a 3-4 defense for three years now. There is no chance that they team will suddenly decide to change course and start running a 4-3. Certainly not after they saw so much defensive improvement in 2010.

Still, I can’t help wondering what would happen if they did.

(more…)

The NFL Network had NFL players vote on who they thought were the top 100 players in the league and NFLN has slowly been releasing the list.

We just learned that Kansas City Chiefs OLB Tamba Hali came in at #64.

Hali isn’t the first player to make an appearance on the list. Rookie Eric Berry came in at #93 and G Brian Waters showed up in the #67.

While I am sure Hali is honored to be voted on to the list by his peers, I have to so say I think he got robbed a little bit here. Hali seems to be terribly underrated in the NFL, despite two excellent consecutive seasons at OLB.

The Chiefs will likely have a couple more players on the list, as WR Dwayne Bowe and RB Jamaal Charles have yet to make an appearance.

What do you think, Addicts? Is Hali’s ranking too low? Any predictions for where Bowe and Charles will show up?

(First, let me get this out of the way:  If you are anything like me you don’t even care about the lockout anymore.  The last couple of months I try to ignore it.  I act like it is not even going on.  Why?  Because I know it is just a sham.  There will be football this year because the same greed that is causing the players and owners to fight over money will compel them to play when the time comes so that they do not lose any money.  It is simple math. It is impossible for you to disagree.  I dare you.  ) 

In any event…

I was perplexed when the Kansas City Chiefs took Miami DE Allen Bailey in the third round of the 2011 draft.  Don’t we already have depth at DE?  We have a stud in Glen Dorsey, a serviceable (and expensive) DE in Tyson Jackson, a stud in Shaun Smith, and a developing stud in Wallace Gilberry.  Do we even have room for the 285 pound 6’3 Bailey?  Sure, you can never have enough depth, right?   But to use a third round on a possible third stringer seems high, doesn’t it?  Unless….

 More after the jump…

(more…)

Tamba may be the man but guys like Glenn Dorsey, Jovan Belcher, Derrick Johnson and Wallace Gilberry did their fair share of creating pressure on opposing QB's in 2010.

As we get ever closer to the NFl Draft, lists of team needs are thrown around like candy at a parade. Look up any list of team needs for the Kansas City Chiefs and you are almost guaranteed to see something similar to this:

WR

NT

OLB (pass rusher)

OT

One thing I always try to look out for while writing for AA is that I don’t allow myself to slip too far into the communities “group think.”

What does that mean?

When you get any group of people together to talk about a subject for any long period of time, I feel that group think tends to start to take over. What I mean by that is factions start to form where part of the group believes one thing. We certainly disagree about a lot around here but we also talk Chiefs so much that I think sometimes we, as a group, determine something to be absolutely true. Once everyone pretty much agrees, the idea tends to become fact among most of the group. At that point, I think we begin to lose a little bit of perspective.

Some commonly held beliefs around AA that I can think of off the top of my head are:

(more…)

Chiefs fans, as you may recall, I work in the retail industry.  Right now we are in the midst of our physical inventory process where we prepare for one night where we count everything in the store.  This process is very labor intensive and is the reason you were deprived of my Blitz last week.  In a major corporation with dozens of different ways inventory can enter or leave the system, sometimes something as simple as counting an item to ensure that you have the correct amount can become a daunting task.

The same can be said of a football team.  What I have realized in the several years I have spent regulating inventory is that everyone seems to take for granted that when they check the computer that everything is going to match up.  What is perhaps a more astute observation is that no one cares about inventory until it is wrong.  No one cares until they need something and it is not there when all of the tools at their disposal show that it should be.  These deficiencies seem to erase the vast plethora of other times where everything has been right on, and the focus compacts into a singularity where the memories taken for granted are destroyed like matter in the center of a black hole.

I get to how this relates to the Kansas City Chiefs after the jump.

(more…)

A couple of weeks ago we set out to determine which Chiefs player was the most popular in Chiefs Nation. We went through a few rounds of bracket style voting and in the end, it is a pair of high seeds squaring off for the title.

Chiefs Nation Championship

#1 Jamaal Charles vs. #3 Tamba Hali

The Final Four results were as follows:

#1 Jamaal Charles d. #4 Matt Cassel (94%-6%)
#3 Tamba Hali d. #2 Brandon Flowers (82%-18%)

For this round, we are going to do the voting right here on the front page of Arrowhead Addict. Voting is open today and tomorrow. The winner will be announced on Thursday, April 7th.

As much as I want to, I figured you guys probably didn’t want to listen to me rant about the CBA again this week.  And since the “7 holy days” agreement is reasonably promising, it seems fair to spare the billionaire tyrants my wrath for a day.

Like many of you, I’m starting to lick my chops in anticipation of the upcoming draft.  But I’m no Mel Kiper.  The way I handle the draft is to become extremely attached to a handful of players based on dubious logic and snap-judgements.  There are usually about ten guys I really want, and ten guys I really don’t, and we don’t pick any of them.  It’s a personal roller-coaster that I have a really good time with, but I’m under no illusions that I’m actually able to accurately judge between one prospect and the next.  I can get the obvious stuff right, thats about it.  For expert draft coverage, go to Merlin and Adam, or as I all them, Merl Kiper and Toren McShay (right?).

Draft season always makes me think of our past drafts.  I’m somewhat of a Chiefs draft historian.  I might not be able to predict who we pick, but I can sure as hell remember them.  Name a year, name a round, and I can tell you who we picked.  A fairly worthless skill, big picture.  It turns out people aren’t really interested in when Montique Sharpe and Willie Pile were drafted*.  It is only during draft season, when mentally compiling charts of our previous years’ picks and tendencies, that my memorization becomes at all usefull.

*7th round 2003. We had 2 seventh rounders that year. Cha-ching!

I thought this week I’d consult my mental database and see who checks in as our best picks of the last ten years.  Of course this is all subjective.  But the common perception is that the Chiefs have been terrible drafters for most of the last decade.  And thats true, pretty much.  I’ve been saying for years you could staff a Burger King with our defensive tackle busts (Downing would be manager).  But there have been some pretty great picks in there too.  Here are the ten I’ve deeemed best:

(more…)

Another Friday evening.  Another week coming to an end.  Another week closer to Chiefs games.  We hope.  For us Addicts, this is how we tell time.  The long wait for the snow to melt, summer to come and pass,  and the leaves to grow and start to turn an array of brilliant colors.  We fill our time with the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, the NBA playoffs, NASCAR, and Major League Baseball, but these are merely time killers for a lot of us.  We wait for these sports to come to an end like months on a Chiefs Calendar just as we waited for our birthdays when we were young.  Another marker passed, another upcoming, that much closer to seeing the Red and Gold take the field.  Another day closer.

In the meantime we spend our time speculating about how the new management of our team will handle players, and get angry about the CBA negotiations to the point we start making demands of our own.  We assure ourselves and others that if the season does not happen we will still make it through, no matter how ridiculous of measures we have to take.  We look at what improvements we can make in the upcoming year through free agency and the draft, and quiz ourselves over players and teams of old to see how deep our knowledge and passion run.  We do all of this in anticipation of that treasured moment when the coin flips, our team lines up, the ball is kicked, and we can start the cycle anew.  This is what we do as fans.

I left out discussion on purpose.  Just like keeping the memory of someone alive when they move away by speaking of them often, we talk about the Chiefs and this keeps the NFL alive in our thoughts while the players and coaches restructure through the off season to try and put together a championship organization.  This is the night to talk about whatever you want to keep the discussion going.  What do you think of having an ex-head coach brought in to aid Matt Cassel?  How much money should the Chiefs consider paying Tamba Hali?  Will Todd Haley ever cut his hair?  The great thing is, there is always a lot to talk about.  I hope you all have a great night, and Patrick will be at it again early tomorrow with your morning fix!

As expected, the Kansas City Chiefs have placed the franchise tag on star OLB Tamba Hali.

The two sides have been reportedly working on a long term deal, however with the uncertainty of the labor situation and confusion as to when there might actually be a free agency period, it was wise for the Chiefs to protect Hali.

This is also proof that the Chiefs aren’t playing it cheap when it comes to Hali. Giving him the franchise tag means that if the two sides are unable to reach a long term deal before the start of the 2011 season, the Chiefs will have to pay Hali an average of the top 5 salaries at his position for one year.

Since Hali is likely to receive a very lucrative deal, it is no surprise that negotiations are taking time. This move is just a way for the Chiefs to ensure they don’t lose Hali.

The team confirmed the move with a brief press release posted on KCChiefs.com. the release says that both sides are working toward a long term deal and has a quote from GM Scott Pioli:

(more…)

Even though a new CBA could nullify any franchise tags given before it’s signing, NFL teams are still taking precautions to lock up their key players.

Under the previous CBA team’s were allowed to apply one franchise tag each year. The franchise tag gives the player a one year contract that is the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position or 123 percent of the players previous year’s salary, which ever is higher. This move enables team’s to retain their top players while they try to work out a long term contract.

Since there is currently no CBA, the rules are different. Under the rules for an uncapped year, teams are allowed to apply one franchise tag and one transition tag or two two transition tags.

(more…)

On Friday, my esteemed colleague Mr. Jeremy Hanson esquire wrote that he didn’t want the Chiefs to break the bank for Tamba Hali.  Jeremy will always tell you what he thinks, popular opinion or not.  His take on this situation may not have been shared by many, but his reasons seemed rational enough.  Hali is one-dimensional.  He’s also reportedly asking for a deal similar to that given DeMarcus Ware, which is a hell of a lot of money.  We small-market teams have to use our money wisely, right?  Maybe we can’t afford to get into a bidding war, regardless of how much we love Tamba.

Nothing against Jeremy, or anyone else who shares his feelings, but the time has come to change that mindset.   There is no more salary cap, and even if there was, our days of coming anywhere near the limit are long gone.  When last there was a cap, in 2009, we were roughly $45 million below the limit.  In fact, the minimum level was set at $90 million, and we didn’t even come close to hitting that.  I don’t know whether there will ever be a salary cap again.  What I do know is that if there is, we will never need to worry about it. 

What does this mean?  Essentially, it means our days of saying a player is “too expensive” are over.  We can afford anyone we want, and overspending on one player would not mean we have to pass on others.  If a player is indeed deemed “too expensive” by our front office, it is because our owner doesn’t want to shell out the money for him.  This team makes huge profits every year* and is far, far below where any future salary cap would be.  The only possible limitation on spending would be coming from within our own organization, right from the top. 

*In 2006, when Clark Hunt took over as owner, Forbes magazine ranked the Chiefs the 13th most-valuable franchise in the league.  Under Clunt’s leadership, the team has slipped a little, but has never been ranked lower than 20th.  Put this together with a payroll at the bottom of the league and its not hard to figure out what kind of money the Chiefs have been generating lately.  Hunt likely turns a better profit than most of the other owners in the league, billionaires that they are.

I don’t know for sure whether such a limit is in place.  Scott Pioli swears there isn’t.  I do know that since Clunt took over the team, our payroll has dropped dramatically in relation to the rest of the league.  In 2007, his first full year as owner, our payroll was the third-lowest in the league, $25 million below average.  In 2008, we were dead last, almost $30 million below average.  In 2009, dead last again, and $25 million below average again.  This year we were second-lowest, a shocking $35 million below league average.  Is there a self-imposed limit in place?  Maybe, maybe not.  But we’re definitely spending less than everyone else.  Since Clark Hunt took over as owner, no other team can compete with our frugality.

more from your boy Big Matt after the jump:

(more…)

All week I have heard Chiefs fans stating something akin to this “The Kansas City Chiefs would be crazy not to give Tamba Hali whatever he wants”.  I know that I may be alone on this point, but I disagree.  I spoke briefly of this a couple of days ago in a comment on one of Pat’s posts and I believe it is worth mentioning once more.

First, let me state that I love Tamba Hali.  He is my favorite Kansas City Chiefs player.  His history coupled with his work ethic and character make him the best person in all of the NFL.  I truly mean that.  He is a monster on the field and an exemplary teammate off of it.

He is absolutely great at what he does, he is very good, but is he the best?  Is he the best OLB in a 3-4 scheme?   Is he better than Demarcus Ware (20 sacks in one season), James Harrison (Defensive Player of the year 2009), Elvis Dumerville (10.75 sacks per season), Clay Matthews (13.5 sacks in 2010, and 10 sacks in 2009), or Terrell Suggs (averages 8.5 sacks per year).   Is he worth a hefty contract in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 million a year? Maybe he is and maybe he is not.

More after the jump…

(more…)

According to Jason LaCanfora of NFL Network, the Kansas City Chiefs will use the franchise tag to retain the services of outside linebacker Tamba Hali should the two parties not be able to come to an agreement before the February 24th tag deadline.

Teams can start using the franchise tag starting today. My guess is that we won’t see Hali tagged right away because the Chiefs still have until the 24th to work out a long term deal and they will likely use that time to avoid angering Tamba.

According to LaCanfora, Hali is seeking the same deal that the Dallas Cowboys gave DeMarcus Ware. LaCanfora goes on to say that the Chiefs and Hali had exploratory contract talks at the Senior Bowl.

(more…)

Four weeks after the Kansas City Chiefs played their last game, the 2010 NFL season is finally, officially over. Super Bowl XLV* has come and gone, and though it wasn’t mentioned during the broadcast, you probably, at one point or another, noticed that the Chiefs weren’t in it.

*As a friend tweeted Sunday night, “Why not just VL?”

But so what? Yesterday formally marked the first day of the 2011 campaign. Bodog.com has already set the opening odds, and the Chiefs are a 35-to-one shot to get to Super Bowl XLVI and win it all. Not quite as sure a bet as, say, the Packers (seven-to-one) or Patriots (15-to-two), but to quote the distinguished Canadian-American actor Jim Carrey as Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber: “So…you’re tellin’ me there’s a chance!”

With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to see just how optimistic I could be (while testing my knowledge of Roman numerals). So, without further ado and in no particular order, here are XLVI reasons why next year could be the year…
(more…)

There is only one game that matters remaining in the 2010 NFL season, and the Kansas City Chiefs aren’t in it.  Instead, we will see the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers duke it out in Dallas at the Super Bowl.  Instead of pouting about how the Chiefs didn’t make it to the big game, we should take the opportunity to get a good look at why the Packers and Steelers made.  Those teams have demonstrated how to get to a Super Bowl.  We need to see what we can learn from them so that in the coming years, we can there as well.

Many different kinds of teams can get to the Super Bowl.  Just look at the difference between the teams that went last year compared to the teams that made it this year.  However, there are similarities between the Packers and the Steelers that I will highlight so that we can determine where the Chiefs fell short this year.
(more…)

Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, site of the 2011 Pro Bowl: "Aloha" has many meanings, including "Hello," "Goodbye," "I Love You," and "What the $%&, Ref?? You Call THAT Pass Interference?!?"

It’s the end of January and the Kansas City Chiefs—six five of them!—are still playing. That is something to celebrate, and more importantly, something to watch. It will be great to see Jamaal Charles et. al. back in uniform on my TV, and not just on the faces of random strangers.

Now, as I may have hinted at last week, I’m not normally a fan of the Pro Bowl, if you define “fan” as “someone who is aware that the game is on while the game is actually still on.” I mean, it’s hard to accept the claim that the Pro Bowl only features the best of the best of the best of the NFL, when exceptions are made for those players who are:

a) Even the slightest bit injured.
b) Faking injury.
c) Skipping the game because they would rather stay home and pout, without even bothering to fake injury.
d) Actually playing for either of the two best teams in the NFL.

And, as you all probably also know, there are special regulations for the Pro Bowl:

(more…)

From Pro Football Talk’s Twitter:

Pro Bowl mini-mystery solved. Shaun Phillips replaces Tamba Hali, who replaced James Harrison. You will now be able to sleep now.

From twitter.com (share this quote)

It kind of stinks that Tamba won’t get to play but his health is more important to KC’s long term plans.

Kent Babb of the Kansas City Star reported yesterday that Hali was playing hurt for the Chiefs all season. According to Babb, Hali told him he had tear in his right shoulder, a partial tear in his left shoulder and a torn muscle in his foot.

Hali was never on the injury report, never missed a game and finished 2nd in the NFL in sacks. I’d say he’s earned some time off to heal…and a new contract for that matter.

Paddy's Pot Of Gold makes it's triumphant return...hopefully soon to include a much better graphic.

KCChiefs.com when something occurred to me.

The Chiefs really are being built the right way.

This may not come as a big surprise to any of you as the team just had it’s biggest single season turnaround in franchise history but for me, it is the way the team turned things around that mattered.

There are a lot of doubts surrounding the 2010 Kansas City Chiefs. While everyone is happy that the team was once again competitive, the fact that KC had such an easy schedule has led many a Chiefs fan to wonder just how good the 2010 team was.

As I watched the 2010 highlight video, I was struck by just how many heroes came to the rescue for the Chiefs last season. You see, good teams always seem to have an endless supply of players that step up and come through when the team needs them.

Just off the top of my head I can think of multiple Chiefs players who were instrumental in key victories throughout the season.

Let’s take a look back:

(more…)