So....Where are we?

[ctchiefsfan]

Lots of changes this off season.

Bowe is gone. Maclin is in.

The O-line has been fortified with Fanika and Grubbs.

We drafted Chris Conley who seems to have made a splash in OTAs.

Hudson is gone.

Fisher remains a bit of a question mark.

Justin Houston also appears to be a question mark. Will a deal get done by July 15? If not, will he report for game one or will he hold out--possibly until week 10? If he holds out for a while can Dee Ford and Tamba Hali pick up the slack?

With the addition of Maclin can Smith be convinced to take a few more chances on mid-range and deep routes?

So where does that leave us?

Seems to me our Defense will be as good and maybe better than last year....IF Houston shows up from the start.

Our Offensive line--IMO our weakest link last year--should be better and could be MUCH better if Fisher ups his performance.

IF Smith gets time and IF Reid will call an offensive scheme that is fairly balanced between the run, short passes and some mid-to-long passes--in short a fairly balanced offense then I think our offense could be GREATLY IMPROVED. But there are a lot of "IFs" right there. But IMO the downfall of our offense last year was that it became 1 dimensional. The only weapons we had were JC and short passes. This allowed enemy defenses to press at the LOS much more than they should have been able to. This increased pressure on the O-line and because the O-line wasn't all that good, it increased pressure on Smith and led us to be one of the worst Offenses in the NFL.

Special Teams should continue to be exceptional.

And of course, we have a TOUGH schedule this year.

What do you you guys think? Where are we now?

[Eydugstr]

The biggest question mark IMHO is Dee Ford. If we're without the services of Justin Houston, Ford needs to get every rep he can to get ready for this season. If Dee Ford really develops and Houston comes back, watch out. If Houston drags this out fully, and Dee Ford doesn't pan out, not to mention injuries...Get ready for a long season.

Also, I don't think anything's really settled on the O-line (yet.), and probably won't be until the middle of preseason. There's still a huge chunk of time ahead, and too much restlessness on Dorsey's behalf (which is a good thing) in trying to get additional O-line help or competition in camp.

The WR corps will look a lot different than last year. While I don't think that it'll be as competitive as the O-line situation is, it'll be interesting to see who winds up in spots # 1- 3. Again I wouldn't look to see a concrete roster for the WR's until the middle of preseason (Why tip your hand to other teams' defenses?).

[ctchiefsfan]

The biggest question mark IMHO is Dee Ford. If we're without the services of Justin Houston, Ford needs to get every rep he can to get ready for this season. If Dee Ford really develops and Houston comes back, watch out. If Houston drags this out fully, and Dee Ford doesn't pan out, not to mention injuries...Get ready for a long season.

I certainly agree with that.

Also, I don't think anything's really settled on the O-line (yet.), and probably won't be until the middle of preseason. There's still a huge chunk of time ahead, and too much restlessness on Dorsey's behalf (which is a good thing) in trying to get additional O-line help or competition in camp.

Agreed again. Good to see that Dorsey is still searching high and low for additional O-line help or at least competition. We need to get the very most we can from whatever O-line we put on the field. IMO the O-line is the key to the entire offense.

The WR corps will look a lot different than last year. While I don't think that it'll be as competitive as the O-line situation is, it'll be interesting to see who winds up in spots # 1- 3. Again I wouldn't look to see a concrete roster for the WR's until the middle of preseason (Why tip your hand to other teams' defenses?).

I too expect to see a very changed WR group.

[matthewschiefs]

Here is where we are IMO

Offense.
This is mostly up to the growth of DAT and Wilson. There is also Conley but he is a rookie. He's going to have ups and downs like any other rookie. If Wilson and DAT show growth on the promise that they showed last year and they can get Alex to turn up the aggression a bit then the Chiefs will have a very fun offense to watch with the running game we have. If not then instead of Bowe and a bunch of guys it will just be Maclin and a bunch of guys and we won't see much improvement at all. It's up to that and like any other team in the NFL injuries are key. If they can stay healthy is a must to see improvment

Defense.
Dee ford like mentioned above is key. He got on the field late in the year last year and showed some promise for sure. Like the above mentioned WRs his growth is going to be key. Anther guy I REALLY hope that they get on the field more is Allen Bailey. It has amazed me that this guy hasn't seen the field more. Whenever he plays he seems to find some way to chip in. GET HIM ON THE FIELD. Our 1st round pick is going to have to play like a 1st rounder. And Sean Smith is going to have to play at the level that he did last year if not a bit higher.

I think the Chiefs are in a good spot for the most part. We have a tough schedule but we had one last year. GROWTH of the young players is going to be the deciding factor if this team makes the playoffs or not IMO. This was the 2nd youngest team in the NFL last season and was 9-7 If they can get growth out of most of there young players then this team will be a contender that can go as far as anyone. CAN'T WAIT FOR FOOTBALL LETS DO THIS THING

[ctchiefsfan]

^^^^ A FINE POST in my opinion.

If DAT and Wilson step up in their 2cond year along with a good year from Maclin and Kelce and JC along with some better play from our O-line we could have a truly SCARY offense. As I have said more than once, our problem last year on offense was that we were one dimensional. Short passes and JC. All we need is a solid legitimate threat in 8-12 yard pass range along with a long ball threat that can't be ignored and it will take a TON of pressure off our O-line and off Alex. But if our only passing game is 0-5 yards with a prayer for YAC then we're in trouble again. Maybe I'm crazy, but if we can expand the threat our passing game represents I think we make the playoffs easily, probably win a playoff game and have at least an outside shot at a Super Bowl appearance. That said, I still think we need some serious improvement from Fisher.

On Defense....We need Houston, or if he holds out we need Dee Ford to take a HUGE step forward.

In year 1 of the Reid-Dorsey era our Chiefs WAY OUTPERFORMED my expectations. In year 2, they did pretty much what I expected....which was somewhere between 8-8 and 10-6.

A couple of "breaks", good performance by 2cond year players and minimal injuries and I think that at the very least we can break the "curse" this year.

If we don't, we need to hire a "Shaman".

[slc chief]

I think this defense could rank in the top 3 of defenses this year .Phillip gaines is supposedly being very impressive in mini camp . We get dj back Poe is playing for a new contract. And of course there is hali houston and ford. On nfl live yesterday there was a bit called the biggest jump for 2nd year players top 5 in the league. the reporter had dee ford at 4 and phillip gaines at 2. I am very excited to see this defense perform I hope they can all stay healthy

[ctchiefsfan]

I think this defense could rank in the top 3 of defenses this year .Phillip gaines is supposedly being very impressive in mini camp . We get dj back Poe is playing for a new contract. And of course there is hali houston and ford. On nfl live yesterday there was a bit called the biggest jump for 2nd year players top 5 in the league. the reporter had dee ford at 4 and phillip gaines at 2. I am very excited to see this defense perform I hope they can all stay healthy

If we stay healthy we could well have a "top 3" and Super Bowl caliber defense. Just have to get the offense up to a better level. Hopefully we've done that.

A quick point to make....As important as Houston is, I think having Hali as an opposite side threat makes Houston even better. I don't think Houston would be half as good without Hali or someone similar on the opposite end of the line. Dunno how many more years we get out of Hali, but I think Hali and Ford could be a pretty good pass rush. It's not about 1 man....it's about the team. In the event that Houston should hold out, I think we can still have a pretty potent pass rush with Ford and Hali.

And I want to once again thank Tambi Hali for deciding that it was "all about the Chiefs" rather than all about the money. I honestly hope this isn't his last year. I think he has this year and maybe another 1 or 2 left in the tank. And as long as he can pressure the QB and make tackles I want to see him doing it.

[jap1]

On the Allen Bailey comment, he was the starting DE and is pretty high up in the snap count percentage. He is right behind Poe.