Where are we going?

[stevefuller]

The king is DEAD and the Hermhaters are hard.
Thus starts the Pioli and Haley era in KC.

First off, i'ld like to start with Matt Cassell.Everyone is like we have our first franchise QB since Lennie.(Now don't forget about Steve Fuller) Dawson.Do we? Come on i want to believe as much as anyone else but i've got to ask myself. Do we?

Cassell is inexperienced and coming to a new team, with a new offensive system, who's most dependable reciever is Bobby Engram. D Bowe's hands have alot to be desired not to mention his extra 30 lbs( Is that really true?). He will struggle and when he does he is going to be ROASTED! My question is how will he respond?

I like Cassell. I wish him the very best.We will see what he's made of soon.

Secondly, we have decided to keep the second biggest cancer this side of TO....LJ. LJ likers if there are any left. You know who you are. "But what about those two great seasons?" What about them? They came with one of the better OL is recent history and before LJ got paid. Would i like to be wrong here and have you all say to me in a season or two. I told you so. Yes i hope that you can. Just don't hold your breathe ok.

Jamaal Charles should make big plays in Haley's offense.
Little swing passes with everyone clearing out has worked the last to seasons in Arizona.( I know we have to be able to clear it out. )Really like JC on kickoff returns would like to see him fulltime at that position if LJ plays fulltime. Big iff's eh?

Lastly, the o-line needed help we got Mike Goff. Servicable yes. The answer no. We kept Brian Waters( who by the way was way out of line going to Kc and strutting through the greatest stadium in the world as if the team owed him something) even know he wants out of town.

What i'm confused about is that Pioli and Haley have stated over and over that they "only want players that want to be in Kansas City" right?Why is Waters still here we should have trade him away along time ago if what they say is true. I still like BW. Lost some respect for him. I understand that he's frustrated. That gives him no right to act like he is acting. I think his weight is up and his skills are down. You got to call them like you see them. Right?

With 50 million to spend Goff is the only o-lineman brought in. Jason Brown was a no brainer to sigh and start at center.Without getting silly with this.
I'll show you the line i had hoped for.

Monroe(LT)Waters(LG)Brown(C)Alberts(RG)Andrews(RT)

Andrews being Stacey who signed with Philly. OK. It has felt great to get some of this out there and talk about.
I'll start with the WR's, TE's and Special Teams. Please give me feed back.

Go Chiefs!!

[pbatrucker]

We heard the same thing earlier in the year. A lot of people wanted Pioli to open up the purse and sign every big name free agent available. If you lok up Pioli's past, he builds teams thru the draft, signs a couple of aging free agents that fits his system to fill the holes.
he had to sign more aging veterans here than normal this year because of the team he was left with. Was I hoping for a RT and Center in free agency or the draft, YES. Bottom line is Pioli has a plan, lets just hope it's the one that will work. Go Chiefs!!!

[Lazeye]

Yes I am a supporter of LJ and I do think Haley can relight the fire in him. As far as what we do in the offseason I put my faith in the front office. Our town can be hard on the team at times but this is the time to show our new crew how much we can support them and to give them their chance.

[jmlamerson]

Brown would have been a great signing at $4M/year. The Rams overpaid him at $8M/year. Only a bad GM ties up 8% of his cap in his C.

Monroe would have been a good pick at #3, but Pioli and Haley thought it a better move to shore up our miserable run defense with Jackson. Which is the correct decision, I think.

Charles will get 5-6 touches a week, but he's Kevin Faulk (at best), not Brian Westbrook. He doesn't have the stamina or health to be an every down back. And he was miserable on returns in 2008. He will probably lose the job to Lawrence in 2009.

We saw what Cassel was made of in 2008, when the overrated Pats line got him sacked the most in the league. He still won 11 games. Everyone's too hard on Bowe. He's had has-beens and journeymen throwing him the ball off-target for the past two years, and he's still putting up 1000/yards a season. He'll be great with a real QB. Engram and Bradley aren't great WRs, but they'll be OK in the three- or four-WR sets well be running most of next season.

We kept LJ because we need a big back to grind down the clock. Our defense is still too poor to be on the field
long. A big back will help us control the clock. LJ was our best option, and because he'll be motivated as his salary is not longer guarenteed.

[Chief Tyler]

1. Bowe has always been a bigger player. He stands at an inch or two over 6 feet and played last year at around 230. I can believe that he might have put on a few pounds over the offseason, but I bet Haley gave us the 20-30 pound weightloss figure to get him down to a more typical weight. He's been more of a bruiser and less of a burner, plus, he played under Herm for 2 years, any longer and this team would have turned into a bunch of FatDale Whites. Also, if you question his hands for the next season, you shouldn't be too worried. Go watch a few of his highlight reels and you'll see badly placed and underthrown balls all too often, he's only going to get better with Haley and a consistent QB.

2. Most of the big name free agents ended up in big contracts, bigger than what was reasonable for the Chiefs to pay. You go out for big name free agents when you're trying to make a serious SB run, not when you're trying to fix 3 years of destruction.

3. LJ has a reason to play again, 'nuff said. Smith and Savage are going to get work too, but like Lamerson said, we need a consistent offense to keep the d off the field.

4. Monroe would have been a decent pick but you can't fix everything in one draft. I just wish we could have turned the Tony G trade into something for this year, maybe getting a guy like Loadholt for the RT, but with how the news sounds coming out of KC, I bet our line is better than expected. Waters is a pro, he'll shut his mouth and play, it sounds like Albert is going to be 10x the player he was last year, Goff is going to help and we could be stuck with worse than MacIntosh.

In the end, I think Haley and friends are going to make a bunch of the players that have been here for the past few years a lot better just because of his method.

[stevefuller]

Thanks for the feedback people.
It's good to be talkin KC Chiefs football.
Derrick Thomas goes to the hall in 13 days eh?

As far as, building through the draft.
I was not a supporter of the 2009 draft. With the exception of getting Cassell and Vrabel( who by the way is he retiring or what?) with our second round pick.
I am no way saying these picks will be better than Pioli's picks. I just would have gone with a lot different draft.

Tyson may work out for us. He'll never be a Pro Bowler and i believe when you pick 3rd overall you need a Franchise type/Pro Bowler.(E Monroe ,A Curry or even Crabtree).
2nd round- I wanted Alex Mack...he never made it that far anyway.You can't beat Cassell at that spot right?
3rd round- Alex McGee. I've watched several Purdue games recently they aired them on the Big Ten Network.
I was'nt really impressed with him. I know he was out of position at DE. It showed.I like Jarron Gilbert in the third over McGee. What i really liked was the recievers that where still available.Derrick Williams, Brandon Tate or Mike wallace.
4th- Donald Washington.Boom or bust.That's for sure.He's soft as hell.I liked Lawrence Sidbury-OLB or Shawn Nelson-TE.
5th-Colin Brown.Does this mean they don't like Barry Richardson? I would have went speed....returner extra reciever.Johny Knox.But if your going o-line what about Duke Robinson,Herman Johnson or Jamon Meredith?

Sorry...i got of track there for a couple minutes.
Every year you can say you wanted certain other players.Right? Time will tell. I do not support this draft class at all. Oh by the way, how many first day picks have we used on our defensive line over the last 6 years? Answer. To freakin many.

Another question.What's the deal with Dorsey?
Tell me he's not another Ryan Simms.Please!!!!!!

Hoping you are right about LJ. I did'nt reralize his money isn't guarenteed. Interesting.

Talk to you all soon i hope.

Go Chiefs!!

[jmlamerson]

Thanks for the feedback people.
It's good to be talkin KC Chiefs football.
Derrick Thomas goes to the hall in 13 days eh?

As far as, building through the draft.
I was not a supporter of the 2009 draft. With the exception of getting Cassell and Vrabel( who by the way is he retiring or what?) with our second round pick.
I am no way saying these picks will be better than Pioli's picks. I just would have gone with a lot different draft.

Tyson may work out for us. He'll never be a Pro Bowler and i believe when you pick 3rd overall you need a Franchise type/Pro Bowler.(E Monroe ,A Curry or even Crabtree).
2nd round- I wanted Alex Mack...he never made it that far anyway.You can't beat Cassell at that spot right?
3rd round- Alex McGee. I've watched several Purdue games recently they aired them on the Big Ten Network.
I was'nt really impressed with him. I know he was out of position at DE. It showed.I like Jarron Gilbert in the third over McGee. What i really liked was the recievers that where still available.Derrick Williams, Brandon Tate or Mike wallace.
4th- Donald Washington.Boom or bust.That's for sure.He's soft as hell.I liked Lawrence Sidbury-OLB or Shawn Nelson-TE.
5th-Colin Brown.Does this mean they don't like Barry Richardson? I would have went speed....returner extra reciever.Johny Knox.But if your going o-line what about Duke Robinson,Herman Johnson or Jamon Meredith?

Sorry...i got of track there for a couple minutes.
Every year you can say you wanted certain other players.Right? Time will tell. I do not support this draft class at all. Oh by the way, how many first day picks have we used on our defensive line over the last 6 years? Answer. To freakin many.

Another question.What's the deal with Dorsey?
Tell me he's not another Ryan Simms.Please!!!!!!

Hoping you are right about LJ. I did'nt reralize his money isn't guarenteed. Interesting.

Talk to you all soon i hope.

Go Chiefs!!

First question last, I don't know if Dorsey is a bust, but I'm pretty sure if he succeeds it will be on another team. He was undersized (height and weight) as a 4-3 DT. He's just as undersized as a 3-4 DE, and he isn't comfortable in the position. It's too heavy of a cap hit to cut him or trade him in 2009. But we may try in 2010.

The Chiefs were in a no win position this draft. We desparately, desparately wanted to trade down, but couldn't find someone else to trade up. Pioli isn't going to draft a WR this high, and didn't like Raji (a guy I loved). This gave us the option of (1) drafting Monroe; (2) drafting Curry; or (3) drafting Jackson.

Haley/Pioli obviously think Albert can handle the left side, it was too early to draft a RT, and it isn't their style to draft OL high. And $10M/year is too much money to give to a LB who doesn't rush the passer like Curry. Jackson was our only real choice. We needed someone who could help our terrible run defense, and he was the best option. Magee was brought in for the same reason in the 3rd - he was the best available 3-4 DE, and we need one to help our run defense.

Washington is boom or bust. I understand the pick (they want a big, fast CB who can play one-on-one). But I thought too that we had bigger needs. Sidbury would have been a good pick here.

Colin Brown is a project, and may be moved to OG when Waters or Goff retire. There was obviously something wrong with Duke Robinson - he was a projected 2nd rounder who dropped to the 6th round.

In all, I liked most of our draft. It was built to give the Chiefs a run defense and some skill depth. That's it. We weren't going to win anything ever until we got a run defense. And we weren't banking on drafting starters in the 5th through 7th rounds - unlike the Herm years.

And yeah, less than two weeks until Derrick's a HOFer.

[KottkeKU]

thats too bad we switced to the 3-4, i thought Dorsey would have been a pretty special player in that scheme...now we have to waste a year of his and our time just to show him off and not take as big a cap hit for a trade in 2010...i thought Jackson was the best choice as well, but i think Raji is going to be a bust...i also very much agree with the part about Branden Albert being TONS better this year...

[texaschief]

We've gotta spend something like $10million just to get over the salary cap floor. If they could upgrade their O-line and draft next season by trading Dorsey, I think they should do it. One team that would DEFINITELY love Dorsey is the Detroit Lions. They've got Cunningham who was probably the loudest voice in the war room begging for Dorsey in 2008. The Bucs are another team that runs the 4-3 who will be looking for a DT next April. Seattle and Tennessee are a couple of other options especially with the Titans losing Haynesworth this season.

Perhaps a trade like:
2009 1st, and other conditional picks based on the team's finishing record.

Perhaps a starting OL depending on the age.

for

DT-Glenn Dorsey (5th pick 2008)



While I understand the argument of the "cap-hit," I don't think a $17.6mil hit would necessarily be a snag for the Chiefs who already have to spend more than $10mil just to clear the cap floor. Not to mention, it looks like the NFL is heading toward an un-capped year in 2010.

I think the biggest reason the Chiefs haven't pulled the trigger on a Dorsey trade is because they think he can be a big contributer to this team. Pendergast is known for his creativity and he's not going to allow opposing teams to peg the Chiefs as a strictly 4-3 or 3-4 defense. The Chiefs are going to need Dorsey when they run that 4-3. I wouldn't be shocked if he had a monster year.

[jmlamerson]

Perhaps a trade like:
2009 1st, and other conditional picks based on the team's finishing record.

Perhaps a starting OL depending on the age.

for

DT-Glenn Dorsey (5th pick 2008)

Unless Jim Schwartz spent most of the offseason huffing glue, he's not making that trade. He likes big, run-stuffing DTs, not small ones, and the Lions aren't trading a (probably) top-5 pick in 2010, more picks, and a starting OL for a guy who was blown up most running downs in 2008.