Let me begin by saying that while I didn't feel it was time for Coach McDaniels to be let go, I certainly understand there is more than one way to win. So for those like me who think Josh McDaniels has what it takes to become a successful NFL coach, and for those who disagree; we should all be able to agree that Josh McDaniels is not the only coach capable of winning games in Denver. The glass is half-full, in that regardless of whether we wanted a change at the Head Coach position so soon, we also know that there are competent football minds out there that are fully capable of righting the ship.

So good luck and thank you to Josh McDaniels. I really enjoyed his passion. And I was also a big fan of his ginormous balls. I grew quick respect for his willingness to do what he thought was right with problem-child players like Jay, Brandon and Tony. Those decisions took stones big enough to carry in a wheel barrel, and while many still question those calls, I'm happy with them and wouldn't have them back.

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During the off-season I often said the Chiefs didn't do nearly enough to fix their problems. I was of the opinion that the team was action-packed with issues and that most of those issues went ignored throughout the off-season. But those kids now sit at 3-0 while each of their AFC West rivals now sit two games behind.  So what’s the deal here, are the Chiefs for real?

After the jump I’ll first hit on why I thought the Chiefs would be a bad team this year, then I’ll explain where I think they sit now based on who and how they've played.

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This is going to be a fairly short post. I've heard a lot of concerns about the Broncos run-stopping in yesterday's game, but I didn't really remember having that same concern. So I took a closer look at the numbers and thought I may as well share what I found for anyone interested... after the jump of course!

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Gentlemen, it's been a slow off-season ( we don't have Mr. Marshall's arrests to keep us entertained anymore :). Not that any of you care, yet a few maybe do (or maybe are dUE:), but I'm still planning a write on my rights and wrongs of this off-season, to pay the piper on every major prediction - and many smaller ones. I'm waiting on Doom's contract before I write it, though, so bug off :)

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Every now and again I pop off with a very lightly thought out FanPost (and even more often on comments). Well this is sort one of those, one with no foresight or statistics, and not even much of a point I want to prove. Instead, my mission here is a call-to-action. Yet, the idea isn't spontaneous; it's been bugging me for a couple days now.

Have you seen the Walter Football pre-season preview? Let me go ahead and make the jump so the cell users can skip it or click it. See you there!

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Jamal Williams is an elite nose guard anchoring the middle of our defense. The notion that he isn't what he once was is both without substance and merit. These ideas about him are simply echoed from a chamber located in Southern California. Those starting the echo chamber are a jealous enemy, nothing more. At least these are my thoughts. Let's see if I can convince you of the same...

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Half of us at MHR consider Fantasy Football to be just another couple of "F" words =) Whatevs. I play and I like it! I actually set up a local league with friends each year and thought this year I might do another one with MHR players depending on whether there's enough interest. Jump with me if you're interested.

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Happy Friday Fins. After the jump you'll find a detailed chronology of events relating to newly acquired Miami receiver, Brandon Marshall. This timeline was originally put together and posted at Mile High Report by Bosnian Bronco.

On behalf of Bronco fans everywhere, and in the spirit of a little friendly AFC rivalry, thank you very much for compensating us so well in this trade. At the rather "WTF" price of $10M per year, the Broncos got what they could for a troubled receiver they couldn't and wouldn't keep. Enjoy South Beach Brandon. Stock up on aspirin Fins fans - you'll need them.

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I just wanted to jot down a quick post to see if I could get some deas and theories on what Brandon Marshall is thinking. The theory I subscribe to leaves room for a stay of Marshall's execution and still holds to the notion that this relationship between Brandon and the Broncos has never been irreparable. I believe this marriage could still work if both parties wanted it to, but all recent signs point to divorce.

I guess we can kick those ideas around in the comments section, but the reason for the post is to see if I'm overlooking something. I want to know why Brandon all of the sudden signed his tender and kept his mouth shut - so very un-Brandon like. The obvious answer that comes to mind is that signing his tender assists in trade execution and expedience. That's probably true. A signed tender makes it easier for the team to trade him to whomever they choose - without Brandon's consent or approval. But what's in it for Brandon? Why sign it now?

My guess at the question is that a trade is imminent, one that Brandon already basically approved of, because I don't understand why else he would sign a tender that allows the team to send him anywhere they choose. Am I missing something? Could Brandon Marshall really be the kind of guy that says, "Hey, you know what, I know it would help the team if I sign this, so here it is. Get whatever value you can and send me where you want." Or is there some sort of rule that I'm aware of about needing to sign a tender before an extension? I've read the CBA and I don't recall anything like that being in there. But maybe there's some angle to it where Brandon still retains some sort of control?

I can't see it.

Unless somebody serves me a glass of get-right and shows me what I'm missing, then I'm pretty sure the man that we love to hate will be getting rained on by Friday. And we better at least get a first-rounder for it, because trading BM for BS is bull crap.

We all know all about the rule in Denver: We don't sign childish, low-character players. I like the rule; Our team is better off for it. It's a rule with few exceptions and even fewer supporters of those exceptions. And yet, I say so what. Don't count out Dez Bryant. Drafting him just makes too much sense.

Exceptions exist whenever conditions dictate that they must. Our front office needs to be flexible and bendable at times, and drafting Dez Bryant might just be one of those times. We fans might have to think outside the box to follow this one, since it seems, at least on the surface, to go against all that we know to be true; it goes against our golden rule. Or does it?

It makes my head hurt thinking about drafting Dez Bryant, but once I got outside the box (and smashed it to the ground), the stars just sort of lined up. Am I sure? No, far from it. But I think the odds are about as good as betting on black. I'm going to make the jump, so follow me there with an open mind, and I'll see if I can better illustrate why the idea has merit.

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After Emmitt brought up the idea a few days ago and after I saw Colinski's simulation this morning, I decided to try a few myself. DraftTek is the website. The basic idea is to adjust positional rankings for our team and let the simulator tell us which prospects we end up with. I simulated three mocks with brief explanations and notes, then at the end I quickly detail my rankings and summarize.

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What are our needs? Well, let's not make this complicated. Here they are..

1. Offensive line upgrades, starters and depth.

2. Linebackers.

3. Depth.

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Various opinions at MHR underline the need to build youth behind veterans, while others highlight unfilled holes. Some of us emphasize roster math while others stress key upgrades. We all discuss these things in terms of positional needs, albeit, often only to be reminded of the pipe-dream that is the draft and the rarity of achieving immediate upgrades within. Many of we contract tunnel vision for specific prospects while others just get annoyed with it (and perhaps with us). Some of us pout, some of us YELL LIKE THIS, and some are happy to just agree to disagree. Others may never get off the wall with any predictions at all.

However you contribute, whatever posts you tend to skip, skim or "rec" is of no matter. We have our own personalities and our own process. We still learn from the chatter in March, and maybe change some opinions in April.

Personally, I tend to "skim it" or "skip it" when a mock draft includes like a hundred trades. And you should feel free to do the same here, as I too am going to try and sell you on one of those long-shots. I’ll not be predicting who goes where, who trades whom (did I get the "who" and the "whom" right?), or necessarily even what we endup with. Instead, I’m going to tell you about the number 22 and the friendly numbers surrounding it. Because in my opinion, twenty-two is the epicenter of our draft…

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I used to read many, many posts and comments and mocks about going after free agents like Casey Rabach, Stephen Neal, Rex Hadnot, etc… It wasn't long ago that most everyone had Pouncey, Iupati, or both of them on their mock drafts. We all knew that the interior of our offensive line was broken, that we couldn’t get a push in goal-line and short-yardage situations. We understood that when Harris went down and Hamilton got benched, our poor depth showed its ugly teeth. That was the feeling not only shown by a silent poll, but it was the tone and the voice of most theories. The theory was that our offensive line needed fixed.

What changed?

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Many of us have been discussing the needs at offensive line lately. Emmitt Smith just published a fantastic post that details Dusin Fry and towards the end, it briefly goes into our options at offensive line. This post isn't meant to detail anything, so I recommend checking out his post for some great information relating to Fry and our other options at the interior of our offensive line. I'm only interested to see how many people would actually be confident going into the season, with nobody starting on the interior offensive line except for the guys on our roster - guys like Hochstein, Fry, Olsen, and Kuper.

Bear in mind, the draft will have come and gone before any additional knowledge is gained about our rather bleak prospects, so you know as much about a guy like Dustin Fry and Seth Olsen as their last/current teams do... that they weren't ready to start in week 17 of last year.

P.S. If you vote that you're NOT confident, you're voting that we need an immediate starter from the draft or a veteran FA. If you vote that YOU ARE confident and write a comment down on this poll... please do me the favor and list your five starters for the offensive line... if you dare =)

Please welcome elvisalex who just represented the Chiefs in a community mock draft over at Mile High Report. We'll have to do something like this soon. Here is round one, two and three from MHR.  -Joel

Mile High Report (a fellow SB Nation site) executed a three-round, MOCK Draft yesterday morning. The MOCK was live and interactive with all 32 NFL teams represented by different volunteers. An interesting aspect of this MOCK was that pre-draft trades were allowed so long as they were approved in advance and contained no player transfers or future picks being moved. I represented your Kansas City Chiefs and participated in one of the two or three trades that were finalized.

I came by yesterday to share the results with you, but Arrowhead Pride has a one day waiting period on new memberships. So I couldn't comment or post. In a way that was probably a good thing, because I've seen some comments and questions relating to picks I made, which now gives me the opportunity to try and address them in one place.

Here after the jump I'll explain the trade, then explain the thought process behind each pick. At the end, I'll go over some areas of need that I wanted to address in the draft, but ultimately couldn't. First though, I should mention a special thank you to ejruiz, staff member of MHR, for pulling off such an amazing and relatively glitch free MOCK Draft.

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Just a short couple weeks ago, I was in discussion with our own Emmitt Smith when the subject of Wesley Woodyard came up. "(He's) coming around, and I really like his upside", I opined. "In fact, he's probably my favorite underdog flavor of the year. I like the fact that he's getting all the extra reps, snaps, and attention. The guy can obviously cover and he's really fast." I went on to say that, "If he could just bulk up to around 235ish, I think he's got a real shot at becoming a very good linebacker."

I'll run back to the weight issue here after a bit, and I'll talk in more detail about both Wesley Woodyard and the recent release of Andra Davis. But first, let's see if I can nail down a thesis, of sorts, before my head implodes from going in too many directions: I think Wesley Woodyard may have just gotten his promotion from the waiver of Andra Davis. He's clearly good in coverage, but can he thump the run full-time?

With that, I'll allow you mobile users to click it or stick it, er, I mean skip it, and meet the survivors after the jump =)

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With the Brandon Marshall tender-situation thourougly exhausted, I'm forced to either hold hope that we can somehow finagle to jack up the first-round compensation for him departing, or that the terms he agrees to with another team, are attractive enough for us to match the offer.

But tomorrow is the beginning of Christmas, and since Josh McDaniels and Brian Xanders were such Rock Stars in free agency last year, I expect we should have a rainbow of a time unwrapping our gift(s) tomorrow and in the days to come.

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We don’t really run a 3-4 gentlemen; it’s more of a 5-2. I realize you’re probably very well aware of that, but I think an important aspect of that fact sometimes goes unrealized. Instead of having three or four linebackers at the second level, like in a 4-3 or a 3-4, we only have two. I know, I know, you’re thinking duh, right? Well it is pretty simple, but just think for a moment, about the limited margin of error you have when just two guys in the middle are responsible for so much.

Although most of you know that I’m all aboard the McClain Train, that’s absolutely not where I’m going with this write. I’ll wait on that puff-piece until after we know if we still need an ILB after free agency hits us in the mouth. So this post, here after the jump, will be limited to my thoughts on why we need an upgrade in the middle, wherever and however we can manage it. See you mobile users there!

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The combine is comming up in just a short couple weeks, which should keep us all pretty busy ooohing and aaahhing, and putting our man crushes & mock drafts in overdrive. After that, free agency opens on March 5th, which iif it's anything like last year, we should expect to see Josh make moves like Napolean Dynamite. Should be pretty fun to watch.

Yet, expecting two weeks of quiet wouldn't necessarily be accurate, because more important than March 5th might be March 4th, 20 days from now. It's the deadling to which each team must have their one-year tenders offered to restricted free agents. Any RFA's not tendered by then become UFA's. So these tenders could start comming at any time.

And let's not forget about the unrestricted guys either. By my count, we've got about ten UFA's. Without action, these guys hit the open market with no strings attached to Denver come March 5th. So some decisions will soon need be made on guys like Hochstein, Holliday, Hamilton and Tony Carter. Ryan McBean will likely happen very soon, and others will probably walk without much thought given.

So with action seemingly so immenent, I figured it was now or never to sing my swan song, to get off the fence and make some solid projections of how we deal with these guys. I'm not sure you necessarily care about what I think, but this is also something for me to later look at to evaluate my own judgments. With accountability from clear porjections, hopefully I can learn from mistakes and look to future improvement.

I'm not going to go into the draft aspect, but rather just detail what course I see likely with each of our restricted/unrestricte/exclusive rights free agents. I still may change my opinions, but tomorrow could be too late, so for the sake of my own learning I'm willing to jump the gun just a bit.

Speaking of jump, here next, I'll detail likely actions for the key players, then briefly take a stab at the lesser key guys that may require action over the comming weeks.

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But... the signing bonuses required could have Mr. B shaking his head in the no-no direction.

The salary cap is a fluid and complex concept. It can, and often is, manipulated to meet goals, both short term and long term. Salary cap standings and cash being spent won’t necessarily see eye to eye. And without a forensic accountant, attempting to discern where the Broncos stand based on past salary cap numbers is nearly impossible. It would require too many opinions and variables, and that would undermine the results.

The goal here is to understand how much actual cash we already have committed to current players next year. This should give us a very good idea of how much we’ll be asking Mr. Bowlen to come out of pocket with this year. Additionally, by using each players total contract amount and dividing by years in that contract, we should be able to get an idea of how the average expenditures meet up with this upcoming 2010 season.

The warning here, is that it still requires some interpretation and additional thinking. You shouldn’t look at our committed cash flow and assume we’ve got a boat load left to spend. You should take into account 2010 draft choices, and a lot of free agents that won’t be cheap.

The chart after the jump is a list of salaries due to each player next year, those numbers in the "Out of Pocket 2010 Salary" column are very accurate. Those are the numbers that a player can expect on his actual paycheck. They won't change unless we restructure a players contract (e.g. Champ Bailey) The "Pro-Rated 2010 Salary" column, on the other hand, is simply the overall contract amount (including bonuses) averaged out equally per year for the life of the contract. This basically serves as the "cap" number, but without all the manipulations.

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This post is a little different from posts I've done in the past, as it's really just more of a question.

Affordability. We've all been talking and mocking for weeks now about FA moves, trades, and signings. I think we're all working on the assumption of an uncapped year. So with no cap numbers to worry about and no dead money to factor in... what's our payroll look like right now? Actual cash flow. What was the average of actual cash paid out last year? What does it average? More importantly, where is a good place to look at these types of things, contract structures, etc..

It's pretty hard to even make an educated guess at who we sign/resign if we don't have a target number to look at. We're looking at extending some key guys who are going to want tens of millions in guarantees and up front bonuses. I'm hoping someone can point me in a direction so I can start learning about some of these numbers.

Since the 2000 draft, only two linebackers have been drafted in the top eight, AJ Hawk in 2006 and Aaron Curry last year. Aside from the obvious trend of drafting QB's, linemen, and the flashy skill positions early, there's also a financial aspect to why teams don't like to draft linebackers early. 

To put into perspective the financial risk that comes along with drafting an early LB... the unproven Aaron Curry signed a contract that averages him over $11M per year - more than Rey Lewis, Brian Urlacher, Karlos Dansby, and pretty much everybody alse except for James Harrison who got a $10M signing bonus last year. Yes, all top rookies are overpaid, but Curry is pretty close to the highest paid linebacker in the entire NFL. And how did that work out for the Seahawks last year?

So the question becomes this: Would a team, like say the Chiefs at #5, buck the anti-early-linebacker trend and agree to lock in McClain as potentially the highest paid linebacker in the NFL, and the highest paid rookie linebacker to ever play the sport... both present and future (new rookie pay scale all but a certainty for the next season played)?

I'll leave you with that for a moment while I give a little mock of team needs for the top-ten in this year's draft - just those teams ahead of us. I hope you'll read it before the poll.

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 So I was thinking about Brandon today, and no, not in a gay way, more like in an enigmatic way. Pondering questions more than answers, yet hopeful that somehow the light would just flip on. It was as if I was somehow hoping to crack the encrypted code code and finally see clearly the fine print and the last words in the Marshall Plan. Obviously that didn't happen. But I did come up with a question. Where in the world is Kennard McGuire, Brandon's agent?

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Last year our Broncos transformed the defense, upgrading all three levels while making the secondary the shining star of the group. We upgraded at running back, added depth and youth elsewhere on the team, and arguably upgraded the consistency at the QB position, too. It is NOT overly optimistic to think we can achieve multiple upgrades again this off-season, albeit in different areas and in a largely different manor.

It may be an understatement to say that last year’s immediate upgrades were found more so in free agency than through drafting. But due to a rather thin talent pool in this year’s free agency class - and a good portion of that group being restricted - we may have to go the opposite route this time around. We need to get creative and draft extremely well.

I'm going to try to get all fancy with pictures this time and maybe try to sell you on a trade idea, so I hope you'll meet me after the jump and give me your thoughts!

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