Tamba Hali cracks Willie McGinest's list of Top 5 LBs in the League

Post-Practice Press Conference - 5-24-12

About his rehab... "Ooooh yea I just keep feelin better and better... To be honest with you, I've really enjoyed this process. I love a challenge."

This dude has a Ray Lewis-like passion for, and is a true student of, this game.

Kansas City Chiefs

Biggest Post-Draft Need: ‘Good’ Matt Cassel
Since our prior column, the Chiefs chose to keep Dwayne Bowe, while letting cornerback Brandon Carr depart in free agency. The Chiefs did sign Stanford Routt, formerly of Oakland, to take Carr’s place. Routt led the league in defensive pass interference penalties in 2011, but had good numbers according to our game charting project and was clearly the Raiders’ best cornerback. Meanwhile, the recoveries from injury of Jamaal Charles, Tony Moeaki, and Eric Berry all appear to be on schedule.

With Bowe still in the fold and Charles and Moeaki returning, plus the addition of Eric Winston at right tackle and guard Jeff Allen in the second round, the Chiefs should be poised to be much better on offense when they were in 2011, when they ranked 25th in passing and 30th in rushing by DVOA. The magnitude of that improvement will depend on quarterback Matt Cassel playing better than he did in 2011. Cassel has been a well below-average quarterback in two of his three seasons with the Chiefs, ranking 39th in 2011 and 37th in 2009 by DVOA. He’s performed better when the offensive personnel around him has been better, but if the Chiefs struggle offensively again in 2012, an upgrade at quarterback should become a high priority.

Important Undrafted Free Agents
Few, if any, Chiefs made it to the various lists of top undrafted free agents. Kansas tight end Tim Biere has strong local support, and the Chiefs’ interest in Dallas Clark suggests there might be room on the roster for another tight end. Defensive backs Neiko Thorpe from Auburn and Tysyn Hartman from Kansas State may have the opportunity to make the roster if they excel on special teams.

From a weakness to possibly THE #1 strength. As our OLine goes, so too does this season. Pioli talked big game about addressing the OLine, and backed up his words 10-fold.
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4. Kansas City Chiefs

LT: Branden Albert*
LG: Ryan Lilja*
C: Rodney Hudson
RG: Jon Asamoah*
RT: Eric Winston

Top reserves: G/T Jeff Allen, OG Darryl Harris, OT Donald Stephenson, C Rob Bruggeman, OT David Mims.

Overview: The Chiefs are gearing up to run one of the NFL's most smash-mouth attacks, and they have the trench talent to execute. Tackle play is an immediate strength with Albert emerging as perhaps the league's most underrated blindside blocker, and Winston joining the mix on the strong side. Asamoah is a nasty right guard whose run blocking will only improve as a second-year starter. Groomed behind Casey Wiegmann last season, Hudson is ready for prime time at center. Lilja and rookie Allen will duke it out at left guard. Depth is a concern beyond the top six linemen here, but this unit oozes potential and will likely prove to be a top-five grouping in '12.
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21. Denver Broncos

LT: Ryan Clady*
LG: Zane Beadles*
C: J.D. Walton*
RG: Chris Kuper*
RT: Orlando Franklin*

Top reserves: OT Ryan Harris, OT Tony Hills, OG Manuel Ramirez, C/G Philip Blake, OT Adam Grant.

Overview: This group's continuity is impressive considering its youth. The average age of Denver's front five will be 26 when the season starts, with Kuper (29) as the elder statesman. Concerns include Kuper's multiple offseason surgeries for a broken left fibula, Walton's inability to hold the point of attack, and a systemic overhaul. Whereas the foundation of last year's success was running the ball, Denver will become a pass-first club with Peyton Manning at the controls. Manning has a long, documented history of single-handedly improving his own pass protection, but this unit may be one of the obstacles he'll be forced to overcome in order to regain past form.
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24. San Diego Chargers

LT: Jared Gaither
LG: Tyronne Green
C: Nick Hardwick*
RG: Louis Vasquez*
RT: Jeromey Clary*

Top reserves: OT Mario Henderson, T/G Brandyn Dombrowski, G/T Steve Schilling, C Colin Baxter, C David Molk.

Overview: Marcus McNeill's shot back and Kris Dielman's abrupt if understandable early retirement leave this group in heavy transition on Philip Rivers' blind side. Gaither has talent to fortify left tackle, but comes with medical concerns of his own and the track record of a chronic underachiever. Green failed to beat out the underwhelming Vasquez for a starting job last training camp, then struggled mightily when forced to start eight games down the stretch. If Wayne Hunter is the AFC's worst right tackle, then Clary is a close second. Hardwick and Gaither can make this offensive line formidable at the two most critical positions, but otherwise it's clearly not a strength.

Hell yea I'd take Pollard as a 3rd safety

It’s hard not to be a bit skeptical that this was a truly mutual decision. (Other than Jerry Seinfeld and Janeane Garofalo, no one really has a mutual breakup.) When Elway took over the Broncos’ front office, Xanders was already in place as the general manager, but Elway’s presence as the final decision-maker on personnel moves raises the question of why a general manager was needed at all. It sounds as though Elway decided that the Broncos don’t need a general manager, and that was a decision Xanders would have to live with whether he liked it or not.

For all you armchair GMs out there.....
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The Seahawks drafted West Virginia pass rusher Bruce Irvin in the first round, and many of us invoked the dreaded r-word ("reach") because we had him listed as a mid-round value, if we had him listed at all. Don’t judge us harshly: it is hard to form a coherent opinion within a ten-minute window.
Soon after the draft, the Jets said that they would have taken Irvin if the Seahawks had not. Several teams with 3-4 schemes and defense-minded coaches apparently had Irvin high on their draft boards. Pete Carroll and Rex Ryan can both be wrong about a player, but it is a safer bet that the rest of the draft intelligentsia overlooked something, whether it was Irvin’s actual potential or the attributes that would make him appealing to coaches. (Those are not always the same thing).
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Now, after watching all of that, I would rather have Melvin Ingram or Courtney Upshaw. SackSEER was rather lukewarm on Irvin with its 11.1 sack projection, though Nathan Forster’s "boom or bust" assessment sounds accurate enough. None of us in the draftnik world are Ryan or Carroll, however, or their personnel guys. It’s not just that they have more film, more interview opportunities, and more resources. They also have a playbook. They can take Irvin and say "he will go here, here, but not here." The rest of us have to make a kind of one-size-fits-all projection. We do the best we can.
So "reach" was a strong word. Maybe we should say "specialized pick."

2. Kansas City Chiefs: B+

Vontaze Burfict, the onetime first-round prospect whose disappointing 2011 season was followed by a disastrous Scouting Combine and Pro Day, has found his NFL home in Cincinnati.

RB Gray plays wide variety of positions
by Bob Gretz, CBSSports.com

Sixth-round pick RB Cyrus Gray has been a jack of all trades in his career, including playing some quarterback, a lot of receiver, fullback, kick returner and other duties on special teams. "If they need me to play defense, I’ll be prepared," Gray said. "If you can be a jack of all trades and are willing to play, you’ll get more chances. "
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Better believe Belichick had his eye on this one.

3. Kansas City Chiefs (2008)

Starters Found: Glenn Dorsey (DE), Branden Albert (T), Brandon Flowers (CB), Jamaal Charles (RB), Brandon Carr (CB) and Barry Richardson (T)

Contributions From: Brad Cottam (TE) and Will Franklin (WR)

Best Pick: Jamaal Charles

Summary: Wow. Six starters, most of whom have been so since Day 1. Finding one cornerback in a draft is rare, but to land two starters is near impossible. That alone makes the draft successful, but factor in landing a franchise left tackle and perhaps the most dangerous running back in the league? It makes you look past how Barry Richardson has played, and gets you looking at Dorsey for what he is: a player who may have been over-drafted but has become a seriously important part of their base package.

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5. Kansas City Chiefs (2010)

Starters Found: Eric Berry (S), Jon Asamoah (G), Tony Moeaki (TE) and Kendrick Lewis (S)

Contributions From: Dexter McCluster (WR) and Javier Arenas (CB)

Best Pick: Eric Berry

Summary: Something of an asterisk on this class, because arguably the two best players have played one year’s worth of football in the NFL. Still enough was seen of Berry and Moeaki to back them, while the Chiefs also found late round starters in Asamoah and Lewis, both of whom have looked extremely comfortable on the field. Throw in Dexter McCluster and the excellent Javier Arenas (not just a fine punt returner but solid slot cornerback) and you’ve got a draft class that significantly upgraded the roster.

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Well look at that...

11. Dontari Poe – DT -Kansas City Chiefs

Believe it or not the Chiefs were not a team with that many holes in their roster entering this draft. One big hole was at nose tackle, and the Chiefs have looked to address that in the form of Poe. The former Memphis Tiger is a 345lb monster who they will expect to plug the middle of their 3-4 defense and use his strength to occupy blockers and push the pocket. Tyson Jackson and Glenn Dorsey may be seen as underachievers given their lofty draft status, but both players stuff the run as well as any 3-4 DEs in the NFL, and were 1-2 in the NFL in terms of stops vs. the run. The Chiefs’ 3-4 looks for exactly that from their D-linemen, so look for Poe to become a run-stuffing specialist.

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So, he goes from playing every single position on the line, 9-tech on down to 0, to having ONE job. Sit there in the middle and be as strong as you can be.

I think he can handle that.

Summary

When you really look at what New England does in the draft, there at times seems a staggering amount of awareness of the draft process. It’s something of a lottery, so the best way to win is to have as many tickets as possible. With 31 picks between 2008 and 2010, New England has the luxury of being able to strike out on players knowing that the percentages are in their favor that they’ll find someone to contribute. It’s why they don’t need their draft picks to succeed and why they can cut them when they no longer see value in them. You can’t argue with a strategy when it lands them the kind of class the 2010 group is shaping up to be, and you start to see why they are such a relentless machine.

Five teams didn’t allow a single touchdown off-guard this season with, again, unsurprisingly, the 49ers being in that group joined by division rival Seattle along with playoff foes Denver and Pittsburgh and the Kansas City Chiefs.
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A special mention here for the Chiefs who were fifth in the league in yards per carry allowed in spite of seeing the second-highest number of B-Gap carries last season. Only the Bills’ defense was more heavily tested, but the Chiefs D stood up to the task and did so consistently, allowing fewer than 4 yards per carry and not allowing a carry of 20 yards or more through this gap all season.
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Not surprising, given their rankings of Jackson and Dorsey as the #1 and #6 run stuffers, respectively.

Buncha stuff from Football Outsiders that I just can't find the patience to read at present...
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So far, SackSEER has fared much better with its forecasts for the edge rushers selected in the 2011 NFL Draft. It gave Von Miller one of its highest grades ever, and Miller legitimately challenged Jevon Kearse's rookie sack record before injuring his hand late in the season. SackSEER also gave solid projections to Ryan Kerrigan and Adrian Clayborn, and they both had solid opening seasons with 7.5 sacks each. It was ambivalent about Aldon Smith, who actually ended the season with more sacks than Miller, and it seems to have underprojected Jabaal Sheard and Brooks Reed a bit, but overall its level of accuracy in 2011 was consistent with its accuracy in prior years. However, because whatever gains SackSEER made with the 2011 draft class are modest in the wake of its Pierre-Paul faceplant, we've rebooted the model to create SackSEER 2.0.

Historically, Many of Them Have Been Busts

Curious, how many snaps did he play?

The Chiefs as the third worst off-tackle team in the league is not entirely surprising; the loss of Jamaal Charles was always going to be a devastating blow for the running game. For the team, Charles’ loss meant a drop off from 4.4 yards per carry off tackle to 3.5 in 2011. Charles himself in 2010 average 5.9 yards per carry compared to Thomas Jones’ 3.6. Where Jones gets exactly what the offensive line provides, Charles gets so much more. With the return of Charles this season and the addition of Eric Winston at right tackle, it would be extremely surprising to see the Chiefs this far down the list in 2012. On his last stop in Houston, the Texans averaged 5.0 yards per carry off Winston’s outside shoulder, the Chiefs averaged 2.6 yards per carry off Barry Richardson’s. That should quantify for you the big step forward the Chiefs have taken on paper at right tackle, but will that upgrade transfer to the field?

The story of Ray Edwards provides a few interesting angles to consider when chasing free agents. They may be proven at the NFL level, but there is always more to consider.

The first is schematic fit. While the Vikings and Falcons do run similar schemes in some ways, they vary in how they treat their linemen in terms of workload and deployment. Minnesota tends to line up with the same players in the same positions on as many snaps as possible, while the Falcons, in particular John Abraham, move around to rush the passer from different positions. In 2010, Edwards lined up as a defensive end on the right side of the Vikings line just five times. That’s five out of 765 snaps. In 2011 in Atlanta, Edwards spent 268 of his 732 snaps as right end … 36.6% of his game time.

Drafted out of Purdue in 2006, Edwards was just 21 at the time of the draft, and was a raw prospect that the Vikings had to spend time in developing. He slowly improved year on year to the point that in 2010 he was our eight-ranked 4-3 DE with a grade of +31.1. He notched nine sacks that season, but totaled 67 combined pressures, and only Charles Johnson brought more pressure on a per-snap basis. He was visibly uncomfortable in Atlanta when forced to move around the line, and his best two games of the season came in games where he spent most of his time rushing from his more familiar DLE spot. Over the season, he was almost twice as effective rushing from that side than from the right.

-0.5: That pick was not put to good use

Glenn Dorsey, DE (5th overall pick in 2008): Its true that Dorsey has become a solid run defender in his tenure. Yet, you expect more from a Top 5 pick who just doesn’t get much penetration as a pass rusher. A decent player, but he’s just not a great value at this point.

Barry Richardson, T (170th overall pick in 2008): On one hand, the Chiefs have gotten more snaps out of Richardson than you’d expect from a sixth round pick. However, his performance has been so bad that he’s made the team worse when he’s taken the field. The proof is in his -55.5 grade for 2,326 snaps over the past three years.

Chiefs LBs e'er'where! Love our LB corp. Take out Belcher and add in Keekly and we might be talking about the best LB corp in the league in 2012.

Profootballfocus introduces Average Depth of Target, both from receiver and quarterback perspectives.

Nothing new here for our beloved: Left and Right, top 10 and bottom 10, respectively.