Everyone is always making mocks and defending their picks only to find out (usually) that we were all mostly wrong in who the team actually selects. I mean some are so DOWNS on anyone except for DeCastro that they don't even chime in much about other players. (I know you saw what I did).

I propose something different. Let me begin by saying that I don't know the last time that there have been so many great posts in the offseason. Hopefully this will be just as interesting. What I want to do is instead of us listing our favorite players and why we like them is to play the Devil's Advocate so to speak.

Let's take the absolute last player we hope or think the Chiefs would pick and tell why they could possibly be chosen.

I will start, but let me give my disclaimer. As many of you know, I get most of my information from Path to the Draft, so I don't necessarily have too many players that I do not want to see in a Chiefs uniform. So what I will do is take a player that many others have thoroughly expressed never seeing in Arrowhead, even as a visitor. (Hopefully we don't have a list of the same 1 or 2 people.)

Let me start with Dontari Poe.

Ahhh. The combine king of 2012. He put up gaudy combine numbers for a man his size. Dude is a straight up freak. I know, I know, his game tape is........misunderstood? Ok. I am in Memphis and I know that he didn't quite dominate the competition as many of us thought he should, but, I can honestly say that he he lacked something that is very important to a players development. Coaching. To say that our coaching situation (U of M) sucked all to hell would be the understatement of the year. And the team as a whole was probably even worse. If there is one thing we have here in KC, it's coaching. Many refer back to yester-year and the horrible drafting we had under King Carl in his latter years. And while the drafts weren't the best, we lacked developpmental coaching. Very few players improved during their time here. And I won't even get into the Lawrence Tynes and Kawika Mitchells who left and became much better players. They improved arguably because of better coaching. We are in a good position, a unique position if you will. We have the privilege to draft without having to draft for need.

We could even take on a project. And did I mention that as of right now, regardless of what happens with the other Powe, we still need a NT.

I mean how awesome would it be for the opposing QB to be chased down by the Poe Powes?

Powe is almost 350 on paper, can move faster than many of the LBs we have had in the past. The things you can't teach, he has in spades. And how often have we looked at Baltimore and thought how awesome it would be to have Haloti Ngata? Who is in the draft or the league for that matter is closer to Ngata's intangibles than Poe?

If we draft him in the 1st and he doesn't pan out, then we haven't lost a lot. Many other positions could be effectively filled later in the draft, and with the new pay scale, we don't lose out like we used to. When we weigh the pros and cons, there are more pros than cons. Besides, anyone could be a bust, even Luck or RGIII. No one can guarantee that those two will be successful just as no one can guarantee that that Poe will not be an awesome NT.

The question is if a player could reach their top potential, who has a higher ceiling at a position of need than Poe?

Wow. That was fun. I almost convinced myself. I really don't believe that we would take Poe in the 1st, but I will be happy with whoever is selected because again, I believe in the brass. I think that I have to throw my hat into the Decastro Rink so far. I would love for us to maul every other defense.

Ok. Let's have at it. Who do you hate, and why should we take him?

Ok. Some of you old vets might be shocked to see a post from me during this part of the season. I usually lay low until the draft is over. Why? Oh, there are several reasons.

For one, I do not watch very much college football, so I usually don't know many of the players pre-combine.

And hopefully I don't offend anyone, but I don't really see the point in the mocks because in the end, the brass is going to do whatever they want. So I normally just wait until after the draft, then I research the players we selected. I personally think Pioli is one of the best (if not the best) at drafting talent in the game. Therefore, I trust any move that they make (hey, what choice do I have anyway?). Yeah, we have had some busts (Alex Magee anyone?), but what he pulled off last year should have impressed even the biggest critics. And if the players reach their potential, that draft could go down as one of the best in Chiefs History. Anyway, I just expect his drafts to continue to improve as he gets more time to put his stamp on everything.

But this year, something is different.

Continue reading this post »

There have been several posts and plenty of talk about the Chiefs signing Peyton Manning. Some of you want Manning more than anything. I personally would rather us trade up for RGIII unless certain things turn out to be true. The one thing that seems to ring true for most all of us is that we all want to make a move at QB. Matt Cassel seems like such a good guy, and that makes it so hard to not want him to be QB. And when you throw his story into the mix,......well, let's just say that I am a sucker for a good story. Either way, we need change.

Then there is Orton. I am a supporter of us signing Orton. I am a part of the camp that believes that Orton has never been in an optimal situation. I know he statistically wasn't great in his 3 starts, but I like what I saw and have seen in the past. I believe that he can really move the offense after he has developed more chemistry.

Now to Peyton Manning.

While I have been checking AP, it is usually late at night after all of the good debate and commenting is over. So I want to throw my 2 cents in.

I am afraid of Peyton Manning. You want to know why?

Continue reading this post »

Ahh, I can hear it now. "Here we go again." "Isn't this like the last post?"

And no it's not. Let me go on record for those who misinterpreted the last post. I was not coming down on fans for saying anything negative about the Chiefs. I was not coming down on anyone who doesn't agree. I was being nostalgic for the old AP and just stating my opinion of fandom so to speak. We had a great discussion. Some of us agreed to disagree (MN). We saw posters I thought were long gone make triumphant returns. And at the end of the day, that was as close as AP had been to the "old" AP in a long time.

During that process, I read comments about How saying "what makes a good fan" is wrong, and some people admitting to being negative fans (which I can respect). The point was made that fans are negative because right now, the Chiefs organization is in flux. We as fans are negative because of the negativity going on. Those are valid points, and they got me thinking. Are We the Problem?

More after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

Let me begin by telling you how I found AP. I am in Bartlett TN so let's just say that Chiefs fans and games are pretty sparse around here. I was always trying to find any information I could about the Chiefs. Yeah, I had the mothership, but that was usually about it. Most of the time I was searching, I was searching at work (the internet helped the time go by). Everytime I searched for anything Chiefs related (whether at home or work), AP came up.

More after the jump

Continue reading this post »

I turned on NFL Network this afternoon and they were talking about Tony Sparano getting fired. I was a little shocked that they fired him before the season ended, but I knew it was coming. What I could not believe was when I scanned the side of the screen to see what was coming up next and I saw Chiefs next Coach as a topic. I thought to myself "that's an odd topic". Then I looked down and saw Todd Haley was fired.

I was completely shocked. I thought that Haley would have at least made it to next season. Why you ask?

Continue reading this post »

 If this is too short for some to be a fan shot, I apologize now.  Now that we have gotten that out of the way I have a question.  

I have seen so many posts about tanking the season to get Luck.  I personally am not able to hope the team loses.  That is just not in me.  If that is where you are, I respect your opinion.  

I have heard several people make the legitimate argument that Luck is not guaranteed to be a great QB at the pro level.  But another point that I haven't heard made yet is  even if we tank the season and get the 1st pick in the draft (which I would hate) what guarantee do we have that Pioli would draft Luck?

I am not going to pretend that I know what he would do, but we know that he usually doesn't pick the person he is expected to pick.  In fact, he is so unpredictable that when he did pick the person most people felt he should choose, it was still a huge shock (Eric Berry).

I haven't done any in depth research, but I don't know if Pioli has drafted a QB in the first round.  If he has, I know it's not the norm for him.  So what happens if we tank the season and Pioli pulls a "Pioli" and drafts someone not named Luck?

I have been really busy lately, but I do take the time to read AP to keep track of what is going on.  I know that ToMo (Moeaki) is on IR, and now I hear rumors that Cassel has possible rib damage.  I have read many of the posts and some of us are ANGRY, and rightfully so.  

My question is  "Is this all Haley's fault?"

Continue reading this post »

Let me begin by saying that this post is not intended to be negative.  Please refrain from using this post to vent about our loss where many of the starters saw no action and the play calling was as vanilla as it gets.

With that said, what stood out to you tonight about our Chiefs?

Several things stood out to me.

1.  Yeah, Powe is going to be a monster nose tackle for us.  He was strong at the point of attack even while being double teamed.

2.  Jackie Battle is gone.

3.  Stanzi is going to be a good qb.  He made some pretty good decisions (other than not sliding) while under heavy pressure.

4. Baldwin and Bailey are HUGE.

What did you learn from our first preseason game?

I just saw Joel's post about Charles not being in someone's top 5 running backs.  This leads into a series I wanted to start, but just didn't get to. If the response is good, I would like to do it with all positions.

Continue reading this post »

Ok.  This will be short and sweet.  If there were no Chiefs all of a sudden, who would your favorite team be as of right now.  I say as of right now because other than my main teams, I usually like players more than teams, so my allegiance will travel for 2nd place.  

Anyway, who would your team be?, and why?

For me, I believe that I would like the ....... Patriots.  

I am a big Tom Brady fan, and I love teams that can make something out of nothing so to speak.  They take the guys that no one else wants and they turn them into pro bowlers.  Now I know about spy gate, and I didn't like that at all, but other than that, I love the organization.  They are consistently in the playoffs, and they lose Moss and win 14 games.  I believe that we are on the way to doing that here.  Anyway, that would be my team.

Which team would be your team?

I don't watch a lot of college football, so I usually don't know very many of the players that are coming out.  I usually wait until the draft, and then research who ever it is that we draft.  

This season I have paid closer attention and I know about a few more players than usual.  I know that there are so called top five players, but we all know that 1 unexpected pick can change the whole dynamic of the draft.

My question:  If we could get any player in the 1st, who would you want and why?

I had 2 players that I really liked, so I had to make a tough decision.  The runner up is Patrick Peterson.  I think he is so good that you don't have to have a need to draft him.  Put him with Flowers, Carr, and Arenas, and we should be set for years at corner.

Now to my choice.  I would love for us to have Von Miller.  Wow.  That is all I could say while watching him.  An actual 3-4 LB that idolizes DT?  I would love for Miller to fall to us.  But enough about me.  Who do you want regardless of our draft position?

I just had a thought.

We have all had our opinions on how Matt Cassel would play if we had a line that could buy him time, and most importantly (because the o-line is much better) how he would fare with great receivers.

This weekend, we will get a small glimpse of How Cassel could play if he had say.....Andre Johnson or Reggie Wayne.

We will also see how he does with a fleet of good receivers instead of just 1.  I hope that he gets lots of reps out there.

On the same token, we will get to see what happens when Peyton Manning is throwing to D-Bowe.

Again, I know this will not give any permanent answers, but it will be interesting to see.  Plus, Eric Berry will hopefully get to pick Ed Reed's brain.

I am so excited that we have actual Probowlers again that I can't wait for the probowl.

This is in response to an earlier fan post that brought up the situation where Haley pulled Cassel for Brodie.  I want to say that we have no idea why he really pulled Cassel, but I think that it was typical of the the regime as a whole.   

Continue reading this post »

In no particular order, I would like to point out some things that I noticed about our Chiefs.  There are so many emotions right now.  We got a straight up Beat Down Yesterday.  I didn't get to watch the game, so you can imagine how shocked I was when I found out the outcome.  I was a little shocked that we lost because as long as the majority of our team is in tact, I believe that we have as good of a chance to win as anyone.  What staggered me was the score.  A goose egg.  I honestly can't remember the last time that I saw a team put up zero points.  Wow.

This loss brought up so many issues amongst us fans that I wanted to jump in and give my 2 cents.  Let's Go.

Continue reading this post »

I hope no one has done this already.  I hope that we all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  I know I did.  We are all alive, many have wives and children (I hope you're thankful for your wives and kids :)  ), and there is so much for us to be grateful for.  God has blessed me and my family.  I was thinking, and as Chiefs fans, we have ALOT to be thankful for.  Lets jump.....

Continue reading this post »

Wow.  I have been reading through the posts and it is just amazing some of the things that I am reading.  It is staggering how many of the fans who planned on us losing seem so disappointed.  And the complaining and whining is comical.

Let me tell you what I got out of the game.

Continue reading this post »

I just want to acknowledge what has been happening with our Chiefs so far this season.  Obviously, we are  2-0.  Many nay sayers and analysts still are not giving us any respect.  That's fine by me, I would much rather take it.

We won the first game because it rained on the Chargers.

Even though very few of the analysts that I saw picked us, we beat Cleveland because they are the Browns.  We should have beat them according to some of the press.

Well I say that we are a good team, and I base this on a phrase that I have found to be very true over the years.

Continue reading this post »

I tried to use the jump, but I cant get it to work.  With that said.......

This will probably shock many of you........but it shouldnt.  The most important new additions to the Chiefs are the staff and the coaches, starting with Pioli.  The man is a football genius.  He is making changes that we have needed to make for a long time.  He brought in our other most important additions in Weis and Crennel.  Even Haley.  We have coaches now.

I know that many of you are saying no, no, Eric Berry is the most important addition, Thomas Jones is the most important addition...No.

We have always had talent, but we have never been able to get over the hump.  

Most all of our great players were great before we got here.  We rarely if ever developed low round draft talent into stars.  Yes we had Jared Allen, but he was not a low round talent.  Off the field issues hurt him.

Good coaches are supposed to do 3 things....

1.  TEACH

We have some very undisciplined players, which is expected because many of our major contributors are very young.  A coaches job is to teach Page how to take a good tackling angle.  A good coach will teach Belcher, D. Williams, and Leggett to not over pursue.  A good coach will teach an O line and a D line to use proper technique along with your natural abilities on EVERY play.  A good coach will teach Carr to always know where the ball is.

A good coach will teach a player the correct way to play, and to play that way on every play.  This statement leads me to the next thing.

2. DISCIPLINE

Our player had gotten used to making errors, and nothing happening.  DJ had gotten comfortable missing sure fire tackles and surefire sacks.  Macintosh had gotten used to getting beat around the edge.  Our QB's had all gotten used to running for their lives because the oline was never all doing their jobs at the same time.   Our team had gotten used to coming straight from the buffet to training camp.  Bowe, and every other receiver we have had in the last few years had gotten used to dropped passes.  

Could it possibly be that our staff wasnt pushing receivers hard enough?  How is it that Amani Toomer, Bobby Ingram, Bobby Wade got to KC and all of a sudden had drop problems?

Enter Haley.

Haley has been criticized for disciplining players.  Derrick Johnson should have been benched years ago.  Yeah, I said it.  I know many people think  "He shouldnt be benched, he's our best LB!"  Yeah.  That's what he thinks too, and that 's how he plays.  

He shouldnt have made Bowe fight his way from 3rd string.

"He is too hard on they players making them lose all of that weight and do all of that running.  "HIs coaching style is abusive"  to out of shape, lazy millionaires who could never play well enough to actually earn the amount of money they have been blessed to receive.

"But he yells at them?"  They are freaking NFL football players.  This isn't youth sports.  You don't like being yelled at, do your job.

Good coaches don't play talent, they play the players who follow directions, and do what they are supposed to do.   Hopefully, that is your most talented player.  The most talented player is useless too far out of position.  Haley is doing everything he can to give players the best opportunity for them to be the best that they can be.    

This leads me to the final job of a coach.

3. MOTIVATION

A good coach can motivate players (to a certain degree) to make them want to do and be better.  Dj has got to want to be the LB we all know that he can be.  How many times have we seen him get a great jump, show great speed and instinct, get his hands on the guy, and then........miss the tackle.   Yeah, too many.

A player has to be motivated on his own in order to succeed, but we have coaches that make players WANT to be the best that they can be.  These guys are being paid miliions, but they are still human.  The NFL is still their job.  We all could use some motivation on our jobs every now and again.

I am 30 yrs old, and as far back as I can remember I have been a Chiefs fan.  I don't think that we have ever been in a position like this since I have been alive.

We have the GM, we have what I believe is going to be a great coach, we have offensive masterminds, we have arguably the best, not only offensive coordinators, but defensive coordinator also.  Yes I mean coordinatorS.  Im counting Haley as well.

We also have a much better staff in my opinion.

We are getting the players.  And I gurantee you that we already have some of the players, we just didnt have someone who could get the best out of them.

This is a great time to be a Chiefs fan. 

I didnt think that it would be possible, but the Cowboys didn't put the tag on Austin.  He just turned into the receiver I want the most.  He is one of the very few Cowboys players that I like.

Austin is only 25 years old, he is fast, strong, has good hands, and who knows better than we do that he is hard to bring down?

Someone correct me if Im wrong, but I believe that Haley Coached him for 1 year. 

He caught for over 1300 yards and 11 TD.

Hey we put him on the map, so it is only right.  Feed back please.

I know that he's not, but I would like to point something out to everyone who was saying that the only reason Cassel had the record he had last year in New England was because of the team... As of today, the best Brady can do is to match Cassel's record last season in New England.  And Brady has all of his offensive weapons.   Im not saying that Cassel is going to be the best QB ever, and I agree he had a dismal performance today. But lets at least give him a fair shot, and a full season.  The truth is, Brady could come here right now and he probably would not do much better.  It is just always funny to watch people panic at the first sign of trouble.  We will not be there this year, but we are on the way.

I have been listening to lots of complaining about the players, the coach, the play calling, the record, among other things.  I have had my complaints as well, but I love what we have and where we are going.  Do we realize that for the  first time in years we are moving up again?  Even in the Vermeil days we were still on a decline because everyone was old.  There was no where to go except down,.......and that's where we went.  Now we have a team with a good red zone percentage, a team that fares pretty good in the turnover ratio department, a QB who even when he has a really bad game (the first half against the Steelers) he doesn't turn the ball over very much.   We have gotten rid of a lot of our dead weight (LJ).  And most importantly, we have a Head coach and GM who are not only finding talent, but developing talent.  We havent had any one who could develop talent in years and that includes Vermeil.  

How many players have we had to leave KC and have success somewhere else?  That means we have not been good at developing our talent.  Now in Herms defense, he was fired before he really got to utilize his own talent, but we still would have sucked in a cover two for a while, especially without Jared Allen.  But he was developing the secondary. 

Last year people were thinking that Dorsey was a bust at his natural position.  This year, he is succeeding at a position that no one thought he could ever play.  Bowe has still had his share of drops, but he has also made some catches that I believe that he would have dropped last year.  Leonard Pope is coming along nicely, and has already moved to the starting position.  Jamaal Charles is looking great, and holding on to the ball.

Now to the players we didnt know.  Lance long is becoming a great slot receiver.  He possibly has better numbers than last year and college combined.  Jovan Belcher has the makings of a great linebacker.  He makes plays.  Tyson Jackson is coming along very nicely.  Alex Magee was just a month ago being written off by many people from AP, now he is performing.  Ryan O'callaghan has been solid at the right tackle position.  And Wallace Gilberry?   Wow.

And I saved the best for last........I am so proud of Tamba Hali.  He went through a drastic position change and is excelling.  He might as well be a rookie at his position.  He will only get better.

And we finally picked up a good kicker!

We honestly have a lot of 2nd and 3rd tier talent playing their hearts out and doing things that not many people thought they could.  There are probably 2 other coaches in the league who could have taken our roster and made the strides that we have made this year.  i AM VERY EXCITED.  When we actually get some more first tier talent, and a few new coordinators, we will be awesome.  We are already competing, and  Haley's conditioning program has really paid off.  We are really strong in the second half of games now.  We could have won against the Raiders, the Ravens, and  the Cowboys.  Things are far from perfect, but Im happy about where were going.  Sorry for being so long winded, but I have been hearing a lot of complaining.  Hey it's just after Thanksgiving.  Let's be grateful.

I was In the 26th row in the corner of the endzone in Arrowhead stadium.  My first chiefs game.  I was joined by my best friend (a Steelers fan) his wife, and my beautiful fiance'.  Did I mention that she is a Chiefs fan now?  I have had a rough go for a while now dealing with the ups and downs of life, not to mention that I found out that my grandfather passed about 5 min after I arrived in KC, but I had more fun than I have had in a really long time.  And the way my fiance tried to take an interest in something that I love made me love her more.  She doesn't really understand football (yet), but she was as excited as anyone when we did something good.  We are definitely closer now.  

That game was a dream come true for me, and one heck of a game.  Definitely one of the best I have ever seen. 

And what great fans.  The respect the Chiefs fans showed to a team we beat was great.  And the respect the Steeler fans showed to a team  who has only won three games was greatly appreciated.  What a weekend.

I can tell you the one thing that stands out to me is the ability of Haley, Pioli, and the new staff to get the best out of our players.  

Some of it is player maturity, but much of it is the coaches squeezing the players.  I know Im not the only one who was tired of seeing our former players got to other teams and be much better players than they were when they were with us.  Vonnie Holliday in Miami, Keyaron Fox in Pittsburgh, Kawika Mitchell in NY, Lawrence Tynes in NY.  The ones I can think of off of the top of my head.  

Glenn Dorsey is looking like he could be a great 3-4 end.  In the pre season, he has not been easily moved.

Demmorrio Williams was threatened to be traded or cut every year, but now he is looking prety solid.  

Dewayne Bowe is looking really solid so far.  

We have a lot of no name players who are looking pretty good.  I know that many will say its is only pre season, and that is true.  But I remember preseason last year when no one was really looking good.

 A team that can't develop players will always be limited in their success because they will be over the cap.  They have to buy players who are already established for maximum money (Redskins anyone?).  I am glad we are getting more out of our players.  This is how teams become great.  When you can turn a no name into a talent, you not only keep your team depth full, but you also create your own trade bait for extra picks in the draft.  Look at the Steeler linebackers.  Pittsburgh very seldom re-signs them, but when they become free agents, other teams who aren't good at developing players jump on them (Kendrell Bell?)

Im very happy to see this.  

 I am a male from Memphis TN.  I am 29 years old (thirty next month).  I did not like he color red, but then when I was about 6, I saw the chiefs on the field. Later I started playing Tecmo superbowl, and Derrick Thomas became my favorite player with the Nigerian Nightmare close behind.  I have been a chiefs diehard ever since.  Just wondering about my fellow chief fans...........where are you all from and how old?

My first fan post

I hope Im doing this right.  

I am not  ignoring the mistakes, but what I saw in our first  preseason game has me very excited.

With all of the mistakes, I believe that team would have destroyed anything that we could have put on the field for the last 3 years.

Finally, I have to step up and defend Matt Cassel.  I was very pleased with his play.  Outside of the fumbled snap, he was very accurate with the ball, and showed more arm strength than I thought he had.  He might not have had Brodie's numbers, but he  was hitting most of the receivers in the hands.  He was putting the ball right where it needed to be, they just were not catching it. 

Things are looking up.