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Demaryius Thomas, WR, Georgia Tech.

There are a lot of holes for the Rams to address this offseason.  When your team is bottom five in offense and defense, the only upside is that when draft time comes around, you have a lot of versatility in who you can pick up.  In fact, you can pretty much go "best player available" at any position because, let's face it, when the team's in the crapper there isn't a player on the roster who should be comfortable with his job.  And in a deep defensive draft many projected that the Rams would probably try to rebuild their defense, especially considering the history of head coach Steve Spagnuolo as a defensive mind.

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 The last five years have been ugly for the St. Louis Rams. 

Let's face it...when you haven't won 10 games since 2004, have won only six games in the last three years, and just came off the worst season in franchise history, your team is definitely in trouble.  The fans are pissed.  The team can't get sold.  The high draft picks aren't turning it around.  The games are a bore.  This is a franchise that's not just in the toilet, but is firmly lodged in the septic tank.

Which brings us to the payoff for the worst season in franchise history...the top pick in the 2010 NFL Draft.  Speculation is certainly rampant who they will choose because, let's face it, the Rams have made very few smart decisions the last several years and most of the time you can count on them to make the worst possible choice.  But this is the year that it all changes...maybe.  Because this year, the St. Louis Rams will be selecting...

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According to the Washington Post's Redskins Insider, the Redskins' current right tackle Chris Samuels may be hanging up his cleats this offseason due to neck and spinal issues, meaning that the market for quality offensive tackles in the top five picks may have picked up.

Several people familiar with Samuels's thinking, however, say they still expect him to retire because of the injury he suffered early in the Oct. 11 loss at Carolina. Samuels, who also has stenosis (or a narrowing) of the spinal column, has consulted with many specialists, several of whom warned him about the possibility of no longer being able to walk if he attempted to prolong his career, league sources said.

In terms of their draft preparations, the Redskins are expected to proceed as if Samuels will retire. He was the best lineman on one of the league's worst units last season, and it would appear that Allen and Coach Mike Shanahan must overhaul the ineffective group regardless of whether Samuels plays next season.

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According to Lions beat writer, Tom Kowalski (who is one of the most plugged-in beat writers in the country), Lions defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham is interested in trading for Chiefs defensive end Glenn Dorsey.  Which isn't really a surprise, except that Kowalski is also hearing that Dorsey may be on the trade block.  Per Kowalski's report:

The reason he might be available is because the Chiefs drafted Dorsey as a 4-3 defensive tackle and they've now switched schemes and he's playing a 3-4 end. Neither the Chiefs nor Dorsey is apparently happy with the results and that's why I think the Lions might make a play for him in the off-season.

So could the time of Glenn Dorsey be coming to an end in Kansas City?  The current regime has made no secret of their willingness to deal players brought in by the previous regime and while Dorsey performed decently, in my opinion, as a 3-4 end he wasn't exactly reminding anyone of Reggie White.  A move back to defensive tackle in a 4-3 alignment, his natural position, has to be very tempting for Dorsey and if the team's less than happy with Dorsey's performance at defensive end they probably aren't thrilled with the idea of continuing to carry his contract.

Worth keeping an eye on this offseason.

"I'm just like Parcells or Belichick...only without the winning." 

via www.everyjoe.com

Let's face it, Chiefs fans...it's been a long and miserable season so far.  The Chiefs are 1-7, the team just cut ties with Larry "2.7" Johnson (and ate his disgusting contract) after seven miserable performances and yet another embarassing off-field incident from the jerkoff, our team has stayed firmly mired in the crapper on both offense and defense, we don't even have Tony G to root for any more and the season's only halfway over.  In short...the 2009 football season has been one gi-normous suckfest.

As many of you know I, UCrawford, started up the "Fire Todd Haley" bandwagon last week after the locker room sign incident. The reasons for this are many and have been discussed ad nauseum on this site.  Haley dumped Bernard Pollard for Mike Brown, he kept playing 2.7 until 2.7 finally threw him under the bus on a worldwide social networking site, he fired Chan Gailey two weeks before the season and scrapped the offense only to watch his new offense fail miserably, he hired Clancy Pendergast, he's almost as inept a game manager as Herm, he makes pathetic motivational signs, Todd is an asshole name, yadda, yadda, yadda...

Ultimately, the two biggest reasons why I gave up on Todd Haley weren't any of the oh-so-numerous errors he's made but the two simple observations that a) there isn't a heck of a lot that anyone can point to that Haley's done that has shown positive results while he's been here, and b) the man is easily one of the most unsympathetic individuals I've ever seen coach over two decades of watching pro football.  Because, let's face it...while it's fairly easy to give a guy who's a bad coach but a nice guy multiple chances to turn it around (Herm), or to overlook the distasteful personality of someone who wins games (Belichick), there's really not a hell of a lot of motivation to give a complete jerk who constantly screws up, loses games, and points fingers at everyone but himself much of a chance.  So yes...after watching Haley do his best Eric Mangini/Mike Nolan impersonation for seven games, I decided after those seven games that the guy is a clueless douche who is the Chiefs' biggest impediment to success and that he has to go.

But, was I too hasty, and how does this translate into an offer for you?

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via siponthis.today.com

From the files of "Bullets The Chiefs Dodged", ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that former Texas Tech All-American wide receiver Michael Crabtree is planning to sit out the entire 2009 NFL season and re-enter the 2010 draft.  The reason for Crabtree's decision apparently revolves around the 49ers' refusal to give Crabtree (the number 10 selection) a contract equal to or greater than the one Darius Heyward-Bey (the number 7 selection) received from the Oakland Raiders.  The 49ers, in a rare bit of foresight, have declined to pay Crabtree a number that deviates greatly from the NFL's slotting system, which is probably the smart move for a WR who 1) was recuperating from an injury, 2) has yet to run a 40 time, 3) has a somewhat questionable work ethic and so-so NFL receiver tools, and 4) seems to be taking his advice from morons and manipulators.

There continue to be questions about when Crabtree will sign and the only certain answer is, "Not anytime soon." But there's a strong feeling right now that he won't sign all season long, and he will aim to get drafted in April by a team willing to pay him more than the 49ers. San Francisco has offered Crabtree a slotted deal with a value somewhere between picks No. 9 and picks No. 11. Crabtree wants to be paid more like a top pick. San Francisco hasn't relented, nor has Crabtree and now the holdout looks like a repeat from 1987, when first-round pick Kelly Stouffer refused to sign with the Cardinals before his rights were traded to Seattle.

There was quite a bit of buzz on AP about the idea of the Chiefs taking Michael Crabtree with the third pick in the 2009 draft.  It's probably safe to say that if he's demanding a slot-busting contract as the number 10 pick he'd probably be asking for more than Matt Stafford got if he'd gone third.  And he probably still wouldn't be in uniform going into the season, as Pioli doesn't strike me as someone who's going to break the bank to sign a guy with that many question marks.

I'll say this now...if Michael Crabtree holds out, he'll be lucky to get drafted on the first day in 2010.  He certainly isn't going to get a $40 million contract in 2010, which Deion Sanders (one of Crabtree's "mentors") apparently thinks he's worth.  He will, in fact, be lucky to get a contract equal to half of what he'd receive with this year's tenth slotted pick.  And if he sits out a year there's an excellent chance he never turns into anything special or even useful as a pro player...as happened with notable delayed draft entries Mike Williams and Maurice Clarett (who are better comparison points than Stouffer).  In short, Michael Crabtree looks for all the world like a guy whose pro career will fall victim to both his own youthful arrogance and the manipulations of world-class hustlers like Deion Sanders and Eugene Parker (Sanders' and now Crabtree's agent).  And unless Parker has made arrangements with Crabtree to personally make up the difference in salary between what he'd get in slotted money and what he'll get in 2010, it looks like Parker is willing to throw away Crabtree's future in a likely futile attempt to challenge the NFL's slotting system...a challenge that will only lose leverage as the season goes on and the questions about Crabtree's abilities increase.

Can't say as I've got a lot of sympathy for Michael Crabtree (who deserves what he gets if he's not asking if his agent is looking out his best interests), but I do wonder if the NFL will perhaps start asking themselves whether they should look to distance themselves from NFL Network fixture Sanders and his increasingly shady role as "advisor" to young players and prospects.

I'm definitely glad Pioli kept the Chiefs out of this circus sideshow.

According to the National Football Post, the Kansas City Chiefs are apparently shopping three year starting strong safety Bernard Pollard for a trade in order to create playing opportunities for Mike Brown.

The Kansas City Chiefs are exploring options to trade strong safety Bernard Pollard, a move that would create an opening for veteran Mike Brown to move into the starting lineup, sources said.

The 24-year-old Pollard, a fourth-year pro from Purdue, has made 31 starts the last two seasons. He had 98 tackles and one interception last season. But Brown was signed in late June to push both Pollard and free safety Jarrad Page.

I'm going to go on record now as saying that I don't get this at all unless it's being used as a motivational tactic for Pollard.  Reportedly Pollard had an altercation with new defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast, which would explain if Pollard were in the doghouse, and Pollard's preseason has been underwhelming (to be kind).  But you're talking about the team trading away a guy who's probably going to net maybe a 3rd or 4th round pick, if that, in order to free up playing time for a SS who's hardly played better this preseason, who's finished the season on the IR twice in the last three years and who's played double digit games in only one season over that time.

Seriously...what the hell?  I can understand souring on a player, but does Haley think Brown's got five or six more years in him like Pollard may have?  Extremely doubtful.  And what are the odds Brown actually plays a full season for this team?  He hasn't played 16 games since 2003 and he wasn't particularly impressive in the 15 games he played last season.  I was happy the Chiefs signed the guy...as a possible reserve...but to be the starter?

That's just nuts.

Just a heads-up, but it appears that SB Nation has a function that will, without the intervention of moderators, automatically ban a user for posting comments with too many links (apparently five or more), which it considers spam.  It's called a throttle violation and apparently it results in a ban from all SB Nation blogs.  I just found out about it when one of Arrowhead Pride's regulars, who has no previous history of issues, showed up on the moderators' banned list tonight.  It appears that he's been reinstated by one of the SB Nation moderators, so there shouldn't be an issue for him, but if any of you find yourself getting booted from AP and you hadn't been warned off by a moderator (we warn every poster before a ban is issued) then please contact Chris via his e-mail to let him know.  Here's the piece I found that discusses it and the text of the article:

The system (unaided by mods) will flag a comment as spam if it contains more than five links. It's called a "throttle violation". I've been ignoring those flags, as the ones I see on BE are informative, not spam. However, this morning someone (not a BE regular) has been banned by the system for having too many throttle violations. I don't know how many are too many, but those of you who tend to put lots of links in one comment may want to keep those to five or below. You can always add more later. (This doesn't apply to Ben's front page stories.) Update: Sorry; they are links in replies, not in the original fanshot, fanpost, or story. I don't know if Dave can undo a system ban; I would hope so.

For the limit itself, it's not unusual for commenters to use frequent hyperlinks in their comments to back up their arguments.  Obviously, we don't want you guys to have to limit your sourcing and potentially compromise your arguments, but we also don't want you getting booted for being a spammer when you're not, so be mindful of the five hyperlink limit in comments and if you encounter a problem with your account, again please notify us immediately.  Thanks.

Looks like the sojourn of the NFL's second most-prolific team-killer is maybe not quite at an end.

Brett Favre is apparently considering a second return to the NFL (in two years) as he's been removed from the retired list and the Jets have waived him.

The move Tuesday night means the Jets no longer hold the rights to Favre, who spent one disappointing season in New York. The 39-year-old Favre had requested the move several weeks ago through agent Bus Cook, but insisted he has no plans to come out of retirement for a 19th season.

Favre said in a statement he had no intention of returning to football.

Yeah, right...and Favre was "done" with football at his teary press conference in early 2008.  And he was "done" with football when he didn't want to get arthroscopic surgery on his arm last year (after killing the Jets' season down the stretch with shoddy and selfish play).  And I'm sure he's "done" with football now...at a time when the team he wanted to sign with all along (the Vikings) is still in need of a quarterback and are being touted as championship contenders.

My prediction for this year is that unless the Vikings decide that Favre's too washed-up to play, we'll see him in a Minnesota uniform this season if Favre has anything to say about it.  Only question I have is, does waiving Brett Favre release the New York Jets from their "poison pill" clause if Favre signs with the Vikings?  Does anyone know if the terms of the trade included the possibility of Favre getting waived?

Per the Mothership, the Kansas City Chiefs re-signed starting center Rudy Niswanger to the restricted free agent tender and signed former Cowboys tight end Tony Curtis to a contract.  Terms of the deals were not announced.

The details on Curtis (no, not that Tony Curtis):

Curtis (6-5, 251) has seen action in 36 games during his three-year NFL career with Dallas (2006-08). He has caught 11 passes for 80 yards (4.5 avg.) with three TDs and registered five special teams tackles to go with three kickoff returns for 27 yards. He has also played in one postseason game. Curtis recorded 14 receptions for 112 yards and three TDs for the Cologne Centurions of NFL Europa in 2007. He originally entered the NFL as a rookie free agent with Dallas in 2005 and spent his first NFL campaign on the Cowboys practice squad.

Curtis appears to be the type of tight end that Kansas City will supposedly want for its new offense...big, can catch a few passes, but not a guy who's going to end up getting featured.  Curtis was undrafted out of Portland State in 2005 and was the third-stringer backing up Cowboys Pro Bowler Jason Witten and former Texas A&M player Martellus Bennett in 2008 (and Anthony Fasano before him in 2007 and 2006).  Probably not a guy who's ever going to be that great, but I suppose there's an outside chance he could surprise...all three guys ahead of him on the depth chart in Dallas were talented athletes, so there's at least a slim chance he's a better-than-average second-stringer on a different team.

Niswanger, of course, had a non-descript but acceptable season for the Chiefs in 2008, starting 15 games, and his return brings some continuity to a Chiefs o-line that had its moments in 2008.

Just a heads-up guys, we've had to delete a couple of FanPosts over the last week for cutting-and-pasting articles in their entirety into a FanPost.  This is a problem that pops up fairly frequently on AP.

The material that you'll see on ESPN or the Kansas City Star or Pro Football Talk is copyrighted material and as such cutting-and-pasting an entire article into a FanPost represents a copyright violation both on your part and Arrowhead Pride's (if we leave it up once we recognize the violation).  Granted, the majority of the news we're going to get here is from other sites, and it's fine to link to most of those sites and cut and paste excerpts from what they wrote (clearly labeled as quotes) interspersed with your own commentary (except in the case of subscriber info, which I'll get to in a bit).  But you can't just cut-and-paste the entire article into a FanPost.  Doing so requires us to immediately delete the article to prevent the site from getting into trouble.  Also, if you quote an article in your FanPost, you need to provide a link back to the original article as well for proper attribution.

There is also the issue of subscriber-only info (ESPN Insider, Scouts, Inc., Warpaint Illustrated).  You can provide a link to these articles, but you cannot provide excerpts from it in a FanPost...and you must provide a link to that article if you refer to it at all.  Basically, if the article requires a password or subscription to access, you can't take anything from it and you're probably best off not even doing a FanPost on it if that's your primary source of information (although hyper-linking to it in a story from another source is usually fine, as long as you don't lift and reprint material from that article).  Even providing a full recap of what the article said in a FanPost in your own words is pretty sketchy and could cause us problems, so don't try to push the boundaries of copyright violation...the overwhelming majority of us aren't lawyers and aren't familiar with copyright law, so if there's any question about whether or not an article is okay to use, you probably need to err on the side of caution and not use it.

Again, this is just a heads-up and I'm not trying to single anyone out...the overwhelming majority of you guys understand the rules and do a good job of policing your own work to prevent this sort of thing.  And most of the people who do cross the line do so unintentionally.  But it's up to all of us to insure that we keep the site out of trouble with regards to copyright infringement so we have a place to come and discuss Chiefs info so your help and compliance are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

It appears that Will Franklin's stint on the waiver wire didn't last very long.

The former Chiefs and Missouri receiver was claimed just a few days later by the Detroit Lions, who have been looking for a complement to All-World receiver Calvin Johnson.

Franklin could help Detroit get back on track. A 2008 fourth-round pick from Missouri, Franklin caught seven passes for 83 yards in his rookie campaign. Franklin, though, was deemed expendable by the new Scott Pioli-Todd Haley regime in Kansas City.

The Lions are seeking receiver depth after trading Roy Williams to Dallas last October and releasing Mike Furrey in February. Bryant Johnson, who caught 45 passes for 546 yards and three touchdowns last season in San Francisco, signed early this offseason.

If I were a Lions fan, I'd probably keep my expectations on this low, considering the absolute lack of production from Franklin last year...but still, as waiver pickups go he could end up being a pretty decent one.  He's got similar physical tools to Marvin Harrison (average size, but outstanding speed) and if he can improve his skill sets and show production on the field, there's usually a place for guys like that as number two or three receivers in the NFL.

H/T Rotoworld

From the FanPosts. JayKC had a FanShot on this yesterday as well.   -PT

Bill Williamson at ESPN's AFC West blog certainly seems to think it's a possibility...especially since the Chiefs just signed Taylor's long-time Miami teammate (and brother-in-law) Zach Thomas.

Yes, Taylor is older -- he will be 35 in September -- but it's clear new Kansas City general manager Scott Pioli wants to sprinkle his young roster with veterans at key positions. Pioli came over from New England, where adding older players was the norm. So far this offseason, he has traded for linebacker Mike Vrabel and agreed to terms with Thomas. Taylor would give Kansas City's green defense a third savvy veteran for the short term.

Taylor wouldn't simply offer experience as the Chiefs transition to the 3-4 defensive scheme. He'd give Kansas City a much-needed asset: A pass-rusher.

Normally I'm a "youth before experience" guy, but I've got to say that I wouldn't hate it if the Chiefs were able to bring in Taylor at a reasonable price (meaning not superstar dollars) on a one or two year deal.  Taylor fits a need, he's a good veteran presence (although his refusal to participate in Washington's offseason program is somewhat troubling), and the Chiefs have money they need to spend.  Granted, he's unlikely to be a sack master like he was in Miami, but his 3.5 sacks last year were due primarily to a freakish leg injury suffered early on, so 7-9 sacks this season wouldn't be out of the question (with 5-6 sacks probably being a more reasonable expectation...but still decent production if his contract looks at all like Thomas').  Best of all, he's an unrestricted free agent, so he's not going to cost the Chiefs anything in way of draft pick compensation.

If the Chiefs are looking to make the 3-4 the permanent base defense, they could do a heck of a lot worse than grabbing Taylor to help start it off.

He's priced himself into laughability.

Vick apparently spelled out in his bankruptcy filing what he thinks he's worth to an NFL team:

The embattled Atlanta Falcons quarterback is hoping to earn as much as $10 million a year or more, according to court filings in his bankruptcy case. Under the plan he submitted to the court, Vick would keep the first $750,000 of his annual income over the next five years. After that, a percentage would go to his creditors based on a sliding scale.

Uh huh...because teams love to give away $10 million a year (especially during a recession) to convicted felons who have never been good passers, who are constantly in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, and who haven't played a real game in three years...because they've been in a federal penitentiary.

Call me crazy, but I suspect that Vick's probably going to be lucky to find an offer totaling $750,000 a year, much less one that pays him that, plus enough to keep his creditors happy.

“He is hopeful to play quarterback,” Daniel Meachum, an attorney and business manager for Vick, said in an interview. “There is no person with his talent in that position in all the league.”

Well, except for Tom Brady, Tony Romo, Carson Palmer, Donovan McNabb, Peyton Manning, pretty much every other starting QB in the league, a fair number of the second-stringers, and Vince Young.

Gil Brandt, a senior analyst for NFL.com, predicted Goodell would give Vick another chance to play, possibly after sanctioning him again. But he said Vick, who holds the NFL single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback, would stand a better chance of making a team at a different position such as running back.

“The guy is a talented player, but he is going to be away from football for at least three years,” said Brandt, former vice president of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys. “I think it is very, very hard if you are a skill-position player like a quarterback to spend three years away from football and perform at the level that you performed before you were suspended.”

Which, if you look at Michael Vick's passing numbers before his conviction and incarceration, means you would probably be better off trying to draft Pat White in 2009 to play QB than giving a veteran's salary to Vick.

H/T:  Yahoo Sports