And some of us listen.  Highlights from yesterday's session with the media.  I tried to highlight what Herm was actually saying and avoiding the fluff.

On how Brodie Croyle looks:

“Yeah, he’s just rusty. That’s what’s good about the bye week, we’ll have another day tomorrow and next week we’ll have three more practices. That’ll be good for him. He looks strong, his arm looks strong."

On the bye week with so many young guys:

I know it helps us a lot because there’s so many young guys. If you think it about it, they’ve played nine games already, that’s almost a college season.

On DaJuan Morgan's strengths:

“He’s a pretty good tackler, he’s very sudden when he reads it. I think he’s playing a little cautious right now, because he’s not confident. That comes with playing. You have to play these kids."

On Jamaal Charles not breaking a big one yet:

“He hasn’t been in the game a whole lot. He hasn’t touched the ball a whole lot. It has to do with a lot of things. Plays, lots of three-and-outs for us, too many three-and-outs. He’s dropped a couple balls when it could have been a big play, so that’s part of it too. I think he’s becoming more comfortable in what we want him to do.”

On 35 year old Muhsin Muhammad zipping past the defense:

“He took a bad angle. The guy caught it, cut across the grain and they made a big score. It’s part of the learning process too.”

On Tamba Hali and the rest of the pass rush:

“He helps you, no doubt. That and the inside guys making sure the pocket’s pushed. Our line has not been good at times on pass rush. You always have to keep the pocket tight, you can’t let the pocket open up. When you’re a tackle, the basic rule is you never want to rush outside the hashes because it expands the pocket too much. You want the pocket to close so the quarterback can’t step up. When you get your tackles outside the hashes, the quarterback can step up because he feels no pressure in the middle of the pocket. So we have to get that adjusted and try to do a better job about that too.”

Maybe Jamaal Charles could be utilized more to avoid three and outs?  And the guy is a track star, fast is fast regardless of the level of competition.  I'm just very anxious to see him in the game more and more.  You've got a weapon, now let's see what he's made of.

Amid all of the hullabaloo over Larry Johnson' fiery comments about his role with the Kansas City Chiefs is a very valid point made by the running back - The Chiefs need to use certain players more, mainly because it just makes sense to do so. Larry Johnson had 416 carries two years ago because that's partly his style and part of what made him an effective running back. We shouldn't deny the ability of players in favor of some sort of scheme.

Larry Johnson

This one is pretty obvious in my opinion. I know the Chiefs have had to pass quite a bit in the first two games of the 2008 season but that is no excuse for Larry Johnson to only receive two carries in the second half of last week's game. The Chiefs only rushed the ball four times as a team in the second half on Sunday.

To be fair, Larry split his 22 carries in Week 1 equally over the first and second halves but last week's play calling was atrocious in the second half.

Is LJ being taken out because of insufficient pass blocking? Is he actually being phased out of the offense? The first one rings much more true than the second. I will say I agree with Larry - Get him the ball at least, at least 20 times a game and you can feel good about your play calling. That seems like a no-brainer to me but so have a lot of things this season.

Jamaal Charles

I know it's a bit odd to suggest Larry needs more carries and Charles does as well but I think you know what I'm getting at.

I'm suggesting Jamaal Charles get more carries at the expense of Kolby Smith getting fewer. Now, Kolby only has one carry on the season mind you but Charles has yet to be anointed the official #2 back and I'm going to assume that Kolby Smith still factors heavily into the game plan as far as the #2 RB spot.

I think we've all loved what we've seen so far from Jamaal Charles - the quick cuts, the darts in between the tackles and that feeling of anxiety you get while watching a super fast running back who he can break off a big run at any time.

Any WR not named Dwayne Bowe (And more Bowe too!)

Hopefully rookie WR Will Franklin returns this week and can take some of the heat off of Bowe but I haven't heard anything definite on that quite yet. I went over the lack of receiving options in my recap of last week's game and it has quickly become a growing problem inside my head. We're back where we've pretty much always been Chiefs fans, without a sold receiving corp. That should feel familiar.

Glenn Dorsey

It seems to me that in the four or five games I saw Dorsey play while he was at LSU, he made his mark in the games as a disruptive force behind the line of scrimmage. In the short first two games of Dorsey's career in the NFL, the Chiefs appear content to have him in more of a run-stuffing role on the line of scrimmage. Let Dorsey do his disruption act within the limits of the Cover 2 defense and hopefully we can see our rookie doing his sack dance against the Falcons this weekend.

Dantrell Savage

This is another obvious one, right?

Savage was inactive last weekend in favor of Eddie Drummond B.J. Sams who yet again showed us nothing. Savage may have the same luck with this special teams coverage unit but we can all agree that youth should be served at the kick return position. As long as Savage doesn't fumble the ball, why not let him get 10 yard returns instead of Sams?

By the way, after this post, I'm retiring my small personal campaign for Savage and against Sams. I'm tired of talking about it already.

Who do you think should be a bigger part of the game plan this weekend?

Just a quick mention this morning from yesterday's press conference about Jamaal Charles, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite Kansas City Chiefs.

"Yeah. He needs to touch the ball more. It all boils down to this on offense. We have some players on offense that have some skill. The more you stay on the field, the more you can just play. That gives you the ability to let those guys touch the ball. You only get between 10-11 possessions in a football game, and it’s very hard to get those guys touches when you go three-and-out. I think we had four three-and-outs last week and that’s a little bit too many. You’d like to keep it within two, three at the most. Then if you get 11 possessions you’ve got to play to get six, seven, eight, ten-play drives and all those guys come and play for you. If you go three-and-out it’s very difficult to get those guys the ball."

Sure, "He needs to touch the ball more" is a Hermism in its most basic form. But last week, one of the very few players I got excited about watching was Jamaal Charles. In a much more effective way than Kolby Smith, Charles is that lightning to Larry Johnson's thunder. Also, as the Chiefs offensive line goes through the inevitable growing pains, a quick back like Charles can do more damage with cuts and speed than LJ could do with his North-South style of running.

Open thread here tomorrow, don't forget. I was in a team building workshop deal on Thursday and Friday, which is why I wasn't able to update the site like we normally do. I'm back from that and ready to hunker down and ride out this hurricane tropical storm thunder storm brief rain shower they predicted we would get in Austin this weekend.

I know they're small but the offensive, defensive and special teams depth charts are listed here. Click to view larger image. Depth chart taken from KCChiefs.com.

A few notes about the depth chart:

Dantrell Savage is listed #1 for kickoff returns and BJ Sams is listed #1 for punt returns. One of these guys, hopefully Sams, has to go within a couple of weeks here. Something is up with this. It's either an injury or some sort of roster number situation going on for the Kansas City Chiefs to keep two somewhat specialized kick returners on the team.

Because G/C Wade Smith can play either guard or center, expect him to likely be around the entire season.

I will be very curious to watch this chart throughout the season and see if Jamaal Charles jumps Kolby Smith for the #2 running back spot. It could happen!

***

Don't forget that today is the first day the Chiefs will have to file an injury report. I don't believe they have to designate questionable, out, etc. until Friday though.

We look towards the Patriots this weekend with the weekly Know Thy Enemy pre-game and this question:

What are the conceivable, even only slightly rational scenarios in which the Kansas City Chiefs win this game on Sunday?

PS: Thanks for the FanPosts and FanShots while I've been busy the last couple of days. They are a tremendous help.

Of course, the 53 players on the team after 5 PM central time tonight won't be the exact roster for opening day. After the NFL roster deadline hits this evening, expect the Chiefs to pick up one or two players off of the waiver wire.

I've run through the roster and made my decisions on who I think will be cut. Interestingly enough, while researching this and reading others cut lists, most of them are in agreement about 95% of the time.

The only differences I've seen in people's cut lists are the tail ends of the linebacker and line rotations. A little LeRue Rumph here. A little Anthony Alabi there. Maybe throw in some Sippio.

QB: Brodie Croyle, Tyler Thigpen and Damon Huard

No surprises here. The Chiefs will carry three quarterbacks on the final roster no matter what and these are almost assuredly the three they will keep.

Cut: None

RB: Larry Johnson, Kolby Smith, Jamaal Charles, Jackie Battle and Dantrell Savage

Dantrell Savage hopefully makes this team as a kick returner but I've included him in the running backs section. LJ, Kolby and Jamaal Charles are all 100% safe. Battle may not make it because of roster numbers but he's probably safe too.

Cut: None

WR: Dwayne Bowe, Devard Darling, Will Franklin, Maurice Price and Jeff Webb

Despite not catching a pass this preseason, Devard Darling is still accomplished enough to get the nod over Arthur, Joachim, McMahan and Sippio. If you make an argument against Darling, you have to make an argument for one of those guys making the team and I don't think you can. Maybe you can make an argument for Bobby Sippio but I think you're splitting hairs at that point.

Cut: Jabari Arthur, Sergio Joachim, Kevin McMahan and Bobby Sippio

FB:Mike Cox and Chris Manderino

Word on the street is that the Chiefs like Manderino's special teams play, which is great for him because Mike Cox has the starting fullback spot nailed.

Cut: None

TE: Tony Gonzalez, Brad Cottam and J.P. Foschi

TG and Cottam are locks to make the roster and we'll give Foschi and his GA Tech roots the nod over the injured Mike Merritt and Michael "What happened to people being excited about me?" Allan. Allan may spend his final year on the practice squad before permanently falling off into obscurity. My future money says this is another D3 experiment that will not succeed.

Cut: Michael Allan and Mike Merritt

O-Line: Branden Albert, Brian Waters, Rudy Niswanger, Adrian Jones, Damion McIntosh, Herb Taylor, Barry Richardson and Wade Smith

I think those first eight offensive linemen I listed are definitely going to make the team. Beyond that, I think we could see another player dropped at a different position in favor of another offensive linemen. That linemen may not even be on the team right now and there is no way the Chiefs are satisfied with the depth they have on the offensive line.

Cut: Travis Leffew, Tre Stallings, Will Svitek, Anthony Alabi, Edwin Harrison and Rob Smith

D-Line: Turk McBride, Tank Tyler, Glenn Dorsey, Tamba Hali, Alfonso Boone, Ron Edwards. T.J. Jackson and Brian Johnston

After Ron Edwards, you're entering a pretty blurry area on the defensive line. TJ Jackson and Brian Johnston both had their names called more than a few times last Thursday against the Rams and that may be enough to distinguish themselves from the other defensive linemen.

Cut: Johnny Dingle, Jason Parker and Derek Lokey

LB: Derrick Johnson, Pat Thomas, Donnie Edwards, Demorrio Williams, Weston Dacus and Nap Harris (Int'l player Aden Durde will be on the practice squad but not count for a spot)

Nap Harris seems to be on everyone else's cut list and he certainly is a possible roster casualty. One of the cuts listed below could out value Harris on special teams, making the decision to keep him even more difficult. Donnie Edwards of course makes the final cut but how durable will he be in his 13th season? He's already tweaked a hamstring.

Cut: EJ Kuale, Steve Octavien and LeRue Rumph

CB: Patrick Surtain, Brandon Flowers, Brandon Carr, Dimitri Patterson, Tyron Brackenridge and Maurice Leggett

The first four CB spots are taken with Brackenridge, Barksdale and Leggett battling for the final one or even two spots. Can't say I've seen much of any of those three this preseason, making my analysis a bit strained. Brackenridge will probably get the nod because the Chiefs liked him enough last year as an UDFA to play him a bit and neither Barksdale nor Leggett has distinguished themselves.

Cut: Rashard Barksdale

S: Jarrad Page, Bernard Pollard, Jon McGraw and DaJuan Morgan

The safety position isn't difficult to figure out. Page and Pollard will start with McGraw and Morgan rotating in and out. The Chiefs don't need five safeties on the team.

Cut: Khayyam Burns

Special Teams: Nick Novak, Dustin Colquitt and J.P. Darche

Again, no surprises here. The Sams v. Savage competition is pretty much even but I'll throw my support behind the younger, less Drummond-like Dantrell Savage.

Cut: BJ Sams and Connor Barth (he's still on the roster so we'll include him for good measure)

We've already had a few threads about the roster cuts today so use this spot to make any last minute predictions. I'll update you on the cuts as soon as I hear about them.

I don't know about you but I'm more than ready to start talking about the New England Patriots and the start of the regular season. Last night, Larry Johnson and Tony Gonzalez didn't play. Brodie Croyle was in the game for sixteen plays, only attempting four passes within that period. The Rams made similar personnel decisions - the majority of what will be their regular season starters did not play.

In other words, this Kansas City Chiefs team will not resemble the one that will take the field two Sundays from now at 12 o'clock.

Regardless, here's quick rundown of what happened last night.

Offense

Calling the offense a no-show isn't a criticism. This was the final half of a painful preseason and I'm sure everyone on the field, aside from the bubble players, were ready to leave at any time.

The running game was the most pleasant surprise of last night. Jamaal Charles, Jackie Battle and Kolby Smith all ran the ball effectively. Smith scored two touchdowns in the first quarter on runs of fourteen and four yards. Get used to Chiefs fans saying Jamaal Charles is fast. Charles zigged and zagged his way past a number of Rams defenders on his way to rushing for 43 yards on six carries.

One stat that makes me overjoyed to see was the thirteen rushing first downs versus the three passing first downs. Usually, the ratio has been reversed.

Defense

The defense was able to force two turnovers, one on a big hit delivered by Bernard Pollard and the other on a fourth quarter interception by DaJuan Morgan. Nothing about the play of the defense was especially spectacular. The game leaders in the box score are all second to third string players. Like with the offense, the Chiefs starting defense didn't spend much time on the field.

Kicking Game

Connor Barth kicked two successful extra points and Nick Novak kicked one. Both made all of their attempts and I suspect had their been another touchdown scored by the Chiefs, Novak would have come in and kicked that point after. It appeared that the coaching staff was going to rotate the kickers as opportunities arose. The race for the starting spot is still a dead heat. And Nick Novak has just been announced as the Chiefs kicker in Week 1. Barth will be put on waivers.

It's finally time to look forward to a meaningful, regular season game.

We'll be monitoring the cut situation throughout the day and the weekend so stay tuned.

The Kansas City Chiefs are finally settling into a rhythm on the fifth day of training camp. Nine practices are behind the team with only nine days left until the first preseason game against the Chicago Bears.

Also, don't forget that the Chiefs scrimmage the Vikings tomorrow at 6:30. And you know who is coming to town with the Vikings - Benny Sapp.

Here are your links to the coverage of yesterday's PM practice.

UW-RF

Warpaint Illustrated

KCChiefs.com

BobGretz.com

Red Zone

LB Pat Thomas played with the first team linebackers yesterday, which KCPriest is talking about here. I wouldn't expect Thomas to become the starter. Now, if Thomas plays with the first team for the rest of camp, then you can start talking about him starting. But one practice with the first team doesn't mean much.

Damion McIntosh was back at practice after tweaking his knee a bit. I hope it's not the same knee that he injured last year. Even if it is, he's still fine to play.

According to the reports I've read, it appears that Devard Darling is doing a heckuva job. It's very possible he lines up as the #2 wide receiver. I'm excited to see him play because there is zero video out there on him.

Jarrad Page nearly had an interception. Like him or not, Page's value as a 7th round pick is simply incredible. When I went back and analyzed our last ten drafts or so, The only other player I can think of that was a 7th round draftee turned starter is Eric Warfield.

Sounds like every chance Jamaal Charles gets to use his speed to get through a hole, he does. I keep repeating myself but I really cannot wait to see him play. Also, Charles is the one guy I can talk about here in Austin, TX, with the other football fans. Cowboys fans are so damn annoying down here. One Cowboy fan actually asked me, "You don't even like Cowboys a little bit?" I said, "That's not how being a Chiefs fan works." [Ed. note: The guy was freakin' stupid.]

The consensus between all of the outlets covering camp was that the offense had one of its best days yesterday. Are you ready for this Chicago???

Today kcchiefs.com posted Bob Gretz's review of the second week of OTAs. So many interesting ideas, so many nuggets of information, and so many opinions offered up in this grab-bag makes it impossible to block-quote.

So let's jump in. Keep in mind, no opinion is too premature at this point!

OMG:

Receivers had trouble lining up in the right spots and defensive linemen were jumping before the snap. There were several false starts and two little skirmishes between offensive and defensive linemen. The two officials working the practices threw more penalty flags on Thursday afternoon than they did in the previous six practices.

We are totally going to have 9,000 penalties this year. We are screwed!

OMG OMG:

The other place that increased athletic ability can be seen is at running back. Larry Johnson is running well, with no visible problems from last year’s broken foot. Jackie Battle, signed at the end of last year, has been very impressive, showing both speed and power. Draft choice Jamaal Charles has shown his burst and a wiggle in his running style that leaves potential tacklers grasping for air. Even college free agent Dantrell Savage out of Oklahoma State has shown some nice moves.

We are totally going to run for a million yards this year. We are saved!

OMGZ!!!!:

The Chiefs linebackers are a step slow. There is a lot of thinking going on, as they adjust to Cunningham and what he’s demanding of them. A strong base of fundamentals is what Gunther is trying to build here and he’s not going to let up or move on until these guys are reacting with the right stances and steps.

We won't be able to tackle anybody this year. We are screwed.

OOOOO MMMMMM GGGGG...

Rookie kicker Connor Barth proved he was human on Thursday. He was wide right by inches on a 48-yard attempt. It was the first missed field goal he’s had during the team practices over the last two weeks. That makes him the preliminary favorite to be the team’s kicker.

Barth saves the day! We are saved!

There's a bunch of other juicy nuggets in there as well to get your blood pumping this afternoon. Post your thoughts here and we can cry/despair together.

work·horse  [wurk-hawrs] 

1. a horse used for plowing, hauling, and other heavy labor, as distinguished from a riding horse, racehorse, etc.

2. a person who works tirelessly at a task, assumes extra duties, etc.

3. Larry Johnson.

 

Few people exemplify "carrying the load" like Larry Johnson has for the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs' dependence on LJ has been borne out in statistics (he carried the rock more times in 2006 than any running back in single-season NFL history), and in record (2007: 4-3 with Larry Johnson, 0-9 without him). It's sensible to rely on a player as talented and targeted as LJ.

 

But like all vices in life, moderation is key. But as the Chiefs' offense rotated around their run game during LJ's relatively short time as the feature back, and with virtually no talented running backs backing him up, the Chiefs threw caution to the wind and ran LJ approximately 900 times between Priest Holmes' injury in 2005 and LJ's own injury last year. As a result, they violated the well-known Curse of 370 -- give a running back more than 370 carries in a season, and watch him wilt before your very eyes.

It's casually known as the Eric Dickerson rule, implying that Dickerson's the only RB that's allowed to cross this plateau and remain a stud afterwards. LJ would love to redefine that rule himself, but in order for that to happen, the Chiefs must use him properly.

  

It's not enough to cut his numbers of carries down. You have to create an atmosphere that allows him to succeed. More on this after the jump.

 

Continue reading this post »

That’s why the Chiefs intend to go easy on Johnson when offseason practice begins today. The Chiefs have 15 practice sessions planned over the next four weeks, including their June 6-8 minicamp.

"We’ll bring him along slowly," coach Herm Edwards said. "We’re not going to beat him up. We’re not going to rush him a whole lot. We want to see where he’s at.

"He’s been running straight and he’s been doing all of that for a long time, but as far as cutting and football things like that, we want to limit him some."

The Kansas City Chiefs may not have planned to put a full load on Larry Johnson during these off-season activities (OTAs), even if he had not injured his foot last year. Herm Edwards has to be getting weary of working his team's running backs as much as he has.

Here's a prediction of mine - You'll hear less and less of Kolby Smith's name this training camp. Jamaal Charles will step into that #2/3rd down role for the Chiefs, pushing Kolby Smith into relative obscurity over the next couple of years.

While you can make the argument that Smith was the Chiefs' best runner last year (He was the most effective runner, certainly not better than LJ as he faced lesser defense), I think we're still over-enamored with that first drive against the Oakland Raiders last November. Smith gained sixty yards on seven rushes, punctuating a bruising of the Raiders' defense with a ten-yard touchdown run. Smith ended the game with 150-yards rushing on thirty-one attempts. Impressive but the Raiders did end 2007 with the 31st ranked rush defense and Smith never approached that number of attempts or even 100-yards rushing the rest of the season (He actually had a couple of 80+ yards games, which is close).

Kolby appears to be a good scat back runner but I'm betting you Charles blows him away. Jamaal Charles' speed, coming right on the heels of a LJ power running game, could be a back-breaker for opposing defenses. The Charles-LJ duo will be much, much more powerful than Smith-LJ.

H/T to Direckshun in the FanShots section