The Kansas City Chiefs third game of the season will definitely be the least watched NFL contest of the week. The Chiefs travel to the Georgia Dome to play the Atlanta Falcons, a team that may actually be worse on paper than the Chiefs are right now. If you've seen any sort of power rankings this off season, nearly every one has the Chiefs and Falcons ranked at some combination of 32nd and 31st.

I'll confess I don't know much about the Falcons' off season. Dave from The Falcoholic could you tell you a lot more. There was the whole Michael Vick deal. We laughed at them when they drafted Matt Ryan. What else is there?

With both teams in shambles after the 2007 season, there aren't many talented positions on the Falcons, making it difficult to point to a particular match up and say that's a challenge. Instead this game will be more about the development of Brodie Croyle. Week 3 will be his ninth NFL start. The Falcons traded away Pro Bowl corner back Deangelo Hall to the Raiders during the off season, meaning Croyle should have a good opportunity to swing the ball around and attack the defense.

If Brodie Croyle hasn't shown substantial improvement against the Atlanta Falcons, I wouldn't be getting nervous quite yet but I would be a tad concerned. A lot of this is dependent on other factors as well - the offensive line, the running game. But if Croyle gets a fair shot at a pass defense that was ranked 23rd with Deangelo Hall and doesn't produce, the Croyle critics will multiply and become much louder.

Thoughts on the Chiefs and Falcons?

Smells like...training camp!

The Kansas City Chiefs currently have 86 players on their roster, meaning they'll have to cut six by the time training camp starts on Thursday. Until this season, the minimum used to be higher than 80 players but with the folding of NFL Europe, teams now have on average eight players less to take to camp. Before, teams could take those extra eight players and ship them off to NFL Europe before the regular season roster deadlines would hit.

By August 26th, teams will have to trim their roster to 75 players and by August 30th the roster has to be down to the regular season maximum of 53 players.

So, six need to go. Who are they? Who knows, really. Here's a rundown by position, using a blogger's best friend - a list! I've also put the number of cuts next to each position. Predicting cuts is a terribly inexact science, so I'm hoping for a lively debate. In fact, you can make solid arguments against some of my choices below.

Quarterback (0) - The Chiefs only have three quarterbacks on the roster now, which means they're almost assuredly taking all three currently on the roster to camp with them. You'd even like to have four QBs but it doesn't appear that's going to happen before camp. No cuts from this group.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: None

Fullback (0) - I think the Chiefs will take all four fullbacks to camp but only one will be on the regular season starting roster. They're all safe for now.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: None

Offensive line (1) - Of the fourteen offensive linemen on the roster, five of them will be starters and we know who they are - McIntosh, Albert, Jones, Niswanger and Waters. That leaves nine and we'll need at least one backup in each spot for the regular season. That leaves four guys out and here's a guess on who they are - Tre Stallings, Ken Shackleford, Travis Leffew and LJ Anderson. Stallings has been on a couple of practice squads before so maybe he has a chance to make it but I don't think so. The Chiefs probably take almost all of these guys to camp but four will likely have to go for the regular season. One possible cut here but I doubt it.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: Travis Leffew, Ken Shackleford, Tre Stallings, Edwin Harrison, L.J. Anderson or Rob Smith.

Tight End (0) - Of the five tight ends on the roster, Tony Gonzalez is a definite yes, followed by Brad Cottam and maybe Michael Allan to make the final roster. The Chiefs will have at least two tight ends on the active roster and may keep another one on the practice squad. In fact, we'll likely end up with three on the final roster, with the last spot going to a big time blocking tight end. For now, I think all of them make it to training camp because of the uncertainty surrounding who will be our blocking tight end.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: None

Wide Receiver (2) - We have a glut of wide receivers now (nine total) and I think two of these guys are definitely gone. This is an expendable position because of the preference of defensive players over offensive ones to play on special teams. A couple of these guys won't be able to hang on as a special teamer. I think Kevin McMahan and Jabari Arthur bite it from this group because of their "Who the hell am I?" status. You can also throw Bobby Sippio in there as well. The guy didn't catch a pass last year and sat on the practice squad for a little over a week with no interest from other NFL teams who were allowed to sign him at any point during that time.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: Jabari Arthur, Kevin McMahan or Bobby Sippio.

Running back (0) - Johnson, Battle, Smith, Charles, Savage and McCrae all make the training camp squad but only three make it to the regular season. Savage, Battle and McCrae will be the odd men out come September. The Chiefs have solid #1 and #2 backs with Charles and Johnson but I think they're unsure beyond that. That explains the glut of solid backups.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: None but leaning toward one of these guys being let go this week. That's a lot of running backs.

Corner back (1) - There are nine CBs on the squad now and a lot of uncertainty after Surtain, Flowers and Carr on the depth chart. Herm and co. will probably take all but one of these guys to River Falls, with a few others being cut by September. Expect some to stick around strictly as special teamers.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: Will Poole, Jason Horton or Maurice Legget.

Linebacker (1) - There are ten linebackers on the roster and two tiers have clearly developed. The top tier is Derrick Johnson, Donnie Edwards, Demorrio Williams and Nap Harris. Below that are a half dozen special teams/backup types, almost all of whom will be on the practice squad or strictly special teams. The numbers don't require the Chiefs to cut many here, so just one probably goes from this group.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: Steve Octavien, E.J. Kuale, Nate Harris, Weston Dacus or LeRue Rumph.

Defensive Ends (1) - The Chiefs haven't settled on their Jared Allen replacement because they have seven defensive ends currently on the roster. Because of the large number of players at this position, I think one of these guys doesn't make it to River Falls. Turk McBride, Tamba Hali and Alfonso Boone are locks to make the team, with UDFAs rounding out the rest of the crop.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: Trevor Johnson, Johnny Dingle or Jason Parker.

Defensive Tackles (0) - All six d-tackles will be going to River Falls, considering that six isn't really that many to have on the roster at this point. The rotational nature of the position means you'll always have a few extra around, making it easier to slip into camp as an UDFA. Dorsey, Edwards and Tank likely make up the starting three.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: None

Kicker (0) - Do you think Herm Edwards will ever go into camp with less than two kickers after the disappointment Justin Medlock was last year? Novak and Barth both go and I'm not sure which one makes it out as the starter.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: None

Safety (0) - Safety is another good position for filling special teams. Page and Pollard are the starters and Herm's boy John McGraw is also a lock to make the team. DaJuan Morgan is another lock and a future starting contender.

Potential pre-training camp cuts: None

Those are my general positions that I think the cuts will come from. They're based on a mixture of number at that position, stability of the starters and historical precedent.

Your thoughts on who stays and who goes this week before camp starts?

"Well, obviously...."

Herm doesn't seem like a good pitchman, which I think is sort of what he's doing in this video. Nevertheless, it's a short clip filled with Hermisms. Gotta love 'em. It doesn't get more Herm than his closing line:

"And whatever you can do with the message that you know is gonna help, you need to do that."

Enjoy your Sunday. The players arrive in River Falls on the Thursday the 24th and they start practice this Friday. Get excited!

Former Chief Johnnie Morton goes on a blind date. And for some reason, John Salley shows up halfway through. I still haven't watched the whole thing. It's from a show called Date the Pros. H/T to KC Chiefs Football.

The word on the street and in the FanPost section is that the Kansas City Chiefs have finally released safety Greg Wesley. Back in May, it was made clear Wesley would be released and just before training camp, it's become "official". I put quotes around official because Wesley is still listed on the roster and no official word has come down.

A quick note about the Brett Favre business. There is no way he is coming to KC and lazy sportswriters are just saying that to make a few waves. Anyone who has paid a smidgen of attention to the Chiefs in the last year knows Brett Favre is the opposite type of player Herm wants.

Arrowhead Addict has a piece about Carl Peterson and the upcoming Dark Knight Batman movie. They're running the Dark Knight at the IMAX here, but it's already sold out this weekend. Anyone ever seen a movie in an IMAX theater? I think I'm going to hold off and wait to see it there. Sounds like it would be worth it.

Just wanted to mention that I think Jeffrey Flanagan is doing a great job at Over the Top. It's pretty cool to see a newspaper embrace sports blogs and embrace them well. Keep up the good work Jeffrey.

Mr. Jon Yoon at says its about time the Chiefs took on a corporate sponsor. I'm sure Jon is fully prepared for the deluge of comments opposed to his stance. But as usual, he makes good points and it's tough to argue with him.

That's it for this morning. Jibber jabber away here if you're bored on this final bastion of work before the summer weekend.

Just went through some of the old Kansas City Chiefs training camp photos and picked out some of the betters ones. Many more after the jump.

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Tankville...where running backs come to retire.

The Kansas City Chiefs open up Arrowhead Stadium for 2008 play in Week 2 against the Oakland Raiders. Both teams were 4-12 last year, with the Raiders taking one in KC and the Chiefs taking a win in Oakland.

The tempting match up to point out is the newly souped up Raiders' secondary against the Chiefs' young corp of receivers. The addition of former Falcon Pro Bowl CB DeAngelo Hall catapults this secondary into probably one of the best in the league. A Hall-Bowe matchup sounds great to watch but it won't be the most intriguing. We know Dwayne Bowe is fantastic and we don't need a good performance against the Raiders to prove it again.

I again think that the most interesting data from this game will come from the defensive line. The Chiefs squeaked in at 28th overall last year in rushing defense, a mark that absolutely must be improved for the team to progress as a whole. Teams absolutely stomped the Chiefs last year on the ground. Selvin Young and LaDainian Tomlinson had monster days against us, helping bump that 130 yard/game average the Chiefs relinquished last year.

The Raiders will be another early and difficult test for an unproven squad of defensive linemen. Last year, RB Justin Fargas became the first Raider to rush for over 100 yards at Arrowhead since 1978. Highly touted second year RB Michael Bush will get his first chance to play on an NFL field, after spending 2007 on the PUP list.

And there is this other guy they have...McFadden? Yeah, that's it. Darren McFadden. We'll keep an eye on him too.

In other words, the Raiders are stacked at running back and should prove to be a worthy challenge to our youngsters on the defensive line.

I'm going to assume a vast improvement over 2007 on the offensive line, which means I'm shifting the utmost importance of development to our defensive line. Worked right, the talent is there on that line to create an intimidating force. Worked wrong, and like our offensive line, the team could be harmed for seasons to come.

To sum it up, the Chiefs have a lot riding on pretty much every position on the team.

Cue the Priest Holmes training camp appearance in 3, 2, 1....

My blood pressure goes up the day camp starts and guys aren't there because of contract negotiations. From PFW:

And from what we hear, Kansas City is still not close to signing their two Round One choices, DT Glenn Dorsey and OL Branden Albert, both of whom may be waiting for more of their fellow first-rounders to ink deals. An even greater concern, however, is that the Chiefs haven’t been able to nail down contracts with many of their mid- and late-round picks, a few of whom they’ll need to contribute immediately.

What's holding up the signing of our draft picks? Well, first off, it's not that late in the process just yet. You'd expect Glenn Dorsey to at least wait until the first defensive player picked before him, Chris Long, is signed so you can compare deals. That's to be expected.

Still other delays stem from the lack of a collective bargaining agreement in 2011, which affects the allocation of money throughout the life of a contract. From John Clayton:

Under the rookie pool, base salaries can only increase 25 percent per year, but agents found a loophole in which a draft choice can receive a one-time bonus and guarantee it in the final year of the contract. This particularly affects second-round choices because they sign four-year deals. The problem in this summer's negotiations is that there is no collective bargaining agreement in 2011 so the fourth year of the contract can't be involved in any kind of guarantees.

So, we have the usual summer contract BS to deal with this year, plus an amorphous "future" contract problem.

To date, only three first round picks have signed - #1 Jake Long, #3 Matt Ryan and #4 Darren McFadden.

It really appears that at least Glenn Dorsey and Branden Albert will not be participating in training camp for at least a couple of weeks.

I fully expect six or seven of our remaining nine unsigned picks to complete contracts in bunches over the next ten days or so, which seems to be the Kansas City Chiefs' modus operandi when it comes to this stuff.

And just to mention the picture, doesn't it seem like forever ago that we were talking about Priest Holmes at River Falls, WI? Man, a 4-12 season will age you quickly.

The Kansas City Chiefs are undergoing renovations at Arrowhead stadium that plan to keep us not-as-far-behind the new billion dollar stadium craze.  The new stadium and practice facility will bring with it an array of LED screens, revamped club-seating and suites, and many other treats that all the up-to-date stadiums have these days according to the Kansas City Business Journal.

The new screens will be nice.  If I ever get tickets in club-seating I'm sure I would enjoy the renovations that are being done to them.  But these aren't the reasons I go to Arrowhead stadium.

I go for the tailgating, the somehow-still-astonishing sea of red, the fans and most of all for my team.

I like that I can go there and look at the names of the past on the Chiefs Ring of Honor.  Well, those are being replaced by LED screens.  Okay, I can live with that.  The LED screens will display those contained on the Ring of Honor sporadically throughout the game.

I like that I can challenge anyone to top the gameday experience at Arrowhead stadium. 

The renovations cost money.  From whom?  A combination of people, including sponsorships.  Tammy Fruits, VP of sales and marketing for the Chiefs said, "Some of these teams have absolutely crazy amounts of revenue they can raise through sponsorships. Revenues from naming rights are so significant. Even if we land ours, the naming rights for cities like Dallas and New York are probably going to be five times larger." [Ed. Emphasis mine]

Um, naming rights?  Like my challenge for the best gameday experience might be changed to Sprint field at Arrowhead or something else completely not KC?

Fruits continues, "It is certainly our hope to incorporate the Arrowhead name and tradition into whatever we end up doing, not unlike Invesco Field at Mile High, that sort of thing."

Tammy, Tammy, Tammy.  One thing you do not do in this town, at any point in your life, is compare US to the Denver Broncos.  But even that's besides the bigger point.

I thought our charm was the tradition.  The fact that we weren't sell-outs.  The fact that we did sell out.  No matter what.  The Dallas' and New York's of the world can spend billions on their stadiums but they can't match our gameday experience or our tradition at Arrowhead.

Unfortunately, the second we change the name of Arrowhead to Corporate whatever, is the second we lose our edge

RIP Arrowhead Stadium: You fell to the (necessary?) desires of a front office to bring in an extra $5 million per year.

One of our many series that may or may not finish, I'll be taking a look at what I think to be the most interesting individual match ups next season. First up in Week 1, the New England Patriots.

With a new starting cornerback, a second year player in the nickel spot and two safeties with combined experience of four years, the easy answer this week is say watch the Kansas City Chiefs secondary compete against the record setting, All World, yada yada yada New England Patriots offense. I'll admit if the Chiefs are able to at least feign containment on Brady and Moss in Week 1, I'll be impressed. And I do that that would at least vaguely point to developing talent in our secondary if they performed well against the best. But if the Pats destroy the Chiefs secondary, then what will we say? That's what we expected?

That's why I'm going to tell you to watch the Chiefs' Jared Allen-less defensive line against the Patriots' foundation, their offensive line.

Right at the beginning of the season, the Chiefs will have a difficult test to gauge how far (or how steady) the team's 2007 strength has fallen. The Patriots offensive line, while a fantastic unit, is more dependent on the influence of Brady and Moss in that offense than the actual skills of their entire line. For example, only left tackle Matt Light and center Dan Koppen were cemented in their positions last year, with the guards and other tackle able to interchange quickly.

So, if the Chiefs are able to develop a successful pass rush during the game on September 7th, we'll know we have something to build upon.

Frankly, it's time for Tamba Hali to either become a pass rushing force or relegate himself to the "Also played" category of NFL players who had a couple of decent seasons. We will see in Week 1 if Hali is a player on his own or if he needed those dozen or so sacks by Allen the last two seasons to skate under the Chiefs' radar.

The same goes for the defensive tackles in Week 1. Glenn Dorsey gets a big time NFL test in his first game and we hope, we hope to see progress from Tank Tyler or Turk McBride, or both.

In other words, the Chiefs will get to see how immediate of an impact their '07 and '08 draft picks will have.

I know this is a lot of hot, hypothetical air over a game the Kansas City Chiefs will likely get whooped up so bad in that we won't be able to glean any lessons from it. But you see where I'm going with these? As this team changes and grows, what will be revealed to us this season about our current condition? We may lose, but what are we learning? Who can't cut it anymore? Or never could?

Because if you're not a Chiefs fan who is thinking in terms of two to three years down the road, you're setting yourself up for angry disappointment.

Ha. Good luck trying to swing your "false positive" excuse again.

A highly placed source in the NFL told Fox 31 sports reporter Josina Anderson that if Henry failed the test that the troubled player would be "up for a suspension".

This comes after Henry had successfully appealed a positive test taken prior to last season. Claiming the test was a "false positive", Henry won his claim against the NFL, though as part of the agreement he remained in the NFL's substance abuser program.

Earlier this spring the Broncos released Henry stating that the former Bill and Titan was "too inconsistent as a person. When you're too inconsistent as a person, you usually aren't going to win championships."

When the source was asked if Henry knew of the positive test, he replied, "I was told this result is recent. [Henry] should already be informed. If he didn’t know, he knows now."

There isn't much more to say that hasn't been said the other times Henry has tested positive in a league drug test. Stupid. Cocky. Can we get him the hell out of the NFL already? I suppose he's almost there.