We're encouraged to be independent thinkers on sports blogs, but sometimes there's a guy out there shaking the branches so hard you just have to follow his lead. We've had some interesting discussions over the past week regarding our special teams status. And the whole Feely incident was enough to end Batman's patience over at Arrowhead Addict, who is now calling for Priefer's head.

It's hard to blame him. He lists the specific failures of Priefer's judgment, and it's a damning list.

I prefer to take a broader review of the situation, and it's not much better. It might even be worse. More after the jump.

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Carl stops dead in his tracks as he sees Herm Edwards sitting in his chair.

Herm: Hey Carl.

Carl: Uh... hey Herm.

Herm: I'm having a GREAT time. I can see why you've been doing this for so long.

Carl: Why are you sitting at my desk?

Herm: Just wanted to see what it's like.

Carl: Uh huh.

Herm: Can't judge a man 'til you walk a mile in his--

Carl: --Get out of my chair, Herm.

Herm: K.

Herm gets up.

Carl sits down.

Herm teeters nervously over Carl's desk.

Carl: Can I help you?

Herm: You play to win the game?

Carl: Whatever. You totally rearranged my desk icons on my computer. You know this isn't your stuff. Where's the personnel file? It's not in the "Recycle Bin" like I prefer it to be.

Herm: Right there.

Carl: Jesus. JESUS. DID YOU SIGN SOMEBODY?

Herm: He's a kicker.

Carl: WHAT ARE YOU DOING SIGNING PEOPLE? I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT THIS.

Herm: Well you see I've been scrolling this Chiefs board, and he's apparently a pretty big name.

Carl: You KNOW I have to cut this guy now, right? We specifically talked about not signing him.

...

Carl: Herm?

...

Herm: You play to win--

Carl: GET OUT. OUT OUT OUT.

Herm: (running out of the room) whoooooop whoop whoop whoop whoop!

Ho boy, that was rough. Slaughter at the hands of a team coming off a 1-15 season.

That. Was. Rough.

You sit through many of these conversations on this blog and other fansites, about a team in rebuild mode. Clearly this is a team bereft of much veteran presence, having done next to nothing in the Draft pre-Herm Edwards. Clearly this is a team that is completely in development. Clearly the Dolphins were in need of a statement game and the Kansas City Chiefs came in with what seemed like 250 injuries to promising youngins and assured veterans alike.

But it's hard to figure out where to place Saturday night. The 24-0 beatdown by the Dolphins was as hard a game as I've ever watched. It was literally a game without highlights. When you gather with other fans after the game, and one of the most impressive plays of the night was how rookie RB Dantrell Savage tackled a guy after an interception, you're basically gasping for air as a supporter of this team.

The We're Rebuilding! Card is easy to play right here. Well let's face it, it's going to be easy to play all year. But I don't think it adequately explains what happened. Saturday's game was a failure, and not just in the rhetoric sense that we racked up an L instead of a W. It was a failure because our quarterbacks couldn't play, our line couldn't protect, our running backs couldn't run, our kickers couldn't kick, our linebackers couldn't tackle, our passrush couldn't rush, our safeties couldn't cover, and our cornerbacks got burned. Our gameplan, offensively and defensively, was nonexistant, perhaps deliberately so, but nonetheless worrying as the Dolphins, recovering from a historically sorry season, likely prepared for this game the same.

Rebuilding projects are never supposed to have games like that. It was a failure on every level.  The silver lining of that loss is so devastatingly small, it's unfair to call it "lining." Lining would mean that it exists. You should more appropriately call any hope that arose out of the Dolphins game the "silver concept."

You may not be able to tell from that game, but this is a team that boasts a lot of talent. We have promising young talent at most of these positions. We have former Pro Bowlers at other positions. We even have a Hall of Famer. So how on earth can this happen?

Yes, all the right pieces are being honed. But this is more than an "unfinished project." This is a team who's pieces are miles apart from one another, and it's really hard to see how we can reverse that with any reasonable speed. If the Dolphins game was any reasonable indication, this phase of birth pangs will take quite a few years, not merely one or two.

But for the short term, perhaps we should take the message: a team coming off one of the worst seasons in NFL history might have just hinted that we are destined for the same fate in 2008.

via www.beltbuckleshop.com

Does this qualify as smack talking? Then so be it. I would normally feel bad after TheSportsGuru just posted an elegant set of rules about engaging with the enemy here on SBN, but it's game day, and this atrocity can't stand.

Let's just review for the masses, shall we? It's a dolphin, wearing a helmet, while grimacing. I honestly don't know what's the dumbest thing here.

The fact that Flipper up there is angry and grimacing is sad and sorrowful. I'm sorry guys, but you've made the decision to have the friendliest-appearing waterdwelling mammal your mascot. You can't "scary-up" a dolphin any more than I can Snuggles the Bear. Giving him the browline of a neanderthal and a smirky frown makes him more of a plush toy than a football mascot.

How in the name of anything sacred is he wearing a helmet? That's a human's helmet. It doesn't even fit the animal's elongated skull. If we're going to pretend there's a football-playing porpoise, can we not also pretend there's adequate gear so he doesn't get obliterated on his first punt return? Good god, the guy doesn't even have arms and you're sending him out on the gridiron with a helmet that doesn't fit. It's like you want him endangered. His(?) entire forehead is exposed for contact.

The helmet itself is an atrocity. It's an orange "M"? Whose team features a big orange "M" on the helmet? NOBODY'S. Why not give him the helmet that the Dolphins actually wear. It could even create a Russian Dolls effect where the dolphin in the dolphin's helmet has a dolphin in his helmet which has a dolphin in his helmet. This is a masterpiece waiting to be constructed and your laziness is stupefying.

Listen, the team can do however they want. So they've got an undefeated team. They had one of the best QBs the game's ever seen. Yet all you get is a reel of grainy highlights that features your beloved Dolphins sashaying all over the field in one of history's sorriest mistakes, a piece of equipment lacking in even one sensible artistic detail, a symbol that compares your fierce heroes on the gridiron to frowning fish.

I'm surprised Goddell hasn't been on top of this. The Dolphins should resign from the league and start over with a new franchise in 5 years with a new mascot. I know you have to keep things Miami-themed, but virtually anything would be better. Knowing you guys you'd be the Miami Super Suns and have the cartoon sun from Raisin Bran on your helmet, wearing shades.

You make me sick, Dolphins. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

via www.emich.edu

As a Chiefs fan, there are particular aspects of football that I have no choice but to love. I love to tailgate and the smell of BBQ-tinged air. I love a sea of red. Piercing crowd noise. The first tackle a defense makes, while the home crowd is screaming for blood and all the players leap into the air pumping their arms. A run up the gut for a hard first down. A tough quarterback. A smart linebacker. The blitz on a 3rd and long.

But of course, I also love players who refuse to ever get down. All attitude. All confidence. They know they're the best and they can't wait for you to eat your crow when they prove it.

I say this because I've just become an unsuspecting fan of a player few people know from a conference few people respect. And I honestly had no choice in the matter.

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To add to the already insane list of injuries this team has compiled this summer, add another one to the list: up-and-coming WR Will Franklin:

Rookie wide receiver Will Franklin left practice shortly before its end today with what he said was a right knee injury.

Franklin hobbled off the field with help from one of the team's athletic trainers. He later walked in the locker room without assistance.

I think one of you out there tempted the football gods. I don't know who it is yet, but I'm going to sniff you out and smite you myself before we lose the other half of our football team.

I'd get my affairs in order and get out of town if I were you. Make yourself right with Jesus and tell your closest you love them. You will be worm food by sun-down.

OLB Demorrio Williams, finally starting to make a name for himself on this defense, went down with a hand injury. It's been described in some venues as a "broken hand," and in other venues an "injured finger." Teicher, who is about as reliable as it gets, said it's a "cracked bone in his hand."

All reports say that this is it for Williams for the rest of the preseason, but that he will be back in action for the Patriots game, though Teicher says he will have to wear a cast. Stepping into his place, and this is where it gets creepy, is rookie LB Weston Dacus, who up 'til now has primarily been playing MLB. So the Chiefs literally have no OLB they'd rather play in the starting lineup at this point other than Dacus.

This brings us to our worst position on the team this year: our flimsy linebacker corps. I'll break that down in a future post (if DJ or Chris don't beat me to it).

But more importantly, how awful have we been with injuries this offseason? It's been insane. Both first rounders have gone down, Donnie Edwards and Napoleon Harris have missed time. Kevin Robinson and Mike Merritt haven't even played yet. Jamaal Charles has missed time. Kolby Smith has missed time. Brian Johnston. Tamba Hali. Damion McIntosh. LaRue Rumph. Jon McGraw. Tyron Brackenridge. TJ Jackson. Alphonso Boone.

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We don't have a lot of time left to stew over potential practice squad players, so I thought I'd take an opportunity to chew on several players on this team that have little shot of making the actual roster, but the Chiefs might consider holding onto.

The practice squad, once again, is reserved for younger players (usually rookies) who can stay on the team to practice but not to play. They are free agents that can be acquired by any team willing to pluck one off and put him on their 53-man roster, so usually it's for a bunch of no-names. The only limitation is that a player cannot be on the practice squad for longer than three seasons (which all but eliminates Michael Allan and Will Svitek, both of whom I think are right up against that limitation).

Now, the practice squad can only have eight players (plus one international addition, which for us would be the British LB Aden Durde). Most of those eight will probably come from other teams, but here are some from this team that could make the transition.

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