A lot has been said about all the roster changes made by the new GM Pioli and HC Haley. So this got me kind of curious as to how they compare to the previous years of the Chiefs organization. I did a little research into the roster changes made year to year starting in 2004. I also wanted to look at the changes made to the offensive line year to year. The rosters I used are for the full year, so players that made the active roster any time during a year are included.

In 2004 the Chiefs started the season at 0-3 and finished the season out of the playoffs at 7-9. From 2004 to 2005 there were 19 new faces added to the roster and 17 players were shown the door. This included only 1 offensive lineman leaving (Brett Williams OT) and the addition of 4 new lineman (Jonathon Ingram C, Jeremy Parquet OT, Will Svitek OT, and Casey Wiegmann C). The Chiefs finished 2005 at 10-6 and missed the playoffs again.

In 2006 the Chiefs welcomed new coach Herm Edwards.The Chiefs added 22 new players and removed 21 players from the roster of 2005. There were 3 offensive lineman cut (Jonathon Ingram C, Jeremy Parquet OT and Willie Roaf OT) and 4 lineman added (Rudy Niswanger C, Tre Stallings OL, Chris Terry OT and Kyle Turley OT). The 9-7 Chiefs managed to make the playoffs this year.

There were 31 new players added to the roster in 2007 and 25 players gone from the year before. The Chiefs reduced the number of offensive lineman by 4 (Jordan Black OT, Chris Bober OT, Kevin Sampson OT and Will Shields OG) and added a total of 5 new offensive lineman (Jean-Philippe Darche C, Adrian Jones OT, Travis Leffew OG, Damion McIntosh OT and Herbert Taylor OT). The 2007 Kansas City Chiefs finished the season at 4-12.

In 2008 the Herm Edwards led Chiefs started 0-3 and finished an embarrasing 2-14.The front office went to a youth movement with 41 players added to the roster and 36 players deleted from the previous year. There were a total of 7 offensive lineman gone (Travis Leffew OG, Tre Stallings OL, Will Svitek OT, Chris Terry OT, Kyle Turley OT, John Welbourn OG and Casey Wiegmann C) and the addition of 5 new lineman (Branden Albert OT, Andrew Carnahan OT, Barry Richardson OT, Wade Smith OT and Tavares Washington OT).

In 2009 the Chiefs welcomed a new GM Scott Pioli and a new Head Coach Todd Haley. The previous year's roster has been purged of 40 players and 24 new players have been added. There are 7 offensive linemen passed over from last year (Andrew Carnahan OT, Jean-Philippe Darche C, Adrian Jones OT, Damion McIntosh OT, Barry Richardson OT, Herbert Taylor OT and Tavares Washington OT) and 5 new lineman have been added (Andy Alleman OG, Colin Brown OT, Mike Goff OG, Ikechuku Ndukwe OG and Ryan O’Callaghan OT).

It appears that Herm Edwards was involved in a lot of player turnover of his own. In his first year Edwards was in KC, Carl Peterson was still very much in charge, and the player personnel changes reflect that. There were only 7 additional roster changes over the previous year. In Herm's second year there was an increase in roster moves from his first year of a total of 13 (+20 from the '04 to '05 basis). The third year, which was openly known as a rebuilding year, there was an increase of 21 from the previous year (+41 from the '04 to '05 basis).

So far in the first year of the newest regime there has been a net decrease in roster changes of -13 (now this may get smaller as the year goes on). But the idea that I had that Haley has made significantly more roster changes than Edwards did is incorrect. Haley has only removed 4 more players from the previous year's roster than Edwards did in his 3rd year, and up to this point Haley has added 12 fewer players.

On the offensive line there is only one player that remains from before Edwards arrived and that is Brian Waters. Waters who never played lineman in college and was an undrafted free agent somehow managed to stay put through 3 coaching changes. Rudy Niswanger was added in 2006 Edwards' first year and Brandon Albert was added in Edwards' last year. In the last 5 years the Chiefs have seen a transition of 40 different offensive linemen. The idea that the offensive line was ignored by the previous brass at Arrowhead in incorrect. Either they failed misserably at talent evaluation or talent development or both when it comes to the offensive line. In 2008 there were 7 lineman dismissed and 5 linemen added and so far in 2009 it is the same... 7 linemen dismissed and 5 linemen added. I can only  hope that this group is better at talent evaluation and development when it comes to the offensive line or we are in for a very long season indeed.