Chiefs News from the Overnight 8/18

by NJ Chiefs Fan on Aug 18, 2009 5:31 AM CDT

They practice the two-minute drill, goal line and short yardage, killing the clock, saving time on the clock, using timeouts effectively. At least once, usually twice a practice Haley lays out a situation for his team before the start of the drill.

"There are a lot of teams that don’t put a lot of time into it," Haley said. "I would bet that we’re putting as much if not more time than any team in the league. There’s a reason for that because I believe it wins or loses games for you."

The Situation With Situations … Tuesday Cup O’Chiefs from Bob Gretz

KC Star Photo Gallery: Chiefs Return to Training Camp for Monday's Practice

"I don’t think (it’s too late)," Lelie said. "With the coaches bringing me in, they don’t think so, either. I’ve been running whenever I can, running routes, trying to do anything competitive, go play basketball, whatever I can do to keep that competitive edge. It’s kind of hard to motivate yourself to keep running when you’re waiting for that call.

Chiefs Pick Up Veteran Receiver Lelie from KC Star

Haley said he wasn’t yet ready to chase a win to the point of sacrificing other things the Chiefs need to accomplish in these final three weeks. He said focusing too much on a victory might derail other top priorities.

Chiefs Camp Buzz: Haley Says Team Must Learn How to Win from KC Star

If Matt Cassel is the real deal ... and I think that's a bigger if than most people think ... the Chiefs are a team on an accelerated path forward, though they still need another year or two until they're ready to compete.

Projected finish: 6-10 (3rd in AFC West)

NFL Preview: Kansas City Chiefs from The Morris Mirror

When coaches make these moves, we reflexively applaud, partly because we are grouchy when millionaires squander their athletic gifts, and partly because almost all of us can remember a time when a kick in the pants sent us down a better path.

Tough Love from Above Works Again from Columbia Daily Tribune

We’re at the end of our Examiner.com series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the AFL. Finishing up the team, here are my picks for the Chiefs All-50 team for special teams.

Kansas City Chiefs All-50 team: Special Teams from Examiner.com

Our instructor this week is former Kansas City Chiefs offensive tackle Ricky Siglar. Mr. Siglar is retired now, but spends quite a bit of time in various community development and youth programs. Obviously, after several years of playing in the NFL, he knows a little bit about blocking big men.

Learning To Block, Part 2 from Eleven Warriors

RIVER FALLS, Wis. -- It's easy to understand why most Kansas City Chiefs players would be happy to be in the final week of "Camp Hell," also known as Todd Haley's first training camp as an NFL head coach.

The Chiefs clearly have one of the more grueling camps in the league. Haley has had his team in pads and hitting for all but one day since Aug. 1, when practices began at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He also has had his players running more than most, if not all, can remember doing at any level of football. Certainly, there aren't other NFL teams that make players run in practice as much as the Chiefs do.

Haley Greets Work-in-Progress Chiefs Team with Grueling Camp from NFL.com

Player Tweets

almighty31 gettin better in practice. INT's and makin plays. now its time 2 take it to the spotlight. dont forget 2 win

superdj56 whats good, still grinding in camp. team is really coming alone great. stay tuned to this friday, goin to visit the vikings.

Fans and Media

KC_Chiefs1 VIDEO: Hopefuls: 2009 Cheerleader Tryouts - 3 on http://www.kcchiefs.com/che... now! (via @ChiefsCheer)

kb_kcstar At the finest restaurant in RF, sitting outside while Delilah is pumped in ... And dangerously close to a man in a Greg Manusky jersey.

chrisharrop: With Amani Toomer, Bobby Engram and Ashley Lelie, the KC Chiefs now have one of the best WR corps in the NFL... for 2004.

JoshLooney: @lakeshow247 @edwardstroy @smuckj you are on Chiefs OnDemand! check out kcchiefs.com for video. Thanks for your Twitter questions

dubfam: Tagging all my Traitor oops Raider fans facebook pages with arrowheads Go Chiefs

YahooSportsNFL: Packers camp report and 10 parting shots coming Tuesday afternoon. Then it's off to Kansas City Chiefs camp.

candyann: Why the hell is Sportscenter reporting about some 3rd string lame from the Chiefs attempting to talk to Jessica Simpson? Who cares ESPN! [It was Redskin QB, not Chiefs - NJ]

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.

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Comments

Lots of mistakes

If Matt Cassel is the real deal … and I think that’s a bigger if than most people think … the Chiefs are a team on an accelerated path forward, though they still need another year or two until they’re ready to compete.

Projected finish: 6-10 (3rd in AFC West)

NFL Preview: Kansas City Chiefs from The Morris Mirror

I went to this link. This guy doesn’t seem to know the chiefs. He says that Albert may “win” the starting LT job. Also list DJ as OLB and Vrabel as ILB etc etc. I am no expert but was just shaking my head by the end of the read.

by birddaug on Aug 18, 2009 7:48 AM CDT reply actions

Funny post from KC Star comments section:

Chefs fans really should shut up and let these guys do their jobs. They inherited one of the worst teams in NFL history. How about taking this one step at a time instead of whining in like two seconds? There’s virtually NOTHING on this roster.

Ashley Lelie on crutches is better than Jeff Webb and whomever else Herm used as WR’s. Lelie, Engram and Toomer aren’t longterm solutions but holy crap, they HAVE to be better for Cassel to throw to than these other idiots.

Haley is dead on correct. KC has accepted a culture of losing. We’re good at it. Shut the hell up and give these guys a legit chance to rebuild. Year one is about establishing the QB and getting some defensive consistency again. Year two will be about the drafting of skill players at WR and RB and OL and looking for defensive help at LB. They should start to threaten next year. Year three, they contend if all goes well.

Let them do this and shut the hell up.

You have just received the Amish Virus. Since we do not have electricity or computers, you are on the honor system. Please delete all of your files.

Thank thee

by JChief on Aug 18, 2009 8:46 AM CDT reply actions

First thing..

we HAVE been rebuilding. For 2 years now. Lelie is better than Webb. We all already knew that.

We have NOT accepted a culture of losing. We’ve had 2 terrible seasons. I made a comment on another post reguarding this arguement. Did you know that before the 4-12 season, we were the only team in the league besides the Steelers that had not lost more than 10 games in a season since 1988?

The teams failure the last 2 years isnt because “we have accepted a culture of losing”. Its because Vermeil/Peterson neglected the defense, built a powerful offense without bringing in any legit young guys to plug in once the older guys moved on. We lost Roaf, Shields, TRich, and Green without any legit backups to replace them. We also lost Priest but had LJ to replace him. Then again, Vermeil wanted Polamalu, not LJ, but Peterson was scared Priest would get hurt again. Based on those facts, of course the team has been losing. Our O got old and fell apart and the D was never built in the first place. But we have a young, energetic team with alot of potential. NOBODY in the NFL accepts losing, and to make a comment like that is flat out bullshit.

This isnt year 1. So no, this isnt about establishing the QB. We would LIKE our QB to become established, but if he doesnt have a great season, I’m not worried about it because we barely made an attempt to upgrade our OL. We can do that after this season. THEN I would say its about the QB. If hes not established by year 2 behind a strong OL, I have no further hope for Cassel. We’ve already built our DL (might still need a NT depending how ours do), and our Secondary is set for years to come.

This year will be about learning the system, and being mentally prepared. Especially for the guys who will be here for some years like Cassel, Charles, Bowe, and Albert. After this season, depending on the play of our OL, we will continue to rebuild the OL and LB core.

Pioli knows that great teams are built on the OL and the defensive side of the ball. Most teams with a top defense make the playoffs. A strong OL only makes QB’s, RB’s and WR’s look better. Hell, look at the WR’s the pats had BEFORE Moss. Look at the WR’s the Chiefs had at the height of our offensive powerhouse. You dont have to have 6’4 215lb, freak of nature althletes at WR. Sure, those guys LOOK good, but alot of times they get loud and obnoxious. We already have Bowe whos that exact athlete, but doesnt have the attitude of Ochocinco. We need a true #2 and Bradley MIGHT develop into that. If not, hes always a slot option once we find out #2. But we dont need to go spending high round draft picks on one.

My opinion: No matter what happens this year, our 1st round pick should be either OL or LB. I’m thinking OL but I dont know who will be coming out for the draft so I think that will be determined at a later time. All I know is we have 2 starting LB’s who are pretty old and will be retiring within the next couple years, if not after this season. Mays may be ready to step in, but we havent seen enough of him to make that call. If he’s ready, the need at LB becomes less (we’d still need 1 OLB to replace Vrabel) and we could focus more on building the OL for Cassel.

I think we’ll build up the OL first though, because we have to protect our 60 million dollar investment.

by Petey14 on Aug 18, 2009 11:31 AM CDT up reply actions

Agree with most of what you say.

Just not sure about needing to go 1st round for LBs, which I see as more of a good athlete and great football intelligence kind of pick, which you can usually get farther down, if your scouts are any good.

OL, DL and WR are where you need freaks of nature more than ’most anywhere else on the squad, IMO.

And I don’t think Peterson neglected defense, so much as being inept. Plenty of high picks spent on D and O lines in the last few years, to my (weak) mind. They just didn’t develop or didn’t retain good ones. Still gripes me to see names like Kawika Mitchell and Scott Fujita on highlights in other uniforms. Also John Tait on OL, where we could’ve used him the last few seasons.

Only thing I’d say aGAINST Mays is biting on the play fake on Saturday, but it was after the Texans had some big runs, courtesy of Hali getting burned a few times on the cutback (I thought) was his responsibility to deny.

No question. Otis Taylor should be in the Hall of Fame.

by hmills110 on Aug 18, 2009 11:55 AM CDT up reply actions

OL needs to be addressed before this season starts IMO.

There are a couple of quality RTs out there and really, Pioli needs to bring them in for a look. Levi Jones is still young enough that if we brought him in, we may not have to worry about drafting a lineman for a while. And when we do draft one, he won’t be pressured to start right away. If we bring in Runyan, he is probably only good for one year and then we will be back in the market again and we will end up having to start a rookie at RT.

by Chiefsfan1970 on Aug 18, 2009 11:56 AM CDT up reply actions

Yeah. I don't quite get it.

Do they think something’s going to change from within the current set of players? Do they really think Goff and Ghiaciuc solve all their problems?

Because they’re very talented AND have knee/age issues, guys like Runyan and Jones would either have spent all of camp on a bicycle, or done a lot more running than they probably should, at this point. Bringin’ in one of these two guys late might be exactly the way to play it, if they eventually DO become part of the team.

No question. Otis Taylor should be in the Hall of Fame.

by hmills110 on Aug 19, 2009 3:30 AM CDT up reply actions

You were pretty tough on that writer in the comments you made on the Morris Mirror site.

Only FACT I’m not sure about is whether or not Tyler ends up being the guy at NT. Edwards has been showin’ up, of late, but Tyler hopefully will push.

But right on about DJ and ESPECIALLY about Albert.

No question. Otis Taylor should be in the Hall of Fame.

by hmills110 on Aug 19, 2009 3:33 AM CDT up reply actions