I make no promises that this is going to be a regular segment. Absolutely none.

1. Finally, we face a real offense! Are we about to be exposed? I believe this team is on the path to redemption, but it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Particularly for our defense: we boast little passrush, our best DT is a rookie, our LB corps is thin and may have a massive hole at MLB, and our secondary is talented but incredibly young. Everybody could hold their own against the laughably lousy Bears offense, but the Cardinals offense is another level of trouble: their QBs are uniformly more talented, their OL is bigger and better, their rungame doesn't depend on a rookie, and little needs to be said about their WRs. This unit may be too much to handle.

2. Will we generate any pass rush? The biggest deficiency in the Chiefs' solid defensive effort against the woeful offense of the Bears was a complete lack of pressure on the QBs. Demoting Boone and placing McBride on the strong side will definitely help matters, but it will not fix them. Our pass rush is in serious condition, folks. Hali will do what he does, but this far in his career he's proven to be an every-down DE that's good at a lot of things, but not great at any. He is no sack specialist. McBride has not generated much excitement (from anyone other than Adam Best). And if Johnston emerges as a DE in this league, it won't be this year. He needs time. If you want to keep your eye out on a sleeper, there's been some buzz around the quick Jason Parker, so keep your eyes on #92.

3. Will the right side of the line get their act together? The only obvious sack that the Croyle-led offense gave up against the Bears' blitz-free, vanilla defense was McIntosh simply getting beat around the corner. The only stuff of LJ occurred when Adrian Jones allowed a DT to slide through completely untouched to slam into Two-Sev six yards behind the line of scrimmage. This right side is leaky, and for their one game so far, they've struggled.

4. Can our corners handle the best WR tandem in the NFL? Boldin and Fitzgerald are Pro Bowlers, with a pair of good QBs to get the ball out. They will likely only suit up for a couple series before retiring for the evening. But the time they are on the field will tell us a lot about the character of our young guys. It seems inevitable to me that someone is going to get utterly embarrassed. That's not the issue for me. I'm more concerned with how our young guys would react. It helps to have a short memory at corner, and we're going to see exactly how tough, how focused, and how intense our corners can be. (For the record, Flowers has a great record of rising to the occasion.)

5. Will Herb continue to play well? The most pleasant surprise of the Chicago game last week was the emergence of Herb Taylor at LT, filling in for the still-injured Brandon Albert. It was pointed out to me tonight that Mike Lombardi agrees. The possibilities behind this are serious. We may actually have legit starting talent in Herb Taylor. What if we have starting talent in Barry Richardson? Dare I dream of the day that the Chiefs actually fastened down the right side of their line with a pair of 6th rounders?

6. Will Darling finally emerge? Among the many reports emanating from River Falls, and the performance we witnessed against the Bears, Devard "DVD" Darling has not generated much excitement from anybody that I can tell outside of Warpaint. Here at AP, we've all lost a degree of faith in him as we continue to be underwhelmed. The good news, really to all of this, is that it's just one preseason game into the league. But DVD's route-running looked sluggish and I never spied a moment, rewatching the game, where he had shaken off his coverage.

7. How many minds will Sippio have blown by the final whistle? After Gretz's enthusiastic defense of reserve WR Bobby Sippio, how can you not pull for this guy? The battle for the 5th receiving spot is still completely up for grabs. (Bowe, Franklin, Darling, and probably Webb are locks.) Price has looked fast and great at running routes. Jabari Arthur and Kevin McMahan got on the board last week. Hell, the Chiefs might elect to fill the 5th spot with either BJ Sams or currently-injured rookie Kevin Robinson, who are returners but teams virtually never keep five receivers + a returning specialist. Can Sippio fend them all off? My brain says Price... my heart says differently.

8. Can Savage or Battle make enough happen to sneak onto the roster? After studying my crystal ball, I suspect that the Chiefs are going to be working the hell out of Savage for the remainder of preseason. He will probably garner more carries than any other RB, as the Chiefs either wonder if he's worth moving the earth to try and fit him in our crowded backfield, or to dangle him as preseason trade bait. Jackie Battle has run strong, but that's why I suspect we've got no room for him. We've already got a guy who can run that strong, maybe you've heard of him. I see Battle and I think practice squad.

9. Which kicker will make the most of his chances? Second verse, same as the first. Neither kicker has been able to reach the endzone on kickoffs, which hasn't been pleasant. Barth has had his game opportunity so far, and nailed a decent 37-yarder. Here's hoping for more chances come this evening. I'm sure the Chiefs have Feeley (and worse yet... Morten Andereson) on speed dial.

10. Who can make a name for himself returning kicks? Nobody has really shown a Justin Phinisee-like presense returning kicks this preseason, which has got to make Kevin Robinson happy. Sams doesn't even appear to want the job. C'mon BJ! Throw caution to the wind! (Phinisee, who looked phenomenal in the 2007 preseason returning kicks for the Chiefs, is a free agent. I'm just saying...)

Since I love lists of ten, let's do that, shall we?

Provide me feedback, let me know if you agree or disagree.

1. First string offense has a lot of promise. Hard to tell if Herb Taylor or the right side was up to the job because Gailey's playcalls didn't trust them at all. Lots of misdirection, lots of bootlegs. Croyle and Thigpen have proven to be effective when mobile. When Huard comes in, the offense reverts to 2007. That's not coincidence, and it leads me to believe that pass protection will still be a problem.

2. All RBs look solid, almost all WRs looked solid, too. Only significant WR I was not impressed with was Darling, who was invisible. But the depth of WRs who made plays yesterday was mindboggling. Sure, Sippio(!!!) won the game, but he had another tough catch-and-run earlier in the game. Franklin looked like the best non-Bowe WR. Webb got waaaaay open a couple times. Maurice Price looks like he's in incredible shape after recovering from a broken collarbone. Even Jabari Arthur and Kevin McMahon looked great.

3. I think Lovie and Herm had a gentleman's agreement to not blitz each other's QB. I don't think I saw a single blitz.

4. LJ is going to LOVE the zone blocking system. The guy gets to crunch linebackers and secondaries way more often, now. LJ finally gets to earn yards the way he likes: initial explosion, crunch some folks at the second level, and take off. Loved that touchdown run.

5. DJ looked good, but all other linebackers failed to play the right gap or play tough. Only DJ made a truly powerful play, and he made several. Pat Thomas just about embarrassed himself at the Mike. I think the Chiefs will be stewing over putting Donnie in the middle of the field and putting DeMorrio and DJ on either side. This team will struggle with depth at LB all year.

6. Our secondary was schooled several times over, but not without promise. Maurice Leggett was beat on two obvious plays (one of them being a TD), but only because he made minor, correctable mistakes. His coverage was otherwise pretty strong. Morgan got beat a couple times as well, but his speed is undeniable. Page needs to wrap up better, still. Flowers and Carr both look like rookies, and I continue to have high hopes.

7. Our DL is in trouble, even if Dorsey returns. We might be okay in the middle when he returns (a rotation of Edwards, Tank, Dorsey, and sometimes Boone could be a LOT of fun, although our scrub DTs -- particularly Lokey and T.J. Jackson -- were slaughtered), but we're going to be hurting on the outside all year. Boone is not fast enough to get around the corner at DE, Hali was shut down on sacks but he didn't play too bad, and no other DE made noise other than Turk and Jason Parker on a couple of chases.

8. Barth was money on his kick, so that's good. But neither kicker could get the ball to the endzone on kickoffs.

9. No major kick returns. Sams didn't even return one. Charles was iffy. Savage was actually the best returner of the night.

10. I think our offense will get into the lower 20s or upper teens, and I think our defense is going to be in the mid to lower 20s. I think our defense has lots of talent, especially in the secondary, but we're going to get killed from having no depth at LB, and no talent other than Hali at DE.

For you new readers out there, 99.9% of the time I post something by 8 AM. Each morning during training camp, I'll post the latest updates from the various outlets that are at training camp, as well as posting throughout the day. Selah.

Happy Monday morning to you all. I trust the first weekend of the Kansas City Chiefs training camp treated you well. There were three practices over the weekend. We've covered Saturday in our previous posts (scroll down if you're on the homepage and you'll see them), so here's a bit about Sunday.

BobGretz.com

The Chiefs offense and defense ran 43 plays of teamwork against each other. The defense looked good at times, but overall the offense was very sluggish. Essentially, the offense had 16 positive plays in those 43 plays. Positive is defined as a running play that broke into the second level of the defense or a completed pass. Quarterbacks were eight of 17 with at least two sacks and three dropped passes. Defensively, MLB Napoleon Harris and DE Brian Johnston had the sacks, DT T.J. Jackson had a stop in the backfield, as did DE Alfonso Boone. CB Brandon Flowers dropped a possible INT.

For those of you who haven't checked out BobGretz.com, it has quickly become one of the top places to get your first hand training camp news. Mr. Gretz is there at camp and delivering updates daily. And I don't have to tell you that the guy knows his football. I'm very thankful to have such a great resource on hand. You should be too.

UW-RF Site

• Larry Johnson sat out of a regular running back drill, possibly indicating that Herm isn't going to press LJ too much this camp.


• QB Tyler Thigpen worked with the second-string team and Damon Huard with the third-string. Can we please trade Damon Huard already?


• CB Maurice Leggett injured his finger but came back to practice.


• Damion McIntosh still doesn't sound happy about moving to right tackle - "I’m a ball player. When I’m asked to do something, I do it."


• I love this quote from Tank - ""I’ve been practicing all summer long because I wasn’t satisfied with last season."


• Rookie TE Brad Cottam on the Chiefs - "I don’t think I could have walked into a better situation."

There's plenty of stuff in the UW-RF update, so let's dig through it and talk about it. I'm still figuring out exactly how I'm going to post these updates so bear with me as I experiment. Whoops...almost forgot that the mothership was doing updates as well.

It may be 8 AM but pull up a chair at our online pub and let's talk some Chiefs! What else are you going to do? Work? Nah...

It was a rainy morning in River Falls, WI, and because of that, the Kansas City Chiefs worked out inside. Here are a few updates from UW-RF site and WPI. The AM practice pictures are here. The Chiefs should be taking the practice field around 3 PM for a more robust practice session.

• "Kansas City’s starting five on the offensive line remains, left to right, Branden Albert, Brian Waters, Rudy Niswanger, Adrian Jones and Damion McIntosh. Albert, KC’s second first-round pick, showed no ill effects from the ankle he sprained earlier this offseason, and was light on his feet."


• "The Chiefs rotated wide receivers with the first-team offense. Dwayne Bowe, Bobby Sippio, Devard Darling, Jeff Webb and Will Franklin all received reps with Brodie Croyle under center. Oliver Hoyte, Mike Cox and Chris Manderino split reps at fullback."


• "Dwayne Bowe is full of energy. With Jared Allen gone, he’s definitely the heartbeat of this year’s Chiefs team. Today he played free safety with the walkthrough defense (normally comprised of offensive backups), and playfully acted like he might deliver a big hit to anyone who caught a ball in front of him, including his cousin Bobby Sippio. Bowe stayed after the walkthrough for an energetic game of catch with tight end Tony Gonzalez and linebacker Donnie Edwards."


• "Head Coach Herm Edwards held a press conference at the close of practice. He discussed the importance of holding a walk-through versus a full-strength practice. "We have so many young guys; it’s good to give them a walk-through like this," Edwards said. He also said this morning’s walk-through would settle the players’ anxiety and serve as a teaching session. Walk-throughs also give the special teams’ players an opportunity to run more drills. The only injury Edwards said was affecting the team right now was the recovery rookie wide receiver Kevin Robinson. Edwards said that Robinson had his knee cleaned out about a month ago. "He’s on the mend," said Edwards, "but he should be ready to play in the preseason game at Chicago.'"


• "Tamba Hali and Ron Edwards were two of the defensive linemen who saw quality time during the mock-snap drills. Rookie DaJuan Morgan was also seeing some first-string time in the safety position. Throughout the practice, the defense seemed more leisure than the offense, primarily focusing on one drill, using only two strings of players."

Oh man, it felt good to post this. Training camp has officially started! More updates later tonight and don't forget about AP's birthday tomorrow! We're turning two!

• In the Bahamas, his home country, Kansas City Chiefs WR Devard Darling is a big deal.


• A local KC area beer vendor wrote a book about his experiences. Any beer vendor blogs out there?


• Speaking of beer vendors in KC, I went to the Royals game last night. In the third inning or so, a woman passed out All-Star game ballots, which she would pick up in a few innings. I grabbed mine and immediately started smelling the newly printed paper and ink, which I don't feel like I'm alone in doing. I glance up at the monster high def screen they have at Kauffman Stadium only to see myself with my face buried in my All-Star ballot. I did the customary, "Where is the camera?!?!" head swivel before everyone else laughed.


• Stripe Hype, a Cincinnati Bengals blog, is being threatened with a lawsuit by the Cincinnati Bengals.


• Hashmarks says that RB Travis Henry may be out in Denver, depending on whether or not the team brings another running back on. If Henry is cut, he'll actually have the time to make all of children's visitations.


• Bob Kravitz of the Indy Star -- "What do any of us really know about what went down -- or didn't go down -- last week in Harrison's childhood neighborhood in Philadelphia?"


• A lot of people were clamoring about drafing OG Eric Young out of Tennessee. I believe I even saw a few mock drafts with him going in the 5th round. Well, he was waived by the Browns yesterday, after a brief flirtation with the NFL. He may be back somewhere else but I wanted to point out how fans group think can accelerate so quickly without rhyme or reason.

I believe it was swift who asked for an updated list of the undrafted free agents (UDFA) the Kansas City Chiefs had signed. Here are the 17 initial UDFA signings, which were announced on May 2.

WR Jabari Arthur, WR Sean Bailey, K Connor Barth, FB Mike Cox, G Ian-Yates Cunningham, DE Johnny Dingle, S Ron Girault, CB Maurice Leggett, DT Derek Lokey, G Chris McDuffie, RB Kalvin McRae, DT Maurice Murray, LB Steve Octavien, DE Jason Parker, DE Jonal Saint-Dic, QB Ricky Santos and WR Luke Swan.

The Chiefs invited over 40 players to their rookie camp this past weekend, in addition to the players listed above. The only new signing I've come across is Arkansas LB Weston Dacus, who was invited to camp without a contract and left with a two-year deal.

More to come later today.

Without the emergence of rookie Dwayne Bowe last year, the Chiefs wide receiving corp would have been in shambles. Bowe ended '07 with 995 yards receiving, which was nearly 60% of the total yards gained by all of the Chiefs' wide receivers. Jeff Webb, Samie Parker and veteran Eddie Kennison were nearly non-existent in 2007, with their 65 catches combined not even surpassing Bowe's own 70 catches. Parker and Kennison are no longer on the team, which means that the Chiefs most experienced WR on the roster is Devard Darling who is entering his fifth season. However, Darling has only started one game in his career so take his "experience" with a grain of salt. After that, the most experienced Chiefs receiver is Jeff Webb, who is entering his third season.

In other words, the Chiefs needed some help at the wide out position.

That help began with the signing of former Baltimore Raven Devard Darling this off season, who saw little action in Baltimore during his four years there. He came to Kansas City looking for an opportunity to start. Darling appears to be a quick, hard-working receiver who will battle for the #2 spot behind Dwayne Bowe. His signing isn't major by any means. He's an unproven wide out to throw into the mix with the others.

More than likely, Jeff Webb will be called on to be the #2 receiver but the job won't come without major competition. Webb's talent appears to be on roughly the same level as former Arena League player Bobby Sippio, who spent a mix of time on the active roster and practice squad last season. Neither have shown much of a spark, even when judged by #2 spot standards. Sippio didn't even catch a pass last year.

That brings us to the two receivers the Chiefs drafted this past weekend, Missouri's Will Franklin and Utah State's Kevin Robinson. Franklin should be familiar to most here - a burner who makes the occasional drop. He'll likely battle Jeff Webb for the #2 spot and there is no foreseeable winner in that fight. Franklin was a fourth round pick, which makes him a bit more touted than Jeff Webb, who was a 6th round pick back in 2006. Kevin Robinson initially appears to have been drafted for his fantastic return ability, something the Chiefs sorely need, even with the signing of another former Raven B.J. Sams this off-season.

The Chiefs receiving corp has only eighteen combined NFL starts. That receiving game is bolstered by the greatness of TE Tony Gonzalez but there is a dramatic drop off in "seen" talent after that. We have a clear cut #1 WR in Dwayne Bowe, with all four of our other receivers theoretically fighting for the #2 spot.

What happens when defenses key on Bowe and Tony Gonzalez? Who steps up? Will the Chiefs' receiving corp be another major problem for the development of QB Brodie Croyle? Does he have the help he needs to succeed?

Croyle better be living with his receivers and his offensive line this summer. He's going to need that chemistry.