All the news that fit to post...

• I had a clip embedded above in which Mike Reiss of The Boston Globe says the Patriots may have trouble with the Kansas City Chiefs running game. It was acting funny so I posted it after the jump.


• Definitely check out this post from Pats Pulpit linking up yesterday's news.


• Kolby Smith is listed on the injury report as not participating in practice with a back issue but I haven't heard any details on that injury. Today is the day we find out the more specific injury listings - probable, questionable, doubtful or out - and we'll know what we're dealing with. H/T to Eric in the FanShot section for that one.


• Kent Babb makes Tamba Hali sound more competitive than I ever knew he was. Interesting picture with that article too.


• More keys to the game from Double D at Arrowhead Addict.


• Over at The Red Zone , Randy Covitz talks about a possible San Diego Charger blackout this weekend. He says, "There's little question the Fox affiliate in San Diego will buy out the remaining seats because this is one of just two Chargers games it can televise this season." How terrible are your fans when your team is very successful and people still won't watch? At least Rams fans ride the bandwagon.


• The kick returner position has not been settled on yet - "B.J. Sams said after practice that neither he nor Dantrell Savage has been told which player will return punts and kickoffs in New England. Both have been working at each position this week in practice."



• Karen Guregian of The Boston Herald asks some good questions about Sunday's game: "Will Chiefs coach Herm Edwards really have second-round pick Brandon Flowers cover Randy Moss?" and "How will first-round pick Branden Albert, who missed the preseason with a sprained foot, attempt to hold off Richard Seymour?

  Those potential matchups are definitely worth discussing this morning. Surtain on Randy Moss? Or Flowers on him?



• Let me throw out a reminder about the open thread on Sunday during the game. If you can't watch the game, watch it at home with the computer on anyway or just want to talk about the Chiefs come on by.

Wow...the last Friday of the off-season. Can you feel it? The long wait is almost over. The over saturation of media has Patriots fans wondering what the Chiefs can do to win this game. You gotta love this, right?

To get the conversation started, what individual matchups do you like and dislike this weekend against the Patriots? Yes, I know there are probably many. That Boston Herald article really got me thinking - No matter who the Chiefs put on Randy Moss, he's going to about five times as talented as they are. Of course I knew this already but Moss' potential for damage is massive this game.

Thoughts on the best and worst matchups for the Chiefs?

Continue reading this post »

You knew he was going to start, right? From The Red Zone:

The Patriots just sent me their daily injury report and quarterback Tom Brady is nowhere on it.

That is public acknowledgment that Brady will not only play but start on Sunday against the Chiefs.

Geez the Patriots get way too much out of messing with the injury report. Way too much.

Plus, in what is turning out to be me pillaging The Red Zone's content, the Kansas City Chiefs named their captains for the season.

The Chiefs designated four captains for the season: guard Brian Waters, cornerback Pat Surtain, linebacker Pat Thomas and special teams player Jon McGraw were elected by a vote of their teammates.

You just know McGraw lobbied for like six weeks to get one of those captain spots. Gerrymandering, illegitimate voters, hanging chads...McGraw is all too familiar with those.

Don't forget about actual football being played tonight. It's the Redskins and Giants tonight at 6 PM central time.

**UPDATE SAT. 5 PM** Final cuts have been made. Head here.

Of course, the 53 players on the team after 5 PM central time tonight won't be the exact roster for opening day. After the NFL roster deadline hits this evening, expect the Kansas City Chiefs to pick up one or two players off of the waiver wire.

I've run through the roster and made my decisions on who I think will be cut. Interestingly enough, while researching this and reading others cut lists, most of them are in agreement about 95% of the time.

The only differences I've seen in people's cut lists are the tail ends of the linebacker and line rotations. A little LeRue Rumph here. A little Anthony Alabi there. Maybe throw in some Sippio. (Update: Sippio apparently has been cut)

There isn't anything groundbreaking in this post because it's pretty easy to pick about 90% of this roster with about that same certainty.

QB: Brodie Croyle, Tyler Thigpen and Damon Huard

No surprises here. The Chiefs will carry three quarterbacks on the final roster no matter what and these are almost assuredly the three they will keep.

Cut: None

RB: Larry Johnson, Kolby Smith, Jamaal Charles, Jackie Battle and Dantrell Savage

Dantrell Savage hopefully makes this team as a kick returner but I've included him in the running backs section. LJ, Kolby and Jamaal Charles are all 100% safe. Battle may not make it because of roster numbers but he's probably safe too.

Cut: None

WR: Dwayne Bowe, Devard Darling, Will Franklin, Maurice Price and Jeff Webb

Despite not catching a pass this preseason, Devard Darling is still accomplished enough to get the nod over Arthur, Joachim, McMahan and Sippio. If you make an argument against Darling, you have to make an argument for one of those guys making the team and I don't think you can. Maybe you can make an argument for Bobby Sippio but I think you're splitting hairs at that point.(Update: Sippio has apparently been cut)

Cut: Jabari Arthur, Sergio Joachim, Kevin McMahan and Bobby Sippio

FB:Mike Cox and Chris Manderino

Word on the street is that the Chiefs like Manderino's special teams play, which is great for him because Mike Cox has the starting fullback spot nailed.

Cut: None

TE: Tony Gonzalez, Brad Cottam and J.P. Foschi

TG and Cottam are locks to make the roster and we'll give Foschi and his GA Tech roots the nod over the injured Mike Merritt and Michael "What happened to people being excited about me?" Allan. Allan may spend his final year on the practice squad before permanently falling off into obscurity. My future money says this is another D3 experiment that will not succeed.

Cut: Michael Allan and Mike Merritt

O-Line: Branden Albert, Brian Waters, Rudy Niswanger, Adrian Jones, Damion McIntosh, Herb Taylor, Barry Richardson and Wade Smith

I think those first eight offensive linemen I listed are definitely going to make the team. Beyond that, I think we could see another player dropped at a different position in favor of another offensive linemen. That linemen may not even be on the team right now and there is no way the Chiefs are satisfied with the depth they have on the offensive line.

Cut: Travis Leffew, Tre Stallings, Will Svitek, Anthony Alabi, Edwin Harrison and Rob Smith

D-Line: Turk McBride, Tank Tyler, Glenn Dorsey, Tamba Hali, Alfonso Boone, Ron Edwards. T.J. Jackson and Brian Johnston

After Ron Edwards, you're entering a pretty blurry area on the defensive line. TJ Jackson and Brian Johnston both had their names called more than a few times last Thursday against the Rams and that may be enough to distinguish themselves from the other defensive linemen.

Cut: Johnny Dingle, Jason Parker and Derek Lokey

LB: Derrick Johnson, Pat Thomas, Donnie Edwards, Demorrio Williams, Weston Dacus and Nap Harris (Int'l player Aden Durde will be on the practice squad but not count for a spot)

Nap Harris seems to be on everyone else's cut list and he certainly is a possible roster casualty. One of the cuts listed below could out value Harris on special teams, making the decision to keep him even more difficult. Donnie Edwards of course makes the final cut but how durable will he be in his 13th season? He's already tweaked a hamstring.

Cut: EJ Kuale, Steve Octavien and LeRue Rumph

CB: Patrick Surtain, Brandon Flowers, Brandon Carr, Dimitri Patterson, Tyron Brackenridge and Maurice Leggett

The first four CB spots are taken with Brackenridge, Barksdale and Leggett battling for the final one or even two spots. Can't say I've seen much of any of those three this preseason, making my analysis a bit strained. Brackenridge will probably get the nod because the Chiefs liked him enough last year as an UDFA to play him a bit and neither Barksdale nor Leggett has distinguished themselves.

Cut: Rashard Barksdale

S: Jarrad Page, Bernard Pollard, Jon McGraw and DaJuan Morgan

The safety position isn't difficult to figure out. Page and Pollard will start with McGraw and Morgan rotating in and out. The Chiefs don't need five safeties on the team.

Cut: Khayyam Burns

Special Teams: Nick Novak, Dustin Colquitt and J.P. Darche

Again, no surprises here. The Sams v. Savage competition is pretty much even but I'll throw my support behind the younger, less Drummond-like Dantrell Savage. My gut says Sams makes the team though but I can't bring myself to post that.

Cut: BJ Sams and Connor Barth (he's still on the roster so we'll include him for good measure)

We've already had a few threads about the roster cuts so use this spot to make any last minute predictions. I'll update you on the cuts as soon as I hear about them.

I'm not feeling the organized, list version of our morning update so I'm just going to throw some stuff out there. It's basically Friday anyway.

Unfulfilled college dreams. An 8th round draft pick. Sounds like J.J. Birden knows how lucky he is.

A product of the inner city of Portland, Birden came to Lakeridge because he was in the very last group of students who were bussed in order to achieve racial balance in schools.

While doing his part to promote integration, Birden did even more to help the Pacer football team. He was good as a junior and great as a senior, making the all-state football team.

But where Birden really shined was in track as a sprinter and jumper.

Birden had to wait until his sophomore year to even try out for the Oregon Ducks. I had a most unimpressive college career in football."

"I started as a junior, but I broke my arm against Nebraska. As a senior I twisted my arm against UCLA. I had one touchdown my whole career."

Now, Birden sells "special" chocolate. The chocolate has pain relieving powers, which Birden was sick of using over the counter meds for.

The Kansas City Chiefs will beat up on the Minnesota Vikings during their annual practice a week after training camp starts.

The Chiefs will depart for River Falls on Thursday, July 24 with the first day of practice scheduled for Friday, July 25. Kansas City will hold a joint practice session with the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday, July 31 at UW-River Falls. Family Fun Night is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 2. The Chiefs will open their 2008 preseason schedule with a contest at Chicago on Thursday, Aug. 7. The club is currently scheduled to break camp and return to Kansas City on Friday, Aug. 15.

I have to say that Nap Harris' softball event in Chicago sounds like it was a lot of fun.

Harris was so successful in recruiting his teammates for the game that one might have thought the game was being played in Kansas City.

Chiefs star running back Larry Johnson, linebacker Derrick Johnson, running back Kolby Smith and defensive back Patrick Surtain all played.

Bears running back Garrett Wolfe and wide receiver Mark Bradley, along with former Bear and current broadcaster Jerry Azumah, were on hand to give the crowd some local stars to cheer on.

That's it for now. We'll have a community projection up later in the day but if you're anything like me, your mind is already drifted towards the weekend's activities. Let us know if you have any good 4th of July/fireworks stories.

OTAs are notoriously mysterious times for the Chiefs this year. Few reports emerge, even fewer pictures emerge, and forget about gleaning any substantial facts from the personnel themselves--Herm and Chan reinforced that notion yesterday.

All this makes Warpaint Illustrated's coverage of this year's OTAs a very welcome surprise. Warpaint's reporting from OTAs is more detailed and more frequent than any other source out there.

This morning they posted their review of yesterday's goings-on. Included in their report is a list of players whose stock are rising this week. Their opinion, of course, but it's better than nothing. It's a great read; I'll just list the players that Warpaint's getting excited about:

• LT Branden Albert
• CB Brandon Carr
• DE Brian Johnston
• DT T.J. Jackson
• MLB Napoleon Harris
• CB Will Poole
• K Connor Barth

Nap Harris, eh? Who knew? Here I was, circling every televised game USC plays this year so I could start scouting MLB Rey Maualuga. Perhaps I acted prematurely...

I continue to think Warpaint and you good folks here are getting my hopes too high for Brian Johnston. Call me crazy, but we just happen to acquire a white DE who's roughly the same size with dynamite speed in the late round of the draft in the same week Jared Allen leaves... Mefears there may be some wishful thinking afoot.

Most interesting tidbit from the article -- right now, Dimitri Patterson is starting across from Brandon Flowers at CB. Surtain's not currently participating; you'd have to think Surtain would be slated to take the other starting position. Wouldn't you?

Yesterday, the Kansas City Chiefs began their first day of off-season training activities. The practice sessions are voluntary but only the laziest of the lazy NFL players will skip these. Team unity will be especially important for this Kansas City Chiefs team, with such a disproportionate amount of new players coming onto the scene this season.

Josh Looney of the mothership has a bit of info on the OTAs as well. Notably, Looney says that the Chiefs have "90-some" players participating in the activity sessions, while only eighty will be heading to training camp in River Falls, WI, this summer.

Looney also mentions that rookie Branden Albert lined up left tackle while Damion McIntosh manned the right tackle spot. This lineup is a definitely possible Week 1 starting tackle lineup. It's also good to see the Chiefs aren't waffling on Albert's position, which would only serve to retard Albert's NFL progress at the position.

Here a few bits of news I grabbed from The Kansas City Star.

Herm said, "We were lopsided as a football team. We’ve got a bunch of young guys now. We’ve got some middle-aged guys that are good players, and we’ve got a group of guys that have 10 or more years of experience, but not that many."

I can already tell that the "we've got a young football team" is going to be the #1 Hermism of the 2008 season. Get used to it.

The Chiefs sealed off their practice to the media but said everyone except Wesley and rookie safety Ron Girault participated. Girault has college class commitments at Rutgers.

I would say the Chiefs are void of contract/holdout drama but that's only because we went through it all last year with Larry Johnson. The fewer the veterans, the less sense of entitlement you're going to have. Another by product of Herm's young team. Wesley is going to be released soon so his absence isn't unexpected.

Herm also commented that Larry Johnson made it through the practice without incident and participated fully in the session. Herm Edwards mentioned yesterday that the Chiefs planned on using Johnson less than in the past during the off-season.

LJ's contract should ease his mind as he bursts through holes but others aren't sure.

The other six veterans are starters: Tony Gonzalez, Brian Waters, Damion McIntosh, Alfonso Boone, Donnie Edwards and Patrick Surtain. One veteran privately expressed reservations about playing for a team undergoing such a massive rebuilding project during one of the final seasons of his career.

Okay, let's guess who this veteran is. Gotta be Tony Gonzalez. It has to be. He's the only veteran who's publicly displayed any sort of apprehension towards the team's new direction. But Gonzalez has also recently said he does not want to be traded and expects he has three to four more years in the NFL. So, it's up to who you believe at what time. But I'm guessing that veteran who spoke to Adam Teicher was TG.

On top of the mini-camp in early June, the Kansas City Chiefs have fourteen more practices scheduled in the month of June, Teicher reports.

Note: In Austin, TX, now and I'm still adjusting to my posting schedule, among finding a place to live, learning the city, etc. Please bear with us over the next few days. We'll get back to our regularly scheduled posting soon enough.