Tom Curran, sportswriter for Comcast Sports Net, believes a third-round pick will be enough. He's writing concerning the Patriots possible interest, but it's worth exploring on the Chiefs behalf as well. That's because Carolina Panthers receiver Steve Smith is the target, and it fits the tendencies of Scott Pioli during his days with New England.

Pioli certainly adheres to the value of a draft pick and set a precedent with Bill Belichick for storing them like a draft pick bomb shelter was in place in New England. But he's also not averse to trading when he believes the value is there and his team has enough depth and youth in place. It's difficult to say whether Pioli feels that way about the current Chiefs roster, but if so, is a third pick warranted to grab the Panthers icon?

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Doug Farrar over at Football Outsiders has put together a list of key questions this off-season for each team. When it came to the Chiefs, Farrar interestingly focused on Jamaal Charles vs. Thomas Jones -- a drum often beat by FO this season -- and asked the question of whether the Chiefs will learn the same lesson the Titans learned from Chris Johnson's explosiveness.

Specifically, Farrar brings up the head coaching preferences of both longtime Titans coach Jeff Fisher and Todd Haley for the power running game. Within that context, he wonders if the Chiefs will place Charles front-and-center next season:

The team has expressed at least two concerns when asked about more carries for Charles -- his ability to be an every-down back, and head coach Todd Haley's preference for a power-running game that goes back to his days working under Bill Parcells. Jones is more of an inside bruiser, while Charles blasts outside of the Chiefs' zone slide blocking plays. However, when former Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher was presented with Johnson's production, he put away his power-running preferences dating back to Eddie George and rode a faster horse. Haley and the Chiefs may be wise to do the same.

It's a decent argument. Then again, Haley's 2010 rotation carried the Chiefs to the playoffs, saved Charles for a whole season and garnered two of the Top 20 rushers in the NFL for the Chiefs. What do you believe will happen? Will Charles be featured as the primary back a la Chris Johnson next season? Will Haley continue the same type of rotation?

The Kansas City Chiefs players have voted and RB Jamaal Charles and S Eric Berry are your big winners. The team announced that via a player vote the team has named Charles as the team MVP and Berry as the team rookie of the year.

Was there ever any doubt?

Charles is arguably the only player you point at and say, 'The Chiefs have a chance on Sunday because this guy is on the field.' Meanwhile Berry headed a rookie class that has begun to usher in a new era of Chiefs football. Great choices by the players.

The MVP award is named after Derrick Thomas while the rookie of the year award is named after Mack Lee Hill. The awards are especially meaningful because they're voted on by their teammates.

As Josh Looney of KCChiefs.com points out, it's the latest in a long line of awards for Charles, who was also voted as a first team All-Pro by Pro Football Weekly and the (other) AP in addition to the FedEx Ground Player of the Year. Berry lead the team in interceptions, was named NFL rookie of the month for December/January and was named to the All-Rookie team by Pro Football Weekly and Sporting News.

The awards will be handed out at the 41st 101 Awards Banquet on March 5 in downtown Kansas City, where Todd Haley will also be awarded the AFC coach of the year.

Check out KCChiefs.com for the full history of winners.

(H/T kcsno56)

With the hardware handed out, a meaningless Hawaiian game played out and the attention centered on a pair of celebrated old-school franchises, it's the perfect time to look back at a most unexpected season from the Kansas City Chiefs. From a 4-win season to a division winner, Scott Pioli executed another masterful job of roster creation, and you can't say enough about the coaching jobs done by Todd Haley, Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel overall.

Yet perhaps the most surprising thing to me above any record turnaround, divisional placement or coaching performance was the fact that the Chiefs had a very viable candidate for every single award the NFL handed out this week. From rookies to veterans, players to coaches, offense to defense, the Chiefs performance in every aspect revealed that this season's success stood on the shoulders of many.

Think about how incredible it is that the Chiefs could have plausibly been represented by every NFL trophy:

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By now you've more than likely heard that the Kansas City Chiefs have promoted offensive line coach Bill Muir to offensive coordinator. I'm going to assume, because Muir has never officially been in charge of calling offensive plays, that head coach Todd Haley will take on most of those duties. Despite what Haley says. 

I'm also going to assume, like a lot of you already have, that the somewhat odd timing of this internal promotion suggests that the Kansas City Chiefs were waiting on another candidate from another team who either turned them down or they weren't able to speak with them for some reason.

So, we have a paper offensive coordinator who wasn't our first choice. I know that doesn't sound very good but I'm not really upset with this decision. 

We've talked about the hiring of Bill Muir. Now let's vote on it. Do you approve of the promotion of Bill Muir to offensive coordinator?

I caught up with Arizona Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald at the ESPN studios on Wednesday and, while I didn't get down and beg him to come to the Kansas City Chiefs, I did ask him a few questions about guys he knows like Todd Haley and Dwayne Bowe.

"I know his mentality, his work ethic and what he stands for," Fitzgerald said of Haley. "I really like him as a human being. I think he's going to continue to do well in Kansas City. He has some pieces with Jamaal Charles, Dwayne Bowe and Matt Cassel. Those are three good pieces. The defense is really improved. I look for great things to continue to come out of Kansas City."

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As we continue on with our top Kansas City Chiefs stories of 2010, we come to No. 5: the additions of Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel to the coaching staff. 

Just over 17 months ago, the Chiefs coaching staff consisted of Chan Gailey and Clancy Pendergast at the coordinator positions. Pendergast had led a weak Arizona Cardinals defense for the last four years. Todd Haley relieved Gailey of his duties right before the 2009 season and called the offensive plays himself. The result? The Chiefs ranked 25th on offense and 30th on defense in 2009.

Fast forward to January 2010. On January 6th, Charlie Weis was hired. One week later, Romeo Crennel was the Chiefs new defensive coordinator. 

The results of these hires were dramatic. The Chiefs' offensive finished 2010 ranked 12th in the NFL. The Chiefs' defense ranked 14th. Matt Cassel threw 11 more touchdowns and 9 fewer picks this past season. Scoring overall for the team was up 25% over 2009. Teams scored about 25% fewer points on the Chiefs' defense this year too. 

And as well know, the most important stat is that the Chiefs won six more games in 2010 than they did in 2009. 

The improvements in the Chiefs' offense and defense, and the increase in number of wins makes the additions of Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel our No. 5 story of the year. 

Previous stories of the year

10. Monday Night Football

9. Tamba Hali

8. Derrick Johnson

7. Charlie Weis' exit

6. Dwayne Bowe

Kansas City Chiefs QB Matt Cassel is (or will be soon) down at the 2011 Super Bowl but this story is not about his time in Dallas. Cassel's former offensive coordinator in New England, Josh McDaniels, was hired by the St. Louis Rams last month.

Cassel has had nice things to say about McDaniels in the past crediting him with some of his success. Now that McDaniels is in St. Louis, QB Sam Bradford will take the role of Cassel.

And Cassel called Bradford to tell him about McDaniels, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"Matt just told me if I ever had any questions about the system, not to hesitate to call him," Bradford said. "He'd be more than happy to talk to me about the system."

The Chiefs won't play the Rams for another four years so you don't have to worry about Cassel giving tips to the competition but this news doesn't surprise me too much. We've heard of the "Quarterback Fraternity" before and these guys help each other more than us fans would probably like.

The Chiefs were rumored to be interested in hiring McDaniels as offensive coordinator -- the rumor died pretty quickly -- so it'll be interesting to see how McDaniels does there.