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Cassel has 26 games as a starting quarterback in the NFL. That’s 15 in New England last season and 11 this year. His record as a starter is 13-13. That’s better than most.
For all those who have already decided Cassel isn’t capable of being the franchise quarterback for the Chiefs, I’m here to tell you that assessment is premature. And, for all those who think Cassel is the man to eventually be the replacement for the long retired Len Dawson, I say not so fast.
Any evaluation of Cassel at this point has to take into account many factors, some of which are out of his control. The hardest part of divining whether a young quarterback is capable of leading a team is the team itself. Who is he playing with? What kind of situations is he asked to handle? What type of game plans is he given? What’s the coaching staff like? How much patience does the organization have?
Problems In Evaluating Cassel … Thursday Cup O’Chiefs from Bob Gretz
Unless Santa Claus shows up by noon today and buys the remaining 3,500 tickets for Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills, it will be blacked out within a 75-mile radius of Kansas City, including satellite services at sports bars. That would end a streak of 155 consecutive Chiefs games, regular-season and postseason, that have been televised locally.
It’s possible the Chiefs could ask the NFL for a 24-hour extension in an effort to preserve the streak, but it most certainly would end next week when even more tickets will be available for the final home game of the season against the one-win Cleveland Browns.
During the last few years, as the Chiefs’ fortunes on the field have faded and the season-ticket base waned, corporate sponsors and either KCTV-5 or Fox-4, whichever station had the local rights to the game, would pick up the remaining seats to assure a sellout when needed.
Chiefs' streak of sellouts appears doomed from KC Star
Ryan Fitzpatrick will start at quarterback for the Buffalo Bills in Sunday’s game against the Chiefs, but if not for a twist of fate, it could be him and not Matt Cassel playing for Kansas City.
Fitzpatrick played in college at Harvard, near Boston, and spent the days leading up to the 2005 draft thinking the hometown Patriots would draft him.
"I’d just had a tryout with the Patriots," Fitzpatrick said. "I was thinking that the Patriots, they had three seventh-round draft picks and they were going to pick me. Then all of a sudden I see Matt Cassel’s name pop up. I had no idea who he was. That was the clincher that I wasn’t going to get drafted (by New England)."
So it was Cassel and not Fitzpatrick who was with the Patriots last season when Tom Brady was injured. Cassel filled in ably for Brady and was traded to the Chiefs this year.
Chiefs notes: Bills QB Fitzpatrick could have been a Chief from KC Star
Roster overview: The Bills roster is a hodge-podge of draft picks and free agents. There are 25 Bills draft choices on the current active roster, including five first-round picks and nine choices from the second round. Eight of those 15 picks are in the starting lineup. Buffalo has signed plenty of free agents, including nine this year that are still on the roster. Those names include WR Terrell Owens, DT Marcus Stroud, CB Drayton Florence and QB Ryan Fitzpatrick. The Bills have 14 players on the injured-reserve list, including four offensive linemen.
Opponent: Buffalo Bills from Bob Gretz
Fourth-quarter failures have left the Buffalo Bills virtually out of playoff contention. In a matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs last season, they had more than enough breathing room to ease up in the final 15 minutes.
The Bills scored more points against the Chiefs last year than any team ever has, but hardly seem capable of a similar effort Sunday as they try to bounce back from yet another late-game disappointment.
Buffalo beat Kansas City 54-31 on Nov. 23, 2008, taking advantage of five turnovers. The previous high for points scored against the Chiefs was 51 by Seattle on Nov. 27, 1983.
Chiefs vs. Bill from CBS Sports
The lowly Kansas City Chiefs are one of the best in football when it's time to put foot to ball.
Yes, the team that's 5-32 in the last 37 games has discovered something it's good at. Under the direction of first-year special teams coach Steve Hoffman, the Chiefs (3-9) have made giant strides in both punt and kickoff coverage, ranking in the top 10 in both.
They're pretty good in returning kickoffs, too, at ninth in the league with 25 returns of 20 yards or more.
Found: Something the KC Chiefs Do Well from Sports Illustrated
Some of the biggest names in Kansas City football packed the gym Tuesday at Olathe North High School for the 27th annual Simone Awards celebration.
Former Kansas City Chiefs star and 12-time Pro Bowl selection Will Shields was there. Current Chief and three-time Super Bowl champion Mike Vrabel was, too. So were about 20 other former Chiefs, including Tim Grunhard who just led Bishop Miege to a Class 4A state championship, and legendary Olathe North coach Gene Wier who led the Eagles to six state titles before moving to Richland, Texas.
All were there to pay homage to the top high school football players in the Kansas City metro area.
Top ‘Cat among KC’s best from The Basehor Sentinel
The Chiefs have won three AFL titles and one Super Bowl in their 50 years of existence. But they retired their 10th jersey number last weekend, taking 58 out of circulation in tribute to 2009 Hall of Fame enshrinee Derrick Thomas.
The Chiefs now have retired 3 (Jan Stenerud), 16 (Len Dawson), 18 (Emmitt Thomas), 28 (Abner Haynes), 33 (Stone Johnson), 36 (Mack Lee Hill), 58 (Thomas), 63 (Willie Lanier), 78 (Bobby Bell) and 86 (Buck Buchanan).
Retiring types: Championship-to-jersey ratio from The Dallas Morning News
On Tuesday night, the Chiefs announced that 3,500 non-premium seats remain for Sunday's home game against the Bills. Failure to sell those tickets by Thursday at 1:00 p.m. ET would trigger the first local blackout of a Chiefs game since December 1990.
We assumed at the time that the local CBS affiliate, KCTV, would step up and buy a chunk of the seats in order to ensure that the game would be televised locally.
As it turns out, 3,500 remained even after KCTV wrote its check.Nineteen years later, another Chiefs blackout seems inevitable from Pro Football Talk
It has been a quirky season. Once Oakland got JaMarcus Russell out of the lineup, it began to play much better. He is such a waste. After being in Kansas City last weekend, I can't see how the Chiefs have beaten anybody. Todd Haley is a waste. It hasn't been, in my opinion, that the AFC West is that tough. The other divisions have some lousy teams. Look what's happened to Pittsburgh since the victory in Denver. Even though I think the Giants will win their division (in a tiebreaker), they've been very average, and the Eagles are up and down. The elites are Indianapolis (see above), Minnesota and, of course, those Saints marching in. I haven't seen the AFC West beat any of those teams. Of course, the AFC West doesn't play them, and nobody else is beating them, anyway.
Woody's Mailbag: A 'Barrel' of fun from The Denver Post