Eight Camp Practices Down, Sixteen to Go for the Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs only have one practice today from 2-4 PM, after a two-a-day yesterday in beautiful and sunny River Falls, WI.

The big news from yesterday of course was the Chiefs signing former New England Patriots backup quarterback Matt Gutierrez. The team cut QB Ingle Martin to make room him.

Let's talk about what the QB depth chart looks like and more after the jump.

Croyle v. Thigpen

We know that Matt Cassel will start the regular season atop the Chiefs' QB depth chart. That leaves three QBs - Croyle, Thigpen and Gutierrez - all vying for that coveted #2 spot. Cassel after all was a #2 QB in New England and look where that got him....

In my opinion, I'm almost 100% sure, pending injury, that the depth chart will read Cassel #1, Croyle #2 and Thigpen #3.

Why no love for Thigpen? Well here's the thing. The Chiefs aren't going to be running the same offense that Thigpen ran last year. He was successful in an unconventional offense that suited his talents and the talent around him at the current time.

This isn't that same team anymore.

I have no doubt we'll be seeing our share of the shotgun this year but that doesn't mean that Thigpen is the best option for that.

As much as I love watching the guy play, he never struck me as a quarterback who could line up in a more traditional offense and excel over a long period of time. Croyle is that guy, injuries aside. He has the greater arm strength and zip on the ball, which is a huge advantage. Thigpen needs that little extra commotion or scramble. It's an essential and great part of his game. It's just that this isn't the same year as last year. The Chiefs hopefully won't have to run flea flickers to score TDs.

Don't get caught up in camp reports

Part of my overall point is that those of you who honestly thought that the Chiefs should have kept Ingle Martin over Croyle or Thigpen really need to take a step back during training camp and be more objective instead of going by less than a week of camp reports on QBs. Croyle and Thigpen both have tons more NFL experience than Martin, which matters far more than how they've done in eight practices in August 2009.

These fan blinders come on especially when it comes to kick returners, which always seems to be a training camp battle around here. Somebody is going to say, based on probably five lines of reporting from camp, that So and So should obviously be the kick return guy over some other players. How can you possibly argue something like that if you haven't been to camp? And even if y been to camp and watch guys field punts and kicks, one of the players would have to be extraordinarily better to definitely say one guy has the job. It doesn't look like that's going to happen this year.

Don't be that guy. Be objective, be reasonable. It is after all, training camp. These aren't real games against real competition. Keep things in the proper, wider context and you'll enjoy camp that much more.

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How's that for a morning ramble? We'll have more for you coming up soon. Remember, practice is today from 2-4 PM. We'll have updates for you after that.