Rich Gannon Says Chiefs Question Marks Include Matt Cassel, Pass Rush

Former Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and current NFL analyst Rich Gannon covered the Chiefs in his "Film Room" segment on Sirius NFL Radio giving us his thoughts on the 3-2 Kansas City Chiefs.

[Editor's Note: I don't have audio of the Sirius segment but I did realize right before I posted this that Gannon talked Chiefs on 810 WHB this morning. Since we like to keep things local, here's a link to that audio.]

As a whole, Gannon was complimentary of the Chiefs commenting the impressive turnaround, particularly on defense where they bring back many of the same players as last year.

He does say that the two big concerns moving forward are the play of QB Matt Cassel and the pass rush.

He says it's clear that Cassel needs to step his game up -- pointing specifically to his 57.8 completion percentage -- but that Cassel is capable of being more consistent down the stretch. He says there's no elite pass rusher in the Chiefs front seven. He pointed specifically to the Houston Texans game last week when Schaub and the Texans were down two scores and the Chiefs couldn't get a consistent rush on him.

Here are a few other notes I took from the interview:

DE Glenn Dorsey: Says the stats aren't there but he's provided a spark for the defense.

LB Tamba Hali: Says he's not an elite pass rusher but is the Chiefs pass rusher by far. He's done a good job though.

LB Derrick Johnson: Says he's reinvented himself and leads the team in tackles. Quite a turnaround from last year.

S Eric Berry: He didn't say anything about Berry in pass coverage (which are concerns floated around here) but did say he plays big on film and gives the secondary some speed.

CB Brandon Flowers: Says he's the best player they have and he did a great job against WR Andre Johnson last week (except for that one play...)

RBs Thomas Jones and Jamaal Charles: He referred to them as the New York Jets of the midwest when talking about the Chiefs running game.

WR Dwayne Bowe: Says he's not a natural pass catcher and needs to work with Cassel to get more production.

OL Casey Wiegmann and Ryan Lilja: He says it was a good call by the Chiefs to bring them back and the offensive line as a whole is doing a good job.