We gave five Kansas City Chiefs players who helped themselves in Friday night's game against the Atlanta Falcons.
Now here are five that did not help themselves.
TE Jake O'Connell
I know he's a bottom of the roster kind of guy but, man, what bad timing for him to be injured and miss the game.
I said the first week of camp that he's my longest long shot to make the season opener roster. He hadn't really shown a lot during camp and was often inactive last year. I just didn't get the feeling the Chiefs were high on him.
Then he started to provide some hope making a nice touchdown grab in the intra-squad scrimmage as well as another tough catch in practice. Things were starting to click for him it seemed and I started to re-evaluate my longest long shot prediction.
Unfortunately he might have missed some momentum by having to sit out this game.
I think he needed this preseason game to make a case for himself but it's too bad he had to miss it. He's believed to have some sort of injury.
QB Matt Cassel
I know. He only had eight pass attempts (and he completed six of them).
But the first team offense did nothing with him in there. He also drew Todd Haley's ire by giving up a third down sack which pushed back Ryan Succop's field goal attempt from 47 yards to 53 yards.
I'm not going to spend too much time here because we've dissected this enough but Cassel needs to take control of the team and be the obvious answer at quarterback for the Chiefs.
I think he's the best option and he's nowhere near in danger of losing his job but you'd like to see more out of your quarterback, even if it preseason game number one.
RT Ryan O'Callaghan
He was beat a couple of times but one of them he'll remember.
Falcons defensive lineman Kory Biermann came zipped past O'Callaghan on a Cassel pass and got to the quarterback knocking the ball out of his hands. Cassel might have been able to hold it in a more strategic position but O'Callaghan let him slip past and the Falcons recovered the fumble.
The Chiefs can't give up turnovers and win. They're just not good enough for that yet. This was a critical mistake.
LB Justin Cole
He hurt himself with a mistake that cost the Chiefs six points.
He's the one who was flagged for holding during Javier Arenas' 100-yard return. The play was called back and it ended up being a 70+ yard penalty.
Like the O'Callaghan flub, the Chiefs simply can't make these kinds of mistakes.
He's an undrafted free agent trying to make the team and he'll likely need special teams to do that. That penalty was a big mistake.
RB Thomas Jones
OK, this one may not make a ton of sense to you because Jones carried the ball just twice before leaving for a "minor stinger". Of course the "injury" isn't serious by any means and he was back on the practice field Sunday.
But here's my thought process: He's battling with Jamaal Charles for the starting job. One of those guys was available and the other was not. Todd Haley consistently says he'll coach the guys that are on the field and he seems to ignore the others.
Yeah, it's just preseason, and maybe Jones wouldn't have come back regardless but his competition was the best runner on the field when he was in.
I'm still not sure how much preseason performance matters when it comes to picking a starter in this position group but Charles was clearly better than Jones through one game.