Arrowheadlines: Chiefs News 9/16

Good morning! Can you guess who didn't set his alarm last night? Today's Kansas City Chiefs news is coming to you a little delayed and between the times my boss walks by my desk. That being said, there are some good stories today. Read on and enjoy.

When Suh digs his hand into the turf for the Lions’ first defensive snap of the season at Ford Field, Wiegmann will begin the play with his 10,198^th consecutive snap played.

Suh was just 14 years old when Wiegmann’s streak began. He was only nine years old when Wiegmann entered the NFL as an undrafted rookie with the Colts in 1996.

Over the course of those 16 NFL seasons, Wiegmann has squared off against hundreds of defensive tackles. Only a select group from that collection of talent has required the mandatory double-team blocks that Suh has commanded throughout much of his young career.

Chiefs Set For Battle In Trenches With Lions' Talented Front Seven from The Mothership

More than a decade before McGraw, now a veteran Chiefs safety, was asked to step into the starting lineup to replace Eric Berry, he was a junior at K-State. McGraw had passed up a scholarship offer at Wyoming and an appointment at the Air Force Academy to play in Manhattan, his hometown.

Three seasons later, he had his chance.

Chiefs' McGraw Has Replaced A Star Safety Before from KC Star 

NFL.com Video: Week 2: Chiefs vs. Lion Preview

WXYZ (Detroit) Video: Action News Goes Inside The Huddle With Matt Stafford

Jamaal Charles seemed to have his fumbling habit cured last season, but it’s returned in the last couple of weeks. He lost two fumbles in the final preseason game against Green Bay and lost another one in last week’s regular-season opener against Buffalo.

"When you turn the ball over," coach Todd Haley said, "it’s very concerning to me."

Charles Suffers Rash of Fumbles from KC Star

A reporter recently walked up to rookie OLB Justin Houston and asked him when he’d be available to write a feature story on the third-round draft pick.

"When I start making some plays," Houston answered.

Houston’s response resembles those he gave throughout the preseason despite leading the Chiefs with 2.0 sacks and disrupting plays in the backfield on numerous occasions. He’s quietly gone about his business since missing the first week of training camp because of a holdout.

He’s quietly moved up the depth chart as well.

Arrowhead Report: Charles, McCluster Not Dwelling on Fumbles from The Mothership

Q: You said in hindsight that you were disappointed in the preparation for the Buffalo game. What has been different in the past few days of preparation?

HALEY: "Well I think that there’s a better understanding within the entire team that we need to be a lot better – that we’re not there yet. I said that a number of times last year, even after some better games and said we’re not a good team yet. I think that’s really what you’re seeing. We’re not there yet. We weren’t there last year, even though we did some good things; we weren’t really as good as we thought we were.

Q&A with Todd Haley 9/15 from The Mothership

From fired-up fans in Motor City bars to bookies in Las Vegas, the long downtrodden Detroit Lions have people believing that this could be their breakout season.

Finally.

The Lions closed last season with a four-game winning streak and kicked off this year with an impressive win at Tampa Bay, ratcheting up the buzz for Sunday’s home opener against Kansas City.

Loving the Lions: Fans in Downtrodden Detroit Believe This Could Finally be Breakout Year from The Washington Post

Do you see what's happening here? We're in year three of a new regime and the Chiefs are evoking memories of the previous one. Haley and Pioli are smelling a lot like Herm and Carl at this point. When a team gets blasted by 34 points after supposedly spending an entire offseason focused on one game, "The Patriot Way" echoes like the empty rhetoric behind "you play to win the game."

Here's the really scary part - at this point, the comparisons between the regime that emptied Arrowhead and the one that was supposed to fill it back up go way beyond one game.

Haley, Pioli Smell Like Herm, Carl from Warpaint Illustrated

Haley spoke to his team before Wednesday's practice and, for inspiration, invoked two up-from-the-rubble teams: the 1989 Pittsburgh Steelers and 1999 New York Jets. Both of those teams overcame big setbacks to advance further than anyone could have imagined.

"I was a little nervous before that talk," Haley conceded in a phone interview. "You have to organize your thoughts and talk it through pretty clearly when you're talking to them, especially about those Steelers, because you're talking about something that happened when these players were infants, mostly."

Kansas City's Todd Haley Cites Role Models from Chiefs from The Los Angeles Times

Julio Jones (ATL) vs. Nate Burleson (DET) – Jones is the better talent with the brighter future, but he only has one game under his belt and is facing one of the best secondaries in the league in the Eagles. Burleson should have a much better time against Kansas City. If Ryan Fitzpatrick did what he did against the Chiefs in Week 1, what is Matthew Stafford capable of? We’ll play the better matchup here. Our Pick: Burleson.

Fantasy Football: Picking Week 2's  Toughest Matchups from The New York Times

Matt Cassel (at DET): As expected, Cassel was terrible against the Bills in Week 1 with 119 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception. He isn't expected to do much better this week, and he could be dropped in a lot of leagues with another poor performance. There are plenty of quarterbacks out there who have higher upside like Grossman, Fitzpatrick, Mark Sanchez and Chad Henne.

Week 2 Start 'Em and Sit 'Em from CBS Sports

It's becoming increasingly obvious that the safety position is more important than ever to NFL defenses. Once a positional purgatory for those 'tweener' players not good enough to cover as cornerbacks and not big enough to tackle like linebackers, the modern safety must possess several different skills — sometimes all of them ni [sic] the same play. No other player in a defense is asked to crash down on a blitz from 20 yards deep, or fake that blitz to read run or coverage, and all with a sharpshooter's eye and a daredevil's guts. The modern safety could be seen as a new type of defender; one that we haven't seen with consistency before the last few years.

'Safety First!' is the Smart Call for Modern Defenses from Yahoo! Sports

DETROIT 20, KANSAS CITY 3: This game will fall in line with our season-long predictions we posted here before the season began. Fast-rising Detroit will be part of a batch of new playoff teams, while the punchless Chiefs will be one of several to not return to the postseason.

Week Two Picks: Walking the Trickiest Tightrope from Press Box

Kansas City at Detroit – The Chiefs should bounce back after a disastrous performance against Buffalo, but asking them to beat the rising Lions on the road – without safety Eric Berry – is a lot. Lions 24, Chiefs 17.

Sam Farmer's Week 2 NFL Picks from The Los Angeles Times

Receiver Calvin Johnson (ankle) and safety Louis Delmas (hip) again sat out practice. Johnson has said he will play Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, but Delmas' status is less clear. He would probably be replaced by Erik Coleman if he can't play against the Chiefs.

NFC North at (Near) Night(fall) from ESPN

If the Chiefs start out 0-2, the chances of starting out 0-3 are pretty good, because their next game is in San Diego. The Chiefs were winless in the preseason, so this team doesn’t even know what a victory feels like. They need a win in order to restore their confidence.

Which NFL Team Can Least Afford An 0-2 Start? from The Los Angeles Times

The Chiefs' Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson didn't do much against Buffalo. Kansas City used top-five draft picks on defensive linemen in successive years. Dorsey made one really nice play in the backfield for a loss and finished with four tackles, but Jackson did almost nothing. He got credit for an assist. Considering where those two were picked, the Chiefs should be getting more bang for their buck. It's not like the Buffalo offensive line is one of the NFL's best. It will be interesting to see how they do this week against a Lions line that played well against the Bucs.

After Further Review: Man Coverage Biggest Reason for Big Plays from CBS Sports