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A little more than a week ago, 610 Sports Danny Parkins reported that the Kansas City Chiefs had decided to let free agent Branden Albert to hit free agency on March 11.Chiefs GM John Dorsey was asked about that report during his Friday media session at the NFL Combine.
His response:
"Really? I don't know, thats the first I've heard of it. We have ongoing conversations with all of our unrestricted free agents. Just so happens that we've had conversations with Branden's representatives. That's the beauty of the Combine, those guys are here and we will continue to have conversations with those representatives as the Combine passes."
Well ... I didn't expect him to confirm the report, though I suspect that they are indeed leaning towards planning for life after Albert. Everyone can see the money involved and realize that, as of now, it's not very viable for the Chiefs to bring him back at market rate.
There's also this:
#Chiefs GM Dorsey on pending UFAs: "What we’ve done is we’ve reached out to every representative for every UFA that we have."
— Herbie Teope (@HerbieTeope) February 21, 2014
This stuff about Albert wasn't the only notable tidbit about an offensive tackle from the press conference. Dorsey was asked if Eric Fisher was his left tackle right now.
His response:
"Is he my left tackle? No, I think right now he is our right tackle," Dorsey said.
Right now, with Albert still on the team until free agency starts, Fisher is the right tackle. We have been wondering what would happen to the line if Albert left -- does Fisher play left tackle or Donald Stephenson? We may be waiting until OTAs to see where they line up.
Like Andy Reid earlier in the week, Dorsey praised Fisher's development.
"The one thing I'm proud about Eric is he made great strides as the season went on," Dorsey said. "You could see a great degree of comfort with him in the second half of the season. That's a credit to Andy Heck, Eugene Chung and their ability to coach."
Dorsey has always said that players make the biggest jump from year one to year two, which means expectations should be high for Eric Fisher heading into 2014.