By BJ Kissel

– Staff Writer

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Aug 26, 2011 – The Kansas City Chiefs take on Sam Bradford and the St. Louis Rams Friday night in Kansas City. Despite being shutout 56-13 in the first two games of the preseason, the Kansas City Chiefs can take some positives away from their loss last week against the Baltimore Ravens.

It was the first time the entire starting defense played together in the preseason and Kelly Gregg showed Chiefs fans why they have a reason to feel good about the nose tackle position, finally. But heading into the game against the Rams the Chiefs still have questions that need to be answered.

Here are a few things to watch for Friday night.

Matt Cassel

For the second time in two years Matt Cassel faces the Rams with a lot of questions surrounding him heading into the game. Last season he was playing less than two weeks removed from surgery that had his appendix removed, and played quite well in that game that proved to be one of the key victories late in the season that helped the Chiefs win the AFC west division.

This preseason, Cassel has been far from impressive in just the limited action he saw last week against the Ravens. It may have been his first real game action of the preseason, but he’ll need to go out and play well Friday night or more questions, and more pressure will follow him to the regular season.

Cory Greenwood and Micah Johnson

Brandon Siler’s injury that will cost him the entire 2011 season was unfortunate for the Chiefs, who had thought Siler would push Belcher for a starting role and contribute on special teams. Instead, the Chiefs get to take a closer look at Johnson and Greenwood. Both have been impressive at times so far this preseason and both should see plenty of action Friday night.

They are both fighting for roster spots that will become more clear on Tuesday, when teams have to shrink their rosters from 90 players, to 80 players. There are always surprises every year but depth at insider linebacker just got a little more thin with the injury to Siler. Greenwood and Johnson are two players to keep your eyes on.

Verran Tucker and Keary Colbert

Tucker was very impressive last week against the Ravens at wide receiver and if he can build on that performance and take it to Friday’s game, along with his special teams ability, he’s going to make it a very difficult decision for Todd Haley and the Chiefs.

Colbert is also in the mix at wide receiver and the veteran, who hasn’t played in a NFL regular season game since 2008, needs to make an impact in Friday’s game to solidify his spot on this team.

Wallace Gilberry

Gilberry has been one of the more quiet pieces of the Chiefs defensive puzzle so far this preseason. He was second on the team in sacks in 2010, behind Tamba Hali, and was looked at prior to the draft as one of the key defensive lineman in 2011. Teams know about Tamba Hali and they started to notice Gilberry towards the end of 2010, but Allen Bailey, Andy Studebaker and Justin Houston need to become consistent threats to get after the quarterback.

Tyler Palco and Ricky Stanzi

The backup quarterback position is currently open and Palco and Stanzi will have some time on Friday night to show that they are ready to be the guy to step in should something happen to Cassel. It’s been a hot topic over the last week that the Chiefs should look for a veteran quarterback to backup Matt Cassel. Stanzi is a rookie and will be given time to develop should he become 3rd string.

So Palco is playing for his career Friday night and the following week should he make it that far. Palco led the Chiefs of an impressive touchdown drive against the Ravens that ended with a touchdown pass to Terrance Copper. If he can put together another drive or two like that on Friday, some of those doubters may go away.

These are just a few of the players to keep an eye on Friday night against the Rams. Generally the 3rd game of the preseason is when the starters will play the longest for most NFL teams. The first half of this game should give Chiefs fans an indication of where exactly this team is in their maturation process.

It should be fun to watch.

Read More: Kelly Gregg (DT – KAN), Matt Cassel (QB – KAN), Wallace Gilberry (DE – KAN), Micah Johnson (LB – KAN), Sam Bradford (QB – STL), Cory Greenwood (LB – KAN), Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, St. Louis Rams

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Le’Ron McClain remembers the first practice of his rookie year with the Baltimore Ravens. The big fullback pulled in a pass, turned up field and ran smack into All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis.

There’s a good chance he’ll run into him again awfully soon.

McClain joined the Chiefs in the offseason after four mostly successful years in Baltimore, joining a wave of ex-Ravens on the team they helped knock out of last season’s playoffs. Quarterbacks guru Jim Zorn, defensive tackle Kelly Gregg and offensive tackle Jared Gaither are here, too.

They’re all returning to Baltimore for a preseason game Friday night.

“I’ve been with the Kansas City Chiefs for a few weeks now, you know?” McClain said. “I’m a Chief now, so I’m going to go over there as a Chief, playing as a Chief. They know the physical ball that I’ve been playing these last four years, they know how I play, so I’m going to bring it when I’m in there.”

McClain, a former fourth-round draft choice, ran for more than 900 yards two years ago, when he was named first-team All-Pro. But he watched his number of carries dwindle the past two years. He toted the ball only 28 times last season while serving primarily as a blocking back for Ray Rice.

Gregg played in at least 14 games each of the last eight seasons for Baltimore, a period during which the franchise fielded one of the best defenses in league history. The Ravens decided to let him go in part because of his age — he’ll be 35 in November — and the Chiefs quickly snapped him up. They’re hopeful he still has at least one season left in the tank, and that he can help shore up an abysmal run defense.

Gaither started 15 games at left tackle in 2008, and 11 games the following year, but he missed all of last season because of injury. Zorn, meanwhile, was fired in January despite helping Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco achieve a career-best 25 touchdown passes with a career-low 10 interceptions.

“I think it is a compliment to those guys and to the organization,” said Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who wouldn’t have minded at a least a couple of them staying in Baltimore. “Those guys are all good players. They’ve all proven themselves, and they’ve been contributors here, and it’ll be fun going up against those guys.”

Gregg acknowledged that Friday night’s preseason game will be strange for all the ex-Ravens, but he also believes the Chiefs have come together during training camp, and that might take some of the edge off.

“We’re just worrying about the Chiefs,” he said. “We’re not worried about anybody else.”

That included the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who embarrassed the Chiefs in a 25-0 rout last Friday night. Kansas City hardly bothered to create a game plan for their preseason opener, and they’re taking a similar approach to Baltimore. The Ravens are coming off a 13-6 loss to Philadelphia in their preseason opener.

“I think the Tampa Bay game, from a score standpoint, you can say it didn’t go well, and that’s the name of our game, but we feel we made real good progress through that first game and we feel like we’re making progress this week,” Chiefs coach Todd Haley said. “A lot of coaching and teaching that goes on — like last week, how we come out of the locker room, we kind of had to educate everyone. Now it’s what to wear on the plane, how to get on the plane, how we act in the hotel. … It’s another day that’s going to be just as critical in this process.”

Haley has stuck to a master plan throughout camp, slowly trying to get his players up to speed after the lockout wiped away much of the offseason. Much of the work has centered on conditioning and learning the playbook, and the result is an appearance that Kansas City is far behind the rest of the league.

The third-year coach wouldn’t say how long his starters will play Friday night, though it figures to be more than the eight or so plays they were in against Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, the Ravens’ starting group plans to play well into the second quarter because, Harbaugh acknowledged, “we need to get ready to play.”

“We’re going to be playing a regular season game very soon,” he said.

While the Chiefs are focused mainly on themselves, Harbaugh is taking a different approach. He views the preseason as a dress rehearsal for the regular season, so the Ravens have looked at film of Kansas City and will put together a game plan just like they would for a game that counts.

“They obviously won their division last year. We played them in the playoffs, they’re a heck of a team, and they’ve only gotten better in the offseason,” Harbaugh said. “They’ve added some former Ravens that we would have liked to have had here, so they’ve got some good players. They’ve got a lot to play for. I know they’re very highly-motivated to come here and play and I think we understand that.”

By BJ Kissel

– Staff Writer

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Aug 13, 2011 – It may have just been a preseason game, but this wasn’t a pretty game for the Kansas City Chiefs. Before Chiefs fans go and overreact about a preseason game let’s put things into context. This wasn’t the Chiefs team that has most of Kansas City thinking optimistic about the 2011 season.

Kelly Gregg, Glenn Dorsey, Tamba Hali and Derrick Johnson all did not play in this game. Casey Wiegmann did not play in this game. Jamaal Charles did not touch the ball in this game. Matt Cassel did not attempt a pass in this game. Take a big, deep breath and continue reading. This game was a practice for the Kansas City Chiefs. Think of it like high school tryouts. Guys are out there competing for spots on this team and that’s how Todd Haley and company approached this game. They have a lot of film on guys who they need film on right now. As frustrating as that may be for fans, that’s the way it is.

The good news for those players who got the majority of snaps is that they can go back to the film and see where they need to improve. They have a weeks worth of practice to improve their technique and come back out next week and see where they stand. The coaches will then get to evaluate whether a player has the ability to learn from their mistakes and be ‘coachable’, and show they can take what they’ve learned and apply it to game situations. 

There are three positive things the Chiefs can take from this loss.

1) Nobody was seriously injured.

This is the most obvious positive from the game but it’s very important. This was something that Todd Haley was not shy about before this game. He didn’t think all of the guys were ready from a football-conditioning standpoint to play in this game. We didn’t see the majority of starters on defense playing together and hopefully in the second and third preseason games we can see the actual Chiefs defense lining up together out on the field. Consider this game a glorified scrimmage and chalk it up as no more than that. Nobody was injured and that’s a victory.

2) The rookies look promising

The Chiefs rookies all had some moments during their first action in the NFL that brews some optimism about the 2011 draft class. Probably the play of the night was 6th round pick Jerrel Powe chasing down Tampa Bay quarterback Josh Johnson and tackling him 20 yards down the field.

Powe had a decent game and looks to be a much more impactful player than you would normally see from a 6th round pick in his first game. His effort was outstanding all game and that’s all you can really ask for a rookie at this stage in his career. Anthony Toribio looked much better for the Chiefs also so it looks to be a battle for a spot in the rotation with Kelly Gregg at nose tackle.

Former Colorado cornerback Jalil Brown played well in coverage Friday night for the Chiefs. He could end up being one of the more important draft picks of the 2011 class depending on what the front office decides to do with the expiring contracts of Brandon Carr and Brandon Flowers. Gabe Miller also stood out as a guy that fans can be optimistic about as a late-round pick for the Chiefs in 2011.

Ricky Stanzi showed that he can make good decisions while running for his life. Stanzi had zero help from the offensive line in the 4th quarter and despite that he did make a couple of really nice throws. One great pass was missed by Jeremy Horne that would have been a big gain for the Chiefs.

Jon Baldwin will fight for the ball in the air. Baldwin finished the night with just one catch for 14 yards, but it was a play that was ruled as an incompletion that showed us more about Baldwin on this night. An under thrown ball by Ricky Stanzi gave Baldwin the chance to try and tip the under thrown ball back into the air so he could come down with it. He did actually catch the ball but he had already touched down out of bounds and the pass was ruled incomplete.

3) Quinten Lawrence has a shot to make the team as a cornerback

His game was not flawless on Friday night and I don’t think Flowers or Carr need worry about their starting jobs right now but Lawrence was a pleasant surprise in this game. He finished the game with seven tackles, which was good for second on the team to Cory Greenwood (8).

A former wide receiver that just recently made the change to defensive back, Lawrence did not look out of his element in this game and made a couple of plays where he was in great position. You didn’t really know what to expect from Lawrence in this game and I believe most Chiefs fans would walk away impressed with what Lawrence showed us all on Friday night. His return ability still could leave us scratching our heads but he showed some promise as a defensive back tonight.

Granted it would have been much nicer for the Chiefs to come out and play well in this game, but it’s not that surprising of a result from a team that hasn’t spent a lot of time in live full-pad situations in camp thus far. For fans that are keeping track, the goal is to be ready by September 11th, not August 12th. The Chiefs have almost a full month to get ready for the regular season and despite the lackluster performance tonight, most of the guys you will see on the 11th against the Buffalo Bills played the same amount of snaps on Friday as you or I did at home.

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By Gareth Rees

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Aug 10, 2011 – The next step of season preparation for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers begins this Friday as they head to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs in the first preseason tuneup of 2011 for both squads.

Kansas City and Tampa Bay both finished last season with identical 10-6 records and a renewed optimism surrounding the clubs. The Chiefs surprised experts as they won the AFC West, driven on the strength of a 7-1 record at Arrowhead Stadium, while Tampa Bay missed the playoffs by one game despite a breakout season.

After being limited to mostly walk-throughs in the new CBA era training camp, Buccaneers head coach Raheem Morris will be eager to see what his team is capable of in live action. Having recently described his team as “youngry”, a combination of youth and desire, Morris will be paying close attention to how his budding players handle real football for the first time in eight months.

Morris has told the media he expects the starters to play more than the traditional pre-season one series, aiming for closer to 20 plays for Josh Freeman and company in an effort to get the team used to the speed of the game, a necessary change brought on by the lockout shortened off-season.

While most of the skill position starters on offense are ironed out already, there are still battles at many positions, most notably the right tackle position where incumbent starter Jeremy Trueblood is listed ahead of James Lee despite losing playing time to Lee in the latter half of last season. The Buccaneers are also still trying to find their third down running back, a job they hope that LeGarrette Blount can seize hold of. Blount must prove that he can handle pass protection if he wants to stay on the field for third downs. If he cannot, the job could go to Kregg Lumpkin, rookie Allen Bradford, or fullback Earnest Graham.

On the other side of the ball, the defensive line and linebacking corps will be under a particularly watchful eye. Two rookies, defensive ends Adrian Clayborn and Da’Quan Bowers, will make their pro debuts on the end, surrounding last years top picks Gerald McCoy and Brian Price up the middle. Clayborn, the Bucs’ top pick in this years draft, has been turning heads in training camp as he has consistently been working left tackle Donald Penn ragged with his tenacious pass rushing. Bowers, however is still dealing with a leg injury and will have to prove he can surpass incumbent Michael Bennett and earn a starting spot.

Another player to watch is rookie Mason Foster, whom appears to have the inside track to the starting middle linebacker job, a position recently vacated by the departure of Barrett Ruud. Foster is battling second-year USF alumni Tyrone McKenzie at the position that many refer to as the quarterback of the defense. Foster brings some thump but he will have to learn to control his natural aggression to avoid mistakes on the playing field. 

Ultimately, the preseason is about finding out who can play. While not the most exciting brand of football for the fans, there is immeasurable amounts of importance in what the front office can learn from seeing the rookies and undrafted free-agents in live action against a real opponent. The real battles begin after the starters have left the game as many young players will be playing for their careers. 

If nothing else, its football and after the tumultuous summer lockout, that’s a relief in itself, and preseason football is infinitely better than no football at all.

Read More: Josh Freeman (QB – TAM), Gerald McCoy (DT – TAM), LeGarrette Blount (RB – TAM), Adrian Clayborn (DE – TAM), Mason Foster (LB – TAM), Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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