Preseason Power Rankings No. 21: Kansas City Chiefs PFT
 

Preseason Power Rankings No. 21: Kansas City Chiefs
Posted by Michael David Smith on July 14, 2012, 3:26 PM EDT
Romeo Crennel AP

After making a surprise trip to the playoffs in 2010, the Chiefs took a surprisingly big step backward in 2011, resulting in the firing of head coach Todd Haley and the promotion of Romeo Crennel to replace him. The biggest question for the Chiefs heading into 2012 is whether last year’s big step backward was mostly the result of bad luck with injuries, or whether this roster needs a fundamental overhaul.

What Chiefs fans have to hope is that injuries really were the primary culprit behind last season’s disappointment. And there’s a good argument that that’s the case: Safety Eric Berry, the Chiefs’ most talented defensive player, was lost for the season with a torn ACL in Week 1. Running back Jamaal Charles, the Chiefs’ most talented offensive player, was lost for the season with a torn ACL in Week 2. Throw in promising young tight end Tony Moeaki missing the entire season after a torn ACL in the preseason, and starting quarterback Matt Cassel suffering a season-ending hand injury in the ninth game of the season, and the Chiefs could make a good case that they were hit with more bad luck on the injury front than any team in the league. If they’re healthy in 2012, the Chiefs should be better.

On the other hand, Cassel wasn’t playing particularly well before he got hurt. And Berry and Charles rely heavily on their speed and ability to cut, and it sometimes takes such players more than a year to get all the way back to form after an ACL injury. So even if those injured players are all on the field for 16 games this season, the Chiefs may be in for another disappointing year.

Strengths.

If Jamaal Charles is healthy, his presence in the running game is a major strength for the Chiefs’ offense. Over the course of his four-year career, Charles has averaged a stunning 6.1 yards a carry, a number no running back in NFL history has achieved. Of course, Charles has carried the ball only 499 times in four seasons, thanks to last year’s injury and former coach Todd Haley’s underuse of Charles when he was healthy. If Charles can keep running the way he did before that ACL injury, and if Peyton Hillis can be effective when splitting carries with Charles, they should be strong in the running game. (It’s easy to forget after both players’ disappointing 2011 seasons that Hillis and Charles were two of the best running backs in the NFL in 2010.)

Assuming franchise player Dwayne Bowe signs in time to be ready to go for Week One, the Chiefs have a very good playmaker as their No. 1 receiver, but they’ll hope to get more out of their talented young No. 2 receiver, Jonathan Baldwin, a first-round draft pick last year who was limited to 21 catches for 254 yards as a rookie.

Although the Chiefs’ defense fell apart when Eric Berry went down in the first game, giving up 41 and 48 points in losses to the Bills and Lions in the first two weeks of the season, the defense actually recovered and played pretty well for most of the season. Tamba Hali has emerged as one of the best pass rushers in the league, and on the other side Justin Houston came on strong late in the year with 5.5 sacks in the last five games. With Berry back, the Chiefs have to think their fortunes are looking up on defense.

Weaknesses.

Just about everything on offense was a weakness last season, although it’s open to debate how much of that was the result of all the injuries. The biggest concern for the Chiefs has to be that Matt Cassel is a weakness. After a very good season in 2010, with 27 touchdown passes, seven interceptions and a 93.0 passer rating, Cassel struggled mightily in 2011, with his touchdowns declining to 10, his interceptions increasing to nine, and his passer rating falling to 76.6. The way Cassel played last season, it’s hard not to view him as a weakness.

Kansas City’s three-man defensive line has three first-rounders starting, with 2008 first-round pick Glenn Dorsey and 2009 first-round pick Tyson Jackson manning the ends, and this year’s first-round pick Dontari Poe at nose tackle. That means the Chiefs have talent on the defensive line, but so far Dorsey and Jackson’s talent hasn’t translated to a whole lot of production. And that was the knock on Poe in college, too: He’s enormous and explosive, but he didn’t really wreak havoc while playing against mediocre opposition at Memphis, so how confident can the Chiefs really be that he’ll wreak havoc against much better offensive linemen in the NFL? Drafting Poe makes the defensive line bigger and stronger, but not necessarily better.

Cornerback Brandon Carr, who started all 64 games in his four seasons with the Chiefs, has departed for the Cowboys in free agency. The Chiefs signed Stanford Routt, formerly of the Raiders, to replace him, but the loss of Carr makes cornerback look like a weakness.

Changes.

Upgrading at right tackle isn’t a sexy change, but it’s an important one for the Chiefs: Barry Richardson left to sign with the Rams and was replaced with free agent Eric Winston, and that’s an improvement, especially in run blocking. It was a surprise when the Texans released Winston to give themselves more salary cap room, and a pleasant surprise in Kansas City when Winston arrived.

Also arriving is Peyton Hillis, the free agent running back from the Browns who was one of the most disappointing players in the NFL last season with the Browns. In Kansas City he’s reunited with Chiefs offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who was the Browns’ offensive coordinator when Hillis had his breakout 2010 season. Daboll and Hillis arriving together give the Chiefs some interesting possibilities on offense.

And the biggest change may turn out to be that Romeo Crennel, and not Todd Haley, is the head coach. When Haley was fired late in the season and Crennel appointed to interim head coach, the Chiefs seemed to get a spark, playing their best game of the season in a Week 15 win over the Packers. The team seemed worn down by Haley early last season, and energized by Crennel late last season. Crennel needs to keep that energy going into 2012.

Camp Battles.

The Chiefs’ coaching staff has talked about the competition improving everybody at the quarterback position. That doesn’t mean Cassel is in much danger of losing his starting job during training camp, although it does mean they want backups Brady Quinn and Ricky Stanzi to push Cassel, and push each other for the No. 2 job.

Peyton Hillis and Jamaal Charles are so different as runners that they’re not really battling for the No. 1 job as much as they’re planning to complement each other in the Chiefs’ offense. Still, each of them will try to show in camp that he’s the guy who’s ready to get most of the running workload.

And between the quarterback and the running back, there will be an interesting training camp battle at fullback, where Shane Bannon and Taylor Gentry are competing for a spot in the starting offense. The Chiefs might use some packages where Hillis lines up at fullback in front of Charles, but during minicamp and OTAs, the indications were that the Chiefs see Hillis as a halfback and want to have a fullback who can lead Hillis and Charles through holes.

Prospects.

We have the Chiefs just outside the Top 20 teams in the NFL, which is right around where they were when it was all said and done last season. At 7-9 in 2011, the Chiefs were a last-place team, but last place was only a game out of first place in the mediocre AFC West. With a healthier roster, Kansas City might have made the playoffs last season.

Unfortunately, it probably won’t be as easy to make the playoffs in the AFC West this season, and the questions about Matt Cassel’s effectiveness as a starting quarterback and the loss of a very good cornerback in Brandon Carr make the Chiefs look like a team that’s going to miss the playoffs again this season.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...s-city-chiefs/

the Chiefs took a surprisingly big step backward in 2011


Do people watch any football before they write this crap? 1 Block FG away from winning the West and that's a big step backwards?

PFT is wrong.

Outstanding.

Until the team proves differently, PFT is spot-on.

We went from being a potential contender to being a losing team that was a laughingstock for a good part of the year.

Step backwards for sure.

PFT will be wrong. There you go.

If the Chiefs had a QB they would be a contender...

The Raiders are @ 23 in this same ranking..

If the Raiders can improve from damn near last on D to around 19-18 range...and DMC does not get hurt (big if) The Raiders will win the West..

You heard it here first.

Excited to see us transform into a team that beats playoff contenders with regularity!!!

until the chiefs beat a contender they cant be one.

Um they dismantled GB last year

The raiders defense looks atrocious this year. If McClain can stay on the field, and if Aaron Curry can play decently then they have a chance. But those corners don't look frightening. Tyvon Branch is pretty damn good, but Michael Huff is always beatable.

I think defensively Oakland finishes around bottom 5.

Offensively I think you guys look pretty good though. I think Carson Palmer will have a fairly solid season. I like Denarius Moore and Jacoby Ford a lot. McFadden is a beast when he's healthy...And as much as I liked Michael Bush, I think T. Jones will make a nice replacement as a scat back type guy. The O-line has some obvious holes. The offense could be hit or miss all season.

yeah, with Orton.

And Matt Cassel still hasn't ever beaten a playoff team.

This will be the year the Raiders get there legs back under them as far as the salary cap and draft and become a normal NFL franchise...

We could go 4-12 or we could co 12-4 it all depends on how well we do on the corners .

Raiders will score this year, the question will be if they can stop anyone.

Wrong.

The Seahawks went down HARD bro.

Don't really mean 12-4 ... 10-6 is a possibility if the Defense is good

exactly.

another NFC west team, dont count. :D

:facepalm:

Shit, I forgot about Cassel's heroic acts in that game while Bowe picked on Kelly Jennings all day.

Eh. 2010 wasn't all that. The playoff game against the Ravens showed we weren't a serious contender. I think 2010 and 2011 and 2012 are all about the same team. If everything goes right they can make the playoffs, but with a few injuries and things going wrong we can be blown out by the Lions and Bills.

That's why I said "potential."

We weren't a contender in 2010. 2011 was a chance to take that next step, and we failed horribly.

With our schedule this year we have another chance to prove we belong.

what do you mean? the question is DO YOU WATCH FOOTBALL? PFT is basically giving us the same 7-9 to 8-8 to 9-7 average range we were last season. That's 21st, if you flip it, it's basically drafting 11th, we picked 11th in the draft this year. They are saying that big step backwards to average mediocrity will continue for us in 2012. And with Cassel at QB, they have a good argument.

This is kinda what I'm thinking.


We aren't going to become world beaters in a year. As is the way in the NFL. But I would like to see us start beating good teams.


It's weird how it goes, but it seems that teams that improve year in year out take small steps every year.


Hopefully for us last year was our slump year after a good year. I fear that it was our "shitbag" qb year and not much is changing till he's out.

I love that the media and everyone in general keep understating this team...

Gonna be awesome when we prove them all wrong.

We are right were we should be. Until we show we can beat good teams, we are just an unproven team with talent.

What have they done to deserve anything more?

21 wins in 3 years of this regime, 10 of them against the easiest schedule in the NFL since the 1999 Rams.

Spot on.

Who cares what these fortune tellers think. They're never right, anyway.

I hope they rank us right below the Chiefs.



I can assure you that Michael David Smith's hometown NFL team will be ranked in the top ten - that's how it goes with sports writers.

Yours truly,

Football Writers Association of America

Would be cool to be the 18th or 19th best team.

I really don't know what to think about the blowouts.



In my humble opinion, I tend to put that more on not being prepared, which is on the coaching staff. Not just Haley, but the entire coaching staff. That and being a little shellshocked.


Combine that with the injuries to a few of our better players and last year happens. I think it's plausible to think that if Charles is healthy we have a much better shot at winning the division. But, like stated before, injuries happen. Not usually to arguably your best offensive and defensive players, but they do happen.

I'm just hoping for an exciting year in which we make the playoffs and win a game.

We need to create come kind of auto-correct for "winning the division".

Sad that people are content with that, and use being a FG away from winning a bad division as some sort of evidence that this team is any good.

I don't look at past results...I look at the talent we have, those coming back from the injuries, and the potential to have a Top 10 defense.

Maybe I'm naive...oh well. I'm just damn excited about this team and this season. For the first time in a long time, I feel good about heading into a new season.

Think this team is easily top 15 talent wise but I think everybody in the division except the Chargers should be much better. I don't see how Oakland is possibly the 23rd beat team. They will be better than that

We haven't won a playoff game in forever and haven't exactly been a powerhouse lately.


Of course I'd like to see them win a SB, but I'm just wanting to see baby steps.

Yeah no one wants to mention that if someone hadn't had the "Worst day ever" we would have lost to SD and that we almost knocked the Colts out of the Suck for Luck derby.

New Coach, lost a few players etc... it's a fair ranking in my mind....

Don't think this will be anything close to the Raiders year... We had a fire sale and brought in a few "football players"

I believe football is 80% coaching and 20% player and I have no idea about this coach.

:D

Pretty much that way in the NFL every year.


There is a fine line between winning a losing, for the most part.

Sure, I see QB's fumble setting up the game-winning chip shot FG every week.

Yeah, I know.

Not that specifically, but would you not agree that it is generally 1 or 2 plays per game that end up making the difference?

Would you rather go to the SB and lose like my beloved Raiders did in 02 or would you rather not go at all?

I'm the same way. I'm naive and a sucker. But I love my Chiefs. I know we probably won't do shit with Cassel at QB but I'm excited as nipples for the season. I am for every season.

Go and lose. For sure.

Nope. That's cliche bullshit.

EVERY play makes a difference, and you never know how one seemingly innocent play (say, 4 minutes into the game) affects everything that happens after it.

Fans need a scapegoat, so they pinpoint one or two plays.

Christ, there are dumbasses that still blame Bowe for the Colts game. He dropped that TD midway through the 3rd quarter. There was still 20+ minutes of game after that. And even had he caught it, there's no guarantee we win that game.

Every play matters.

Sounds about right.


We would suddenly vault to the top 10 if we could change one position.

I dunno man........

We lost that game 19-9.

Bowe's TD would have made it 19-16.

I am sure that, in a close game, Matt Cassel would have beaten Peyton Manning.

Put down the bath salts.

I wasn't going to beat a dead horse, but you're right.

Of course every play matters.


IMO, there are one or two plays per game that, if went the other way, would totally change the game. I guess you could say that about every play as well.

Sounds right to me. The Chiefs front seven is filled with backups aside from DJ and Tamba. Their secondary is good. Their OL is decent, RB's are good (assuming Charles is healthy), and if Bowe pulls a VJ the Chiefs have nothing at WR.

The Chiefs have a solid roster but no game changers aside from Jamaal Charles and who knows if he will ever be the same.

So whats that make the Broncos?

He lost his burst.

whether this roster needs a fundamental overhaul

Stopped right there. It needs an enema at one position dumb ****s.

You're av will be mine and it sure won't be Chester

You're not even trying anymore.

Frachise QB, Franchise LT, elite passrush, shutdown corner.... Denver has all of the tools that GM's look for when building a roster. Without Manning the Broncos would probably be ranked near where PFT has the Chiefs ranked, but with him they are a top 10 team.

I've already discussed the Chiefs roster at length a few times. No need for me to write 5 or 6 paragraphs on the Chiefs again.

Chiefs have all those, save for 1.

I forget you think every shit guy the Broncos bring in are elite.

...and we have 2 if not 3 "elite" pass rushers.

Better RBs, better WR core, better TEs, secondary...etc.

It's a joke.

The Broncos do have 2 elite pass rushers, won't argue that.

QB - Coming off a lost season and multiple neck surgeries
LT - hasn't played at "franchise" level in years
Pass rush - true
Shutdown Corner - Who'd the Broncos trade for?

No. You have a single passrusher, the Chiefs had the third fewest sacks in the entire league last year.

Brandon Flowers is a #1 corner, not a shutdown corner. Ray Crocket was a solid #1 corner but he wasn't a shutdown corner.

And Albert is a solid LT. He won't shutout an elite pass rusher one on one.

Below average defense and running game. QB missing an entire year with a broken neck. Meh recieving threats. Not seeing it.

Didn't Hali abuse your "franchise" LT last year?


Champ's not a shutdown guy anymore. Sorry.

Chiefs were one of the best pass rushing teams the 2nd half of the year last year. It was a totally different defense.

We would be a Super Bowl contender with a QB. Reminds me of the Vikings of a couple years ago before they got Favre. All we need is a QB. I think we're good enough to win the West this year with Cassel though. Just nothing after that.

The AFCW leader was 8 - 8 with Jesus on the team. I'm confident when I say the Chiefs took a major step backward last season when it became evident they could not even look good going 8 - 8 and win the division over awful competition.

Lol two tackles in the top 12 according to pff is "okay"

Glenn and tyson are bad. Houston is bad.

And the chiefs have nothing at wr except a 1st rounder with near calvin johnson type upside and a #2/3 reciever that had 700 yds with matt cassel and tyler palko throwing to him.

Weird how kc has all of those minus a 36 year old qb with a broken neck.

Preseason power rankings don't get me too worried or too enthused. Unless a team drafts or signs a player who is expected to make a big impact, it's pretty much looking at where the team was at the end of the previous season. What was the key weakness on this team last season? Simple: the QB. Palko was a disaster and Cassel was having a crappy season before his injury. Since KC didn't replace Cassel, how could they be ranked much higher at this point? The back up QB situation has improved, but unless Cassel somehow loses his starting job, and that will likely be only due to another injury, the team's fortunes are largely tied to how he plays. Sad, but true. If Cassel does go in the tank, there are fewer excuses this season, so perhaps that is a plus.

So before the season last year most people picked us around 7-9 and a step backwards because of the schedule, assuming a healthy roster. Fast forward and we finish 7-9 sans Berry, Charles, and Moeaki, with Palko making starts in primetime and we still finish 7-9. I'm not sure how exactly we took a big step backwards last season when finished as expected but not with the players we expected. If anything we made progress because we got rid of Haley who was clearly completely insane.

We lost some players, so did some other teams we faced.

Evens out.

And hiring a 65-year old is not progress. It's a desperate attempt to bail water from the S.S. Patriot Way.

I realize injuries happen, but injuries like we had last year don't happen alot.


Same with the Bears, who lost Cutler and Forte. You lose your starting qb, all ro rb, all pro safety you ain't winnin shit.

we'll see .....

The front seven is filled with backups? Where were the Doncs rated last year and where were the Chiefs? Their secondary is just good? Are you comparing it to the ancient Champ Bailey and no-names you have? Their OL is just decent? We've upgraded at two positions, greatly at RT and possibly a third. Chiefs have nothing at WR? If Bowe holds out the whole year, their receiver corps is still better than the Doncs.

This team almost won the division last year with a horrible season from Cassel and Palko. Outside of QB the talent level between the Chiefs and Broncos isn't even close.