If we could have an improvement right now with the Chiefs...

[Rain Man]

...where would it be?

Poll to follow. You get to pick one unit. And unit is a funny word when you really think about it. Unit, unit, unit. It sounds like an alien word that we got from Roswell.

But I digress. Poll to follow.

The Rules:

Assume that we could get an incremental improvement of, say 10 to 15 percent. We're not talking about replacing our unit with a Hall of Fame unit. Just a bump in performance.

[Brock]

Alex can't read. Glaringly obvious last night.

[ciaomichael]

It's close between the OL and receivers, but I honestly think we could benefit more immediately by an improvement in our receivers. Improvement in the OL is more of a long-term developmental thing. We could have a special season going now, and if we could eliminate these dropped passes, that would have the most impact on overall performance. Sure, a little bit more separation and more precise route running would help, but some focus as in just CATCHING the damn ball when it's thrown your way would be huge.

[Cannibal]

Smith hasn't been great this year, but the receivers have let him down so many times.

[DJ's left nut]

A 50% improvement in any unit? Easy - QB.

A mere 15% improvement in the QB wouldn't make a difference with the rest of this team, however. You'd still have an averageish QB playing with a tripe O-line and substandard weapons.

I'll take a 15% improvement in the WR/TE units at this point and if not there, the O-Line. Folks, these pass-catchers are abysmal. Anyone that's still running this "well who cares, Smith wouldn't do anything with them" line is just not paying attention.

These guys are baaaaad.

[O.city]

Yeah, josh Gordon and tony g would have made a huge difference. Oh well.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

Yeah, josh Gordon and tony g would have made a huge difference. Oh well.

We seem to be leaving about 100 yards of offense and 7-10 pts on the field each week with these guys. And that's not even considering the times drives may have been extended.

And they're getting worse by the week.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

We seem to be leaving about 100 yards of offense and 7-10 pts on the field each week with these guys. And that's not even considering the times drives may have been extended.

And they're getting worse by the week.

Yeah, but we can't talk about that here, it's not on them.

Alex smith sucks, amiright?

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by scho63

Our receivers SUCK at getting separation and in the last 10 games, Alex Smith has made a lot of great throws only to have another dropped pass cost us.

Up until last night, he has been pretty good at not taking stupid sacks.

Throwing to covered receivers? He has spent time going through his progressions nicely and I don't want to see 3-4 INT's each game like Cassel!

Our O line has been piss poor in run and pass blocking. Charles has worked for every damn yard he has gotten.

I'm not sure how you can make Alex Smith the scapegoat because he is not.

I'm not making him out to be a scapegoat. Like I said, there are games where managing games is not enough.

His receivers aren't great at getting separation. But as Peter King showed, he is missing wide open reads to hit his checkdown and he does it regularly. Defenses stack the box to stop the run because they don't think Smith will throw downfield. And whereas elite QBs are throwing back shoulder throws and threading passes into tight spaces, Smith pretty regularly throws to a wide open man and way too often gets the ball to the right man a few seconds too late.

He is a big reason why we are 9-1. He's also a big reason why we may not be legit contenders unless he changes. He's proven he can take what he's given. There are games where he has to do more than that, and yesterday was one of them. I don't want our team to continually rely on our defense to make game-changing plays in the final seconds of a game.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by lcarus

The dude was agreeing with you with his post.

Shhh. Let him keep being an idiot.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

And they're getting worse by the week.

That's the crazy thing about it, not only are they not getting any better, they're actually getting worse as we go, not one of them has anything close to what you would call sure hands.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I'm not making him out to be a scapegoat. Like I said, there are games where managing games is not enough.

His receivers aren't great at getting separation. But as Peter King showed, he is missing wide open reads to hit his checkdown and he does it regularly. Defenses stack the box to stop the run because they don't think Smith will throw downfield. And whereas elite QBs are throwing back shoulder throws and threading passes into tight spaces, Smith pretty regularly throws to a wide open man and way too often gets the ball to the right man a few seconds too late.

He is a big reason why we are 9-1. He's also a big reason why we may not be legit contenders unless he changes. He's proven he can take what he's given. There are games where he has to do more than that, and yesterday was one of them. I don't want our team to continually rely on our defense to make game-changing plays in the final seconds of a game.

A) That wasn't Peter King, it was just his website. Please don't mistake actual analysis for anyting King has ever written.

B) Yes, a couple of those plays he posted were pretty bad. 2 of the 4 were also extremely defensible and/or flat out intelligent decisions.

Smith cut it loose a fair amount yesterday - 12 passes over 20 yards in fact. You saw what we got for our efforts. Drops and passes batted away easily because DBs can close on these WRs so easily that anything downfield is in trouble.

Throwing downfield with these weapons is looking like a worse idea by the day. When he does it, they invariably **** it up.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by O.city

Yeah, but we can't talk about that here, it's not on them.

Alex smith sucks, amiright?

Picking QB as the thing someone would most like to upgrade doesn't mean they don't consider the other options issues, too.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by scott free

That's the crazy thing about it, not only are they not getting any better, they're actually getting worse as we go, not one of them has anything close to what you would call sure hands.

I said it in another thread, but I was simply floored by how easily DRC was able to toy with Dwayne Bowe yesterday. It was like turning down the AI opponent speed to 80% or something in Madden; he just ran circles around Bowe.

Last night was the first night that I really watched Bowe and thought he might actually be shot. It wasn't effort - he simply has no speed at all left. He has no quickness and he's never been a particularly adept route-runner. We threw him the damn ball 14 times yesterday and they were simply easy coverage plays because he's incapable of keeping distance.

Had you asked me this question on Friday I'd have gone with the O-Line. But after watching Bowe be completely ineffective and watching Avery botch perhaps the biggest play of the night, we need those weapons at WR/TE.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

Picking QB as the thing someone would most like to upgrade doesn't mean they don't consider the other options issues, too.

Yeah, but without big upgrades around him, how much of an upgrade at qb will it take?

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I said it in another thread, but I was simply floored by how easily DRC was able to toy with Dwayne Bowe yesterday. It was like turning down the AI opponent speed to 80% or something in Madden; he just ran circles around Bowe.

Last night was the first night that I really watched Bowe and thought he might actually be shot. It wasn't effort - he simply has no speed at all left. He has no quickness and he's never been a particularly adept route-runner. We threw him the damn ball 14 times yesterday and they were simply easy coverage plays because he's incapable of keeping distance.

Had you asked me this question on Friday I'd have gone with the O-Line. But after watching Bowe be completely ineffective and watching Avery botch perhaps the biggest play of the night, we need those weapons at WR/TE.

I agree that Bowe looks extremely slow at points, but in his defense Rodgers-Cromartie is VERY fast and, despite the overall suck of the Broncos pass defense, has played pretty well this season.