Chiefs-related thoughts at the halfway point of the season.

[Rain Man]

I have many random thoughts, but I'll stick to the ones that are about the Chiefs.


1. At the halfway point, the Chiefs are the #5 seed in the playoffs. Given the early-season schedule, this is a positive surprise. http://www.nfl.com/playoffs/playoff-picture.

2. Right now, the Chiefs are the #3 defense in terms of points allowed. The offense is in the top third, and the special teams are strong. The Chiefs have always been good at putting together one dominating unit while the others were weak, but right now they have one dominating unit and the others are strong.

3. I remember Herm Edwards' stupid statement that the offense was scoring too fast, which hurt the defense. While that statement is stupid, one must note that the offense is really helping the defense this year by keeping them off the field. They're ranked 6th in the league in time of possession.

3. I don't care what some of you say. Alex Smith is good, and I like him. I think he's this generation's Bernie Kosar, a guy who's really good at moving the chains and never making mistakes. But the difference is that Smith can run, and he's far better at that than I would have thought.

4. Dorsey is really good at identifying raw talent. You look at guys like Ron Parker and Knile Davis and Zach Fulton and Josh Mauga and others, and he finds productive players outside the high rounds. That's huge.

5. I think this team has good coaching. You look at how the backups have played, and they're very impressive. They've stepped right in and played great. And we don't see stupid mistakes for the most part. (I'm still laughing about the Santos karate kick, but hey, he's a foreign kicker.)

6. I think Allen Bailey is the breakout player of the year, out of a number of good candidates. Ron Parker might be next for that award, and you could make the case for several players.

7. Jamaal is having the worst season of his career from a YPC perspective, but I remain impressed by how good he is in all phases of the game. He can run, catch, block, hit for power, and hit for average. I'm always in awe of how he can take a situation with no apparent hole and pick up 5+ yards.

8. I l-o-v-e love the three tight end sets. Or two TEs with Bowe. Kelce is such a mismatch for people. The guy is always open. And did people notice the play in (I think) the third quarter where he chipped some defensive end and literally put the guy on his back. And all he did was chip him while going out for a safety valve route. It was hilarious.

9. Zach Fulton deserves some serious props. He stepped in as a rookie and has played like a veteran.

10. Now that the team is good, I find a perverse pleasure in seeing Colquitt punt sometimes. I want to see how close he can put the ball to the goal line.

11. Last season the defense started out strong and the offense weak, and then around Week 8 they flipped. It'll be interesting to see if the same thing happens this year where the offense improves and the defense regresses.

12. A really good receiver in the first round next year seems like an obvious priority, but I'm trying to figure out if it's worth it if Alex doesn't target WRs. That's fine as long as the offense clicks; recall that Trent Green didn't use receivers all that much during his heyday.

13. That little Thomas fellow impresses the heck out of me. He's legitimately both quick AND fast. I don't know if it was mentioned today, but he slipped and fell on one return, and got back to his feet faster than anyone I've ever seen. It was pretty impressive.