Chiefs Intriguing training camp battles that are becoming evident - Page 5

**RealSNR** · 05-11-2014, 11:00 AM

1. Quarterback
I hope Dorsey has enough sense to realize that if he needs money for the cap, Chase Daniel is sucking out 3 million this year. Bray and Murray are both unprovens, but one would hope that training camp and preseason would start to show that either Bray or Murray is good enough to be backup QB material. Were that to happen, the other guy would take the 3rd spot and hopefully kick Daniel to the curb.

2. Offensive line
What a freaking mess. We're bound to keep a shit ton of fatties on the final 53 roster, assuming we want to keep Kush around. After Fisher, Hudson, and Stephenson as the starters, it's anybody's guess. I'm going to assume Dr. Frenchie stays aboard because we wouldn't be so stupid as to try to stash him away on the practice squad, right? Besides, do you see anybody else on the team who can be trusted to play OT? I know Linkenbach does, but... eww. I don't want him the primary swing tackle.

So it's down to the guards now. Linkenbach should be depth at RG/RT; making him the starter just exacerbates our continuity problem next year when Hudson will likely walk AND we have to replace RG again. Jeff Allen will probably stick around (blech). So I really believe here that if the team wants to avoid doing something stupid like letting Dr. Frenchie get plucked off the waivers, they need to make the starting RG spot a winner take all situation between Fulton and Johnson. They may end up keeping 4 guards on the roster, with Linkenbach counting as a swing guy, but there are THREE dudes whose comfortable side is on the right. Somebody is going to have to move to LG incase Allen goes down. At this point I have no clue what their plans are for that. I would hope they'd try to move Johnson to left, but we'll see.

3. Cornerback
This is a problem, but a good problem. We're six guys deep:

Smith
Cooper
Flowers
Gaines
Owens
Parker

All of those guys are worth keeping on the roster, and we may try to stash them all away. But it's also possible that we only go with 5, in which case the low man has to either switch to safety or get raped. What's interesting about this battle is not only finding out if the staff will cut a hardy veteran like Flowers in training camp just to accelerate the eventual cap cut we'll need to perform at some point, but it's figuring out how the team will make use of each individual CB's skill during games. I wouldn't be surprised to see us dress at least 5 CBs each game for special teams reasons.

4. Safety
So no, we didn't draft a safety, but this has been an ongoing anticipated training camp battle. Here are the dudes:

Eric Berry
Husain Abdullah
Sanders Commings
Jerron McMillian
Malcolm Bronson
Daniel Sorenson

We got Berry (duh). Abdullah is penciled in as the starter at FS. It's highly unlikely that Commings goes anywhere (except possibly IR again). So there are 1-2 spots for McMillian, Bronson, and Sorenson, and one of them needs to be a SS depth spot. That means McMillian and Bronson are basically the only challengers.

I have no ****ing clue who Bronson is. He was supposedly a part of our training camp and preseason, but I never saw him play a single goddamn down in those games-- not even in the final game when every backup and their mother was playing most of the game. But in spite of all that, we kept him aboard on the practice squad all year over some other safeties who were probably more deserving, like McDougle. Perhaps Dorsey and Reid know something we don't about that guy. I'm willing to say no, but he's a wildcard. I'm also going to assume that Sorenson takes the 5th safety spot if we keep 5. So there's just a lot of question marks at safety. They're intriguing question marks, but question marks nonetheless.

OldSchool · 05-12-2014, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jimmya

Espn seems to think Daniel has backup position solidified.

Ya think? Lol. He's the only one on this roster with anything close to Smith's mobility and therefore the only one who is likely to be able to survive behind this OL.

**The Franchise** · 05-12-2014, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SNR

Nico is technically backing up DJ, and from what I saw in the San Diego game, he's doing a terrible job at it.

James Michael-Johnson is the dude behind Mays.

I'm rooting for James Michael-Johnson to step up and show something. Local kid from around here.

WhiteWhale · 05-12-2014, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Smoke

Lots of good position battles to look forward to. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Commings will be healthy.

Should probably go ahead and cross the fingers on your other hand that he can play at a high level in the NFL as well.

htismaqe · 05-12-2014, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiteWhale

Should probably go ahead and cross the fingers on your other hand that he can play at a high level in the NFL as well.

Yep.

ct · 05-12-2014, 11:39 AM

QB - very possible murray gets a redshirt and we keep all four. i'm with you and hopeful bray has shown something and murray is healthy and shows competent to dump daniels and roll the dice with the young guys as #2/3

OLine - from the hopeful side, I really want to see Rishaw pan out as they seem to feel he's ready. Linkenbach as our swing T just scares the piss out of me, seriously. This is my #1 fear aside from QB injury for the entire team honestly. I think the LG side we overlook that Kush could step into C and Hudson could slide over to fill in (replace?) Allen at LG. Sure like what I read on our two 6th round prospects, but only time will tell. Seriously tho, we all know the biggest Q on the OLine. If fish doesn't step up and play well, we got serious problems.

CB - the competition here is pretty awesome, i'm pretty stoked about this offseason at corner. I see one of two things, either Flowers is traded for a '15 pick, or Parker's growth has to beat out the experience factor Owens has in his pocket. Which two guys start on the outside is actually kinda interesting...

S - I'm not terribly worried about starting FS as most. I feel Abdullah can do well, and if Commings actually surprises that's a sweet bonus. The 4th S spot is a bigger question. Abdullah can backup Berry if he were to miss time, but then we NEED Commings to play, or...or what do we got now? No idea ...

OldSchool · 05-12-2014, 12:27 PM

Anyone expecting anything out of Demarcus Van Dyke? The guy was a former 3rd round pick who ran a 4.28 and was drafted by Davis. He showed promise in coverage but his career has been derailed so far by injuries (dislocated shoulder 2012, severely injured hamstring 2013). He's got a real shot as well if we decide to go with 5 CBs.

Flowers - if we don't trade him for a WR or future 2015 pick, he's a lock

Smith - Lock. He's our best corner in this system, sadly. Let's hope he can play a full season at a high level instead of just half of one.

Gaines - Lock. 3rd round pick with tremendous man coverage ability due to his natural ability to shadow just about anyone. Displays great anticipation to go up and break up the pass as well. Tenacious in coverage and makes up for his lack in strength with his length and athleticism.

Cooper - Lock, they won't let him go after all of that potential that he showed last year. Hell, he developed so fast, considering his lack of experience as a CB, he might actually be a #1 level CB this year if everything went well for him. Very similar to Richard Sherman's meteoric growth in a tougher system to play in.

Demarcus Van Dyke - Fastest player on the roster when healthy, exceptional ability and showed promise early in career. Can he stay healthy and has he developed at all without much work on the field since his rookie year? Long shot but one worth taking. You can't teach world class speed.

Ron Parker - Another corner with really good speed with 4.3-4.4 wheels and decent size. He made a few plays for us last year and has the inside track to that 5th CB position.

Chris Owens - Smaller slot corner who has a bit more speed than Brandon Flowers and more experience playing in the slot. Not a great or even good player, just solid. Lowest upside of all our CBs. I really don't see him making the team, especially if they plan to hold on to Flowers.

**The Franchise** · 05-12-2014, 12:38 PM

I would look at trading Flowers for a 2015 pick now. Roll with Smith, Cooper, Gaines and Parker as our top 4 corners. Van Dyke and Parker can battle it out for the 5th spot.

**RealSNR** · 05-12-2014, 01:23 PM

Flowers for even a 5th or 6th rounder would have been really nice right now.

I sure hope Dorsey didn't get any offers for Flowers, because this one kind of stings. We ain't even getting one of those almighty super awesome jizztastic comp picks I keep hearing so much about.

KC native · 05-12-2014, 03:12 PM

Dorsey is clearly protecting Chase Daniel because he didn't bring in the prototype AKA CASEY MOTHER****ING PACHALL. So I don't expect any real training camp battles for QB.

saphojunkie · 05-12-2014, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SNR

Daniel_

Daniel.

Singular. No ****ing S.

Daniel.

jd1020 · 05-12-2014, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SNR

Flowers for even a 5th or 6th rounder would have been really nice right now.

I sure hope Dorsey didn't get any offers for Flowers, because this one kind of stings. We ain't even getting one of those almighty super awesome jizztastic comp picks I keep hearing so much about.

Just you wait. 2018 is right around the corner. Who are we looking at for prospects in that pool?

suzzer99 · 05-12-2014, 03:46 PM

If Gaines comes on really strong maybe we can move Flowers to safety.

OldSchool · 05-12-2014, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jd1020

Just you wait. 2018 is right around the corner. Who are we looking at for prospects in that pool?

The 2015 WR class actually looks pretty decent. Not as deep as this one was, but as long as we take one in the 1st or 2nd we should have as good a chance to land a future #1.

jd1020 · 05-12-2014, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldSchool

The 2015 WR class actually looks pretty decent. Not as deep as this one was, but as long as we take one in the 1st or 2nd we should have as good a chance to land a future #1.

I'm talking about 2018, when we get a comp pick for Flowers after we don't trade him. Thinking long term over here, building for the future.

Mr. Laz · 05-12-2014, 03:50 PM

will anyone step up at WR?

05-11-2014, 11:00 AM
RealSNR Special Teams ACE!!! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Where the hell is SNR Casino cash: $2260208	Intriguing training camp battles that are becoming evident 1. Quarterback I hope Dorsey has enough sense to realize that if he needs money for the cap, Chase Daniel is sucking out 3 million this year. Bray and Murray are both unprovens, but one would hope that training camp and preseason would start to show that either Bray or Murray is good enough to be backup QB material. Were that to happen, the other guy would take the 3rd spot and hopefully kick Daniel to the curb. 2. Offensive line What a freaking mess. We're bound to keep a shit ton of fatties on the final 53 roster, assuming we want to keep Kush around. After Fisher, Hudson, and Stephenson as the starters, it's anybody's guess. I'm going to assume Dr. Frenchie stays aboard because we wouldn't be so stupid as to try to stash him away on the practice squad, right? Besides, do you see anybody else on the team who can be trusted to play OT? I know Linkenbach does, but... eww. I don't want him the primary swing tackle. So it's down to the guards now. Linkenbach should be depth at RG/RT; making him the starter just exacerbates our continuity problem next year when Hudson will likely walk AND we have to replace RG again. Jeff Allen will probably stick around (blech). So I really believe here that if the team wants to avoid doing something stupid like letting Dr. Frenchie get plucked off the waivers, they need to make the starting RG spot a winner take all situation between Fulton and Johnson. They may end up keeping 4 guards on the roster, with Linkenbach counting as a swing guy, but there are THREE dudes whose comfortable side is on the right. Somebody is going to have to move to LG incase Allen goes down. At this point I have no clue what their plans are for that. I would hope they'd try to move Johnson to left, but we'll see. 3. Cornerback This is a problem, but a good problem. We're six guys deep: Smith Cooper Flowers Gaines Owens Parker All of those guys are worth keeping on the roster, and we may try to stash them all away. But it's also possible that we only go with 5, in which case the low man has to either switch to safety or get raped. What's interesting about this battle is not only finding out if the staff will cut a hardy veteran like Flowers in training camp just to accelerate the eventual cap cut we'll need to perform at some point, but it's figuring out how the team will make use of each individual CB's skill during games. I wouldn't be surprised to see us dress at least 5 CBs each game for special teams reasons. 4. Safety So no, we didn't draft a safety, but this has been an ongoing anticipated training camp battle. Here are the dudes: Eric Berry Husain Abdullah Sanders Commings Jerron McMillian Malcolm Bronson Daniel Sorenson We got Berry (duh). Abdullah is penciled in as the starter at FS. It's highly unlikely that Commings goes anywhere (except possibly IR again). So there are 1-2 spots for McMillian, Bronson, and Sorenson, and one of them needs to be a SS depth spot. That means McMillian and Bronson are basically the only challengers. I have no ****ing clue who Bronson is. He was supposedly a part of our training camp and preseason, but I never saw him play a single goddamn down in those games-- not even in the final game when every backup and their mother was playing most of the game. But in spite of all that, we kept him aboard on the practice squad all year over some other safeties who were probably more deserving, like McDougle. Perhaps Dorsey and Reid know something we don't about that guy. I'm willing to say no, but he's a wildcard. I'm also going to assume that Sorenson takes the 5th safety spot if we keep 5. So there's just a lot of question marks at safety. They're intriguing question marks, but question marks nonetheless.
Posts: 90,536

05-12-2014, 11:39 AM	#65
ct u b illian Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: DooDah Casino cash: $10009436	QB - very possible murray gets a redshirt and we keep all four. i'm with you and hopeful bray has shown something and murray is healthy and shows competent to dump daniels and roll the dice with the young guys as #2/3 OLine - from the hopeful side, I really want to see Rishaw pan out as they seem to feel he's ready. Linkenbach as our swing T just scares the piss out of me, seriously. This is my #1 fear aside from QB injury for the entire team honestly. I think the LG side we overlook that Kush could step into C and Hudson could slide over to fill in (replace?) Allen at LG. Sure like what I read on our two 6th round prospects, but only time will tell. Seriously tho, we all know the biggest Q on the OLine. If fish doesn't step up and play well, we got serious problems. CB - the competition here is pretty awesome, i'm pretty stoked about this offseason at corner. I see one of two things, either Flowers is traded for a '15 pick, or Parker's growth has to beat out the experience factor Owens has in his pocket. Which two guys start on the outside is actually kinda interesting... S - I'm not terribly worried about starting FS as most. I feel Abdullah can do well, and if Commings actually surprises that's a sweet bonus. The 4th S spot is a bigger question. Abdullah can backup Berry if he were to miss time, but then we NEED Commings to play, or...or what do we got now? No idea ...
Posts: 7,287

05-12-2014, 12:27 PM	#66
OldSchool MVP Join Date: Sep 2013 Casino cash: $10035212	Anyone expecting anything out of Demarcus Van Dyke? The guy was a former 3rd round pick who ran a 4.28 and was drafted by Davis. He showed promise in coverage but his career has been derailed so far by injuries (dislocated shoulder 2012, severely injured hamstring 2013). He's got a real shot as well if we decide to go with 5 CBs. Flowers - if we don't trade him for a WR or future 2015 pick, he's a lock Smith - Lock. He's our best corner in this system, sadly. Let's hope he can play a full season at a high level instead of just half of one. Gaines - Lock. 3rd round pick with tremendous man coverage ability due to his natural ability to shadow just about anyone. Displays great anticipation to go up and break up the pass as well. Tenacious in coverage and makes up for his lack in strength with his length and athleticism. Cooper - Lock, they won't let him go after all of that potential that he showed last year. Hell, he developed so fast, considering his lack of experience as a CB, he might actually be a #1 level CB this year if everything went well for him. Very similar to Richard Sherman's meteoric growth in a tougher system to play in. Demarcus Van Dyke - Fastest player on the roster when healthy, exceptional ability and showed promise early in career. Can he stay healthy and has he developed at all without much work on the field since his rookie year? Long shot but one worth taking. You can't teach world class speed. Ron Parker - Another corner with really good speed with 4.3-4.4 wheels and decent size. He made a few plays for us last year and has the inside track to that 5th CB position. Chris Owens - Smaller slot corner who has a bit more speed than Brandon Flowers and more experience playing in the slot. Not a great or even good player, just solid. Lowest upside of all our CBs. I really don't see him making the team, especially if they plan to hold on to Flowers.
Posts: 12,727

05-12-2014, 12:38 PM	#67
The Franchise Most Valuable Villain Join Date: Dec 2006 Casino cash: $3005047	I would look at trading Flowers for a 2015 pick now. Roll with Smith, Cooper, Gaines and Parker as our top 4 corners. Van Dyke and Parker can battle it out for the 5th spot.
Posts: 92,200

05-12-2014, 01:23 PM	#68
RealSNR Special Teams ACE!!! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Where the hell is SNR Casino cash: $2260208	Flowers for even a 5th or 6th rounder would have been really nice right now. I sure hope Dorsey didn't get any offers for Flowers, because this one kind of stings. We ain't even getting one of those almighty super awesome jizztastic comp picks I keep hearing so much about.
Posts: 90,536

05-12-2014, 03:12 PM	#69
KC native Banned Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Fort Worth, TX Casino cash: $10049239	Dorsey is clearly protecting Chase Daniel because he didn't bring in the prototype AKA CASEY MOTHER****ING PACHALL. So I don't expect any real training camp battles for QB.
Posts: 24,946

05-12-2014, 03:46 PM	#72
suzzer99 In Search of a Life Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: L.A. Casino cash: $2864284	If Gaines comes on really strong maybe we can move Flowers to safety.
Posts: 27,280

05-12-2014, 03:50 PM	#75
Mr. Laz Don't Tease Me Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: KS Casino cash: $11047037	will anyone step up at WR? __________________
Posts: 95,626