Haley Welcomes Pope To KC
 

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After two days of multiple transactions, the Chiefs had four new bodies at practice Wednesday. The largest was tight end Leonard Pope who, at a massive 6-foot-8 and 264 pounds, eclipses Brad Cottam as the tallest player on the team.
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Pope comes to Kansas City after being cut by the Arizona Cardinals earlier this season. After being selected in the third round of the 2006 draft, Pope started 25 games for Arizona the last three seasons, appearing in 42 overall. When Pope came out of Georgia, his size and athletic ability awed observers, including Todd Haley, who coached the tight end in Arizona.

“Leonard’s a big guy who’s real tough,” he said. “He’s fast. He can really stretch the field.”

Haley and Pope are more than just former teammates. Wednesday, Haley praised Pope’s work ethic, calling him one of his “favorites” from his tenure with the Cardinals.

“He will give you a full day’s work, your money’s worth every single day,” said Haley. “He likes to play, he likes to practice. He’s my kind of guy, and with him out there, and we got the opportunity with some of these changes, we were happy to be able to get him.”

Pope returned the warm sentiment, saying he was happy to be in Kansas City and had been embraced by the team so far.

“We’re just going to try to turn this thing around,” he said. “I love Todd. He’s the type of guy that’s going to push. He’s going to get every inch of everything out of you. A lot of guys probably have to learn that about him and stuff. Some may think he’s someone else, but you’ve got to have thick skin. That’s the kind of coach he is.”

The Chiefs have lacked a real receiving threat at tight end since Tony Gonzalez’s departure, which is to be expected, and Pope’s presence might be able to fill some of that void. Though his receiving numbers haven’t been spectacular – 48 catches and five touchdowns in three years - he’s just entering his fourth year as a pro. His size and speed should scare opposing secondaries at least a little.

It wasn’t too long ago another of Haley’s former players – Bobby Wade - arrived in Kansas City and made an immediate impact the following Sunday. If Pope is to replicate Wade’s feat, he has some late nights in front of him. However, the fact that he’s just an offseason removed from an offense run by Haley might give him a head start.

“I think that’s a huge advantage for him and us,” said Haley. “He’s coming into a situation that he knows a lot of stuff that’s going on, and that obviously will help him work his way.”

“(The offense) is kind of the same,” said Pope. “It’s got tweaks here and there and what not, but I’ve just got to get back up to date with things. I’ve been off for a couple weeks, I’ve just got to get this thing going.”

The Chiefs also made some intra-squad movement earlier this week, as Ryan O’Callaghan has leapfrogged Ike Ndukwe on the depth chart at right tackle. While O’Callaghan practiced with the first team Wednesday, Haley seemed reluctant to call the switch anything but indefinite, saying it didn’t indicate who would start Sunday against the New York Giants.

“It’s going to be determined on how we practice and how the guys practice,” he said. “This is how we practiced today. We’re going to look at the tape and see how everybody did. We were not good enough on Sunday at a lot of positions, at a lot of positions. There were not a lot of guys that when we went through the grades, we said ‘Hey, he’s giving us a chance to win.’ I’m in no way singling out anybody, but if we feel there’s somebody practicing well that can do a better job than anybody, then we’re going to at least try it out in practice and see what it looks like.”

Some might level criticism over this move, citing that an offensive line needs time to gel and learn to play together. While taking reps with the first team away from Ndukwe might be counterproductive, Haley sees it differently.

“We’re in the process of shaping this team,” he said. “I think it’s critical that we understand, and all the players understand, and everybody really understands that this is the beginning stages of the process, and one thing that’s going to be clear to the players is there’s going to be changes as we try to improve and get better each week. They can’t let it affect them in any way, shape or form, other than to push them to be better each and every day that they’re in here and each and every Sunday. We’ve been pretty clear with the guys about that.”

Two players Haley and general manager Scott Pioli brought in to further “push” incumbent players are linebacker David Herron and cornerback Mike Richardson. They share a common trait that Haley likes – speed.

“(Herron’s) got very good speed,” said Haley. “He’s a run and hit guy. What I know of him is he’s got the chance to be a good special teamer first, and any time we have the chance to improve our team speed, I think we need to do it, and he’s a fast guy. Mike Richardson, the Notre Dame corner, he’s a fast guy. I think, again, when we can improve our team speed on either side we need to do it.”

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I doubt Haley even knows how to take advantage of Pope's greatest assets, namely infallibility and a bulletproof Mercedes-Benz.

Pope is a 4th year pro, not third.

I'm going to refer to Pope as "his holiness" from now on.

Especially if he starts kicking ass.

You don't expect accuracy from a supposed news site do you?

I don't know what Dane's talking about.

Let me preface this for all those that will see this as bitching - I think this is a very good signing.

I'm wondering, however, if Pope was one of Haley's "favorites" and they are "happy to be able to get him,” why the **** did it take so long to get his ass in here?

Dude was cut FOUR weeks ago Friday.

Sure would have been nice to have him before the season started.

That's because of your well-documented reerun gene:

http://www.nfl.com/players/leonardpo...e?id=POP463366

http://static.nfl.com/static/content.../POP463366.jpg

<!-- ************************* header END ******************** --> Leonard Pope | # | TE
Kansas City Chiefs | Official Team Site

Height: 6-8 Weight: 264 Age: 26
Born: 9/10/1983 Americus , GA
College: Georgia
Experience: 4th season
High School: Americus HS [GA]; Hargrave Mil. Acad. [Chatham, VA]

Maybe they thought Brad Cottam would step up...which he hasn't.

I'm curious to see how His Holiness plays in an offense that isn't dominated by All-Pro wide receivers.

He addressed this in a round about way in his PC today. Basically said they have a process and part of that process is getting a fair evaluation of the guys who are here.

I know he's a fourth-year pro.

You ****ing edited your thread.

:shake:

Oh yeah?

LMAO

That may be the first time anything from the wipers has been edited.

So, run the risk of losing a player that is a supposed "favorite" to another team, in an effort to see if Jake ****ing O'Connell becomes a player?

That's ridiculous.

If you can upgrade somewhere, do it. You don't owe the scrubs on this roster shit.

They sure didn't have a problem bringing in Cassel before giving Croyle and Thigpen a "fair evaluation."

Scott Pioli is responsbile for signing the players. Haley is responsible for coaching them.

My guess is that Pioli is the decision maker on both decisions (to not sign him 4 weeks ago and to sign him this week).

Yeah he has it all OVER Priest Holmes. :evil:

Pope is probably the best offensive weapon we have now outside of bowe

too bad he has iron hands

I'm sure they had plenty of tape on both Croyle and Thigpen.
What tape could they possibly have had of Sean Ryan?

They didn't need tape.

Sean Ryan played for Todd Haley in Dallas.

Apparently, that's all it takes to make this roster.

The "connection".

C'mon, Mic.

Are you really advocating waiting on players that can help now, just to appease the guys you have?

You know damn good and well that as far as being a receiving threat goes, Pope is head and shoulders above every TE on this roster.

Could you imagine the backlash here if Pope had gone on to sign somewhere else, flourished, and we found out after the fact that we wanted him, but wanted to give Jake ****ing O'Connell a "fair evaluation"?

Thats about as close to a lovefest of words that i've seen Haley have yet.

Kinda weird considering that Pope had 5td in 07, but was phased out by Haley in 08 with only 9rec, no td. I guess Haley wanted to focus on Fitz & Boldin...go figure.

I Genuflect to his Giantness, get out there & be angry about it Leonard.

Wow, on one hand people bitch that Haley is going to lose the team because of what he did Sunday, and then on the other they don't give a shit if the guys we have are given a fair shot or not.

Not saying you personally, just making a statement.

It probably lends credence to the idea that this is an extended preseason, unfortunately.

I like the Pope signing a lot. Bowe, Pope, Bradley, Wade, and Engram really isn't a bad receiving corps. I'm not saying its one of the better ones in the NFL, but it is one of the better ones in Chiefs history. Having no Oline and running game makes it look worse than it really is.

No... I'm saying that Thipen and Croyle were known commodities so they're probably not the best example to use.

Wants you to take your meds.
I agree with the signing an don't disagree with identifying upgrades sooner.

We're saved. Look out, Giants.

It must be directed at me personally, because I'm the only one who made a comment about it.

I love the move.

But shit like this makes me wonder if we told Runyan to **** off until we figured out if Ndukwe is the answer. The names are interchangeable.

Fair enough. Your comment didn't read that way to me, so thanks for clarifying.

I like the move too. Especially since he's still young enough to contribute here for a while. I think the guy could be really dangerous in the redzone.

If we could just get this damn Offensive Line solid...
We might REALLY have something.

I hope that you, any of you, didn't think of it as anything but. It's going to take all season long to figure out who's going to play hard for you, for your scheme. This season is an evaluation period. We all knew that this roster was completely devoid of talent at a number of positions (thank you Carl), and there was no way that with a brand new offensive and defensive scheme, new front office, etc., they were going to be this year Miami Dolphins. They will continue to build throughout the season, make trades and build through the draft (and yes, they had better draft better than what they showed in this past draft - though Jackson does look to be legit). As I said before, it's going to take three seasons to get this team to .500/8-8, and that's if Haley and Pioli know what they are doing and are good at it. Five seasons and they will hopefully be contenders.

After 20 years of Carl, and the three year Herm debacle, we are essentially starting over. Clean slate as far as I'm concerned. Kansas City just got a new expansion franchise. It's going to take some time. But signing these guys is a step in the right direction. Pope is huge, athletic (especially considering his size) and give us a better blocker and receiver than what we currently have at the TE position. I'm also jacked about the linebacker. We have a real lack of speed and athleticism on special teams and he should help. Baby steps, but steps in the right direction.

Has Runyan signed anywhere?

No, he's done.

NTTIAWWT........

No he hasn't, and I'm not advocating signing him.

Just using him as an example.

You can put the name of any FA that's visited in his place, and the name of the player he'd be replacing in Ndukwe's, and the point still stands.

So obviously then we didn't **** him off just to see if Ndukwe worked out.

repeat: So obviously then we didn't **** him off just to see if Ndukwe worked out.

I am just saying more goes on than what we know. It is still early with this regime to say we know how they operate.

Who knows? Maybe we did, maybe we didn't.

Christ, Pete, the point is pretty obvious. If you want to continue to argue ****ing semantics, go right ahead. It's a ****ing example.

His Holiness is a badass!

No it isn't. We didn't sign Runyan and no one else did. So if it was an example it was a bad one.

I hope Pope has a mean streak and can block.

I heard he is our only link to speak directly to Aaron Curry.

Pope got cut from the Cardinals... how good could he be?

Aren't ALL Popes former Cardinals?

Not sure about the mean streak, but he can't block for shit.

He's truly a pass-catching TE.

yeah, the Cardinals clearly have no talent.

Amen.

If he starts at TE for them....he's like the 5th receiver on that team. They're going to throw to Fitz, Boldin, Breaston and the RB first.

ANYBODY is better than what we have now.

A point of rep for that. :LOL:

Anyone know why he was cut by the Cardinals? Just curious, Haley speaks very highly of him so what gives.

All but 1 have been. They don't actually have to be but it is tradition...

This is so funny. I was an Alter Boy as a kid and this question was actually on the test. Haven't thought of it in decades. LOL!

Which makes you wonder why he was on the shelf for five weeks.

It's not like pass catching TE's aren't in demand.