Ashley Ambrose, our new CB?

[Bootlegged]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...s/12000685.htm

chiefs seek corner


Law is still in picture

Ambrose, however, remains favorite


As week two of the Chiefs’ search for a cornerback began Monday, Ashley Ambrose emerged as the realistic favorite, and Ty Law kept his spot somewhere high on the speed dial.

Coach Dick Vermeil said Monday night that the Chiefs are “very interested” in Ambrose, a 13-year veteran who worked out in Kansas City late last week. The holdup, at least in part, is Law, the Pro Bowl corner who visited the Chiefs in March and is still on the market.

The Chiefs want Law if he will sign for a dramatically reduced price. But Law, who just began making cuts on his surgically repaired foot, reportedly wants big money.

“The thought is to play the whole scenario out,” Vermeil said, “and the scenario does include a final evaluation of Ty Law in terms of what is actually going to happen from a financial standpoint.

“First off, can he pass the physical? And then we have to find out how much money he’s going to be offered on the open market. If he’s going to be offered big money, then we’re automatically out of it.”

While Law was rehabbing his foot this spring, the Chiefs signed cornerback Patrick Surtain, safety Sammy Knight, linebacker Kendrell Bell and defensive end Carlos Hall. The defense appeared to be complete, but then Julian Battle tore his Achilles’ heel during minicamp June 18.

Battle was running with the first team because starter Eric Warfield may miss at least part of the season due to an NFL suspension.

So the Chiefs brought in four free-agent cornerbacks last week who are nearing the twilight of their careers, and Ambrose, 34, was the most impressive. He started six games last year for the Saints and was a Pro Bowler with the Bengals in 1996. After watching film on Ambrose, a 5-foot-11, 195-pound Louisiana native, Vermeil said it’s obvious he can still play.

Ambrose’s agent, Kennard McGuire, said three teams have shown “a tremendous amount of interest,” but Ambrose is patient and wants to find the right fit.

“He’s been to the Pro Bowl, he’s done extremely well from a contractual standpoint,” McGuire said. “I believe more pressing issue with him is being afforded that opportunity to play with a contender. He feels like this is one of situations he’s been waiting on.”

Ambrose will need patience. Vermeil, who’s vacationing in Pennsylvania, said it’s unclear how long the Chiefs will wait to sign a corner. Training camp starts July 28 in River Falls, Wis.

He said the Chiefs have no immediate plans to bring Law in for a physical.

“I think realistically that we, in the future, will make a move on Ashley,” Vermeil said. “Right now we’ve just decided to be patient and see what happens.”


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[Spicy McHaggis]

Originally Posted by BigChiefFan

Nobody could have predicted a serious injury to Battle.

To be honest I had no idea we were counting on Battle to start if Warfield was out. He showed nothing last season to warrant a feeling of security from the FO, IMO. Battle must have really been tearing up the OTA's.

[Wile_E_Coyote]

In the last 5 years Surtain & Warfield have both just missed 4 games a piece. Once the suspension is over the chance of one of these guys starting is not so good. Just because they all came in on the free trip, does not mean the are all willing to play backup

[Chiefnj]

Originally Posted by shaneo69

So IMO, CP got 3 out of 4 needs filled. I'll give him a 75% grade for this offseason. JMO. Had he not spent money last year on Woods, Bartee, and Hicks, maybe we could've had enough money to sign Dyson or Dwight Smith as a safety net for Warfield's suspension.

To be honest, the guys they signed last year were old Gunther players. The general opinion last year was that weeding out Robinson's players ,his coaching influence and having Gunther work with his old crew would be sufficient to elevate the D.

Obviously it didn't work, but it was clear that there was a two year plan to fix the D - year one was keeping existing players to see who could still play or pick up Gunther's system, year two plugging the holes. Unfortunately there were a lot more holes than they probably thought existed.

I give them an A- this offseason. The minus is for not giving up a 6th round pick for Cowart to play MLB or backup the position.

[RedThat]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj

To be honest, the guys they signed last year were old Gunther players. The general opinion last year was that weeding out Robinson's players ,his coaching influence and having Gunther work with his old crew would be sufficient to elevate the D.

Obviously it didn't work, but it was clear that there was a two year plan to fix the D - year one was keeping existing players to see who could still play or pick up Gunther's system, year two plugging the holes. Unfortunately there were a lot more holes than they probably thought existed.

I give them an A- this offseason. The minus is for not giving up a 6th round pick for Cowart to play MLB or backup the position.

that sounds just right!

[carlos3652]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj

To be honest, the guys they signed last year were old Gunther players. The general opinion last year was that weeding out Robinson's players ,his coaching influence and having Gunther work with his old crew would be sufficient to elevate the D.

Obviously it didn't work, but it was clear that there was a two year plan to fix the D - year one was keeping existing players to see who could still play or pick up Gunther's system, year two plugging the holes. Unfortunately there were a lot more holes than they probably thought existed.

I give them an A- this offseason. The minus is for not giving up a 6th round pick for Cowart to play MLB or backup the position.

And if you graded on a curve for the chiefs in the last 10 years you would have to say that this offseason was a A+, this is the first time in a long time that I felt that the FO did a good job with the DRAFT, FA combined.

[Luzap]

Originally Posted by RedBull

When you said smokescreen, i thought you we're referring to this part of the article:

"The thought is to play the whole scanario out, "Vermeil said, "and the scenario does include the final evaluation of Ty Law in terms of what is actually going to happen from a financial standpoint.

"First off, can he pass the physical? And then we have to find out how much money he's going to be offered on the open market. If he's going to be offered big money, then we're automatically out of it."

Everyone keeps saying they don't trust what DV says, yet right here he's telling us the situation, ie: we'll probably sign the best CB avail that fits our budget.

Carl, Dick, nor Denny know the health or cap repercussions for anyone yet. As more time goes by the picture will become clearer.

Luz
sounds pretty straight forward to me...

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by Luzap

Everyone keeps saying they don't trust what DV says, yet right here he's telling us the situation, ie: we'll probably sign the best CB avail that fits our budget.

Carl, Dick, nor Denny know the health or cap repercussions for anyone yet. As more time goes by the picture will become clearer.

Luz
sounds pretty straight forward to me...

vermiel is a HUGE spin doctor .... we have no idea whether he's being straight forward or not.

[RedThat]

Originally Posted by Laz

vermiel is a HUGE spin doctor .... we have no idea whether he's being straight forward or not.

That's true. I remember him bluffing about Green, and prior to the Surtain trade I remember him exactly, by saying "it's out the window".

Vermeil bullsh*ts sometimes.

[shaneo69]

Originally Posted by Laz

vermiel is a HUGE spin doctor .... we have no idea whether he's being straight forward or not.

Either that or he just doesn't know what the hell CP is doing behind his back.

[ct]

Originally Posted by philfree

Oh the irony! Warfield gets suspended for his third drinking and driving offense so we sign a guy who's intitials are AA.


PhilFree

Now how did nobody else catch that? Well done phil!

[BigChiefFan]

Originally Posted by shaneo69

Back when free agency started, most people here said we needed two starting-caliber CB's because of Warfield's impending suspension. Most wanted a combination of Law, Surtain, Rolle, Andre Dyson, Ken Lucas, Carlos Rogers, Pac Man, Antrel Rolle, etc. We only got 1 starter from that group.

Most also agreed we needed two starting-caliber LB's. We got Bell, missed out on Hartwell, but recovered by getting DJ.

So IMO, CP got 3 out of 4 needs filled. I'll give him a 75% grade for this offseason. JMO. Had he not spent money last year on Woods, Bartee, and Hicks, maybe we could've had enough money to sign Dyson or Dwight Smith as a safety net for Warfield's suspension.

I would agree most would have loved to have that type of combo at corner, however with as many holes as we had to fill, it would have been unwise to tie up the majority of our money on TWO players. Corner is one of the most expensive positions, so I never once thought we would land two high caliber corners in FA. I don't know why you would.

Also it was evident that Rolle and Rogers would be long gone before we picked in this year's draft, so we pulled the trigger on a PREMIER CB, upgrading the position in the process. Those two are irrelevant to the equation in my mind.

Look at the price tags at the FAs you named and then tell me how we could pull off a dynamic duo at corner this offseason. Surtain and Rolle would have tied up ALL of our money.

[shaneo69]

Originally Posted by BigChiefFan

Corner is one of the most expensive positions, so I never once thought we would land two high caliber corners in FA. I don't know why you would.

I didn't. But once we got Surtain, we could've still had Dyson. Yeah, no one wanted him as a FT starter, but he was cheap, young, and has starting experience, and he would've made a good nickel guy once Warfield returns.

Originally Posted by BigChiefFan

Look at the price tags at the FAs you named and then tell me how we could pull off a dynamic duo at corner this offseason. Surtain and Rolle would have tied up ALL of our money.

Yes, I realize that it would've been impossible to sign both Surtain and Rolle. That's why I mentioned Dyson. Or, like I mentioned in an earlier post, we could've drafted more CB's instead of guys like Long, Kilian, Svitek, or Crap. The more guys you take at one position, the better the chance that at least one steps up and becomes the interim starter.

[TRR]

Originally Posted by shaneo69

Back when free agency started, most people here said we needed two starting-caliber CB's because of Warfield's impending suspension. Most wanted a combination of Law, Surtain, Rolle, Andre Dyson, Ken Lucas, Carlos Rogers, Pac Man, Antrel Rolle, etc. We only got 1 starter from that group.

Most also agreed we needed two starting-caliber LB's. We got Bell, missed out on Hartwell, but recovered by getting DJ.

So IMO, CP got 3 out of 4 needs filled. I'll give him a 75% grade for this offseason. JMO. Had he not spent money last year on Woods, Bartee, and Hicks, maybe we could've had enough money to sign Dyson or Dwight Smith as a safety net for Warfield's suspension.

Sorry, but you can't rebuild an entire defense through FA. You fill what holes you can, but your draft picks have to step up, and guys on your roster like Dexter McCleon and Benny Sapp have to step up their game as well.

Hindsight is always 20/20. It's easy for you to nitpick about who Peterson signed that didn't pan out. Every teams fans can do that. But I'll tell you this much, I remember you on here chearing when Jerome Woods was re-signed.

[shaneo69]

Originally Posted by TRR

Sorry, but you can't rebuild an entire defense through FA. You fill what holes you can, but your draft picks have to step up, and guys on your roster like Dexter McCleon and Benny Sapp have to step up their game as well.

We could've still signed Dyson after trading for Surtain, or we could've spent more draft picks on the CB position, instead of taking Long, Kilian, Svitek, and Crap.

And I don't think anyone should realistically expect McCleon to step up at this point in his career.

Originally Posted by TRR

Hindsight is always 20/20. It's easy for you to nitpick about who Peterson signed that didn't pan out. Every teams fans can do that. But I'll tell you this much, I remember you on here chearing when Jerome Woods was re-signed.

Don't know who you're confusing me with, but I can guarantee that you didn't see me cheering when Woods was re-signed.

[TRR]

Originally Posted by shaneo69

We could've still signed Dyson after trading for Surtain, or we could've spent more draft picks on the CB position, instead of taking Long, Kilian, Svitek, and Crap.

And I don't think anyone should realistically expect McCleon to step up at this point in his career.



Don't know who you're confusing me with, but I can guarantee that you didn't see me cheering when Woods was re-signed.

You have to expect some players on your squad to step up their play. The season before last, McCleon was our most consistent CB, and had 6 INT's. I expect him to step up this season. BTW, the next best CB on the board (listed by many draft experts) after Alphonso Hodge was Justin Perkins. Do you know where he ended up? KC as an undrafted FA. This draft was not thick with quality CB's.

You can say what you want about the Jerome Woods comment. By am 1000% sure I heard you either say you were thrilled he re-signed, or were bitching because he hadn't re-signed (Prior to him re-signing).