Always Looking For Talent … Weekend Cup O’Chiefs

Finding football players good enough to participate in the National Football League is a dirty, rotten, stinkin’, 24/7, 365 days a year journey.

It never stops. Ever.

Holidays, vacations and birthdays do not darken the lights of the NFL personnel office when it comes to finding players. The NFL’s annual March meetings will begin on Sunday in Orlando, and here’s betting that GM Scott Pioli and head coach Todd Haley will spend more time talking about potential Chiefs, than they will about other league business, or even Mickey Mouse and his friends over at Disney World.

The football calendar is broken up into segments when it comes to finding players. From the college football season, to all-star games, to the NFL Combine, to Pro Days, private workouts, the NFL Draft, signing undrafted players as free agents, mini-camps, off-season programs, OTAs, spring practices on college campuses, the CFL, the indoor game, training camps, pre-season games and then it’s fall and the cycle starts all over again.

When the family is made up of 32 brothers, none want to be left out. So they spend millions of dollars every year. The good teams look under every rock, check every tip and assume nothing in the journey. Some 90 percent of the information is nobody’s secret, shared alike by the whole family.

But it’s that 10 percent of the information that can make a difference, and allow a team to inject talent into their roster. Here’s an example where 10 years ago the Chiefs never stopping the personnel process and that produced a talented player. Read More..

Off-Season Moves/NFC Review … A Cup O’Chiefs

As the NFL closes in on two full weeks of the 2010 off-season, one thing has become clear.

Quarterbacks are in high demand and even bad ones and untested ones are getting big money. That was the case last year, when 15 NFL starts was enough for Matt Cassel to get the biggest contract in Chiefs franchise history.

Deals like that one continue and they were the highlight of Day No. 13 of the new business year in the league. The Chiefs were quiet, as they did not announce any moves after being so busy the last few days with the deals for Thomas Jones, Jerheme Urban, Shaun Smith, Casey Wiegmann and Ryan Lilja.

But, back to quarterbacks and their money, for instance Charlie Whitehurst (above). He spent the past four seasons as the No. 3 quarterback with the San Diego Chargers. He played in two regular season or post-season games, putting up a pair of running plays for 13 yards and a touchdown. Whitehurst has yet to throw a pass that counted in the NFL.

And, yet he signed a new contract on Wednesday with the Seattle Seahawks. As a restricted free agent, Whitehurst worked out a deal with the Seahawks, and the club turned around and worked out a trade with the Chargers. Seattle and San Diego swapped spots in the second round of next month’s draft (a move of 20 spots) and the Seahawks also give up a third-round choice in the 2011 NFL Draft.

Whitehurst inked a two-year contract, worth $5 million per year. That’s right, $5 million for a quarterback who hasn’t thrown a single pass in a regular-season game. Read More..

Berry Injures Toe

Everyone knows new Chiefs defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel is a tough guy when it comes to defense.

Just ask safety Eric Berry, considered one of the best defensive players available in next month’s draft.

They held a Pro Day workout for Berry in Knoxville on Wednesday and Crennel was there and in fact, was running the defensive back drills for Berry. All it took was two reps and Berry was done for the day with a sprained left big toe.

Seriously, Crennel had nothing to do with the injury. Berry said he felt like he stepped in a hole on the University of Tennessee practice field. He was backpedaling and when he planted to run forward, he stopped and held up his foot. After a conversation with Crennel, Berry was done for the day and went to the training room on a jog.

It was 30 minutes of ice on the toe and then he walked away from the football complex with a limp. Both Berry and his agent said it was a minor injury and would not be a major problem in the future.

“They said it wasn’t major,” Berry said, referring to UT’s training staff in a conversation with the Knoxville News-Sentinel. “Just a little disappointed I didn’t finish the drill.” He added that had this happened in a game, he would have continued to play.

Off-Season Moves/AFC Review … A Cup O’Chiefs

The signing of G Ryan Lilja to a three-year contract on Tuesday kept alive what has been a busy 10-day period for the Chiefs in free agency.

In fact, they have been the busiest teams in the league when it comes to adding talent to the roster. They’ve kept six of their own players and signed five UFAs. They’ve kept or added OLB Mike Vrabel, WR Terrance Copper, RB Jackie Battle, WR Chris Chambers, QB Matt Gutierrez, RB Kolby Smith, RB Thomas Jones, WR Jerheme Urban, NT Shaun Smith, C Casey Wiegmann and Lilja (above with Peyton Manning.)

No other general manager in the league has turned in more contracts to the league office in the last two weeks than Scott Pioli. Denver has made nine moves for second spot in the AFC. Over in the NFC, Detroit and Washington also have made nine moves.

For our accounting purposes we are adding up the unrestricted free agents signed or re-signed, the restricted free agents who have signed their tender offer and any players acquired through trades.

When it comes to signing new players, only Pittsburgh can match the Chiefs total of five. That alone is quite a surprise since the Steelers have never been known as a major player in free agency. Like the Chiefs, Pittsburgh has signed a lot of UFAs, but they haven’t been the big name types with big dollars attached to their move. Read More..

Chiefs Get Lilja Back

On Tuesday the Chiefs corrected a mistake made nearly six years ago when they signed G Ryan Lilja.

It’s a three-year contract, but no financial details from the club.

The six-year veteran from the Indianapolis Colts returns to the Chiefs, the team where he began his NFL career. He was released in early September in 2004 when the Chiefs were cutting their roster to the regular-season limit of 53 players. Dick Vermeil and his staff hoped to get Lilja passed through waivers and sign him to the practice squad.

But the Colts claimed him on waivers and by the next season, he was a full-time starter at left guard. Lilja played in 66 games, started 59, as well as eight games in the playoffs including a pair of Super Bowl starts. Those eight starts in the post-season are more than the rest of the current offensive linemen on the Chiefs roster combined.

The 6-2, 290-pound Lilja prepped at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, then went on to Coffeyville J.C. and K-State. He signed with the Chiefs in 2004 as an undrafted college free agent.

Lilja missed the 2009 season because of a knee injury. He also missed time during the ‘06 season because of a knee problem. He will celebrate his 29th birthday in October.

A Second Look At The Moves … Tuesday Cup O’Chiefs

The smoke has cleared in the free agency period around the NFL. The roster activity will not stop completely when it comes to hiring and firing of players in the league, but the pace has slowed considerably.

Just check out the activity from Monday at the bottom of this post. There were four UFA signings announced where a player changed teams. The movement of LB Paris Lenon, CB Marcus Hudson, WR Ruvell Martin and ILB Larry Foote didn’t create much of splash.

But that’s where the available players sit right now. There are a few players every day coming available; for instance, QB Chris Simms and S Deon Grant because available after they were released by the Broncos and Seahawks.

We’ll take a look at the best signings around the league on Wednesday. Here on Tuesday, we’ll take a look at the Chiefs roster moves since the start of the new league year, plus the day before it all began when they re-signed LB Mike Vrabel (above). Here’s my view on what the Chiefs have gotten done, in order or importance to the team in 2010:

1. Signed free agent RB Thomas Jones – Much has been written about the acquisition of Jones last week and there’s no sense going back over plowed ground. Suffice to say that just about everyone in the league thinks the Chiefs really helped themselves and their offense. As long as that over 30 running back wall doesn’t drop on Jones all at once, the signing of Jones fills a big hole on the roster and depth chart. Read More..

L.T. Or T.J.? … Monday Cup O’Chiefs

The merry-go-round of NFL personnel moves made an interesting circle on Sunday.

That’s when the New York Jets signed former San Diego RB LaDainian Tomlinson (right) to a two-year contract, reportedly worth $5.1 million.

This is the same Jets team that released its leading rusher from last season in Thomas Jones because he wouldn’t take a pay cut. Jones signed with the Chiefs last week; it’s a two-year deal, worth $5 million. It has been reported that Jones gave the Jets a chance to match that offer. Instead they decided to sign Tomlinson to a deal that is essentially $100,000 more than what Jones got from the Chiefs – two years, $5.1 million.

Releasing Jones and filling that spot by signing L.T. is a move that has the NFL collectively scratching its head. The Chiefs signing of Jones has gotten the stamp of approval from everyone in the league, because of what he can potentially bring to the Kansas City offense and the relatively low price the Chiefs are paying him. Some pundits have ranked it among the league’s top five moves of the off-season. Not so with New York’s double move at running back. Read More..

Jets Say Good Bye to T.J.

The Jets were busy on Sunday. They signed LaDainian Tomlinson to replace Thomas Jones.

But they wanted to thank Jones for three strong seasons, so they bought a full page ad in the Kansas City Star. If you want to you can check it out in Sunday’s paper on page A-11.

Or, if you’ve grown out of handling the daily fish wrap, just click on read more and you can see the ad.

Given how unusual placing this ad is, one wonders why the Jets didn’t keep Jones, especially in a season where there’s no salary cap.

Take a look: Read More..