Waiver Wire Manuvering

There were 32 players claimed on waivers this weekend after the NFL cut to the regular season limit of 53 players.

The Chiefs wound up with two of their claims: G Brian De La Puento who had been released by San Francisco.  He was a college free agent signed out of the University of California-Berkley.  The other was LB Erik Walden, who as a 6th-round draft choice this year of the Dallas Cowboys out of Middle Tennessee State.

To make room for De La Puento and Walden, the Chiefs released second-year cornerback Tyron Brackenridge and rookie LB Wes Dacus.  Expect Dacus to be back with the team today as part of their practice squad. …Read More!

New Rules in NFL for ‘08

There have been a number of playing-rules changes made by the NFL for the 2008 season. Here are the key ones:

-DEFENSIVE HELMET RADIOS: Teams will now be permitted to have one defensive player on the field with a radio in his helmet. This gives the defense the same ability to communicate its signals as the offense.

-INCIDENTAL FACEMASK: The foul for incidental grasp and release of the facemask has been eliminated. Twisting, turning or pulling the facemask will remain a 15-yard personal foul. …Read More!

College Preview 8/31

It’s Sunday afternoon college football this week, with Kentucky visiting Louisville. Kickoff is 2:30p on ESPN. Here are some prospects.

Kentucky

CB Trevard Lindley – 6-0, 178 pounds. JR-Redshirt. Lindley has 24 starts in the last two seasons on the corner for the Wildcats. Last year he had 66 total tackles and three INTs to go with the two swipes he grabbed in his freshman season. …Read More!

Sunday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

The number eventually landed on 18 veterans.  That was the number of players that Herm Edwards and the Chiefs chopped from their roster in various manners at the end of last season.  Many were veterans at the end of their careers.

With the league dropping rosters to 53 players, some of those names turned up in the roster cutting wash on Saturday.  Here are the 18 and what we know of their pro football job status right now: …Read More!

Quick Thoughts on First 53-Man Roster

Nobody can ever say Herm Edwards doesn’t back up what he says.

The Chiefs head coach said the roster needed to be younger.  He said that over a year ago.  He’s gone about making it happen.

The initial 53-man roster for the Chiefs has 31 players who are 25 years old or younger.  That’s 59 percent of the roster.  Twenty-two of those players are 23 years old or younger.  Ten of those players are 22 years old or younger. …Read More!

Final Cuts 8/30

Here’s the list.  Details to come:

OFFENSIVE LINE: C Rob Smith, G Travis Leffew, G Edwin Harrison, T Anthony Alabi, T Will Svitek and G Tre Stallings

FULLBACK: Chris Manderino

TIGHT END: Michael Allan and Michael Merritt (Non-Football Injury List)

WIDE RECEIVER: Kevin McMahan, Sergiori Joachim, Jabari Arthur and Bobby Sippio

DEFENSIVE LINE: DE Jason Parker, DE Johnny Dingle and DT Derek Lokey

LINEBACKERS: E.J. Kuale, Steve Octavien and LeRue Rumph

DEFENSIVE BACKS: CB Rashad Barksdale and S Khayyam Burns

SPECIAL TEAMS: PK Connor Barth

Mizzou-Illini Preview 8/30

It’s been a long time since Mizzou fans have been as excited about a college football as they are for the 2008 season. After the Tigers performance last year, they are among the Big 12 Conference favorites this season. The key for head coach Gary Pinkel has been his ability to increase the talent level of his team. That’s where the improvement has come and that’s visible when you look at their pro prospects.

These two teams face off Saturday night from the Edwards Jones Dome in St. Louis. Kickoff is just after 7:30 on ESPN.

Missouri

FS William Moore – 6-1, 226 pounds, SR-Redshirt. Moore is ranked among the 40 senior prospects for NFL teams to evaluate thanks largely to his physical gifts and his big play ability. He really jumped forward at the end of the ’07 season when Mizzou lost fellow safety Pig Brown and Moore became the playmaker. In the last six games, he had five interceptions and two forced fumbles. He led the team and Big 12 Conference with eight interceptions. He has 10 career picks, and he’s returned four for touchdowns. Could be a top 20 choice in April ’09 Draft. …Read More!

The Story of Stone Johnson

It was 45 years ago on this day that the brand new Kansas City Chiefs suffered the first tragedy of its very young existence.

While blocking on a first-quarter kickoff return in a Chiefs pre-season game against the Houston Oilers in Wichita, wide receiver Stone Johnson injured his neck. Unable to move anyof his limbs, Johnson was carried off the field on a stretcher.  Taken by ambulance to St. Francis Hospital in Wichita it was determined that he suffered a compression fracture of his fifth cervical vertebrae. He underwent surgery that night.  His condition seemed to stabilize.

Eight days after the surgery, Stone Johnson passed away, his parents at his bedside in Wichita. He was just 23 years old.

How Stone Johnson went from the 1960 Summer Olympics to becoming part of the Chiefs that summer long ago is a story that is part of the history of the American Football League. The new league was constantly searching for athletic talent and one place where the AFL dipped their bucket many times was among the black colleges of the South. In that era the NFL was integrated but there were unspoken quotas with most teams on how many black players could be on a team’s roster. Many players from small black colleges in the South never even received tryouts with the established league. …Read More!

NFL Review/Pre-Season #4

You have to be careful what you take out of the NFL pre-season.

Can we expect the Detroit Lions to win the Super Bowl? They did finish the exhibition season as the only unbeaten team in the NFL with a 4-0 record.

Can we expect New England and Cleveland to have a coin flip for the No. 1 draft choice in the 2009 Draft? They finished the pre-season as the only teams in the league that did not win a game.

It doesn’t take long for things to change in the NFL when the games are for real. The Chiefs will see that when they travel to Foxboro to face the Patriots next Sunday. Detroit might be able to keep their streak going, since they open on the road at Atlanta. Cleveland hosts Dallas to start their season.

When it came to scoring points in the pre-season, the champ was Seattle, as the Seahawks threw up 103 points. Carolina had 99 points.

When it came to stopping points, Detroit allowed just 32 points, Miami gave up 41 and opponents scored 45 points against Tampa Bay.

On to the regular season! Here are some of the pre-season week No. 4 highlights: …Read More!

College Preview 8/30

Here’s a look at some of the top players the NFL is keeping an eye on who are involved in Saturday’s national-TV action in the world of college football. Each week we will highlight several of the games. We’ll have a separate Mizzou-Illinois posting later this afternoon. We won’t do every team every week, because there are some teams that will keep popping up on national games like Ohio State and Southern Cal.

Today we look at highly ranked players from three games:

• Virginia Tech vs. East Carolina in Charlotte, NC, 11a ESPN.
  
• Utah at Michigan, 2:30p on ABC.
  
• Clemson vs. Alabama in Atlanta, 7p on ABC. …Read More!

Saturday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Lost amidst all the clatter from Thursday night’s Chiefs pre-season finale was this: rookie LT Branden Albert dressed for the game.  He did not play, and wasn’t expected to get into the action.

But Herm Edwards felt it was important to allow Albert to dress and go through warmups for the first time in his young career.

“We got him all pumped up,” Edwards said on Friday.  “Brian (Waters) came up to me in the locker room and said, ‘Coach, 76 is dressing?’  He looked at me oddly and I said, ‘Brian, the guy has never been through a warm-up yet. It would be awful to take him up to New England and it’s the first time he ever stepped up on the field and he’s never even warmed up. He needs to get his heart pumping like he’s going to play.’ …Read More!

Top 40 College Seniors-NFL View

The college football season kicks off everywhere this weekend and that means that NFL scouts will begin their long trek towards the Draft next April. That starts with tracking the best college players through this senior season.

Now, the NFL says it does not prepare for juniors who will decide to come out early, but you can bet the scouts will be starting dossiers on guys who have the potential to make the jump. Based on the last couple years, that figures to be as many as three dozen underclassmen.

We’ve taped our NFL sources and they produced this list of the top 40 seniors coming out this year. We’ve broken them down by conference and team. Any listing of one through 40 at this point is really a waste of time without the senior season production. …Read More!

A Final Roster Guess-Corrected

OK, here’s my guess on the roster as it will look at 3 p.m. on Saturday, when the Chiefs must turn in their moves to reach the NFL maximum of 53 players.

(UPDATE: Thanks goodness for you eagle-eye readers who noticed I did not have Jamaal Charles down.  Obviously a major screw up on my part.  That’s been corrected and I’ve adjusted accordingly to keep within the 53-man limit.  Must have been too much water on the brain last night at Arrowhead!)

QUARTERBACK (3): Brodie Croyle, Tyler Thigpen and Damon Huard.

HALFBACK (5): Larry Johnson, Kolby Smith, Jamaal Charles, Jackie Battle and Dantrell Savage.

FULLBACK (2): Mike Cox and Chris Manderino.

TIGHT END (3): Tony Gonzalez, Brad Cottam and J.P. Foschi. …Read More!

Leftover from St. Louis Game

From Arrowhead Stadium

Going into Thursday night’s pre-season finale, the returner job was Dantrell Savage’s to lose.

And then he lost the handle on the opening kickoff, fumbling the ball away and setting up the St. Louis offense at the Chiefs 22-yard line.

Suddenly, there’s doubt.  Savage came back and did a great job on his return opportunities, taking back two punts for 26 yards and two kickoffs for 46 yards, including a 40-yarder.

But when you are a rookie returner, you don’t want to put that doubt in the head coach’s mind, especially just hours before the final cutdown date.  …Read More!

If You Were There, Tell Me Why!

If you were one of the folks who was at Arrowhead Stadium last night, who sat out the rain delay, who stayed until the second half, I want to hear from you.

The Chiefs announced paid attendance of 65,686, far below their official capacity for a sellout.  Still, the game was on local TV, so everybody could have stayed at home and watched on the telly.

If you went, if you got wet … OK, if you got drenched, if you hung in there through the evening, tell me why?  I’m serious about this.  I want to hear why, but I also want others to hear from the die-hard fans.  It’s a chance to express your passion.

If you were there, you are a die-hard fan. Tell me why.