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FANS TRIBUTE CHARLES
January 7th – 3:28 PM

Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles got hosed when he didn’t win AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. How a player can come just 37 yards shy of the greatest single-game rushing performance…ever…yet still not get POW honors is beyond me.

Regardless, fans around the country came through and supported Charles in a big way, voting him the FedEx Ground NFL Player of the Week.

Vikings QB Brett Favre won FedEx Air NFL Player of the Week honors alongside Charles. Favre threw four touchdowns completing 25 of 31 passes for 316 yards in the Vikings’ 44-7 win over the New York Giants.

Charles rushed for 259 yards and two touchdowns over 25 carries in the Chiefs’ 44-24 win over the Denver Broncos.

Favre and Charles were selected from among six finalists in Air and Ground categories. The other FedEx Air & Ground NFL Players of the Week finalists were quarterbacks Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears and Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and running backs Fred Jackson of the Buffalo Bills and Willis McGahee of the Baltimore Ravens.
 

MORE WITH “THE CORE”
January 7th – 3:07 PM

News flash…the Chiefs have the fifth overall pick in the 2010 draft. Oh, already knew that? Who’s your pick?

I just typed “2010 NFL Mock Draft” into Google. The top five results have the Chiefs taking Bruce Campbell (Tackle, Maryland), Russell Okung (Tackle, Oklahoma State), Okung, Okung and Okung.

See any patterns there?

In the early mocks, most assume that the Chiefs are in the market for either Okung or some other draft-eligible tackle. They could be right. They could be wrong.

A lot of thought will go into the Chiefs first-round pick this year. Part of that thought will be just how the Chiefs plan to use their starting left tackle, Branden Albert, in 2010. Is Albert better suited to move inside to his collegiate position of guard, shift over to right tackle to make way for a new face or stay on the left edge? Each of these moves can spark hours of debate among faithful Chiefs followers.

One thing we do know is that Albert is part of the Chiefs core of players for 2010.

”Branden is another core guy in some fashion for us,” head coach Todd Haley said. “He’s a guy that developed as the year went on and made great progress with his overall conditioning and that needs to continue.“

Exactly where Albert fits is more of the question. Even Albert himself would tell you that his rookie campaign, at least statistically, was better than his sophomore. He yielded more sacks than a year ago despite more experience. At the same time, he also carries an athleticism to him that is rarely seen from offensive lineman.

The former basketball standout can flat-out move despite his 300+ pound frame. A perfect example of what Albert can do is displayed in this play from last Sunday. You’ll see the play live first and then you’ll see each of Albert’s key blocks highlighted in slow-motion (there are three of them). RB Jamaal Charles does a lot of work here, but Albert is the man who ultimately springs him loose.

Branden Albert holds just as much impact in who the Chiefs draft as the players up for selection. If the Chiefs were to draft a tackle, it doesn’t mean that the franchise is down on Albert, but it likely means that they are willing to explore scenarios on the offensive front that could see Albert line up at a different position.

“Now, if on his own he does more to improve then that’s great,” Haley said.

“If we can get him to pick up where he left off he’s going to continue to develop. He’s a young player who is developing all the time and has the right attitude and mindset. I expect him to do nothing but get better.”

Albert is young, talented and ascending. His future likely has many more years before it finally matures in time with Kansas City.

As the season went on, Albert improved along with the rest of the Chiefs offensive front. Anytime a team sees its sack total divided in two (from 30 to 15) over the last half of the season, the man protecting the quarterback’s blindside has a lot to do with it.

”One of the things I was most encouraged about over this last stretch of games was the sack total,” Haley said. “It showed that the offensive line had improved, that the quarterback has improved, the backs had improved, and the overall understanding of what we’re trying to get done when we throw the football has improved. That speaks volumes of all the guys but whenever you’re talking about the guys protecting the edge it definitely speaks volumes about them.”

He’s just another member of the Chiefs core that has a vital 2010 offseason ahead of him. Albert’s future goes hand-in-hand with the Chiefs future on a number of fronts.

DEFENSIVE/ST TOP 10
January 7th – 12:35 PM

Spoiler Alert!

Since we’ve been discussing the defensive core for 2010 this morning, it’s only fitting that we post the defensive/special teams highlight reel this afternoon (update - highlights will be available some time Friday morning). This will be the first of a handful of Top 10 lists recapping the 2009 season on a number of fronts.

I won’t give the exact plays away, but here is the order by tag-line just to wet the whistle a bit. Take your best guess.

#10 - “Rookie Buries The Champs“
#9 - “Icing On The Cake“
#8 - “Mr. Automatic“
#7 - “Big Ben Falls Hard“
#6 - “DJ Goes Airborne“
#5 - “The Studebaker Speedster“
#4 - “All Hail Hali“
#3 - “Fully Extended“
#2 - “Pick 6? Try Pick 12“
#1 - “Makes It Look Easy“

We’ll make sure to link the highlights in the blog, but you won’t miss it on the home scroll.

THE CORE
January 7th – 6:35 AM

There is a giant elephant in the room as we begin this morning (well, technically a metaphor isn’t required there as elephants are indeed giant). Regardless, we all know what is on the minds of Chiefs fans as we churn out just the first week of the 2010 offseason.

Amid the snow and speculation in Kansas City, we can debate all day about unknowns. The who, what, when, why and where will all work itself out in due time.

One thing that is cemented in fact, but widely overlooked, were some very honest and telling comments involving the 2010 Chiefs roster. Yesterday, Todd Haley seemed to carry a certain optimism with him which we haven’t seen in quite a while at his end of season press conference. Haley seemed pleased.

He seems to have indentified the core for 2010.

We’ve heard Haley talk about finding a nucleus of players in 2009. Who can the Chiefs rely on to make the strides necessary in order to take a step towards winning in 2010.

Who is as mentally strong as they are physically?

Who is tough?

Who is willing to give more than maximum effort more than 100% of the time?

What can the Chiefs rely on as the franchise embarks on a new five decades of football?

For the first time, Haley named names.

Sure, there are obvious players that the Chiefs will be building around for 2010. Front and center in leading the charge forward is RB Jamaal Charles. Late or not, who cares how long it took Charles to be discovered? Would the Chiefs have won six of their first eight games with Charles as the feature back to reach 10 wins and make the playoffs? Probably not.

What’s important is that heading into an extremely important and pivotal offseason, the Chiefs administration and coaching staff knows exactly what they have with Charles. Scratch one unknown position off the list and work on building around arguably the biggest play-maker this franchise has seen since RB Priest Holmes burst onto the scene in 2001 to win the NFL rushing title in his first season as a Chief.

“I’ll name some of the obvious ones,” Haley yielded. “Jamaal Charles, when you see the development that he’s made over the course of the year. I think he’s someone it’s hard not to get excited about and understand he’s going to be one of our core guys.”

Past Charles, there are other players who quietly had excellent seasons that were buried in the disappointment that was a four-win season.

Take LB Tamba Hali for example, what a remarkable story he had in 2009. This guy wasn’t supposed to make it. Many predicted that a shift from a hand-in-the-dirt defensive end to and stand-up outside backer required to pass drop and play in space would be Hali’s ticket out of Kansas City.

“I think a guy like Tamba Hali, who was put in a different position to transition, but who after being around him for a year is going to be a core guy for us in some capacity,” Haley said.

Hali was asked to switch positions at the game’s highest level and he responded with a career-high amount of sacks. Sure, he probably needed to fare better against the run at times and needed to be more disciplined in pass coverage, but that’s what an offseason can take care of; the little things. Overall, Hali’s first season as a linebacker was as success.

Then there’s DE Glenn Dorsey, another man who switched positions this offseason. Dorsey is an easy target to pick on being a top-five draft pick with just two sacks over the course of two NFL seasons. Looking at sack totals is shallow when looking at Dorsey. The man played virtually every snap for the Chiefs defense when healthy, and when he wasn’t healthy, the Chiefs got run over.

“Glenn Dorsey is another guy that has made tremendous strides,” Haley said. “I think that was evidenced by the fact that when he was missing for most of that Buffalo game and the Cleveland game that coincidentally they were games that we struggled versus the run.

“Glenn is a guy who made great progress after coming in to the off-season not looking like we wanted him to look,” Haley continued. “All these guys I’m talking about have critical off-seasons coming up and Glenn is one of those.”

Remember when you were dumped in high school and you said the cheesy line of “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone?” Admit it, I know you do (I mean I have no idea what it feels like…it’s just something I heard).

That’s kind of what it was like with Dorsey out of the lineup this season. He’s part of the core, but his strides this offseason are critical to Kansas City’s defensive success next year. The Chiefs need Glenn Dorsey to be Glenn Dorsey.

Then there’s CB Brandon Flowers, possibly the most underrated cornerback in the NFL. This is the Chiefs first true lockdown corner since Dale Carter and James Hasty roamed the islands in the late 1990s. Kansas City has sorted through names like Cris Dishman, Pat Dennis, Ray Crockett and William Bartee since our dearly departed duo left Kansas City what is now two decades ago.

Finally, the Chiefs have found and are grooming their very own lockdown cornerback. He’s young, he’s a stud and he’s here to stay.

“Brandon Flowers was a guy who showed a tremendous amount of fortitude in that he was playing when a lot of guys wouldn’t have played and yet he played at a pretty high level,” Haley said. “This is a very critical off-season for him. When you get into that year three that’s really the one where guys either continue to climb and become great players or, if they stay the same, generally start to decline.”

That just about covers the defense and Haley named plenty more players yesterday that we’ll take a look at later today.

The key to remember as the Chiefs embark on the 2010 offseason is that there are pieces in place. Those pieces will be supplemented by new faces in the short and long term. But it’s not the new players coming into Kansas City that are key. The key to turning this ship around is that the existing core of players take their game to a higher level between now and Kickoff Weekend 2010.

Haley has identified a core of ascending players. For the Chiefs to be successful, those ascenders have to learn how to soar.

Jamaal Charles voted FedEx Ground NFL Player of the Week
Quarterback Brett Favre of the Minnesota Vikings and running back Jamaal Charles of the Kansas City Chiefs are the FedEx Air & Ground NFL Players of the Week for games played on January 3, the NFL announced Wednesday.

HALEY EYE’S COACHING STAFF
January 6th – 1:49 PM

Todd Haley confirmed a few things today involving coaching carousel rumors and the Kansas City Chiefs. Obviously the Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis rumors are topics of interest involving the Chiefs.

Here is what we learned/confirmed today…

1) Todd Haley will be the one responsible for making coaching changes.

“Ultimately, the staff is my decision,” Haley said.

2) Defensive line coach Tim Krumrie and asst. offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris will not coach with the Chiefs next season.

Yesterday, reports surfaced that both coaches were “fired.” Technically, this isn’t the case as both coaches were on expiring contracts signed during Herm Edwards’ tenure. Haley chose not to extend the expiring contract of either coach.

3) Haley believes that bringing someone in to run the offense would be most efficient.

“I would like for somebody to come in here to run the offense,” Haley said. “It would allow me to achieve my idea of what the most efficient way to run the team is - which is as the head coach.

“But what is most important to me in making these decisions is fit,” Haley continued.

4) Haley has talked to Charlie Weis, and Weis would be a good fit for Chiefs current offensive system.

About talking to Weis…

“Charlie is a friend of mine,” Haley said. “We shared three years together in a room not even able to have two full-sized desks in there. Charlie is a guy that I have a great amount of respect for as a coach. He is a coach that system-wise we are as close as you can be.

“Charlie is a guy who I’ve talked to throughout the year, no different than I talk to Coach Parcells or some of the other guys that I lean on for thoughts or advice,” Haley continued. “I cannot say that I haven’t talked to Charlie, because I do talk to Charlie.“

About Weis’ fit with Kansas City…

“In speaking of Charlie, Charlie would allow us to run the offense we’ve been running if he were in this mix,” Haley said. “We’re in that process right now throughout the whole staff.“

5) Haley is unsure of what changes, if any, will be made on the defensive side of the football.

“I don’t know that right now,” Haley said. “The offense has been a little easier (to evaluate) just because I was the offensive coordinator. I’ve been able to put in a little more thought into that one.

“Again, that evaluation has just really started and there are a lot of factors involved,” Haley continued.

6) Haley has not talked with Romeo Crennel about becoming Chiefs defensive coordinator.

“No (he hasn’t spoken with Crennel),” Haley said. “I’ll speak for myself, but I know that I’m speaking for Scott also.

“Romeo is a very good friend of mine that I spent three years with,” Haley continued. “He’s a guy that I’ve always really looked up to and he’s a guy that I’ll talk to periodically throughout the year looking for advice or thoughts just because I think a lot of Romeo as a coach. But no conversations in that order (about becoming defensive coordinator).“

7) Haley has set no time-line in setting new staff members in place.

“There’s no time-line,” Haley said. “I’m going to go about it methodically, like we do everything else, with great research and just make sure that I’m right. Again, I really went in to this believing that this would be a two-year  - and sometimes it’s longer than that - to get your staff exactly the way you want it.

“I went into this with an open mind and understanding that,” Haley continued. “My coaches did that as well.

DJ TAKES HOME AFC HONORS
January 6th – 9:55 AM

We might as well refer to Chiefs LB Derrick Johnson as the “Bronco Buster.” After playing a season-high amount of defensive snaps, and turning in two defensive touchdowns on Sunday, DJ was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week this morning.

Johnson’s first pick-six off Denver QB Kyle Orton extended Kansas City’s lead from three to 10 points in the third quarter (27-17). His second interception touchdown put the dagger in the Donkey’s to make the score 37-24 in the fourth quarter. Those two pick-sixes tied an NFL single-game record.

Over the past two seasons, Johnson has had a knack for turning in big games against the Broncos. In Kansas City’s two latest victories over Denver, Johnson has turned in a combined 11 tackles, three INTs (two for TDs), a forced fumbled that led to a TD and half a sack. He won AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors on both occasions (a 44-24 win at Denver on 1/3/10 and a 33-19 win vs. Denver on 9/28/08).

Johnson is the second Chiefs defender to take home AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors this season. S Mike Brown accomplished the feat in Kansas City’s 16-10 win at Oakland (11/15/09) after a two-interception performance.

DJ’S DEAL
January 6th – 6:09 AM

Chiefs LB Derrick Johnson became just the third linebacker in the history of the game to return two interceptions for touchdowns last Sunday. The other two backers to accomplish the feat were the Cardinals’ Bill Blackburn vs. Boston (10/24/48) and the 49ers’ Ken Norton vs. St. Louis (11/22/95). Johnson also represented just the 25th player, regardless of position, to post a daily double of six-point INT returns on the same afternoon.

Johnson’s 2010 debut was a perfect way to begin a new calendar year and bring what was a personally frustrating 2009 season to a close. The game was, by far, Johnson’s best of his five-year NFL career to date.

“Two interceptions for touchdowns were big to help our team win,” Johnson said. “Those are games that linebackers dream about, so I’ve got a chance to do that against a division opponent and I just seized the moment every time I get to chance to get out there.”

Now that the high from Johnson’s career day and the first-ever thrashing of the Broncos at INVESCO has settled, the focus surrounding DJ has quickly shifted for fans to a question of, “What’s next?”

There are a number of uncontrollable scenarios surrounding Johnson, which Johnson can’t predict. As a result, the Chiefs first-round pick in the 2005 draft doesn’t really know what his future holds at the moment.

“It’s too early to see what’s going to go on contract-wise,” Johnson said. “I’m planning to be back here, so I don’t know all that. We still have different stuff that’s going to go on during the offseason, but I’ll plan on being back.

“I love being a Chief,” Johnson continued. “Do I want to play more? Do I want to start? Yeah.”

Forget about exactly where Johnson’s playing time fits in with the future plans of Kansas City’s leadership (Johnson did say he was planning to meet about that though). Typically, how a player fits into plans both schematically and financially are two of the major factors for review when a player approaches the end of a contract.

If this were the NFL a year ago, Johnson would become an unrestricted free agent, able to test the waters of the open market. Instead, this is the NFL with a collective bargaining agreement between players and ownership in limbo with an uncapped year on the horizon.

So what does exactly an “uncapped year” mean?

Really, Johnson’s situation is the perfect example for explanation. The Associated Press recently released a list of 212 players who would have entered the 2010 offseason as unrestricted free agents, but are set to become restricted free agents instead if 2010 becomes an uncapped year (which many believe carries an extremely high likelihood).

The reasoning is that the NFL plays by different rules going into an uncapped year. Normally a player would need a minimum of four years in the league to gain unrestricted free agency status, but in an uncapped year that tenure-minimum increases to six years. Derrick Johnson signed a five-year rookie deal in 2005. In other words, DJ and 211 other players are the meat in the capped/uncapped sandwich.

“I don’t really know anything about contract stuff, so I can’t really comment on stuff like that,” Johnson said.

That’s the right response for the player and the Chiefs will likely give a similar answer as things move forward over the next few weeks until the NFL calendar ends and an uncapped year does or does not become official. In the mean time, players like Johnson sit and wait for things to play out.

“Well, it certainly changes things if (the CBA) goes through or doesn’t go through,” Johnson said. “At the same time, I still belong to the Chiefs so you can’t flirt with any other scenarios. I belong to the Chiefs and I’ll plan on playing for the Chiefs.”

There are a load of prominent names that sit in an identical situation as Johnson. Fellow AFC West defensive players like San Diego’s Shawne Merriman and Denver’s Elvis Dumervil are players affected by an uncapped year, along with key division rivals like Kyle Orton and Brandon Marshall of the Broncos.

Other notable Pro Bowl players who will shift from unrestricted free agents to restricted free agents in an uncapped year are Cowboys WR Miles Austin, Houston LB DeMeco Ryans, Packers S Nick Collins, Patriots G Logan Mankins, Saints G Jahri Evans and Eagles FB Leonard Weaver.

As you can see, many of the “hot” unrestricted free agents could be off the board this offseason if the NFL players and owners are unable to reach a new labor deal. Restricted free agency, no doubt, benefits the team currently owning the rights to an affected player.

As with all years of restricted free agency, an uncapped year is no different in that regards. The team owning the restricted free agent is granted an opportunity to offer the player a one-year contract at various levels of pay which determine the level of draft-choice compensation that the team would receive for losing the player. Just like a capped year, the team also has the right to match any offer another club makes to a restricted free agent.

Overall, an uncapped year means exactly that – no salary cap. There would be no salary floor or ceiling for the first time since 1993. On the flip side, the free agent pool will likely be slimmer than any year since 1994.

Also, to complicate things even more, each team will receive an extra “transition player tag” similar to a “franchise tag” in which the average of the top 10 salaries at the position is taken from the previous year (or 120% of the players’ previous salary, whichever is greater). That helps slice the free agent pool even further.

At the end of the day, a lot of things are cloudy involving Derrick Johnson in Kansas City and a lot of the factors involving in his future are factors outside the control of either the player or the club, at the moment. In the coming weeks we’ll just have to sit back and assess what is to come for NFL free agency in 2010.

Johnson isn’t the only Chiefs player who fits the scenario that would flip their offseason status from unrestricted free agent to restricted free agent should a CBA deal not be reached.

Other affected Chiefs include…
• QB Brodie Croyle
• LB Corey Mays
• C Rudy Niswanger
• T Ryan O’Callaghan
• S Jarrad Page

Be sure to tune into head coach Todd Haley’s end of the season press conference streamed LIVE on kcchiefs.com today at Noon (CST).