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WITH OR WITHOUT VRABEL?
February 11th – 1:28 PM

With the kickoff to free agency the next big event for Chiefs fans, discussions this week have centered around the Chiefs free agency strategy for 2010. Who’s in? Who’s out? Who’s retained? Who’s chased? Who gets passed? The debate is already waging in our comments section and on the Chiefs 365 message boards.

We’ve looked at the players slated to become unrestricted free agents currently on the Chiefs roster and we’ve discussed the need for locker room leadership in Kansas City. LB Mike Vrabel fits into both of those categories.

Are the Chiefs planning on making a run at re-signing Vrabel? Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli didn’t talk specifically about re-signing the respected veteran yesterday, but he certainly made clear his thoughts about Vrabel as a football player.

“There are different kinds of leaders in this world and Mike, I believe and feel, is one of the most important kind of leaders you can have on a football team,” Pioli said during yesterday’s fan forum.

Wow, that’s a pretty ringing endorsement.

With or without Vrabel for 2010, Pioli and head coach Todd Haley are trying to bring more members into the organization that share those type of characteristics, all while developing the youngsters at the same time. Another example of this, according to Pioli, is the hiring of new defensive line coach Anthony Pleasant.

Pioli remembers Pleasant, as a player (1990-2003), possessing many of the same leadership qualities as Vrabel.

“Several years ago with the N.Y. Jets we brought Anthony Pleasant in after the 1997 season and Anthony came in and he worked as hard as anyone I had ever been around,” Pioli remembered. “He worked hard and prepared in practice and he always worked hard post-practice. I started watching Anthony as a player with the Jets and I remember we brought him to the New England Patriots.

“He would take players, for instance, we had Anthony and we drafted Richard Seymour who was going to take Anthony’s job,” Pioli continued. “But what did Anthony do? Anthony would spend post-practice with him and drag Richard over to the dummies and sleds and work hand drills. A couple years later we drafted Ty Warren who was also brought in to take his job and Anthony always gave me that smile of his and he knew that we were drafting players and bringing players in to take his job.“

Timeout: Whether or not Andy Studebaker will ever develop into a starter or not is fair debate, but this story sounds little bit like Vrabel tutoring the young player while Vrabel nursed an injury. We all remember the results - Studebaker’s two-INT breakout game vs. Pittsburgh.

“He didn’t care and that kind of leader I have always termed as a selfless leader, someone who would do everything possible,” Pioli finished up when talking about Pleasant. “He had enough self confidence that he was going to do the best job he could and the best man was going to win that position and the best man was going to start.“

From Pioli’s comments in comparing Vrabel and Pleasant, it’s obvious that he wants people like this soaked into the inner-workings of the organization. With that said, it’s back to the original question, will Vrabel find himself a new deal in Kansas City?

“Leaders like Anthony are pretty special,” Pioli said. “Mike Vrabel is that kind of leader and watching him this year with Andy Studebaker, hopefully Andy is the future at that position. Until that happens and until Andy is ready, he is going to need some help and a guy like Mike Vrabel, we have all seen it. If you work in this game a long time, there are people who try to cut the legs out from under people and they are competing against them instead of it being a natural competition. I don’t mean to digress but it is an important type of leader that you need on a football team.“

We also may have just gotten our answer about what the Chiefs think of Studebaker. His development certainly will affect how the Chiefs approach free agency in 2010 as well.

IVY LEAGUE CHIEFS
February 11th – 10:37 AM

Four members of the 2009 Kansas City Chiefs are heading back to school next week as part of the NFL’s Business Management and Entrepreneurship Program. Each of them will take advantage of Ivy League educational opportunities.

The program is part of an ongoing NFL-NFLPA initiative to assist players in preparing for their post-playing careers.  502 players have participated in the program since its inception in 2005. This year, 77 NFL players are involved.

LB Corey Mays, TE Brad Cottam and RB Kolby Smith are hitting the Harvard circuit February 15-19.

WR Bobby Wade will head over to the widely-respected Wharton School of Business at Penn, February 16-19.

Players complete an application process in order to attend the NFL Business Management and Entrepreneurial Program. Enrollment criteria includes level of education; professional business experience; interest in starting, owning, or managing a business; and leadership and community involvement.

Keep those jerseys handy, you never know when you might need a job from one of these guys down the road.

FREE AGENCY: FINDING LEADERS?
February 11th – 9:55 AM

Part of the Chiefs initial free agency plan upon landing at Arrowhead in 2009 was to find veteran leaders via free agency. A lack of established, veteran leadership was obvious at arrival. A few moves in free agency a year ago, like the trade for LB Mike Vrabel and the signing of S Mike Brown, were obvious attempts to add a history of winning and veteran stability to a very young and inexperienced Chiefs roster.

“We harped on preparation and what you’re trying to do with players is prepare them, teach them how to prepare,” general manger Scott Pioli explained during yesterday’s fan forum. “This team, when we got here, didn’t seem like a group of people that really knew how to prepare and they embraced it.“

A year later, both Brown and Vrabel find themselves as unrestricted free agents and the basic ground-work in attitude that they helped establish may very well move along without them as part of its future. After one year of guidance, are the Tamba Hali’s, Brandon Flowers’ and Glenn Dorsey’s of the Chiefs roster ready to make this team their own, or will the Chiefs have to address this aspect once again in free agency?

Let’s hope we see a case of the former and not the latter.

The Chiefs, without a doubt, need their younger players to take what they’ve learned from respected veterans like Brown and Vrabel, and run with it. Leadership can be found via free agency, but it takes a unique player to pull it off. It’s hard to come into a new place and immediately fill the role needed to take self-governance to the next level. It’s hard for a player to come off the street with a “rah, rah” attitude and make it fly with the players who have been part of the organization for a handful of seasons.

“One of the things that we saw a lot of as time went on was an increased amount of time that players were spending in the facility at night, in the mornings, between meetings, after meetings,” Pioli said. “We’re a very young football team and they needed some leadership and some of the players that we brought in here, they had a strong work ethic, they just didn’t know what the right work habits were – they spent more time in the training room, taking care of their injuries, taking care of their bodies, trying to get themselves prepared for games. Those are little things that eventually become big things.“

There are a few natural, established leaders currently under contract in Kansas City’s. G Brian Water, for example, has been a mark of excellence both on and off the field for young players to follow throughout his tenure in Kansas City. A player like S Jon McGraw has an instrumental influence on performing whatever role is asked at a high level and he’s also a benchmark for consistent special teams play.

At the end of the day, however, established leaders on Kansas City’s roster seem to be few and far between at the moment. The good news is that there is a positive flip-side to that. There are a number of players currently in the process of developing themselves as great on-field (and off-field) leaders, and they’re ridiculously close to taking the next step.

The Chiefs need those in-house players to take the next step this offseason.

INITIAL APPROACH
February 11th – 6:43 AM

General manager Scott Pioli has spoken publicly on multiple occasions over the past month about free agency in 2010. In short, it’s uncharted territory. Not only does dealing with an uncapped year offer a new set of circumstances for the Chiefs to deal with, it also creates an enigma for the 31 other teams as well.

In addition to movements inside various front offices around the league, a new sense of mystery will join each franchise beginning in early March. Just when you think that you know somebody, you don’t anymore (kind of sounds like a relationship issue when it’s put that way).

Expect the unexpected.

NFL teams, even with tenured leadership in place, are just as likely to act like in an entirely different different manner when it comes to implementing their franchise’s free agent strategy for 2010. The Chiefs, for one, are still in the process of fine-tuning their free agency strategy in the weeks ahead, although a general outline has been established at its core.

One aspect of free agency that will remain unchanged for the Chiefs is the evaluation process. Kansas City will evaluate each and every available player just as they always have in order to determine if the athlete has a chance to land at Arrowhead as a mutual fit.

Chiefs head coach Todd Haley talked about the free agent evaluation process yesterday afternoon on kcchiefs.com in The Red Zone with Soren Petro.

“I think that you still go through the process and evaluate all the guys that are out there,” Haley said. “You make sure that you are right on the evaluation portion of it and from there you have to make sure that you make appropriate decisions.“

With that said, everything goes back to the draft. Maybe even more so this year with so many would-be unrestricted free agents turning into restricted free agents due to the ramifications of the CBA (212 players to be exact).

A successful draft must occur for Kansas City to turn the corner.

“In my mind the importance of the draft never changes,” Haley said. “it’s something that is very critical that we are right on. it’s a big part of this and it’s a big part of having a successful team year-in and year-out. The urgency and the importance of the draft is always at the top as far as I’m concerned.“

Right now, the Chiefs are limited as to what they can (and will) say about the club’s strategy for free agency and the draft. The good news is that we’ll get to see that strategy revealed, first hand, sooner rather than later.

DIGGING DEEPEST- 2007 FREE AGENCY
February 10th – 4:27 PM

See the below post, we’re doing the same thing in this one except taking it one-year further. Here is how Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli approached free agency as New England’s Vice President of Player Personnel in 2007.

2007 Patriots Unrestricted Free Agents
LB Tully Banta-Cain (signed by San Francisco, 3/6/07)
TE Daniel Graham (signed by Denver, 3/7/07)
FB Heath Evans (re-signed with New England, 3/2/07)
LB Larry Izzo (re-signed with New England, 3/6/07)

This year, coming off a 12-4 regular season with a four-point loss to Indianapolis in the AFC Championship game, New England re-signed 50% of their unrestricted free agents - with both of the deals coming in the first week of free agency.

in 2007, New England was also very active in unrestricted free agency. The Patriots signed six unrestricted free agents with a number of them paying a critical role in New England’s perfect regular season. Take a look…

TE Kyle Brady (UFA from Jacksonville, 3/3/07)
CB Tory James (UFA from Cincinnati, 4/19/07)
RB Sammy Morris (UFA from Miami, 3/3/07)
WR Dante Stallworth (UFA from Philadelphia, 3/13/07)
LB Adalius Thomas (UFA from Baltimore, 3/4/07)
WR Kelley Washington (UFA from Cincinnati, 3/13/07)

An interesting note on the above names is that Stallworth has already become a free agent for 2010 and Thomas is expected to be released by New England before the free agency period begins. Will either one of those former New England relationships revert back to Kansas City?

Washington will also be an unrestricted free agent in 2010, although he was available in 2009 as well. Eventually he signed with Baltimore in May of last year.

These lists give us insight as to how Pioli has approached free agency each of the last three NFL seasons, spanning over two separate franchises. No year is the same, but it gives us some good insight. The wildcard for 2010 is obviously how the Chiefs approach free agency going into an uncapped year.

Note: These lists look exclusively at unrestricted free agents

DIGGING DEEPER- 2008 FREE AGENCY

February 10th – 3:06 PM

When it comes to player free agency and the NFL structure in 2010, the two have arrived and collided at a crossroads. No year in recent football history will be quite like the uncapped 2010 season. What does it all mean? How will the Chiefs approach free agency?

Those are questions that will only answer themselves. What we can do, however, is take a look at the precedents set by Scott Pioli at his previous stop as a personnel man. Here is how his last season of free agency looked in New England.

2008 Patriots Unrestricted Free Agents

CB Randall Gay (signed by New Orleans, 3/2/08)
CB Asante Samuel (signed by Philadelphia, 2/29/08)
WR Dante Stallworth (signed by Cleveland, 3/6/08)
DB Eugene Wilson (signed by Tampa Bay, 3/14/08)
LB Tedy Bruschi (re-signed with New England, 2/29/08)
WR Jabar Gaffney (re-signed with New England, 3/5/08)
WR Randy Moss (re-signed with New England, 3/3/08)
LS Lonie Paxton (re-signed with New England, 2/29/08)
WR Kelley Washington (re-signed with New England, 2/29/08)

This is a great mix of unrestricted free agents to observe. Coming off a 16-0 regular season in 2007, the Patriots unrestricted free agents were in high demand. The longest a player lasted on the open market was Wilson, who only shopped around for 15 days. It is interesting, however, that outside of Moss the Patriots let their other most heavily sought after free agents walk.

In case you were wondering, in addition to the above re-signees, the following were players picked up by New England in unrestricted free agency that year:

WR Sam Aiken (UFA from Buffalo, 3/3/08)
CB Fernando Bryant (UFA from Detroit, 3/20/08)
LB Victor Hobson (UFA from N.Y. Jets, 4/7/08)
RB LaMont Jordan (UFA from Oakland, 7/26/08)
G Oliver Ross (UFA from Arizona, 6/2/08)
CB Jason Webster (UFA from Buffalo, 3/4/08)
S Tank Williams (UFA from Minnesota, 3/6/08)

Pioli and the Patriots signed/re-signed eight of their 12 unrestricted free agents within the first week of NFL free agency. Couple that with the fact that Pioli acquired five new players within the first week of free agency a year ago, while piecing together an unsettled front office, and it looks like Kansas City will be plenty active in the early stages of free agency in 2010 - even if it doesn’t involve “marquee names.“

UP NEXT: 2007 NEW ENGLAND FREE AGENCY

FREE AGENT DECISIONS: THEN AND NOW
February 10th – 10:24 AM

A year ago, general manager Scott Pioli was preparing for his first go-around in free agency with the Chiefs. At that time, Pioli had to make a decision regarding nine Kansas City free agents.

To take you back in time, this was the lay of the land last February:

2009 Chiefs Unrestricted Free Agents
DE Jason Babin (signed by Philadelphia, 8/4/09)
LB Rocky Boiman (signed by Tennessee, 8/11/09)
S Oliver Celestin (went unsigned)
G Adrian Jones (signed by Houston, 6/18/09)
S Jon McGraw (re-signed with Kansas City, 3/6/09)
LB Pat Thomas (signed by Buffalo, 3/20/09)

2009 Chiefs Restricted Free Agents
*All players offered tender on 2/26/09
C Rudy Niswanger (signed tender, 4/24/09)
S Jarrad Page (signed tender, 5/29/09)
WR Jeff Webb (singed tender, 4/20/09)

So there is your precedent Chiefs fans. Each of the Chiefs restricted free agents a year ago returned to the team for training camp. On the other hand, only 16.7% of the club’s UFAs re-signed in Kansas City. In fact, half of the field remained unsigned when NFL training camps opened last July.

Here is what we’re dealing with in 2010. Who stays and who goes? These are the debates currently taking place behind closed doors at Arrowhead as we approach free agency.

2010 Chiefs Unrestricted Free Agents
S Mike Brown
WR Chris Chambers
WR Terrence Copper
TE Sean Ryan
OL Wade Smith
LB Mike Vrabel
WR Bobby Wade

2010 Chiefs Restricted Free Agents
*Assuming a new CBA deal is not reached
OL Andy Alleman
QB Brodie Croyle
QB Matt Gutierrez
LB Derrick Johnson
LB Corey Mays
OL Ikechuku Ndukwe
OL Rudy Niswanger
OL Ryan O’Callaghan
S Jarrad Page
RB Kolby Smith

The personnel decisions, when compared with those that had to be made a year ago, don’t seem to be as cut and dry.

FEBRUARY LULL?
February 10th – 6:26 AM

On the surface, the month of February appears to be a yawner, post-Super Bowl at least.

Fair enough.

Unlike one year ago today, when Todd Haley had been on the job all of five days, there won’t be the February action and rumor mill carousel of putting together a coaching staff. We’ve already been treated to our fair share in that department for 2010 (don’t get me wrong, the process was both fun and exciting…plus I think it turned out pretty well).

Outside the naming of a new leader for the strength and conditioning aspect of the coaching staff, the Chiefs on-field staff is set for 2010. The roster, however, is anything but complete.

NFL free agency doesn’t kick off until March 5th (actually 11:01 PM on March 4th in Kansas City), but that doesn’t mean that the Chiefs don’t have a full load of personnel meetings prior to launch. We’re also likely to see a few additions and subtractions mixed in as well.

Monday was the absolute first day that NFL teams could part ways with players currently under contract and Kansas City wasted no time in doing so. The Chiefs were one of just two teams to cut players the day following the Super Bowl, releasing LBs Weston Dacus and Justin Rogers. The only other NFL casualty that day came out of Cleveland in WR Dante Stallworth’s release.

Other teams will likely follow suit in the coming days with a number of players expected to become free agents. Players like Miami LB Joey Porter, Jacksonville WR Torry Holt and New England LB Adalius Thomas are all part of the rumor mill. History tells us that the Chiefs probably aren’t done either.

Just because the air seems quiet at the moment doesn’t mean that’s the reality. The Chiefs didn’t make a single roster move from January 12th – February 24th last year, but that’s likely due to the fact of Scott Pioli and Todd Haley not having a full coaching staff in place. Bound by the lack of a permanent coaching staff certainly isn’t the case this year.

Does the Chiefs activity on the first day of cuts opening give us any insight as to what will happen between today and the rest of February’s dead zone? The answer could be a resounding “NO” just as it could be a “YES.”

The floodgates typically don’t open in February, but teams are still able to add new faces to their squad prior to free agency. The Chiefs could potentially make a few significant moves between now and the start of free agency.

Former Chiefs OL Herb Taylor is a perfect example of a “February bridge,” getting scooped up by the N.Y. Giants off waivers yesterday when Denver sent Taylor his release papers. Interestingly, Taylor may have set a record for time spent on the waiver wire as he was released the day before the Chiefs/Broncos 2009 regular season finale and remained on the wire throughout the NFL Playoffs.

To give you an idea of the Chiefs activity during this time of year, here is a list of the club’s transactions between the Super Bowl and the opening of free agency from the past two years. Keep in mind that Pioli wasn’t guiding the ship in 2008 and that2009 may not give proper insight due to the coaching staff situation.

So there you have it, the Chiefs can (and will) sign their fair share of prospects, release vested veterans and tender restricted free agents. There could also by a waiver claim or two if the fit is right.

This time of year doesn’t have to be a snoozer. While the coaching staff and scouts are putting together hours of grunt work in personnel evaluations, we could still see a few new Chiefs come about. Plus, the NFL combine is only just over two weeks away.

Here is a list of the NFL’s most important dates in the coming weeks.

Feb 11: Beginning of period in which teams can designate franchise and transition players

Feb 15: Deadline for designating ONE additional transition players (CBA Art. LVI, Section 4)

Feb 24: NFL Scouting Combine, Indianapolis, IN

Feb 25: Deadline for designating franchise and transition players

Mar 2: Conclusion of NFL Scouting Combine, Indianapolis, IN

Mar 5: New League Year starts, this includes:
- Deadline for submission of qualifying offers by clubs to their restricted free agents whose contracts have expired and to whom they desire to retain a right of first refusal/compensation

- Deadline for clubs to submit offer of minimum salary to retain exclusive negotiating rights to their players with fewer than three seasons of free agency credit whose contracts have expired

- Beginning of free-agent signing period (12:01 AM ET)

- Beginning of trade period (12:01 AM ET)

Mar 6: 40th Annual NFL 101 Awards Gala, Westin Crown Center, Kansas City, MO
(ticket information to the 101 Awards available at the top of this blog)