Conventional wisdom suggests that such turnarounds might take a couple seasons, but after what the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins were able to accomplish, expectations are almost certainly higher -- which means that Kansas City could be just a few personnel moves from returning to the playoffs. The issue, of course. is which personnel moves will give Kansas City the best chance to make a postseason run in '09.
Jared Allen plays the game of football in a pretty intense fashion. Therefore, I tend to think it's fairly unsurprising to find out that he's pretty outspoken. Of course, that doesn't mean I thought he would get on Sporting News Radio and unleash on Carl Peterson. But he did! (Translation props to SbB.)
Tim Montemayor: "What are your thoughts about Carl Peterson leaving the Chiefs organization?"
Jared Allen: "(laughing) Later!"
TM: "Come on, is there no love loss there?"
JA: "Absolutely not, you know what I'm saying? I believe in karma. Good things happen to good people. I'll leave it at that."
I can't tell you just how freaking awesome that "karma" chatter is (although Matt Schaub can probably say better than I ...) considering that Allen nearly lost his leg against the Lions shortly after taking what some would call cheap shots at Schaub, when Gosder Cherilus went after him on one of the biggest low blows I've seen in a while. But if Allen had his way, no one would have held him back after the play and there would have a rumble.
"I guess everybody's telling me I should thank Ray Edwards for holding me back. I wish nobody would have held me back and we could have settled this thing right then and there."
Now, I'm not judge of fighting ability, but if there's one guy in the NFL (other than Ray Lewis) I don't want to tussle with, it's Allen. Still, you'd have to imagine that Cherlius won't let this go -- we are talking about football players here. It's not like they're bloggers who can just let stuff like this go.
Fresh off an epic fourth quarter collapse against the San Diego Chargers on Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs are plodding along at a steady 2-12 pace, staring another top-five draft pick right in the face. The man making that draft pick, normally, would be general manager Carl Peterson, who has been running the ship out in Kansas City since the 1989 season.
After this season, that will no longer be the case.
Peterson announced today that he is stepping down from his position, effective once this season ends. Here's a statement from Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt, courtesy of Adam Teicher of the Kansas City Star:
"On behalf of my family and the entire Kansas City Chiefs organization, I want to thank Carl for his two decades of service to the Chiefs," Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said. "Both Carl and I agreed that immediately initiating the search for the next Chiefs general manager would be the best thing for the future of the organization, and he will be resigning following the 2008 season.''
The most surprising thing about Tuesday's trade deadline wasn't that Roy Williams wound up in Dallas. It was that Tony Gonzalez stayed in Kansas City. Why a going nowhere team thinks they need a veteran tight end coveted by other teams is beyond me. It's also above my pay grade to figure out why said tight end would pass up the chance to go to another team with a chance to make waves in the NFL this season.
It was a little of both that kept Gonzalez in K.C. The Chiefs and Packers had agreed to deal Gonzalez for a third-round pick when, according to the Wisconsin State Journal, Chiefs GM Carl Peterson called back at the last minute to say it had to be a second rounder or the deal was off. That call came 10 minutes before the deadline.
The Packers "sent the papers and everything, thinking it was going to happen," the source said.
Peterson did get two better offers for Gonzalez. The Bills and Falcons were the bidders but Gonzalez, who claimed he wanted out of K.C., turned down the chance to go to two teams where he would have been a major piece in a puzzle that could lead to the playoffs. Neither one may fit the bill of a traditional Super Bowl contender but they've both got better records than the Packers and, in the Falcons case, a clearer path to the playoffs.
There's a buzz growing around this year's trade deadline. After the busiest offseason of trade activity ever, there were still a lot of long-lingering rumors that have been growing on the vine through six weeks of the season. Now, with the trade deadline upon us, there seems to be a genuine feeling (or is it just hope?) that this deadline will be unlike the many dormant ones that have come before. Well, it's not going to happen. As far as movement is concerned, this deadline will be less Phil being taken out at a gas station and more Tony enjoying Journey over onion rings.
Regardless, here's a look at which players have the most trade-deadline buzz:
Tony Gonzalez: The new Jason Taylor (active Hall-of-Famer seeks new team with legitimate championship hopes) wants to be a veteran leader on a Lombardi team instead of a veteran leader teaching kids how to play pro football. The Chiefs claim that they're willing to oblige for the right price, but is the right price really the third-rounder they're reportedly asking for? I take it the answer is no, since the Giants, the team most heavily in pursuit of Gonzo, are offering a sixth-rounder. This seems like the perfect opportunity to employ conditional picks to protect both sides, but Carl Peterson has never been a GM really willing to play ball, and at this point I think the "willingness" to do what's right for Gonzalez is conjecture.
The Giants may have had a little misplaced faith in Kevin Boss this season. It's easy to do, sure, after you win a Super Bowl while Jeremy Shockey hangs out pantsless* in a luxury suite, just watching, and your team dominates one of the greatest offensive juggernauts of this era.
Of course, Tony Gonzalez may have had a little misplaced faith in the abilities of the Chiefs to actually be decent this year. So, really the match of Eli + Gonzo might be made in heaven. Or just in Jay Glazer's brain. Either way, it's picking up steam.
The Giants are the perfect fit as they'd provide Eli Manning with one of the most reliable targets in the league. Between Gonzalez and Plaxico Burress, their red-zone threat would be downright scary. The Giants should take the second- and fifth-round picks they got for Jeremy Shockey's trade and offer them to the Chiefs for Gonzalez. Shockey for Gonzo? Who doesn't do that?
The reason it's picking up steam is that reportedly, via the moving thing on the bottom of my television, Gonzalez asked for a trade. And if Carl Peterson has a heart (he seems like the Phil Collins listening type), then he would go through with getting Gonzalez to a contender.
And as Glazer points out, this is the type of trade that makes way too much sense from both teams perspective not to pull on. It's asking a lot for Peterson to be sensible, sure, but any sort of logical thought goes into this process, something similar will go down over the next week and a half.
The vast majority of football fans know a certain number of tenets. Defense wins championship. You have to run the ball. Never buy into the Cardinals. And, the preseason doesn't matter. There's nothing real about it, it's not a predictor of success, it's an exhibition that proves positively nothing.
That said, after last Sunday's debacle/car crash/unmitigated disaster for the Chiefs in Miami, the fanbase has flipped open the case on the panic button and are staring at it intently. No one's pushing, considering the abysmally low expectations for this season ,but their finger is so tight on it, you can feel the indentation of the letters. That tends to happen after you get blanked 24-0 by Chad Pennington, I repeat, Chad freaking Pennington while only creating 189 total yards of offense against a team that went 1-15 last year. There's going to be a little anxiety. And, as is always the case in Kansas City, the big target moves immediately to General Manager Carl Peterson.
The Kansas City Star today takes its annual "Is This The End Of King Carl" column to a whole new level, with a bevy of quotes indicating a rift between Carl and head coach Herm Edwards on how to best rebuild. The argument essentially comes down to Edwards supporting drafting and Peterson supporting free agency. With the passing of Lamar Hunt, the article suggests Peterson could be on his way out as new owner Clark Hunt moves in support of Edwards.
Here's what we know: the Chiefs have the fifth-overall pick in the NFL draft. After that, it's all speculation. And while who Kansas City will take on April 26 is still a mystery, one thing's for certain: top-five picks don't go as far as they used to.
President/general manager Carl Peterson ... expects fewer inquiries than the Chiefs received the past couple of years, when they made their first selection beyond the midpoint of the first round.
"Financially, it's a pretty big step what these top five, top 10 players are getting," said Peterson ... "Compound that with having to pay a high price in draft picks to move up and people are very reluctant to do that. That's why you don't see much trading up in the top 10 and probably won't see any trading up into the top five.
"We've got to be prepared to take the fifth pick."
It sounds very antiquated, but I take Peterson's point. It's not news that the draft's salary structure is top-heavy and in need of some tweaking, but this is also why the Dolphins are working under the assumption that they won't be able to trade out of the top pick.
The current set up makes it tougher for teams selecting in the top-five
In the meantime, the Chiefs have to concern themselves with getting the best player while weighing the economic considerations (along with all the other stuff). That means no "high-upside" guys because the financial risk is too great. That isn't necessarily an issue for Kansas City -- even if they select Matt Ryan -- but it's something that could be an issue for a team that takes, say, Darren McFadden.
It seems like just three years ago that Ty Law was Larking it around Jacksonville while the Patriots were winning their third Super Bowl in five seasons. The former Pro Bowl cornerback was released that off-season, played a year with the Jets, and spent the last two seasons with the Chiefs. And now it looks like his tenure in Kansas City is coming to an end too.
Arrowhead Pride does a good job putting Law's two-year stint with the Chiefs in perspective:
Looking back to when Ty Law was signed, I'm embarrassed about how excited I got. His time in KC wasn't a failure but surely didn't meet expectations. To be fair to Law, he was supposed to be a final piece of the puzzle of sorts but the team declined as quickly as he did. He only totaled six interceptions in his two years with the Chiefs. Six isn't too shabby but he did come off his last year in New York with ten INTs. The Chiefs thought they were getting the 10-INT Law but instead got a capable but aged veteran. Sound familiar?
The good news, though, is that the Chiefs will have even more available salary-cap space to begin the rebuilding process. Last month, general manager Carl Peterson admitted that he underestimated the effects of age on performance when evaluating the offensive line.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
Jared Allen
The most surprising thing about Tuesday's trade deadline wasn't that 
There's a buzz growing around this year's trade deadline. After the busiest offseason of trade activity ever, there were still a lot of long-lingering rumors that have been growing on the vine through six weeks of the season. Now, with the trade deadline upon us, there seems to be a genuine feeling (or is it just hope?) that this deadline will be unlike the many dormant ones that have come before. Well, it's not going to happen. As far as movement is concerned, this deadline will be less 
The Giants may have had a little misplaced faith in 
The vast majority of football fans know a certain number of tenets. Defense wins championship. You have to run the ball. Never buy into the Cardinals. And, the preseason doesn't matter. There's nothing real about it, it's not a predictor of success, it's an exhibition that proves positively nothing. 
