FanHouse Clancy Pendergast

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Conclusion of the Butt Chiefs. That lousy 2-14 Chiefs squad from 2008 has nowhere to go but up from here, so they will no longer be the butt of everyone's joke. Remember that explosive offense for the NFC Champion, Arizona Cardinals. Well, former offensive coordinator Todd Haley assumes his first head coaching job this season in Kansas City. In other words, the Chiefs offense just became very relevant for fantasy football owners. Sure, Haley still faces a massive challenge in terms of personnel, but you can rest assured that this season, the Chiefs' offense will make plays just like Haley's Cardinals did.

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In the three drafts prior to Scott Pioli's arrival in Kansas City a few months ago, the Chiefs selected in the first round defensive end Tamba Hali, wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, and defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey.

For varying reasons, all three players could be elsewhere a year from now. Pioli, who came to Kansas City from New England, hired Todd Haley to replace Herm Edwards, and Clancy Pendergast to rebuild a defense that lost its way in recent seasons under Gunther Cunningham. This includes a switch to the 3-4 defense, a scheme Pendergast had some success with during the Cardinals' 2008 late-season surge.

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

Compared to last April, the 2009 Chiefs draft was unremarkable. A year ago, the team landed five players who contributed immediately, and a handful of others will get opportunities this season.

But unlike 2008, Kansas City finally has a franchise quarterback. New general manager Scott Pioli sent a second-round pick to New England for Matt Cassel (and linebacker Mike Vrabel). Cassel, who went nine years between starts, led the Patriots to an 11-5 record last season and parlayed that into a handsome payday (eventually) and a starting gig.

Just a week after giving former defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast his walking papers, the Cardinals have replaced him with a former underling. Bill Davis, who has served as the team's linebackers coach for the past two seasons, will now take the reins as the defending NFC Champs' defensive coordinator.

Davis is not a rookie coordinator, as he held this job with the 49ers in 2005-2006. His defenses were ranked 32nd and 26th, respectively, during those years. In fairness, though, it's not like they were loaded with all-world personnel.

Franchise tags and salary-cap concerns play a very important role in real-world wheelings and dealings, but what if the biggest-named free agents were matched with the teams that gave them the best chance to make a Super Bowl run? What would that list look like? Glad you asked.

Yes, this is a strictly fictional account, one that requires you to suspend reality for the next few minutes. But, hey, it's the NFL offseason, which means that there won't be any meaningful football for another seven months. What else do you have to do?

On Thursday, the Cardinals lost offensive coordinator Todd Haley to the Chiefs. Today, they're also without a defensive coordinator, but not because Clancy Pendergast got a new gig. Instead, the two sides have decided to part ways. Which, I imagine, is a lot like a mutual break-up in that it never actually happens that way.

In any event, the move seemed inevitable after Arizona traveled to Foxboro and proceeded to lay down as the Patriots racked up 47 points back in Week 16. But the Cardinals then won four in a row, including three playoff games, and were 150 seconds away from the franchise's first championship thanks, in part, to a solid second-half defensive effort. (Up 'til that last Steelers drive, anyway.)