FanHouse KrisWilson

According to their official website, the Eagles have parted ways with former first round draft pick Jerome McDougle. After a great career at Miami, McDougle was selected 15th overall by the Eagles in 2003 and in his disappointing career with the Birds he notched just three sacks.

Jerome never had the hype surrounding him like the infamous Mike Mamula but three career sacks from the 15th overall selection isn't exactly Andy Reid's shinning moment. To be fair to Jerome, he battled through being shot in 2005 during an attempted robbery and made tremendous strides this preseason.

Look for McDougle to show up on another team's roster in the next few days.

Other notable cuts included RB Ryan Moats and TE Kris Wilson. The surprise name who has impressed this preseason to find himself a roster spot is LB Joe Mays. His special teams play will be vital to the Eagles attempt to remake their special teams programs.

In the coming weeks, I plan to start talking about what the Chiefs will likely do this offseason to help themselves at each position. This first blog will reference the easiest positions for the Chiefs to resolve.

Punter:
No mystery here. Dustin Colquitt stays.

Tight End / Fullback:
The Chiefs already took care of business by signing Tony Gonzalez to a long-term deal. They will also return a healthy Ronnie Cruz to the roster, but there's no guarantee that he'll start. Ronnie Cruz turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. He was only an adequate blocker and very average on all other dimensions.

So what now? What the Chiefs do at the fullback position will ultimately determine what they will do at tight end. As of now, Kris Wilson is serving as the starting fullback. He is not a true blocker, but he proved to be a solid receiving option when he was switched into the role of H-back. The question is, are the Chiefs willing to continually sacrifice terrific blocking for a threat like Kris Wilson to serve as an H-back? I think they will. I think Wilson will only get better as a blocker, and he should figure better into a simplified gameplan. Then again, it would not surprised me if the Chiefs used a late round pick on a fullback prospect.

The Chiefs might also want to start looking for a run blocking tight end specialist. Jason Dunn is getting older and more beat up every year.

Call me Nostradamus, Swami, Fortune-Tell-Extraordinaire.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, if Green was not perfect, he would probably hear an earful from Chiefs' fans. Here's one particular response to a prior blog that I'd like to respond to:

All the chiefs problems lead directly back to Trent Green. I agree that defensive calls are also bad, but im tired of hearing how great Green is when all his stats have come from throwing to his te and backs. His interception and fumble took the air out of the chiefs and kept them from adding to their lead. You could see the momentum shift after that. I say we should have stuck with Huard and we would still be in the play-off hunt. Just look at the qb rating. - Steven Talley

Actually, Steven's response is representative of a fairly significant crowd in Kansas City that feels that Green deserves a lot of blame for the Chiefs' despicable loss on Sunday to the Browns.

I don't agree. Without Trent Green, the Chiefs had no fighting chance of beating the Browns. Larry Johnson did well, but he wasn't as consistently dominant as he is in most games. The defense was putrid and gave up 28 points in regulation to a pee-wee league offense. There are so many people to blame for the loss that it's hard to imagine why a man who threw 4 TDs with a 75% completion percentage deserves much of that blame.

For every loss, it's hard to accentuate any positives. So, like any other pissed-off fan, I'm going to rip on the Chiefs for the negatives. There were a few glaring goats of the game. Let's start from the top-down:

• Gunther Cunningham: Phil alluded to this already. Gunther Cunningham must have taken a break over the past 10 days. It is absolutely beyond me that you don't attack a defense with minus a running game. Where were the blitzes? Where were the decoy coverages? You have a quarterback who hasn't seen a snap probably since he was partying on his college campus. The gameplan was lousy, unimaginative, predictable. Gunther Cunningham, you were the goat of the game: baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
• Kris Wilson: There is absolutely zero... ZERO excuse for allowing a ball thud off your hands on 2nd and 4. Wilson would've had a first down and then some. Instead, the Chiefs ended up punting in overtime and, well, we know how that turned out

It's time for another edition of Chief Shots. I took last week off because, well, there's only so much irrelevance to write about. Anyway, here's another look at the useless stuff, the petty stuff, and, of course, the ridiculous stuff.

• I hate the Raiders. I might hate the Raiders even more than Randy Moss hates the Raiders. I know it's hard to believe. So, Raider-haters, "Black Hole" haters UNITE! Honk and leave some love.
  
• I'm not full of hate. I also love watching the Raiders lose. I love Marcus Allen. I love watching the Chiefs beat the Raiders.
  
• Oakland vs. KC might be the most under-publicized rivalry in the game. The rivalry dates so far back, that Chief Joseph is rumored to have been the starting quarterback during their first matchup.
• I would not be surprised if you told me today that the part of Andre Featherstone on Necessary Roughness was actually written about Samie Parker.
• The Chiefs have a steep uphill climb. They keep losing their AFC games which, as anyone who understands the crooked playoff formula knows, means that if the Chiefs are in a tiebreak situation for the playoffs, the Chiefs will likely lose that spot.
• Kyle Turley has a gazillion tattoos on his arm. Perhaps he should get one that says "Don't move until the ball is snapped."
  

The Chiefs' offense comes into the game on quite a roll. Ever since mustering up next to nothing against Pittsburgh, the Chiefs have averaged 32 points a game. Through the efficiency of Damon Huard and the relentlessness of Larry Johnson, the offense looks like it is on the same kind of roll it was on around this point last season.

The Dolphins' defense came to life last week against the Chicago Bears. The defense forced turnovers, was in the backfield far more often than the Bears wanted to see, and created scoring opportunities for their offense.

When the Chiefs run the ball

It has never been a secret that Herm Edwards wants Larry Johnson to run the ball, and to run it a lot. Mike Solari struggled with that notion at first, unsure of when to give LJ the ball, but knowing that he needed to get it. In recent weeks, Solari has not struggled with that notion at all, and LJ has responded with 460 yards in his last 3 games. Credit the offensive line-- much like last year, the big guys started off slowly, but became a dominant unit by midseason. The loss of Brian Waters could affect Johnson's ability to run up the middle somewhat, but he has also become extremely adept at waiting for the blocks to develop. With veteran Chris Bober taking over for Waters, Johnson can have that same confidence in letting the blocks develop.

Miami's defense has actually exceeded expectations this year. They are not the elite unit they were several years ago, but they have played solid, if unspectacular, defense in six of their eight games. Part of it is that their defensive line has come together nicely. Keith Traylor and Dan Wilkinson take up a lot of room and clog up the middle, allowing the linebackers to roam a bit more freely. Although Miami gives up over 100 yards rushing per game, Larry Johnson will have to earn his yards this week.

I haven't been graded on anything for a while, so it makes me feel good to now grade others and let others feel my wrath. The Chiefs have finished half of their games so far. Here is how I would grade them midway through the season.

Quarterbacks:
The Chiefs have two quarterbacks right now that can carry this team. Damon Huard has been razor-sharp, posting a 105.2 QB rating and a stunning 11/1 TD/INT ratio. The only thing holding back their grade is the fact that the passing game is secondary to the running game in Kansas City.
Grade: A-

HalfBacks:
Larry Johnson is not only playing outstanding, he is a top candidate for the NFL MVP. LJ got off to a fairly slow start, for KC running back standards, but he has carried this offense ever since. Michael Bennett was a big addition this year. The Chiefs often over-relied on LJ last season, asking LJ to do well more than he was capable of. The Chiefs were so deathly afraid of yanking him from games that LJ often had to take himself out of games to take a breather. That's no longer the case with Bennett in the rotation. LJ and Bennett are carrying this team. If I could give them a higher score, I would.
Grade: A+

Fullbacks:
Ronnie Cruz did his job fine, but it too often gave us flashbacks of how much the Chiefs missed Tony Richardson.

The offense has looked a lot different over the past two games. The difference between the Chiefs' game 7 offense and the Chiefs' game 1 offense has been like night and day; black and white; The Godfather and Gigli.

Much of that is due to the tremendous maturation of Damon Huard. Another large part of that is due to the offensive line making huge strides every game, especially Jordan Black at left tackle. Then, of course, there is the Chiefs' starting running back who has gone from playing like "Larry Johnson" early in the season to playing like "LJ!!!!"

Quietly, a new difference maker has emerged for the offense and he is completely revolutionizing the Chiefs' offense. That player is Kris Wilson.

This is my second edition of Chief Ponderings, where I get to stand on my soapbox and talk about the ridiculous:

• Kendrell Bell would probably make a lousy fisherman. He'll never catch a single fish because he doesn't know how to get to a tackle
• Was that Martin Grammatica playing quarterback late in the game for the Chiefs? I think Croyle might become the only quarterback in the league to fall to a wind-aided sack.
• The Chiefs lost yet another blocker this week in Ronnie Cruz. Mr. Whitlock still remains on the waiver wire.
• Tamba Hali has 27 tackles. Jared Allen isn't doing so bad himself with 25. Kendrell Bell has 45 tackles over 2 seasons. Pretty sad when your defensive ends combine for more tackles in one season than your highly paid linebacker has with a full season headstart.