FanHouse MikeVrabel

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet The ...
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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After an injury-filled, $8 million season in Washington, Jason Taylor was back on the free-agent market this spring. Several teams needing a pass rusher showed interest, including the Patriots, who had previously traded veteran linebacker Mike Vrabel to the Chiefs.

Taylor ended up in Miami, where he started his career and played for 10 seasons. It was one of the few examples of a player turning down a chance to join the Pats; head coach and evil genius Bill Belichick has an incredible knack for convincing free agents -- through Charles Manson-styled brainwashing, no doubt -- to come to Foxboro. Not this time.

After a paid holiday in DC last year, Jason Taylor is back in Miami, where he spent the first 10 years of his career. But at 34, his role has changed. Taylor is no longer the focus of the defense, the pass-rushing specialist who averaged nearly 12 sacks a season during his time with the Dolphins.

Instead, he'll be used sparingly, in an effort to keep him fresh, healthy, and productive. Via the Miami Herald's Armando Salguero:

I'm one of the 10 people in the world that has yet to make a purchase on eBay, mainly because I have no use for a potato chip that looks like Jesus (that's what people sell on eBay, right?). However, if I had an extra $50,000 burning a hole in pocket, I probably would have jumped at the chance to own a piece of NFL history, as a member of the Super Bowl XXXVI champion New England Patriots recently auctioned his ring on eBay. It received no bids.

According to USA Today's NFL blog, The Huddle, the ring belonged to a player who was on all three Super Bowl-winning Patriots teams.

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.

With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.

In 2008, the New England Patriots became the first team in over 20 years to win 11 regular season games and fail to qualify for the postseason. Considering they lost their franchise player -- Tom Brady -- just about five minutes into the season, forcing them to turn to a quarterback who hadn't started a game in eight years -- Matt Cassel -- an 11-5 campaign isn't all that disappointing.

With Brady back under center in 2009, the Patriots look to be a strong bet to return to the playoffs, especially if they address the one or two holes that remain on the roster.

When the Patriots sent Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel to Kansas City for the Chiefs' 34th-overall pick in March, sports-bloggin' Spooky Mulders took notice. The thinking: if Cassel, recently franchised by New England and coming off an unexpectedly impressive 11-win season in place of injured Tom Brady, was as good as everybody claimed, certainly he was worth more than a second-round pick, even a high one.

Then, last week, the Bears traded two first-rounders, a third-rounder and Kyle Orton for Jay Cutler, prompting the conspiracy theorists to convene an emergency meeting.

Missing the playoffs for the first time in five years seems to have sparked a burning desire in the New England front office to bring in every available player this offseason. After already signing Fred Taylor, Joey Galloway, Shawn Springs, Greg Lewis and Leigh Bodden, NFL.com's Vic Carucci passes along the information that the Patriots may be ready to take a run at Carolina Panthers franchise player Julius Peppers.

That sound you're hearing is the opposing AFC East quarterbacks gently sobbing into their pillows.

When Jay Cutler and the Broncos go their separate ways -- and by the looks of things, it's happening, the only question is when -- Bill Belichick will be to blame. I don't say that because it's just easier to point the finger at the man who embodies all that is evil (at least for all those who hate the Patriots), but because apparently, he's been instrumental in driving a wedge between Cutler and the Broncos organization*, even if unwittingly (yeah, right).

On Sunday, the Denver Post's Mike Klis wrote that, contrary to previous reports, "the deal that would have sent Cutler elsewhere and New England quarterback Matt Cassel to Denver didn't collapse because Broncos coach [and former Patriots offensive coordinator] Josh McDaniels entered the discussions late."

Torry Holt and Orlando Pace have combined for 13 Pro Bowls, all with the Rams. Now, the two late-'90s former first-round picks are facing the stark reality of what it means to get old in the NFL. The "it's a business" mantra means that, at some point, every player will have to make a choice: retire or risk getting cut.