FanHouse Samie Parker

It would appear that Mike Holmgren taught Brett Favre everything he knows. Or, in the case of "how to retire", maybe it's the other way around. See, Holmgren announced his retirement following this season, primarily based on one of the league's top defenses, a [theoretically] revamped running game and Matt Hasselbeck finally winning a Super Bowl.

Or something enchanting like that. Whoops.

This season is business as usual. We made the decision, Kathy and I, to come back for one more year, and I'm at peace with that. Then, Jimmy (Mora) is going to be the head coach next year.

"I'm going to take some time off. And I made that promise to my family. And then I'm looking at it as a sabbatical leave. I'm going to take some time off and see how I feel. I don't know right now how I'm going to react to that. And make some decision after that.

"This season, it's business as usual and I coach like I coach and I act like I act, and I want to do well.

I generally find the Retirement Shuffle to be a tiresome, pointless parade, but in Holmgren's case, I kind of understand. We're just one week into the NFL season and he's already had his team essentially decimated.

So it's understandable that he looks at his career, in which he built two winning franchises, picked up a Super Bowl and became known as an offensive mastermind, and says: "I will NOT go out like ... like ... this." (/points at T.J. Duckett and Samie Parker)

When there's a big storm approaching, one of the staples of news coverage is going to the local supermarket to show people grabbing whatever supplies they can to ride out the weather. That's sort of what the Broncos are doing in the wake of Brandon Marshall's arm injury. They signed former Chief Samie Parker on Monday and, as reported earlier this week, are expected to finalize a deal with ex-49er Darrell Jackson today.

Marshall is expected to be healthy for the start of camp but, with Parker, Jackson, Keary Colbert and Brandon Stokley, now Denver's got some cover in case he isn't ready for the opening bell. Even if Marshall is ready, they still need another starter. The Broncos approach appears to be one that favors the quantity of choices over quality.

Stokley, pencilled in as the starter, would be a better fit in his familiar third receiver role. Jackson had some great seasons with the Seahawks but his one year in San Francisco was a disaster and there's been very little interest in him around the league. Colbert never built on a solid rookie year with Carolina and Parker is nothing more than a depth player.

When those storms end and the damage is less than the worst case scenario, people are left with a surplus of unwanted condensed milk in the pantry. The Broncos seem like they are in the same situation. It's good to be prepared but better to be well-stocked in advance.

The Denver Broncos' starting wide receivers last year were Brandon Marshall, who is recovering from an arm injury suffered when he fell into a TV, and Javon Walker, who is no longer with the team.

Right now the No. 1 healthy receiver in Denver is Brandon Stokley, which is not a good place for a team to be, and Denver's need at wide receiver may be good news for Darrell Jackson, one of the few veteran wide receivers available. The Denver Post reports (via PFT) that the Broncos are "deep in discussions" with Jackson, a 29-year-old who caught 46 passes for 497 yards in 2007, his one and only season in San Francisco. He had three 1,000-yard seasons in Seattle.

Denver is also reportedly close to signing former Kansas City Chiefs receiver Samie Parker. If they add both Parker and Jackson, it would be a strong indication that they don't think they can count on Marshall to catch another 100 passes this year, either because his injury is too severe or because he'll continue to get into trouble off the field.

This is Part II of a multi-part series examining the Chiefs' failures on Saturday against the Colts. We previously discussed the media's role in the Chiefs' loss.

Eddie Kennison, Samie Parker, and Jordan Black owe Trent Green a Rolex. It seems that the fans and media are so intent on blaming Green for Saturday's loss to the Colts that they are completely ignoring the three players that were easily the biggest goats of Saturday's football game. It was not about Trent Green. It was not about Damon Huard. Plain and simple: Trent Green was kept from doing his job because his teammates didn't do theirs.

I know everyone wants to blame the quarterback for the Chiefs' offensive failures on Saturday. The Chiefs didn't get a first down in an entire half of play. Of course, that's pathetic. Of course, the first person to blame for these problems is the quarterback. But you have to look past pure numbers and look at the facts behind the figures. What I saw was not poor play by the quarterback; rather, I witnessed what might have been the absolute worst performance by a wide receiver corps in NFL playoff history. On the rare occasion that the Chiefs chose to pass in the first half, Green threw the ball in the right spot and the receivers dropped it. I'm not talking about tough passes that were dropped; I'm talking about easy catches that, as Madden would probably say, doinked off his receivers.

What are you supposed to do when you run 8 first-half pass plays and half of them go for drops? Is it the quarterback's fault if half of his third down passes went into his receivers' hands or between their numbers, then were dropped? Is it the quarterback's fault if, on two 3rd down pass plays in the first half, the linemen completely failed on him (Jordan Black let Freeney come in untouched for one third down sack, and Brian Waters was so far back after another snap that Green tripped over his feet). Even his interception in the second half should be blamed on atrocious blocking by the offensive line that got their quarterback clobbered in mid-throw.

The Chiefs are playing miserable right now. They've lost two games in a row, including a very winnable game against Cleveland two weeks ago. Unfortunately, the brunt of that blame goes to the men in charge: Herm Edwards, Trent Green, and Carl Peterson. Though they certainly deserve a bit of the blame for the Chiefs' struggles, I think there are better targets:

1) Offensive line: The Chiefs' offensive line was solid against Cleveland. Then again, it was Kyle Turley's blown block that led to a game-changing fumble. Against Baltimore, the blocking was atrocious. That wasn't just limited to the right tackle. It also included blown blocks from all areas, including our pro bowl core of interior guards. I get the feeling that Trent Green is a quarterback that could excel with Peyton Manning's offensive line; I'm beginning to question whether he can get the job done with the Chiefs' offensive line. Though, there are other variables to consider. Let's proceed.

2) Wide receivers: The Samie Parker project is definitely over. He's a bust. He'd be a nice receiver in the slot, but he has to be one of the worst #2 receivers in the game. I think Eddie Kennison is starting to decline a bit too, though I think he'd do fine as a #2 receiver.

The Chiefs lost to the Miami Dolphins 13-10 in a lackluster effort.

It seems common for any NFL fan to attribute any loss to their team's own coaching and player failures, the refs, the wind, or the lack of wind. Count me out. The Chiefs lost to the Dolphins because the Dolphins played outstanding football. It seems like teams with losing records put in their best efforts against the Chiefs.

But there are lots of other reasons why the Chiefs lost. I can give you one simple explanation: the Chiefs are cursed. I will go into this in further depth later in the week; however, it is extremely understated that the Chiefs are banged-up. In fact, it amazes me that so few NFL talking heads seem to realize how banged up the Chiefs are.

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.

I thought I'd take a cue from the political world and use this time of year as a chance to listen to the voice of the voting fan.
I'm going to try something different and give you, the reader, a chance to vote on this forum. Write-in votes are welcome, of course. Simply leave a comment at the bottom with your vote. I will post results next Wednesday. I look very forward to hearing your responses.

The Chiefs have had their share of disappointments this season: losing Willie Roaf to sudden retirement, losing Trent Green for the first half of the season, losing embarassingly to the Pittsburgh Steelers just a few short weeks ago. However, there have also been players that have been huge disappointments to the Arrowhead faithful.

In an effort to try to limit the amount of variation in choices, I will present to you my top 5 candidates: Samie Parker, Ryan Sims, Dante Hall, Lenny Walls, and Kyle Turley.

Samie Parker:
The Chiefs have not made a huge play for a receiver via free agency or the draft because they were convinced that Samie Parker would develop into a quality starting receiver.

Earlier, I posted that the Chiefs' defense matches up very well against the Steelers' offense. I'm not sure that the Chiefs how the Chiefs will match up against Pittsburgh.

Pass Offense
Damon Huard has been terrific of late. His impressive play last week, in fact, earned him AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors. He is accurately throwing the ball around and has even done well, at times, throwing downfield. Pittsburgh is a completely different animal.

Huard will need to do adopt the same strategy he has used all season: minimize mistakes and don't try to be a hero. However, the success of the pass offense isn't completely in Huard's control. This game is a huge statement game for the Kansas City Chiefs' offensive line, particularly for Jordan Black. Black has been pretty solid so far this season in pass protection but he will face a much bigger test this Sunday against the Steelers. Huard has played with relatively good protection over the past three games. I don't expect that same kind of protection against Pittsburgh. It will be interesting to see how Huard responds if his protection puts him on his back all game long.

Fantasy Football owners, I wouldn't rush to start Tony Gonzalez this week. The Chiefs know how important it is for Huard to stay protected and you should expect to see Gonzalez in a lot of protection plays. However, also keep in mind that Herm has mentioned that he needs to get Gonzalez much more involved in the offense, so you never know. However, I would rush out to nab Eddie Kennison while you still can. The Chiefs will attack the Steelers' corners, likely as far away from Troy Polamalu as possible. Huard has shown that Kennison is easily his favorite target. This likely won't translate into TDs, but expect Kennison to get a lot of balls thrown in his direction.

Also, games are won on third downs and Samie Parker is quickly becoming the Chiefs' go-to guy in those situations. For as lousy as his hands have been, he's actually been very remarkable at catching possession passes. Probably because he's the only Chiefs' WR, barring Tony Gonzalez, of course, who isn't afraid to catch the ball in the middle of the field.

Lost a bit in the shuffle of the Chiefs' 41-0 victory was the fact that Eddie Kennison and the Kansas City receivers actually had lines printed in the box score. No, really, have a look yourself. Right there in black ink.

Of course, if you actually looked very, very closely at previous box scores, you'd have found the receivers' names there too, but it would have required a magnifying glass. Their numbers were so minuscule, fantasy owners were probably considering scouring the waiver wire for Jerry Rice, rather than Kennison or Dante Hall.

That changed last Sunday. Kennison caught 6 balls for 86 yards and a score. Hall caught a beautiful pass in the corner of the end zone for a score. Samie Parker's line reads only 2 catches for 9 yards, but both were tough catches for first downs. I don't think Kennison, Hall, or Parker actually did anything differently. Instead, the offensive line simply allowed them to get open. And that's going to be the key to the passing game the rest of the season, whether Damon Huard or Trent Green is under center.

The Chiefs' receivers, for the most part, are not geared for the true West Coast offense. They don't get open quickly because they're not physical. They rely either on their speed or intricate blocking schemes to get by defensive backs, but all that takes time to develop. In the first game, the offensive line didn't give any of that necessary time. In the second game, the Chiefs' gameplan didn't give any of that time either. Last Sunday, however, Huard was allowed to do five or seven step dropbacks, and the receivers got open.

Kennison, Hall, and Parker are not physical enough to get open quickly, except on wide receiver screens, which is why the Chiefs obtained Rod Gardner. If pass protection was once again a problem, you probably would have seen more of Gardner, who's probably more physical than the other three receivers combined. But when the offensive line is actually performing like it used to, Al Saunders' schemes actually work and the Chiefs' quarterbacks actually look good. Thus, the receivers look good too, and Kennison once again becomes a fantasy factor.