FanHouse Kansas City Chiefs

The goofy NFL news of the day Saturday was the renaming of the home of the Miami Dolphins after Jimmy Buffett's beer company. "Land Shark Stadium" will be the fifth different name this building has had since it opened in 1987.

The stadium has an interesting history. Its $115 million construction cost was completely privately funded (imagine that!) with the help of season ticket holders who made long-term commitments in exchange for the promise of a state-of-the-art football facility. Joe Robbie, the owner of the Dolphins at the time, envisioned it as a stadium that could host baseball as well as football, and for that reason, the front-row seats are set back further from the sidelines than at traditional NFL venues.

Next February, Super Bowl XLIV will be the fifth Super Bowl this stadium has hosted -- under four of its five different names:

Well, not really, but it felt that way during a two-hour conference call that NFL.com draft guru Mike Mayock held with members of the media this afternoon. I'm pretty sure every NFL writer and every college writer in the country was on the call, and that everyone got to ask a question. Mayock is, I am 100 percent certain, either a computer or the 21st-century version of the robot 2XL (without, of course, the 8-track tapes). Only one time in the entire two hours did he fail to answer a question, and that was because somebody asked about a kicker, and he admitted he didn't really look at kickers in the draft.

Eleven days and counting until the mock drafts get shredded in favor of the real one, and the time between now and April 25 is likely to see a frenzy of posturing, positioning and actual activity. I debuted my first-ever mock draft yesterday, but since it ran a number of developments have threatened to shake it up.

So what's happened to my mock draft today? Let's take a look...

Unless you're a diehard Kansas City Chiefs fan, you probably do not know the name Michael Merritt. The Chiefs' 2008 seventh-round draft pick out of Central Florida was inactive all season long, making a grand total of zero catches in his rookie season.

There's a lot of football to be played in 2007 but with Lovie Smith finally pulling the plug on Rex Grossman in Chicago let's turn the clock forward to 2008 for a moment. Grossman's contract is up after this season and, unless he pulls a Lazarus, he won't be signing another one in Chicago. His career won't come to an end, though. From Jim Plunkett to Trent Dilfer to Vinny Testaverde, football history is laden with quarterbacks who failed at their first stop only to find success at a destination down the road. Some coach will look at Grossman's powerful arm and give him another chance to run an offense. Who might roll the dice on Rex?

Tampa Bay - Jon Gruden always finds the grass greener on the other side of the quarterback fence, even if Jeff Garcia is off to a good start in pewter. Garcia has another year on his deal but is 38 and might not have a lot of football left in him. The con is that Gruden's offenses are predicated on accurate, efficient quarterback play and no one will ever mistake Grossman for one of those.

Miami - Adam Schefter of the NFL Network reports that Cam Cameron recruited Grossman while he was the coach of Indiana and could look in that direction again if John Beck isn't ready and/or Trent Green suffers another concussion or two.

If Chiefs coach Herman Edwards was in charge of dishing out punishments for NFL players who misbehave off the field, what you'd end up with -- other than a lot of fatherly lectures -- is a system that doesn't ever fine players, but deals in suspensions. Herm doesn't want you to play to win the game, in fact, Herm doesn't want you to play at all.

"I've never been a big proponent of fining players. Players, last time I checked, if they don't get to play, they understand that," he said. "If they don't get to play, that's what they understand. You don't dress. You don't play. Go home. You sit there and you watch.

Sounds great. I'm on board. The only problem is that the NFL will never let that happen. Sure, they're concerned about the players Pacmanning it up out there, but the most important thing to the NFL is selling their product. And because they have a product to sell, they want their best players on the field on Sundays, regardless of whether or not they committed rape, murder, arson, and rape (bonus points to whoever gets that reference) on Wednesdays.

That's the truth. Because Herm Edwards is right, suspensions would be a much harsher punishment for players. But I'm right, too ... because the NFL knows damn well that Herm Edwards is right, and yet, it will never, ever happen.

It's not like you're going to stop buying tickets and merchandise and DirecTV packages if NFL players don't "clean up their act." You may get indignant in a few behavior-related comment threads here in the FanHouse, but you're not going to stop watching football. You just aren't.

So the punishments will continue to be light, Chris Henry and Jerramy Stevens will continue to be on the field on Sundays, and we'll all continue to enjoy the NFL and not think about criminal behavior at all between the whistles. That's just the way things are. But thanks anyway, Herm.

Chiefs quarterback Damon Huard was set to become an unrestricted free agent, before resigning today with the Kansas City Chiefs. It's a great move by the Chiefs to keep him around, obviously, but ... the deal, from Huard's perspective, has me wondering about a few things.

• Lots of teams need quarterbacks, and there are very few available via free agency. Jeff Garcia is the hottest thing out there, and Huard outperformed Garcia this season, by a lot. Given all the teams with needs, couldn't Huard have tested the waters and gotten more than $7.5 million?

• Is it possible that Huard knew he could make more on the open market, but opted to stay with the Chiefs because they promised him at least a chance to become the starter? Very possible, given that they asked Trent Green to take a paycut, too.

• Even if it's true that Huard's in line for a shot at the starting job, he might have had a little bit of a clearer shot at a starting job somewhere else. Herm Edwards was stubborn to an unbelievable degree last season with his loyalty to Trent Green. It made perfect sense to give Huard a shot to regain his starting job, but he never got that chance. Why put up with that again?

And at the age of 33, Huard's probably not going to get another shot at a big deal. It seems like he might have shortchanged himself a little bit here, both in terms of the role he could have played and the money he could've made elsewhere.

With the Super Bowl over, and another AFC Champion, the Chiefs look back on another season of "what could have been." There were certainly plenty of lows: the offense went down several notches, perhaps in large part due to Willie Roaf's sudden retirement; Trent Green went down in the first game of the season and never looked the same again; they lost heartbreakers in Cleveland and Miami, ruining their chances for a high seed in the playoffs; once in the playoffs, the Chiefs embarrass themselves with a forgettable offensive performance; and Lamar Hunt, their beloved owner, passes away without seeing his Chiefs raise the trophy that bears his name.

But a playoff team cannot have a season full of lows, and indeed there were many highs for the Chiefs. After barely missing the playoffs last year with a 10-6 record, they get a lot of luck this time and make the playoffs in Herm Edwards' first year; they have their most productive draft in years, with rookies Tamba Hali, Jarrad Page, and Bernard Pollard playing major roles, and Jeff Webb and Brodie Croyle looking like solid projects for the future; Larry Johnson proved to be a workhorse, seemingly carrying the ball 50 times a game without tiring; Dustin Colquitt proves that punters can be drafted in the high rounds, becoming a new weapon for the Chiefs; the defense becomes no longer a laughingstock, showing a toughness and attitude Chiefs' fans haven't seen for years; and Tony Gonzalez re-signs, guaranteeing that he will be a Chief for the foreseeable future.

Sure, the Chiefs have a lot of question marks going into next season, and the QB situation looms large, but the improving defense means that the Chiefs should at least be playoff contenders next year. The Chiefs finally had some breaks go their way this year; with a few more breaks next year, perhaps the Chiefs can actually win a playoff game for the first time in 13 years.

And with that, Jon and I bid farewell to the Fanhouse gang. We will be moving back to our original home, MVN.com. It has been an honor serving as the original Fanhouse bloggers for the Kansas City Chiefs, and we wish the revamped Fanhouse much success. We hope you have enjoyed reading our material as much as we enjoyed writing it.

The next two issues I'll explore in the Chiefs' offseason gameplan is what they will do with their kicker and linebacker situation.

Kicker:
This time last year, I was excited about Lawrence Tynes returning to the Chiefs. He overcame major adversity in 2005 and finished with a very strong season. In 2006, he wasn't bad, but he was wildly inconsistent. Still, the Chiefs have to be absolutely fed up with this inconsistency. Arguably, his lax approach to kicking a chip shot field goal in the playoffs against Indianapolis is believed by many to have been the turning point of the game.

Quite simply, there is no excuse for missing a chip shot field goal in a dome, especially in the playoffs. Tynes is known to have constant lapses in concentration, which is why he has struggled very often at times at making extra points. It also doesn't help that Tynes has a weak leg for kicking off.

What will the Chiefs do?
Expect the Chiefs to bring in some competition this offseason. I think the Chiefs will have to find a huge steal for them to consider cutting Tynes, but don't think that Tynes' job is even remotely safe.

Linebacker:
Okay, so I have also heard from many that linebacker is a high priority position for the Chiefs. I don't buy it. The Chiefs are just fine at linebacker. Sure, Kendrell Bell is a little overpaid, but I also don't believe he's nearly as bad as people think he is.

The next position that I'll evaluate is the defensive line.

Defensive End:
The Chiefs were pleasantly surprised by the production of their defensive ends. Jared Allen was terrific as usual and Tamba Hali, in my estimation, had every right to be Defensive Rookie of the Year.

The issue is what the Chiefs will do in Jared Allen's 4-game absence, as he finally serves time for his DUI. Right now, the Chiefs have Jimmy Wilkerson and Eric Hicks as his backup, but both of those options are a pretty big step down.

The Chiefs might...
Use a higher pick than expected on a defensive end. The Chiefs will almost certainly re-sign Jared Allen. You almost wonder if Carl Peterson will use his first round pick as leverage for contract negotiations with Allen (just as, in many peoples' minds, Peterson did when he drafted Larry Johnson with Priest Holmes in contract negotiations.) More than likely, the Chiefs will bite the bullet, sign Allen to a long-term deal, and settle for Wilkerson to start, unless some new blood comes in. I would venture to guess that Hicks will be cut (regardless of cap consequence) and the Chiefs will either bring in some new blood, or use an early second day pick to compete for the starting role in Allen's absence. Nothing earth-shattering.