2010 Kansas City Chiefs Team Preview/Predictions
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2009 Record: 4-12
ATS: 7-9-0
If anything good can come from a 4-12 season, it may be that Kansas City seems to have discovered a tremendous talent in running back Jamaal Charles. The Texas product was nothing but spectacular to finish the 2009 season, something made all the more impressive when you consider that the line he did it behind was perhaps the worst offensive line in all of football a year earlier in 2008.
The problem, however, is that Charles was basically the silver lining in an otherwise awful year for first-year head coach Todd Haley.
Quarterback Matt Cassel was paid a ton of money to help turn around the offense in Kansas City, but that’s hard to do when you don’t have anybody to throw to. Dwayne Bowe and mid-season addition Chris Chambers are decent, and Bowe has some upside, but there isn’t a team in the league that’s scared of what Kansas City has on the outside.
Then there’s the defense which scraped the bottom of the NFL barrel in category after category last season.
To fix all this, General Manager Scott Pioli reached back to his New England roots and got the band together again.
Former Patriots offensive coordinator (and Notre Dame head coach) Charlie Weis and former Patriots defensive coordinator (and Browns head coach) Romeo Crennel take over the reins of the Chiefs’ offense and defense.
Kansas City has also brought in wide receiver Jerheme Urban in the hopes that he (like tight end Leonard Pope) can revisit the success he had with Haley in Arizona. They also drafted well at the skill positions bringing in perhaps the most dynamic player in all of college football last year, Dexter McCluster from Ole Miss.
What McCluster lacks in size he makes up for in speed, leadership, and the ability to change a game. If the Chiefs can get him in open space this year, he’ll be a Sunday night highlight favorite.
Meanwhile, on the defensive side of the ball, Kansas City nabbed the accepted best safety in the draft in Eric Berry from Tennessee. Berry spent his final college season under the tutelage of all-world defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, who helped the Tampa Bay Bucs win their first Super Bowl back in the 2002 season.
Assuming Berry is everything physically and mentally that he’s been billed to be, expect the Chiefs’ defense to start the long road back to respectability this season.
Sadly for Kansas City fans, constructing a solid foundation is about the best they can hope for this year. Last year’s top draft choice (No. 3 overall) defensive lineman Tyson Jackson has admitted his rookie season was a disappointment. The truth is, he easily could have been speaking for the majority of the team.
To start 2009 the cupboard was bare, and although they’ve taken big steps forward since then – including the signings of center Casey Wiegmann (Denver), guard Ryan Lilja (Indianapolis), and running back Thomas Jones (New York Jets) – there are very few facets of the team that are ready for primetime.
Given that, expect to see the Chiefs’ defense get worn down as the season progresses as teams start to shut down Kansas City’s offense.
When opponents key on Charles and force Cassel to beat them by throwing to marginal talents, Kansas City won’t have the ball very much each Sunday, and its tired defense will pay the price.
Chiefs 2010 Outlook
In other words, look for this team to fight it out for the division cellar.
Chiefs 2010 Futures
Super Bowl Odds: +12550
Conference Odds: +4550
AFC West Odds: +800
2010 Chiefs Predictions
Place they’ll finish in AFC West: 4th
Place they’ll finish in AFC Conference: 16th
Over/Under Season Wins Prediction: UNDER 6.5 Wins
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Dave Golokhov has written for BETUS Sportsbook, Sportsfanmagazine.com, FOX, Askmen.com, Sports-central.org, and the FOXSports.com Funhouse.
