Would You, Could You, Chiefs Fans? 3·11·21

Would You, Could You, Chiefs Fans? 3·11·21 – It’s that time of the offseason to dream Free Agents dreams that get us back to the big game next February. Will the Chiefs… or won’t they? Now, if you’re reading this, I’m afraid you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s a question reverberating inside of most serious Chiefs fans skulls these days. However, the talk of the town right now is the NFL officially announcing that the salary cap has been set at $182.5M. That’s gonna leave a lot of NFL teams gasping for air.

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Even more so, are the players who will be cut and thrown into the abyss of dozens, if not hundreds, of other free agents. We’re going to see a lot of back loaded deals and Vets signed for the minimum in 2021 with a wink and a promise so they can eventually get their day in the Money-Sun. Johnny Depp once said: “Trips to the dentist – I like to postpone that kind of thing.” I guess we could just see the 2021 NFL season as a trip to the dentist. Right? If you can buy into that idea, perhaps 2020 was a trip to the proctologist, huh?

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With that in mind, let’s get to the four “Would You, Could You” takes this week:

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There’s been a lot of talk recently about remaking the Offensive Line, over the next few years, and we’ve also talked about remaking half of the Defensive Line this year, as well as the Linebacking corp… plus needing help at TE and CB and… and… and. Let’s see, that means… WHAT position group is set up nicely for the next half decade of future runs at a Championship? Not many, really. That leads me to the question: would you, could you, go bare bones on this roster and begin to fill back in the players you really want, while holding onto the essential players you already have on the roster?

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That, of course, leads to the next question: who are the most essential players on the Chiefs roster? IOW… who are the keepers? That must begin with… QB Patrick Mahomes (no matter what team you are right now… you have to plan around PMII… either way, whether you have him, or have to plan to defend against him). So, besides Mahomes, there appears to be three players on each side of the ball who are “keepers,” or in other words, untradeable. They include: Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Frank Clark, Chris Jones and Tyrann Mathieu. Some will disagree that Frank Clark belongs on this list but you have to take a player’s contract situation into account and even if he re-structures this offseason (which seems like a sure bet) he’ll be a much improved players with support at DT or DE, which seems like a goal this offseason, whether it’s through the draft or in Free Agency. You also don’t trade away a bellcow like CEH who is still on his rookie deal and playing a key role in the Offense you’ve constructed.

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So, if you say you’re willing to take a bare bones approach to improving the team, it means you’re willing to trade any other player on the Chiefs roster not named above. I’m leaning that way. What do you say?

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Would You, Could You, open all numbers on all teams to all players when they come to your team? Right now, the NFL has “Retired” more than 150 numbers which teams can’t use any more. 109 of those numbers were given to players who are now in the Hall of Fame. Here are the Kansas City Chiefs retired numbers:

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In a recent piece by Mike Florio for Profootballtalk called, “Would Bears unretire No. 3 for Russell Wilson?” he wonders if the Bears would give up their retired #3 if Wilson was traded for? Consequently, keeping numbers retired has an affect on every team in the NFL, and I’m wondering if it should really be that way? Right now, some players have to ask permission of a retired player if they can wear their number. Like in Dallas when rookie WR CeeDee Lamb had to ask Michael Irvin if he could wear number 88? That’s getting a bit pretentious and territorial isn’t it?

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It’s seems like a simple math problem to me… sooner than later, there will be no more numbers to choose if this keeps up. While I’m a traditionalist in most regards when it comes to the NFL, but I’m not in favor of keeping the current system of retiring numbers. I respect Derrick Thomas and got to watch him play in person. He was amazing. Perhaps a player of his magnitude could have his number retired for two decades, or some such honor? Let me know your thoughts.

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Can you see a QB blockbuster in your future? If you had an excellent starting QB, but you breached his trust and so he said he’d never play another down for you… who would you trade him for of all the teams with excellent QBs in the league? Let’s start at the top: Deshaun Watson for Patrick Mahomes? Patty’s going nowhere. Nowhere! So, who else? Same for Aaron Rodgers? Never going to happen, really. Would you want to give up your excellent 25 year old QB for a 37 year old QB who has a limited number of years of service remaining, no matter how good he is? You get the idea.

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While some QB names will be off limits, you have to figure that some time between now and the NFL draft, the Texans will be involved in a blockbuster trade which will involve another team’s very good QB.

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Deshaun Watson for Russell Wilson? While we’ve seen rumors of Watson being traded to many other teams in the past few weeks, one that has gotten some traction is the Watson for Wilson possibility. Now, let’s stop right there because if you think Wilson is ever going to the Texans, “You’ve got another thing coming,” as my mother used to say, and she is from Texas.

Deshaun Watson for Tua Tagovailoa? This is a trade which I’ve pitched before it was even popular. I could see the Texans taking on Tua while replenishing some draft picks, which they desperately need to improve their future outlook. However, it looks like Miami is all in on Tua and they haven’t really given him enough time, nor tools, to be the best he can be yet. On top of that, I believe it takes a year past an injury, for a player to fully return to form and that should be this season. So, the 2021 season should be looked at as Tua’s rookie year. Then he can be evaluated, at least a little better.

Deshaun Watson for Kyler Murray? This possibility got some recent coverage. It brings up the possibility of whether or not any QB would be happy making a move to the Texans. Tua might not be able to say no because he’s still on his rookie deal. You could argue that the same is true for Kyler Murray, but you’d likely “strike out” with that point of view:

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Murray has the ultimate leverage — he can quit football and go play baseball. It currently would cost him $11.6 million to walk away from football for baseball. If the Texans trade for Murray and if Murray leaves the sport, the Texans would [at least] have the right to recover the unearned bonus money.

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“Recovering unearned bonus money” would not be what the Texans had in mind if they trade for a QB to replace their own. They’re in a Texas-sized pickle this offseason, so keep your eyes out for a blockbuster of a QB move there this offseason. In the meantime, Chiefs fans can just sit back and enjoy the Pigskin QB Cirque du Soleil and all the strange twisted moves that’ll be made by teams to upgrade their QBs. An amusing little peep show we haven’t been able to enjoy since Lenny was in the house.

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Would You, Could You, get on board with the NFL owners stretching the NFL season to 17 games… or 18 games… or even more? That’s what we’re looking at in the coming season and beyond.The NFL owners have approved. As I mentioned before, I’m a bit of a traditionalist so if when the season is stretched to more than 16 games, how will we ever compare records player have achieved? It’s one thing to say O.J. Simpson is one of the best RBs ever because of his 2,000+ yards gained in a single season when the teams were only playing 14 games then. In 1978, the league stretched the season to 16 games in in 1983, Eric Dickerson topped the 2,000 yard mark with the Rams. Here are the players to top the 2,000 yards mark in a season so far:

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If you compare that list to the all time yards per game list of Running backs, you’d see that only RB Jim Brown topped the 100 yards per game mark in his career — 104.3. Barry Sanders was close at 99.8. However, it’s the importance that the league owners will be placing on “average per game” now that they’ve taken away any standard to which we can apply all seasonal records.

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Part of the Patrick Mahomes effect taking place in the NFL right now is, the preponderance of teams going to a coverage scheme with the idea of limiting the pass play, hoping to force other teams to run the ball. With an expected increase in the running game coming in future years, it will become more and more difficult to tell which RBs are really special, and which one’s aren’t.

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While many are arguing that the increase in regular season games means a reduction in preseason games is coming as well. On one hand, I’m not a fan of preseason games… except… except… tell that to a dozen or more players trying to make each NFL team. The preseason is when we get a good look at the contenders and pretenders of each team. I’m sure that Veach and crew are thankful for the opportunity to get to watch tape on, and gather more data on, each prospect. While I do think the first half of the third game of the preseason is all that’s truly meaningful when it comes to evaluating where a team is at in terms of their readiness for the season, the rest of the preseason is critical to hundreds of prospects and players trying to make their living in the NFL. Consequently, I’m not in favor of cutting down the preseason to make room for more regular season games. If anything, perhaps go to three preseason games, but that’s it! The stretching of the season — regular or preseason — has to stop somewhere. Right?

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The owners keep moving the goalposts. I for one, am against it. What do you think?

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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