So Jared Allen had a pretty solid game Monday night against the Packers. Not sure if you saw it, but Allen had 4 1/2 sacks, a safety and a forced fumble. Yep, pretty solid.

I was watching. I kept watching as Allen exploited Green Bay's awful offensive line and took advantage of a quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, who's still clearly green and uncomfortable when his protection breaks down. A good pass rusher takes advantage of an opponent's weaknesses, and time after time, Allen kept doing that strange little dance he does, where he pretends to stir a salad and then extends his arms.

It got me to thinking, as it might have done to you. It's no longer a question of whether the Chiefs should have let Allen go. They traded him to Minnesota last year, right before the draft, picking up an additional first-round pick and a pair of third-rounders, which the Chiefs turned into Branden Albert, Brad Cottam and Jamaal Charles. Two of those guys, Cottam and Charles, have spent time not only out of the starting lineup but inactive for the Chiefs. Albert is having a tough second season, but I still hold out hope that he'll be OK.

Still. I remember the Chiefs parading around Arrowhead Stadium, talking about how they'd make that deal 100 times out of 100. A first-rounder and two third-rounders? That led to a draft that, at the time, appeared outstanding but has lost almost all of its luster.

I'm taking this thing a little further. I think the Jared Allen deal has firmly placed the Chiefs in the funk they're in today. It forced the Chiefs to start over on defense, abandon anything that might have been working and experiment. Last year, it forced Herm Edwards to play all those rookies to help validate a youth movement that the Allen trade brought about. Without Allen or a dominant defender like him, Edwards' replacement, Todd Haley, scrapped the entire defensive scheme and moved toward the 3-4. Because why not? There was no elite defensive end that the move would displace and no one to build around if the Chiefs had remained in the 4-3.

The Chiefs traded Allen, you might remember, in part because former team president Carl Peterson had signed Larry Johnson to a long-term contract. There was only room for one "at-risk" player on the team, and LJ was Carl's choice. Allen had to go. So he did. The Chiefs waited to see how it played out for them. While they waited, they kept bragging about what a great deal they'd made. One of those three draft picks had to work out. Right? One would become a superstar and make everyone in Kansas City forget Jared Allen, his unusual sense of humor, and that sports bar that was open for seven full minutes.

Then, the Chiefs started backing off the enthusiasm. Some folks started talking about how it should have been Johnson who had been dealt instead of the younger, more promising Allen, a player who could carry a defense and have games like he did Monday night.

Instead, they're stuck, still, with Johnson and a defense that hasn't yet found its identity and without an outstanding playmaker. The Chiefs keep burning first-round picks on defensive players, trying to find someone who can even come close to what Allen did and does. In the meantime, they're having to ignore other positions out of necessity, and it continues to look like the Chiefs are just spinning their wheels.

I remember thinking when the Chiefs traded Allen: Even if those draft picks maximize their potential, a gamble in itself, then there's a chance they still will never be the game-breaker that Allen was becoming. Even if one of them justifies those draft slots and the trade, then you've broken even and nothing more.

Now that we continue to get distance from that trade and watch those three draft picks blossom into whatever they will become, it is becoming clear that there will be no breaking even in the Chiefs' future.

The Chiefs keep drafting, and defensive players keep trying to become what Allen is. It makes you see how far away the Chiefs are from contending in the AFC, and it lets you know that they'd do just about anything for a player like Allen right now. If only the Chiefs could find a player like that, you'd bet that they'd never let him go.

Then you remember that they already did.