We don't deal in speculation, so here are some juicy rumors to tide you over

Could not have said it any better myself. Very well put.
Tall Paul

How do you propose that Cassel would be "cheaper"? The Patriots will franchise him, which means the Chiefs will have to cough up at least two first round picks, and then the Chiefs will have to sign him to a lucrative deal that is commensurate to "franchise QB" status.

However, the Chiefs could negotiate a package with New England that includes Larry Johnson, which would kill two birds with one stone. This would also allow the possibility of the Chiefs not having to give up so much in the draft.

We'll see. I'd prefer the Chiefs stay out of the Cassel sweepstakes, and I think New England would be smart to keep him.

I hate the idea of trading for another QB. Most of the Super Bowl winners have drafted and developed their own franchise QB's, especially those franchises that have won multiple Super Bowls within a ten year period.

However, Cassel is young enough and his situation in New England is different than most that it could be an exception, especially in this era of the NFL. Not often that the young promising QB is traded away in favor of keeping the veteran around, unless it's a future HOFer with plenty of tread still on the tires.

If you trade for a franchised player you do not have to give up 2 first round picks. You only have to give up the 2 first round picks if you sign a franchised player to an offer sheet when there is no trade involved and his team does not match the offer.

This is why franchised players don't get signed to offer sheets because almost no team would turn down 2 first round picks for any player. The player's team in this case NE can franchise Cassel and then trade him for whatever they can get. It would then be up tp the Chiefs to sign him and there would be no rules on what kind of offer they make, but almost certainly the deal would have to be agreed upon between Cassel and the Chiefs before the trade would be done.

This is exactly what happened with Jared Allen just last year. I'm surprised with this happening with one of our players that people who read this site don't seem to understand anything about this rule.

Here's a link that explains it.
http://football.about.com/cs/football101/a/franchisetransi.htm

As far as LJ is concerned there is no way the patriots would take him. You don't become the league's model franchise by picking up 29 year old RB's with bloated salaries and attitude problems. Sorry to come off high and mighty, but some of these posts are infuriating. If you are going to comment on these things at least acquire the info that is available to you.

the new
digital frame is coming.

I think the Patriots acquired this guy, didn't they?

Good job, I was thinking the same thing about Corey Dillon. Besides the guy that you corrected was busy correcting someone theirself when they made the misstatement. Great job, keep up the posts

Yeah they picked up Dillon when they had no other options.

Right now they have 5 running backs as I posted in the other thread. On top of that they had the #6 rushing attack in the league.

Why would NE trade for LJ?

Wow, I feel so dumb. Thanks for setting us straight lkwjr1276.

I, for one, am SO impressed by your tremendous knowledge.

It's a sad state that we have so many with self-esteem issues that the only way they can feel good about themselves is to berate others.

Please try to remember lkwjr1276 this isn't the Jim Rome Show.

Well Said I must say.

Anyone drafted as a top ten pick better be starting on opening day and make a significate impact. Don't see it coming from the Quarterback position this year. We have to many needs to blow it on a Quarterback that might fall to the second round.

Exactly. This year's QB class is pretty slim. If you can't get a deal done for Cassel, then I don't think it's imperative that you use the 3rd pick in the draft for a QB. You cannot fix such a mess in one year's draft anyway, so why not address needs on defense or the offensive line with the 1st and 2nd rd. picks and use the 3rd round or later for a QB if Sanchez is still there? If not, then next year's draft has a lot more QB's who have started more than one year of college football.

Grabbing a QB would be a knee-jerk reaction. Thigpen threw 3 less TD's last year than Cassel did AND Tyler played in FIVE less games. Cassel's over-all numbers may be a little better than Thigpen's but what are we going to give up to get a QB that is barely more experienced, and whose stats are just marginally better (if at all) than who we already have????

It's not suprising that Matt had better numbers since he had a much better OL in front of him and better weapons. BUT like I said he STILL HAD A WORSE TD ratio than Tyler had!!!! How many TD's would Tyler have thrown if he was tossing the ball to Moss and Welker (how many passes did Bowe drop last year!) and started five more games (like Matt did)? I'm not sure Cassel would be an up-grade. Maybe. At the very least it would be a gamble.

I think we need to run with Thigpen. If NE franchized Cassel then even THINKING about trading for Matt should be out of the question.

If we absolutely feel we need to grab a QB to compete with Tyler then I wouldn't be against drafting one in the 3rd round but Sanchez won't be there. Freeman might but I even doubt that. Josh has the size (6'6" 250 lbs) and enough potential that he could end up being the frontman to a NFL team somewhere down the road. Maybe. Again, big gamble.

Here's my dream... We pick up Curry or Andre Smith with our #1 and then call our OL good. Then with all our cap room we go out and pick up Peppers and Haynesworth (at least one of them!!!!) Our DL would suddenly look pretty daunting!

Here's another question... Nnamdi Asomugha was a free agent in 2008. Did he resign with Oakland? How awesome would the Black Death look in red and gold? (nevermind. I just looked and they franchised him. @#$@^%)

My point is that we need to spend that cash on the numerous great defensive FAs on the market and not on a QB that we would have to overpay for!

In April 2006, Sanchez was arrested after a female USC student accused him of sexual assault. He was released from jail the following day, after posting $200,000 bail, but USC placed him on interim suspension that suspended him from the football team yet permitted him to take his semester finals, albeit separate from the general student body and under the supervision of campus security. On June 3, 2006, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office announced no charges would be filed against Sanchez due to a "lack of sufficient evidence beyond a reasonable doubt", noting the case was "essentially a 'one-on-one' allegation." The District Attorney's office released the charge evaluation worksheet that said the alleged victim in the case said she consented to kissing and petting on Sanchez's bed, and that she repeatedly refused Sanchez's advances to have intercourse with her but continued the other activities with him when he complied; the woman later spent time with other students without mentioning an incident and later told her mother who reportedly called police later in the morning. The woman involved left the university. Sanchez was required to take a rape awareness class at USC. USC reinstated Sanchez but he remained subject to team-related discipline for underage drinking and using fake identification on the night he was arrested. Sanchez had been previously detained but not arrested by USC's Department of Public Safety for allegedly breaking a window at a fraternity party.

After the standout career that LJ has had with women, do we want to risk a high draft choice and big dollars on a possibly risky guy like this?

First, Sanchez WON'T be available in the third round so it's either 1st or nothing for that option.

And why "waste" our pick on a QB? Well, let me re-state and re-state and re-state this until I am blue in the face...starting QB is the most important position on the field. Period. If you don't agree with that, then we can't have a discussion. But just in case you don't think that the starting QB is the most important position, let me take you back down Memory Lane for a bit...

The old way of doing things for the Chiefs was build a team THEN plug a QB in (Grbac, Bono, Krieg, Gannon, etc.) We have proven this does not work. So in light of that, just to remind everyone, what is the definition of insanity? Doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. If this way has not worked in the past, why, for the love of all the football gods and the Baby Jesus, would we go back to that???

Again, given that starting QB is the most important position on the field, then logic dictates we must, given the fact that drafting a long-term-er QB in the 1st round is 50% and is less than 5% in any round outside of the first, draft a QB in the first round. I repeat, logic dictates we MUST draft a QB. And that would include, imo, trading that draft pick for a QB if possible. I'm not sure if I would agree that the best available QB out there now is Cassel but it's an acceptable move, logically speaking.

Then, after we have our QB, we build the team around him!

How is this not clear to everyone else?

Tall Paul

Yes, the QB is very important. But drafting is a krapshoot, and definitely less than 50% if the supporting cast does not exist. For every Troy Aikman, there is a Todd Blacklidge or David Carr.
There are successes in bringing a QB over from another professional team (a guy up in Green Bay comes to mind) - but you need to know what you are looking for in that QB. So it's up to the coaching staff to determine what will fit into their style and personnel.
Is Cassel THE answer?? Not to rebuilding. It would be just as likely that the supporting cast around him ruins him. There need to be other pieces in place or falling into place before you stick a raw QA in the middle of the fray.
It's just not that simple.

steve c.

That's not where I disagree with you. What I think is that: #1 Cassel hasn't proven that he's better than Thigpen in any other stat than WINS. HOWEVER it takes more than a QB to put numbers in that column. If KC had NEs defense then who knows what our record would've been. But looking at any other stats and comparing them to Cassel's or guessing at what Stafford or Sanchez will do... I just see grabbing any of them as a knee-jerk reaction.

Why would we "settle" on what seems convenient right now when everyone agrees that this is a ridiculously weak QB draft?!?! Tyler has shown enough that I believe KC's numbers will be greatly improved if we put a better Defense together to support him.

Let's talk about the worst case scenario; Thigpen doesn't impress us next year and we still need our QB of the future. There will be FOUR great QBs next year that I wouldn't mind seeing in Red and Gold. Let's pretend that we finish in the middle of the pack next year and draft 16th in the first round of 2010. How much would we have to give up in order to trade-up to a position that would allow us to grab one of FOUR QB's in the first round? NOT THAT MUCH!!!

If Tyler only leads us to a 6-10 or 7-9 season then maybe we won't have to trade up or give up anything at all! And THAT is a WORST case scenario! Does anyone honestly believe that if Pioli fixes our Defensive issues and our OL issues (that kept us from running) that Thigpen's performance this season points to another loosing season? I sure don't.

Best case scenario is that we beef up our OL and D this year. Thigpen gets BETTER and improves on the 26/13 Touchdown/Interception pace that he was on if you project a complete season starting from week 8. That is NOT far fetched!!! Peyton Manning had 27 TDs and 12 INTs this year. PEYTON MANNING threw ONE MORE touchdown and threw ONE LESS interceptions than Thigpen was on pace to accomplish over a full season as starter. (Week 8-17 average 1.6 TD per game & .8 INT per game)

Ride with Tyler Thigpen. If he improves AT ALL, then I say we've found our QB of the future to build our team around.

We had a pathetic year. 2-14 is unacceptable! But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater! Fix the D. Improve the OL. Looking at the numbers, Tyler could be the man!!!!!!

Don't knee-jerk. I, for one, hopes Mr. Pioli gives Tyler a chance.

I don't think we disagree at all, except in saying it is so simple. Cassel is not going to take the Chiefs to the promis land next year. Nor is a QB high draft pick. So do neither. With the wreck that Edwards left, the most likely scenerio is irreparable damage to the psych of anybody that you put behind center next year.
Take a look at what the Texans did. After Kubiak came in, he gave David Carr one year to see if he was his guy. Turns out he wasn't, but in the mean time, Kubiak makes personnel moves to improve the chances of the person he eventually brings in.
Give Thiggy one more year, start (re)building the defense and O-line, and then evaluate the most important decision (QB) next year.

Good luck!!

steve c.

frosty1 Jeebus, why in the heck would we trade our third for a backup? There is no QB in this draft worth a third pick. Stop hyperventilating and think. There's no QB and not nearly enough protection for a franchise QB. How about we fix the O-line this year, get a QB next year when we can protect the franchise QB. Help him to help us for gosh sakes...

Matt Cassell was a 7th round pick. Brady was a 6th round pick. The Pats, Colts, Steelers and other good teams are built from the top down. Owner, GM, Coach, players. There are many players and few coaches. KC is going in the right direction now. Things will improve but it will not be one player who makes it happen. Pioli is looking for smart, tough, hard working players. Talking to the media is a no-no around here (New England) due to their need to create a story. Think of the Cowboys and TO. It may seem strange a first but the results create a better atmosphere for the players. Concentrate on football and your job, study hard, work hard, then win games. The little things add up. Good luck to a great football team and great fans, you deserve a winner.