Peter King on the Cutler trade....

I was reading Peter King's article on the trade and there were some things that blew me away.

But as the deal went down, McDaniels, who watched every offensive snap of more than 10 Bears games with Orton playing, got more and more impressed with Orton's arm, his decision-making and his ability to extend plays when the pocket broke down.

Really? Impressed with Orton? Are you kidding me?

In the end, this trade happened so quickly because, first and foremost, the owner of the Broncos felt dissed.

Oh...Did wittle billionaire get HIS feelings hurt? I have heard people talk about this like it was their job and they didnt return their bosses calls and what would happen...Well if my boss tried to call me during my time off, I would call him back if I felt like it. End of story, I am not getting paid, I am not obligated to call back. Jay didnt get the paycheck portion until July.

How The (AFC) West Can Be Won

Some call me crazy, others will call me a fool but the reality is the Chiefs are in their best position in years to win the AFC West this season. Why you might ask? They were awful on defense and inconsistent on offense last year. How can I be so optimistic? It is easy.

The Defense

I have no doubt the KC defense will get much better next year even without a fantastic addition from the draft. The reason for this is what I call S² – scheme and seasons. The seasons are easy to explain the kids got boatloads of testing in actual NFL experience last year. Carr and Flowers passed with flying colors and IMO are the best CB tandem in the NFL with under 3 years experience. Leggett played really well and should at the very least be a big contributor on special teams and a solid nickel/dime back. Dorsey was on the field quite a bit last year, some will call him a failure but I do not. DTs often show little to nothing in their first year and some of the best ever did not even start their rookie year. Glenn Dorsey dominated interior lineman at LSU. I believe Glenn learned a lot last year and will show up and begin to show why he was almost the consensus #1 guy on everyone's draft board in 2008. The scheme part may be much more difficult to explain. Most "reporters" have claimed the Chiefs will run a 3-4 next year. That would be fine and dandy if they even had two lineman that could play 3-4 positions without a doubt. It also would be fine if there wasn't so many other teams trying to move to a 3-4. I think at least 1/3 of the NFL will be running the 3-4 in 2009. The players needed to shift are in short supply with a huge demand. New defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast did not run a 3-4 in Arizona. Some have called it a hybrid of a 4-3 and a 3-4. Maybe that fits and maybe it don't but that isn't important. What is important is that his style is very aggressive and should be a very stark contrast from what the Chiefs fans have been used to seeing. There have been a lot of "reporters" comparing the Chiefs lineman to that of the other 3-4 teams. I have yet to see a comparison of the players on Clancy's defensive line in Arizona and the players he has there in Kansas City. See the chart below.

LDE	Antonio Smith	6'4	285	Tamba Hali	6'3	275
NT	Bryan Robinson	6'4	304	Tank Tyler	6'2	306
UT	Darnell Dockett	6'4	285	Glenn Dorsey	6'1	297
RDE	Bertrand Berry	6'3	260	Turk McBride	6'2	278

What I see is players that are more or less interchangeable. Glenn Dorsey was drafted to be the player that Dockett was in Arizona's improbable run in the playoffs. Hali, at LDE IMO is a far better player than Smith. He played out of position at RDE last season and could not handle the big boy pass rushing position. It is understandable why the Chiefs tried moving him last year. Hali was the best pass rusher on the roster and it made sense to see if he could hang…He couldn't. Tank should be able to become a block eater. He has the size and I believe he has the talent. Does he have the motivation? Turk McBride is not the pass rusher one would want in that spot. One sack in ten starts says something. This position needs upgraded one way or another but with an aggressive defense, it is not imperative for success. Linebacker play needs to be better. I believe Vrabel, Johnson, and (Williams?) should perform better than the amateur hour that was out there last year. Page and Pollard will be in much better shape in an aggressive defense. Both are in their do or die season. They must play better and I believe they will. Am I claiming the Chiefs will be a top 15 D? Not at all. But I suspect they will be good enough to help win games and that is what matters.

The Offense

The offense was terrible until Huard and Croyle went down injured in the same game (as it happens, I was at that whoopin' for my annual trek to Arrowhead). But then a strange thing happened. Without Larry Johnson, and without the benefit of the bye, Chan Gailey invented the ArrowSpread offense. I loved it. The most creative offensive move in years came when LJ returned and was placed in the Tomahawk (TV folks called it the pistol) formation. The offense played well, but was inconsistent. I blame that on Thigpen's inexperience. Tyler Thigpen did not even have the luxery of a modern college offense to learn from. Tyler played in an offense that was popular in the 60's in college. He also did not have top notch coaching in college. His rookie year offseason he split between the Vikings and Chiefs and spent the season as the #3 guy more than likely not getting adequate reps in practice. Tyler spent his entire second season as the Chiefs #3 guy until injuries put him in the #1 slot. Tyler might have been the least prepared guy to ever start a regular season NFL game. The right side of the offensive line is in bad shape and needs repaired. I believe if that happens, with either Cassel or Thigpen the Chiefs will be in the top half of the NFL in offense and could very well crack the top 10.

The Opponents

Based on what I expect from the Chiefs, you would expect an OK team but OK teams don't win divisions…Do they? The Chargers were OK and won the West last year, so I would say yes OK teams can win divisions. Here are reasons why I think the Chiefs can be that team.

The Chargers

SD has the talent to win 13 games and challenge for the Super Bowl. Problem is they have lousy coaching and haven't played as a team since Marty left. The Chargers have question marks with their talent: LT: has he lost a step or was last year a fluke?

Gates: Are his injuries a sign of his body not lasting?

Merriman: Can he come back and be the same guy off that injury?

The Broncos

The Donks are done. Kyle Orton, Chris Simms, or some rookie (a Jr. Rookie at that!). Does it matter? B-Marsh just had hip surgery and should see a 4 game suspension. They still have no defense, maybe even less than last year with the move to 3-4. They have 7 backup RBs, no starter quality, and no Mastermind running game magic.

The Raiders

Don't even kid me! Could nose out the Donks for 3^rd place.

Conclusion

The Chiefs could win the West and make the playoffs. Can they win the Super Bowl? Probably not, but last December did anyone believe the Cards would still be alive in February? I am stoked and excited and sure someone is ready to burst my bubble….

Cutler traded to Bears!!

Great deal. Cutler out of the AFC West is the best thing that could happen outside of being traded to the Chiefs. The Donks got a lot of out the deal but it is very similar to what the Colts got for Elway and they did nothing with those picks.

Per ESPN:

Here are the trade details: The Bears will send their No. 18 pick in 2009 and top pick in 2010, a third-round pick in 2009 and quarterback Kyle Orton to Denver.

Denver will send Jay Cutler and the first of Denver's two fifth-round picks in 2009 to Chicago.

Herm Role playing for the Donks

Cutler to the Chiefs? Gaining ground!

Jay Cutler is more than upset right now. Jay doesn't trust Coach Josh McDaniels at all. That is a big problem for the Donks. That is good for the Chiefs in every way, shape, or form. One possibility is that Jay stays in Denver unhappy, another is that Jay gets traded somewhere else and Sims or a rookie starts in Denver and another is that he is traded to KC for their QB without a jersey #.

I have heard many arguments as to why the Donks would not trade Cutler to KC. The one that keeps coming up is that you can’t do business with a rival like KC-Den.

1. Pat Bowlen is not Al Davis. Pat does not even captain his ship.

2. Scott Pioli is not Carl Peterson. Carl would not make this deal because of his hatred of Denver.

3. Josh McDaniels is not Eric Mangini. I see Pioli making a trade with the Raiders and Al Davis before contacting Mangini and the Browns.

4. No one is responsible for the politics of the situation. Pioli is not responsible for pleasing the fans; he is responsible for putting the best football team on the field. Denver always sells out anyways so McDaniels has no political need to play up the rivalry.

I am convinced more and more that Josh is in over his head. Generally I like to see a young guy handle a situation like this because I myself am young, but he is failing in more ways than one. Here is Cutler's view of the face to face as quoted on ESPN.

"I went in there with every intention of solving the issue, being a Bronco, moving forward as a Bronco," Cutler said. "We weren't in there but about 20 minutes, [McDaniels] did most of the talking and as far as I'm concerned, he made it clear he wants his own guy. He admitted he wanted Matt Cassel because he said he has raised him up from the ground as a quarterback. He said he wasn't sorry about it. He made it clear that he could still entertain trading me because, as he put it, he'll do whatever he feels is in the best interest of the organization."

A couple of things strike me here. One is if you are going to lie, keep the lie going or fix the problem. The other is I am astonished that Josh doesn’t think it is in the best interest of the football team to have a happy, young, Pro Bowl QB even if he wasn’t the first choice. How hard is it to tell the kid that he is the QB you are going to build this team around? In Dallas that was done to Tony Romo and he isn’t half as good as Cutler.

Now there are some good reasons to not want Cutler:

1. His next winning season will be his first since high school.
Cassel's next start will be his first without Randy Moss since high school.

2. He is immature. Completely and totally agree. His ability tells me that hoping he will grow up is worth it.

3. Cassel is a better player. Total non sense. There is a good reason so many teams were willing to give up a 1st rounder for Cutler and only the Chiefs were willing to give up a second rounder for Cassel.

SI reported this which I found interesting:

"I think we were too late to the dance,'' he said, meaning the Chiefs had already made the deal with New England -- a second-round pick for Cassel and linebacker Mike Vrabel. Denver would have given more, likely a first-round pick, but Patriots coach Bill Belichick had his deal done with the Chiefs.

In the end, any way this works out is good for the Chiefs. I would take Cutler for Cassel straight up or better.

Donkey Disarray

It seems the Donks just can't keep shooting themselves in the leg. Err bad use of words but apparently, Brandon Marshall was arrested last night which would be his 4th arrest in his short NFL career. This coming the day after Jay Cutler reported being hurt that the Donks tried to trade him for Matt Cassel. Cutler also called for his teammates to give the Broncos problems. So far, the events seem unrelated, but you never know. If they are related, than thank you Jay and Brandon for sticking it to the man! ESPN was the first one to report this.

Per the world wide leader:

Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who's had a string of off-the-field brushes with the law, has had another.

Marshall was arrested Sunday in Atlanta and booked into the Atlanta City Jail on a disorderly conduct charge. Details of the events leading to Marshall's arrest are not known at this time. A supervisor at the jail would only tell ESPN's John Barr that Marshall was involved in a fight.

Marshall posted a $300 bond and has been released. This is the fourth arrest for Marshall since March 2006. He was suspended for three games last season for repeatedly running afoul of the law -- Marshall's suspension stemmed from seven police-related incidents with his former girlfriend, Rasheedah Wately. But he had his punishment reduced to a single game when he pledged to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that he would stay out of trouble.

I don't know where this will go but I would offer this suggestion to Goodell. A four game suspension for the bad behavior in this case and give him back the two games that was reduced from last year. A six-game suspension is just what the Dr. ordered for this knucklehead. What do you think?