Building the Bottom of the Roster

Nov 07, 2008, 8:39:26 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

The Chiefs are just beginning the second half of the season and if the final eight weeks are anything like the first eight, this year’s edition will set records for the number of players who have come through the team’s locker room.

Already there have been 71 different players on the 53-man roster and through eight games there have been 58 players dressed and active for a game. There have been 20 different players on the practice squad.

The door to the roster has become a revolving one and it’s been spinning wildly this week. Five new players were added to the active roster, including draft choices Kevin Robinson and Michael Merritt who were elevated from different injury lists.

Some of the activity is due to injury. Quarterbacks Ingle Martin and Quinn Gray are members of the Chiefs because Brodie Croyle and Damon Huard are done for the season. There are other examples.

But a lot of this activity is part of a bigger picture: the rebuilding of the Chiefs. It’s something the team has done for the last two years and will continue to do.

At this time of the year, there’s little a team can do to improve the top half of its roster. The trading deadline has passed. Few players with starter’s ability become available. When they do, like former Falcons-Raiders cornerback DeAngelo Hall who was released by Oakland on Wednesday, they come with a load of baggage that many teams are not interested in dealing with.

But there are ways to improve the bottom of the roster, the talent holding down spots No. 45 through No. 53. By scavenging the waiver wire and the so called “on the street” free agents, there are times that teams can find hidden gems. In the world of material goods they like to say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Well the same is true in the NFL. There are a host of players who failed with one team, but landed with another and had a nice career. The Chiefs of the 1990s did a great job of recycling when it came to players. Guys like LB Tracy Simien, TE Keith Cash, FB Kimble Anders, LB Anthony Davis, S Martin Bayless, DT Joe Phillips, WR Willie Davis, T Ricky Siglar, WR J.J. Birden and LB Tracy Rogers all came from other teams and became starters for the Chiefs in the 1990s.

That’s how Tony Richardson got to the Chiefs, as did Brian Waters; both became Pro Bowl players. At one point they joined the Chiefs as player No. 45 through 53. But then they worked their way up the roster.

The Chiefs have already seen that happen this season with WR Mark Bradley. He was signed on October 1 and was a starter by October 19. LB Rocky Boiman was signed on October 15 and he’ll be in the starting lineup this weekend against the Chargers for the injured Derrick Johnson.

As they are rebuilding this roster, the Chiefs cannot fill every spot with a draft choice. They had 12 choices in the ‘08 NFL Draft and all 12 are now on the roster. But most years they’ll have only seven choices. It would take more than seven drafts with every choice making the team to fill out the roster.

No coach or front office has that kind of time or that kind of success rate in the draft to field their team. That’s what makes the street free agents important parts of any rebuild. They don’t come with big price tags. They don’t show up with wild expectations. They are just trying to stay in the game and that generally makes for hard working players.

As the Chiefs continue through the 2008 season, expect them to continue to churn the bottom part of their roster. Every team would like 53 solid players and never consider replacing them. That team hasn’t been put together yet. Where the Chiefs are standing right now, the more players they can look at increases the chances of finding a player to plug into their roster beyond this season.

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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A former beat reporter who covered the Pittsburgh Steelers during their glory years, Gretz covered the Chiefs for the Kansas City Star for nine years. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Board of Selectors. He has been the senior columnist for the Chiefs web site since its inception.