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CHIEFS OFFICIALLY UPGRADE TWO
November 12th – 5:13 PM

As reported earlier today, the Chiefs appeared to be getting healthier. This evening, the team officially upgraded the status of two injured players.

LB JoVan Belcher (head) and WR Chris Chambers (foot) both were upgraded to full participants in practice today.

LB Mike Vrabel (hip) and G Wade Smith (ankle) were still listed as limited today, while LB David Herron (knee) missed the entire practice session.

HALEY SEES PROGRESS IN RECEIVING CORE
November 12th – 4:49 PM

There was no secret when the Chiefs opened training camp this past July that Chiefs head coach Todd Haley was not happy with the overall play of his wide receiver core.

“To play receiver in the NFL I think you must catch most of the footballs. If you don’t catch most of them – and there’s always going to be some balls that end up on the ground for one reason or the other – to be an NFL receiver you must be able to catch the football. That’s the top prerequisite for wide receiver. It’s not just Dwayne, it’s any wide receiver who is out there. They must concentrate and catch the football whether they’re going to take a hit, or whether they’re on the sideline and they have to get their feet in, or it’s an easy ball over the middle that they’ve got to concentrate, or it’s a deep ball, that’s the job description.“

Those were Haley’s post-practice comments way back on August 2nd of this year. From that day forward, Haley would continue to ride the Chiefs receiving core very hard. The group literally seemed to take two steps back before they began to take the step forward that Haley was looking to see. By the time the season opener at Baltimore rolled around, the overall focus of the receivers had improved, but Haley still wasn’t quite comfortable with where this position group was at.

Nine weeks later, the Chiefs are still dealing with drops. But the group has also turned in some very nice catches. Bowe’s TD catch vs. San Diego and Mark Bradley’s TD reception at Philadelphia are two of the finer catches you’ll see across the league this season. Then there have been other encouraging signs such as the quick acclimation periods of WRs Bobby Wade, Lance Long and Chris Chambers. Steady improvement overall, but still up quite to Haley’s overall standards.

“I would say receiver from when we started this whole deal has made progress,” Haley said. “Some of it’s been that we’ve had some new bodies, some of it’s been the chemistry and some of it’s just been working together and getting to know the system and getting more practices under our belt together.“

The Chiefs have had a number of new bodies come in during the season and offseason. To put it all in perspective, take a look at the turnover the Chiefs have had at receiver over the past season. The following players were the Chiefs rostered receivers on opening day in 2008.

*Dwayne Bowe
Will Franklin
Maurice Price
*Devard Darling
Jeff Webb
*denotes starter

Obviously, four of those five players are no longer on the Chiefs active roster. Only two are actually still on the team in team in any capacity. Bowe is still a starter, while Darling landed on injured reserve with a knee injury this preseason.

Improvement is difficult with turnover. It’s something that the Chiefs have dealt with at many other positions this season as well. Unfortunately, those are the realities that go along with remodeling a football team.

From a receiving standpoint, that group’s improvement correlates directly with Haley’s confidence as a play-caller.

“When you have improvement you gain confidence and you gain confidence as a coach and gain confidence as a play-caller, the quarterback gains confidence and all of a sudden you start making some plays.” Haley explained.

WR Larry Fitzgerald certainly improved his game learning under Haley. Having a guy like that would make me pretty comfortable as well. It sure was apparent last year with Haley calling the plays and QB Kurt Warner delivering the football.

FEELING THE PINCH
November 12th – 3:07 PM

The Chiefs have six wide receivers. On Sunday, one of those men will feel the roster pinch. In Jacksonville, it was WR Bobby Wade who got caught in a numbers game and found himself inactive. This week, Wade my find himself active while another Chiefs receiver stays on the sideline.

Nobody is sure exactly which way head coach Todd Haley is leaning with his receivers group. All we know is that he’s basically eliminated the prospect of having all six wide receivers active this Sunday in Oakland.

”It’s going to be tough,” Haley responded when asked if all six receivers would be active on Sunday. “We’re a little beat-up on the offensive line and we have other issues, safety issues. It’s going to be tough and we went through that preliminarily last night and somebody’s going to get left out. That’s the hard thing.“

Benching Wade created a small wave of attention leading up to kickoff, primarily since Wade was the Chiefs second receiving option and also handled the punt return duties. Haley insisted earlier this week that Wade was strictly a numbers casualty. Chiefs fans have to assume that Wade again finds himself as an option for inactive status again this week. Of course, he’s not in small company either.

Really, the only two receivers who we can safely assume to be active are Dwayne Bowe and Chris Chambers. Bowe is obviously the Chiefs top receiving threat, while Chambers impressed mighty last weekend when he turned in two TDs (including a season-long 54-yarder) in his first career start with the Chiefs. He had been a member of the team for just five days.

Going down the line, the next receiver who one would assume to be safe is Lance Long. Long was targeted a team-high 11 times last Sunday and led the team with eight catches. Overall, Long made a good impression in his opportunity to take over the starting slot receiving position. Unfortunately, for Long, Haley also vivdly remembers Long’s error at the end of the first half.

“I think Lance should have been a bright spot if he had stayed in bounds at the end of the [Jacksonville game] half, which was a killer,” Haley said. “It probably cost us points unfortunately. So, what should have been a bright spot for me as a coach it’s hard to overlook that gaffe. That’s something you pride yourself on and especially somebody that I’ve already coached before. Then he makes a dumb mistake and that’s hard for me to swallow and I know it’s hard for him and I know he wishes he had it back.“

Haley then went on to say that little mistakes such as Long’s are the reason that the Chiefs have struggled so badly in closing out close ballgames. So, just four days after his best performance as a pro, Long could also be a possibility to feel the numbers pinch on Sunday.

Then there are receivers Mark Bradley and Terrance Copper. Although Bradley factors into the receiving game much more than Copper, Copper is one of the team’s most valued players when it comes to the special teams units. Both of these players are candidates as well.

Assuming Haley sticks to his guns on Sunday, it’s likely that only two of the six receivers will feel safe heading into personnel talks this weekend. We’ll see the final result 90 minutes prior to kickoff on Sunday.

CASSEL NOT HAPPY ABOUT SEYMOUR TRADE
November 12th – 12:06 PM

Here is an interesting nugget about two former teammates squaring off against one another this Sunday. QB Matt Cassel and DE Richard Seymour were together in New England for the entirety of Cassel’s four-year tenure with that club.

Prior to the start of the 2009 regular season, both players found new homes. Cassel embraced his trade to Kansas City. He didn’t, however, embrace the Patriots decision to send his former teammate to Oakland.

”I know Richard quite well from being a teammate of his for four years and I wasn’t happy about the fact that they made that trade that week to be completely honest because I know what kind of player he is,” Cassel said. “And he’s a special player and a great person and a great leader. For the Oakland Raiders to pick him up in that trade, I thought it was a great move by them. I have a lot of respect for him as a player and a person.”

CHIEFS GETTING HEALTHIER
November 12th – 11:59 AM

Yesterday there were new faces, missing men and a load of injured players at the Chiefs practice session. Today, things got back to normal.

The Chiefs rehab area was a much quieter place late this morning as only LBs Mike Vrabel (hip) and David Herron (knee) occupied the zone. Judging by looks, Vrabel seems to be a bit ahead of Herron in rehab as Herron is wearing a knee brace. Andy Studebaker continued to fill Vrabel’s absence, while newly acquired LB Justin Rogers is also working in the rotation at outside linebacker.

LB Jovan Belcher (head) was running around at full speed with the defense after getting knocked a bit crooked last Sunday in Jacksonville.

S Jon McGraw (thigh) practiced again for a second-straight day, although it looks like today he took his rehab a step further and ran with the first-team defense in early practice drills. WR Chris Chambers (foot) didn’t seem to be slowed on his bum wheel. G Wade Smith, the lone other Chief on the injured list yesterday was also in full dress running through drills.

OAKLAND AN EMOTIONAL PLACE FOR CASSEL
November 12th – 10:13 AM

On Sunday, Chiefs QB Matt Cassel will return to Oakland’s Alameda Coliseum for the first time since turning in a four touchdown, 108.1 QB rating performance against the Raiders last December 14th. That 49-26 Patriots victory will forever be inked into the mind of Cassel, but not because of his performance. That was the first game that Cassel has played in without having a father. Last year, Cassel’s father Greg Cassel passed away during the week leading up to kickoff in Oakland.

“That game in particular was a pretty emotional game for me,” Cassel said. “My father just passed away that Wednesday and we went in and it’s quite a place to play. But for me personally it was quite an experience and quite a game. I was able to honor him in a nice way by us getting the victory there with the Patriots.“

When something like this happens, the life for an NFL player suddenly becomes much bigger than just football. Chiefs fans can certainly remember Trent Green’s gutsy performance in San Diego after Green’s father passed away in 2005.

“I’m sure there’ll be a little walk down memory lane,” Cassel said. “Obviously, it wasn’t the highlight of my young life so far, but at the same time, I thought my team and I honored him in a special way last year.”

KINGS OF CONTROVERSY
November 12th – 6:53 AM

The Chiefs have had their fair share of controversy strike the organization over the past two weeks. But don’t even begin to think about going around talking about how controversial this football team is. There is no place for that kind of blasphemy to be uttered in the AFC West.

Come on now, we wouldn’t want to offend our well-behaved friends to the west, the Oakland Raiders.

“We’re still the controversial team, Raiders CB Nnamdi Asomugha proclaimed. “Whether we have a week or two off from the media, there is still so much to pull from what we’ve had to deal with that we always know it’s going to be something that is brought up.”

But Nnamdi, haven’t you kept up with news across the NFL? Or even news within your own division for that matter? If so, then you would have heard that the Chiefs just suspended, then released a two-time Pro Bowler that was a shoe-in to become the franchise’s all-time leading rusher.

“Whether the team that we’re playing against has an immediate issue at that time, that still doesn’t overshadow the fact that we’ve had our issues and people have taken their stabs at us as well, and will continue to, whether they go away or not,” Asomugha continued.

Touche, Nnamdi. Touche.

Let me officially anoint Oakland the “Kings of Controversy.” Oh, too late?

All kidding aside, the latest soap opera storyline coming out of Raider Nation is a very serious one. On Monday, the same day that the Chiefs released embattled RB Larry Johnson mind you, the NFL implemented an evaluation process tied to the personal conduct policy to determine wither Oakland head coach Tom Cable requires mandatory counseling. The process stems from allegations of domestic abuse and anger management.

The NFL’s investigation centers on Cable’s training camp incident with assistant coach Randy Hanson, a skirmish that left Hanson with a broken jaw. Since reports of the inner-office fight in Oakland, several more serious allegations against Cable have come to light as well. These allegations also involve physical abuse, only these situations weren’t with fellow working men; these situations involved women, a former wife and a former girlfriend of Cable.

It should also be noted that, on October 22nd, Napa district attorney Gary Lieberstein announced that no chargers would be filed against Cable in the Hanson matter. Despite the dropped charges, however, the league could still step in and take action on the situation. Unfortunately, these types of issues occur all across America. Cable, however, is a very public figure as the leader of a National Football League organization.

“It’s neither (a distraction or a rallying point), because it’s never been discussed,” Asomugha said regarding the Cable situation’s impact inside Oakland’s locker room. “The first day that it came out we were playing a game, but when we came back (Cable) addressed it briefly and just told us not to let it me a distraction, because he’s not making it be a distraction.”

“Since then no one has brought it up,” Asomugha continued.. “The thing that you have to realize is that so many stories come out throughout the year, whether it is every week or it’s week-to-week and you kind of grow numb to the story. Every player can kind of attest to this – it’s like when there is a story out there, it’s rarely a stretch because we hear stuff so often. We don’t let it be an issue. It’s a bigger deal to everyone that is not involved in the organization than it is to us.”

Whether or not the team has been distracted is debatable. Naturally, rumors have spread like wildfire across every national and local sports outlet regarding Cable’s future in Oakland. The fact that last weekend was the Raiders bye week didn’t help the issue from being dispelled either.

Honestly, would the earth not be spinning on its proper axis if the Raiders front office weren’t rumored to be scheming a plan to fire its head coach? Didn’t we just go through this with Lane Kiffin a year ago? Haven’t the Raiders gone through five different head coaches in the last five years? Shouldn’t we have learned something by now?

Yahoo’s Jason Cole has cited a source familiar to the case that the Raiders plan to cooperate with the NFL investigation fully because “Oakland owner Al Davis is hoping to gather enough information to fire Cable with cause at the end of the season so that Davis doesn’t have to pay Cable.” Kiffin was fired “with cause” on September 30th of last year.

From the looks of it, our “friends” to the west certainly seem to be heading down the path that leads to their sixth head coach in as many years, but who knows for certain. Cable obviously didn’t have much to say about the outside distractions during his conference call with the Kansas City media yesterday.

“For us, that stuff is someone else’s business and we’re just trying to get this team on the right track,” Cable said. “I know they’re trying to do the same thing in Kansas City, I think we all kind of have the same battles going on.”

For once, the Chiefs and Raiders can agree on something. Both teams are fighting to stay on course despite a recent run of highly-publicized, national storylines.

But, just to be clear…because we don’t want to offend anyone…the Raiders are still the most controversial team in the NFL, right?

“Right,” Asomugha answered laughing.