Brain Fertilizer

Check out this article for tangential references.

Free agents don't always work out. People get old. Johnny Morton could get cut for salary cap reasons. Priest Holmes' body might finally give up/out. Derrick Johnson might not perform as well at the NFL level.

So, yeah, there are some caveats to what follows.

However, I can't imagine this year not being awesome for Chiefs' fans. We already had an offense that could score on anyone. The biggest problem was the shooting matches we'd have to get in because we also couldn't stop anyone from scoring. Or stop long drives.

But the defensive talent we've acquired this off-season is impressive, to say the least.

If Jared Allen improves on last season's performance (as a 2nd-year player should), if Junior Siavii continues to improve (as a 2nd-year player should), if Ryan Sims plays to his potential, if Derrick Johnson is half as disruptive to opposing offenses as he was in college, if Kendrell Bell stays healthy, if Kavika Mitchell builds on his improvement in the final few games last year and is ready to start at the MLB position, if Warfield's ascension to starting-caliber cornerback wasn't temporary (and he should be even better with a vastly-improved supporting cast), if Patrick Surtain has no lingering problems with his knee and continues making interceptions at his historic rate, if Sammy Knight continues to make big hits and cause fumbles at his historic rate, if Jerome Woods' work with a speed coach pays off and/or Greg Wesley returns to his rookie and 2nd-year level of highlight-reel hits, if Willie Roaf, Will Shields, and Priest Holmes still have at least one year of Pro-bowl performance in them, if Trent Green doesn't have a slump, if Kris Wilson and Mark Boerigter have fully recovered from last year's preseason injuries without any loss of speed or addition of rustiness (meaning they play as well as they did last preseason), if Samie Parker shows the starting-caliber performance he demonstrated at the end of last year is no fluke, if Craphonso Thorpe has now fully recovered from his broken leg and shows his sub-par senior season was because he was working with sub-par college QBs (by performing excellently with an excellent QB in Trent Green), if Boomer Grigsby revitalizes the kicking coverage team, if Dante Hall gets to focus on the return game and takes advantage of the additions to the kick protection team, if Johnny Morton restructures his contract and continues to move the chains on 3rd down like he did last year (little known fact, but Morton actually was among the NFL leaders for 3rd-down catches resulting in first downs...), and if the coaches teach the players, effectively integrate the new talent into the team, and don't make extremely bad play calls...

Well, if all that happens (and it won't, but if), then Kansas City will have one of the best all-time seasons.

If most of them happen, we should be able to win the Super Bowl.

But none of this projection means anything until we actually start playing game s that count, of course. Last year looked pretty good, too, until injuries devastated our WR corps, directly leading to three losses early in the season. And the defense's failure to progress meant we wouldn't have made it out of the first round of the playoffs last year even if we had won those close games that gave us a losing season.

But I feel a great deal of excitement about this year. Either the players we got in the draft or the players we got in free agency would be grounds for optimism and hope...having both sets of great acquisitions is grounds for great excitement.