FedEx NFL Ground Player of the Year

According to Josh Looney from kcchiefs.com, Jamaal Charles has won the FedEx NFL Ground Player of the Year.

Charles has won the award over the NFL rushing leader Arian Foster, and Atlanta running back Michael Turner.

Chiefs fans everywhere knew of how good Charles was this season. Now with this award and his first Pro Bowl selection, the nation can start to take notice.

Charles was nominated for the FedEx NFL Ground Player of the Week on four different occasions, winning once. This was FedEx's description of Charles on nfl.com:

"Charles rushed for 1,467 yards and averaged 6.38 yards per carry (230 carries), helping the Kansas City Chiefs win the AFC West title and reach the playoffs. Charles joined Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown (291 attempts, 1,863 yards, 6.40 yards per carry in 1963) as the only players in NFL history to have at least 1,400 rushing yards and average more than 6.30 yards per carry in a single season. Charles played in all 16 games and had five rushing touchdowns including a 56-yard touchdown in Week 1."

Because of Charles' win, FedEx is donating $25,000 to the Safe Kids USA in Kansas City.

Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers won the Air Player of the Year.

And let's not forget that one more Chief has a chance to win an award today (cough Todd Haley cough).

Quarterback Situation

The NFL draft might not be until April, but some Chiefs blogs are obsessing about it.

The one that I am talking about is ArrowheadPride. They've recently done an article on the quarterback situation in Kansas City, saying that the Chiefs must take a quarterback in this year's draft. The reasons were several, but none was I that convinced of.

You can argue all you want that Cassel is more of a game manager than an elite quarterback. I won't disagree with you there. Elite quarterbacks can lead their team to the playoffs no matter the team around them. Game managers require the team to play at a decent level around them to be successful.

But let's not forget that Cassel is fresh off his first Pro Bowl and third offensive coordinator. I bring up the coordinator because Cassel has not gotten a fair share of continuity like other quarterbacks do. Nonetheless, perhaps Cassel will never be an elite quarterback.

But who in this year's draft will be an elite quarterback?

Here's the top 11 quarterback prospects: Blaine Gabbert (Mizzou), Cam Newton (Auburn), Ryan Mallet (Arkansas), Jake Locker (Washington), Colin Kaepernick (Nevada), Pat Devlin (Delaware), Andy Dalton (TCU), Christian Ponder (Florida St), Ricky Stanzi (Iowa), Nathan Enderle (Idaho), and Greg McElroy (Bama).

Now, these rankings aren't necessarily in order, but these names aren't necessarily synonymous with elite. None of them are projected to go number one like Andrew Luck (Stanford) or Matt Barkley (USC) could go next season. In fact, most of these quarterbacks would be "projects," according to ESPN scouts.

With the 21st pick in the draft, should Kansas City gamble with taking a quarterback?

No, not with the other needs the team needs to address. Wide receiver, linebacker, and offensive lineman are all needs more prevalent than quarterback. Even with back-up Brodie Croyle likely leaving this offseason, I'm not sure if I would draft a quarterback. And if I did draft a quarterback, it would probably be somewhere in the 2nd to 4th round; perhaps a Stanzi, Ponder, even a McElroy, someone like that. One that wouldn't be a necessarily high draft pick and one that we could take the time to develop; in other words, one that really wouldn't compete for the starting job right off the bat.

But even then, why not go get a free agent back up? Remember John David Booty from USC? He was a fifth round pick in 2008 and is available. I mean, drafting a quarterback is such a hit-or-miss task that maybe we shouldn't even try this season on drafting one in the middle rounds. The last time we tried that, we got Croyle, who didn't turn out quite like the Chiefs hoped. And with the success Pioli showed last season with drafting in the middle rounds, I have faith that he can add that same kind of talent again this season.

Now, I do think that the quarterback position is an important one, but for this draft, let's remember that Cassel had a good season. Let's bring in some more talent to surround him with.

Willie Roaf, Hall of Fame

As the Super Bowl approaches, awards are being handed out. Yesterday, it was Defensive Player of the Year. Today, it was Offensive Player of the Year, which went to Tom Brady (I would have made an argument for Jamaal Charles, but Tom Brady was just that good this season).

Among these awards will be the 2011 Hall of Fame class. This year, one former Chief has been announced a finalist for the Hall of Fame. That player is Willie Roaf.

Roaf was the 8th pick in the 1st round of the 1993 draft. He was selected by the New Orleans Saints, not a far distance away from Louisiana Tech, which is where he attended college.

Roaf would spend nine seasons with the Saints, attending seven Pro Bowls (1994-2000 seasons) and having two first-team All-Pro selections (1994, 1995). After suffering a season ending knee injury in 2001, the Saints traded Roaf to Kansas City for a third round draft pick.

With the Chiefs from 2002 to 2005, Roaf was voted to the Pro Bowl every single season, anchoring a veteran offensive line that helped lead the NFL in scoring in 2002 and 2003, and lead the NFL in total yards in 2004 and 2005. In 2004, he was voted to his third first-team All-Pro selection.

Also, he is a member of the NFL's All-Decade team of the 1990s and 2000s.

Roaf is very deserving of the Hall of Fame, and although he spent the majority of his career with another team, I will proudly support his acceptance into the NFL's ultimate honor.

Wednesday is the Coach of the Year award. Let's see if Todd Haley can bring it home.

Defensive Player of the Year?

Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

Today, the Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year was announced. The winner is Steeler's safety Troy Polamalu. He edged out Packers linebacker Clay Matthews by two votes. Also receiving votes were Chicago players Julius Peppers and Brian Urlacher, and Baltimore players Ed Reed and Haloti Ngata.

Troy Polamalu is a great player and means a lot to his team, just like the other players that received votes. However, I don't know why another player didn't receive any votes. That player is Tamba Hali.

Tamba Hali had a great statistical season. He had 52 tackles, four forced fumbles, and 14.5 sacks.

These numbers are good, but even as far as linebackers go, they are not the best. DeMarcus Ware had more sacks and tackles than Hali this season. So I'm not going to sit here and try to tell you he was the best; what I am going to tell you is that, in my opinion, no defensive player meant more to their team than Hali.

This has commonly been a trait associated with Polamalu, that the Steelers struggle without him in the lineup. Well, imagine how much the Chiefs defense would have struggled without Hali. Really think about it.

Not well should have been your conclusion.

Remember how bad the Chiefs defense performed after we traded Jared Allen. That's similar to what the Chiefs defense would have looked like without Hali. Without his sacks or hits or quarterback hurries, how many games would we have won? Plus, he did it with injury. And unlike Polamalu, he didn't miss a game.

So, if the Associated Press is entirely basing it on stats, they probably made the right choice. If they want to base it on the intangibles that a player brings to his team, then Hali should have got a vote or two.

Chiefs Perform in Pro Bowl

In today's Pro Bowl, Kansas City was well represented. How were they well represented? By accounting for three AFC touchdowns, that's how.

AP Photo/ Marco Garcia

It started with Jamaal Charles (naturally). On the AFC's first scoring drive, Matt Cassel handed off the ball and Charles did the rest. It was a six play, 67 yard, touchdown ending drive that had Charles getting the ball five of those six plays. Cassel threw to Bowe for a first down on the one other play. Charles would end the day with an AFC high 72 yards rushing on 10 attempts (7.2 yard average) and one touchdown.


Cassel was shaky at times, completing just 5 of 12 passes and having 2 interceptions. But he also had two touchdown passes, one by the grace of an untackling defense. He would finish with 95 yards passing and a 69.8 qb rating.

Dwayne Bowe would finish with 4 receptions for 54 yards.

Brian Waters had a Pro Bowl offensive lineman day (which means he, along with all the other offensive and defensive linemen, didn't do a whole lot), and Berry looked about as motivated as the rest of the AFC defense, getting beat by former Chief Tony Gonzalez on a route in the end zone and getting ran over by St. Louis running back Steven Jackson on his way to the end zone.

All-in-all, the game might have been a blow out, but the Chiefs players played admirably. For all the highlights of the game, go here.

Pro Bowl Pessimist

Aaron M. Sprecher/NFL

This Pro Bowl finds five Kansas City Chiefs participating. Three were voted in (Charles, Waters and Bowe), one got a spot when the Steelers advanced to the Super Bowl (Berry), and one got in when there was an injury to Tom Brady. That of course, is Matt Cassel.

Now, when this injury was first announced, many quickly pointed to the link between Cassel and Brady. Indeed, it does seem to be an odd connection that these two players have. But, if Cassel is not lucky, he could unfortunately be compared to another quarterback.

Now, this is a stretch to say the least, but the pessimist in me can't ignore it. With the Pro Bowl a couple of hours away, I am anxious to see how Cassel performs. Because, believe it or not, it can be an indicator of how his career is going to go.

This is a bold and some may say a ridiculous statement. After all, it's just the Pro Bowl. It's so crazy, I don't even believe my own argument or point. But it's one that should be made. So here it goes.

Derek Anderson. This name should sound familiar. He was a starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals this season and before that the Cleveland Browns.

In 2007, Anderson had failed to win the starting job from Charlie Frye, but by game two, was the Browns full time starter at quarterback. The Browns would go on to a 10-6 record but no playoff appearance. In that season, Anderson was 298 of 527 (56.5%) for 3,787 yards, 29 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. He even added 3 rushing touchdowns that season.

These numbers didn't earn Anderson a Pro Bowl spot though. This resembles Matt Cassel and his initial Pro Bowl snub.

Some more interesting stats is that over Anderson's last six games in 2007, he barely completed 50% of his passes and had a qb rating of 62.1. We probably all remember how Cassel ended 2010, with a bad showing in the last regular season game (19.1 qb rating) and an even worse showing against the Ravens (20.4 qb rating) in the playoffs.

And, here's another creepily similar fact. Anderson was a Pro Bowl alternate that season but got in after Tom Brady withdrew after an injury suffered in the Super Bowl. Besides the injury being suffered in the Super Bowl, doesn't that sound familiar?

Aaron M. Sprecher/NFL

Now, there are more differences than similarities between Anderson and Cassel obviously. And I hope there are more after the game. Anderson went 10 for 26 for 103 yards and an interception in his Pro Bowl. This was a sign of things to come. He was benched midway through the following season for Brady Quinn after dismal play and his career has yet to be revived even after a change of scenery.

I'm not saying that if Cassel performs poorly in today's Pro Bowl, his career will go the way of Anderson's. I just saw some similarities.

In other news of the Pro Bowl, here's a video of Jamaal Charles being miked up at the Pro Bowl. Also, here's my prediction of the score: AFC 35, NFC 31. But, at the end of the day, who care's about the score.