Chiefs vs. Cardinals: What to Watch For

Last week the Chiefs beat the Bears. It was important even if it was a preseason game, the Chiefs had not won any kind of game exhibition or other wise for nine months. This week the story line will be more about who can play well enough to separate themselves from the pack and try to make this team. A lot of players came from the bottom of the depth chart to make a name for their self against the Bears like Dantrell Savage, Bobby Sippio and Maurice Price but they will have to come out and play lights out consecutive weeks to prove it was no fluke. The receiver competition has pushed Sippio and Price's game to the next level they are both operating like only one of them will make this team and will be trying to one up each other versus the red birds. If they continue to play insane good it could be Jeff Webb who gets the pink slip Webb played ok in his first game and has done fine in training camp but has not wowed like other receivers. One thing that may save Webb is he is a Bill Kuharick draft pick and it makes Bill look better the more of his draft picks make the team. Gunther Cunningham has been exploring this week with the 3-3-5 defense. In this defense the main rusher is a line backer called "The Falcon" Derrick Thomas manned that position when the Chiefs used this defense under Gunther's previous time in K.C. So far the results have been positive the Chiefs deployed Damario Williams in this role and he dominated Damion Mcintosh. Also Turk McBride has been getting reps with the first team at DE if he can fill that spot then Boone can move back to DT and the Chiefs interior rotation could be a lot deeper. Damon Huard and Tyler Thigpen played well enough last week to stop the Chiefs from taking a flyer on Chad Pennington. The next two weeks these QB'S will have a Chris Simms shaped cloud hanging over their perspective heads. Simms will be let go in the next 14 days by the Bucs and has taken a team to the playoffs in his brief career and if the Chief's quarterbacks let their play slip Simms could land in K.C. Huard in particular needs to play well. This year the tie breaker on cuts will be age. If Dantrell Savage lights up the Cards like he did the Bears don't expect to see him in game three or four. The Chiefs know what three running backs they will keep and they know if Savage plays well in all four preseason games they won't be able to cut him and put him on the practice squad. If I were Napolean Harris I would be worried about my job security. Kansas City might not be able to cut him because of salary cap issues but since he was demoted he has been hurt and not able to get reclaim his spot. Harris probably won't play against the Cardinals and will be one week closer to starting the season on the bench.