Chiefs fans, players thinking of next year

By Mike Ash  |   Friday, December 21, 2007  |  Comments( 1 )

Kansas City Chiefs
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With Kansas City currently mired in its worst losing streak in decades, the Chiefs travel to the Motor City this weekend to square off against the similarly struggling Detroit Lions. And from there, it's onto New York for the final game of the season, in which the Chiefs will play the woeful Jets in Week 17.

During any other year, this sort of schedule to finish out the campaign would have been nothing short of a blessing for the Chiefs as they battled for a playoff spot. Of course, having lost seven straight games, 4-10 Kansas City's playoff train departed the station quite some time ago. And it's the shuttle to the 2008 NFL Draft that Chiefs fans are currently boarding.

If the season ended today, Kansas City would have the seventh overall pick in the draft, the highest it has selected since trading up two spots to the No. 6 position for defensive tackle Ryan Sims in 2001. Should the Chiefs lose their final two games, they stand an excellent chance of picking in the top five, something they haven't done since taking linebacker Derrick Thomas with the fourth choice in 1989.

The Grand Canyon-sized chasm between the careers of Sims and Thomas may explain why so many Chiefs fans are hoping to see the losing streak continue over the final two games. While the team's luck with high picks is hardly indicative of the draft as a whole, the last time Kansas City had a top-five selection, it landed a future Hall of Fame superstar who played an enormous part in the team's success for over a decade. The last time the Chiefs chose in the lower half of the top 10, they landed a Hall of Shame draft bust who, five short years later, isn't even with the team anymore.

The difference between those draft slots might not seem like much, but for the Chiefs over the years, it's been the difference between a franchise player and a franchise setback. And even though a high pick doesn't actually guarantee a thing, it's easy to understand why fans want to maximize their chances of landing a truly great player by losing out to end the 2007 campaign.

Kansas City's players are also looking toward next season, but in the opposite manner of their fan base. Defensive end Jared Allen, voted to his first Pro Bowl on Tuesday, referred to the Chiefs' final two games as building blocks for 2008.

"Its easier to have motivation in the offseason to work hard when you have stuff to build off of," Allen said Wednesday to reporters. "If you can go win a couple games and have some good positive things come out of those games, it's easier to build off of those than it is to look back and say this is what we have to correct this offseason."

Other members of the roster have expressed similar thoughts about their final games. And for a team already eliminated from playoff contention, it can be difficult to find motivation as the season slips away. But for the Chiefs, getting a win for their young quarterback would definitely be an important victory as they look forward to 2008.

No matter what happens in the final two games, it could be argued that the Chiefs will benefit from it. The ideal scenario, though, may be what unfolded last Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, when Brodie Croyle and the rest of the Chiefs' young starters posted solid efforts but ultimately played just well enough to lose and keep their grasp on a high draft pick.

That may not be as easy to do against 6-8 Detroit, however, as the slumping Lions currently have the second-worst pass defense in the league. If Croyle plays well and Kansas City breaks its losing streak, will the fans bemoan the potential loss of their team's top-10 draft pick? Or will the excitement of seeing their young QB succeed manage to soothe some of the disappointment?

If the Chiefs' tiring defense continues to struggle in the way it did last Sunday, that question may not matter. And, ultimately, that may be what fans are hoping to see. Because for Kansas City, two losses with strong performances from Croyle to close the season might be the best of both worlds.
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