27-year old Matt Cassel was supposed to be the QB to lead the way to a much improved Chiefs’ offense in 2009 but it didn’t work out that way.  Cassel played in 15 games for the Chiefs this season and he completed 271 of 493 passes (55%) for 2,924 yards with 16 TD passes and 16 INTs (69.9 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 50 times for 189 yards (3.8 ypc) this year.  Cassel has now played in 45 games in his NFL career and he has completed 620 of 1,048 passes (59.2%) for 6,870 yards with 39 TD passes and 29 INTs (79.6 QB Rating).  He also has carried the ball 135 times for 487 yards (3.6 ypc) with 3 TD runs in his career to date.  Hopefully Charlie Weis can get Cassel back on track.

26-year old Brodie Croyle played the best football of his career this year when given the chance to play.  Croyle played in 3 games for the Chiefs last season and he completed 23 of 40 passes (57.5%) for 230 yards with 2 TD passes and 0 INTs (90.6 QB Rating).  Croyle has now played in 16 games in his NFL career and he has completed 173 of 300 passes (57.7%) for 1,631 yards with 8 TD passes and 8 INTs (70.6 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 10 times for 15 yards (1.5 ypc) in his career.  It will be interesting to see if Croyle gets a chance to compete with Matt Cassel for the starting job when next training camp opens.

25-year old Matt Gutierrez is the clipboard holding #3 QB of the Chiefs.  He played in 1 game for the Chiefs last season and he completed his only pass attempt for 3 yards.  Gutierrez has now played in 6 games in his NFL career and he has completed 2 of 2 passes (100%) for 18 yards with 0 TD passes and 0 INTs (104.2 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 5 times for -13 yards (-2.6 ypc) in his career.  Gutierrez will likely have a hard time making the Chiefs next year.

The Chiefs need 25-year old WR Dwayne Bowe to turn into the #1 WR that they think he should be.  He has played in 9 games this season for the Chiefs and he has caught 37 passes for 522 yards (14.1 avg) with 4 TD grabs.  Bowe needs to behave off the field and he needs to produce more on the field.  He has all of the tools to be a elite WR in the NFL but he needs to get motivated to reach that potential.

I think it’s too early to tell if 27-year old Matt Cassel is the long term answer for the Chiefs at QB.  It’s not like he has a lot of weapons to work with on the offense right now.  He has played in 8 games this season and he has completed 144 of 259 passes (55.6%) for 1,472 yards with 10 TD passes and 6 INTs (75.3 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 32 times for 126 yards (3.9 ypc) this year.  Cassel proved last season that he could excel if he had help at the skill positions which he doesn’t have right now in K.C.  Last season Cassel played in all 16 games for the Patriots and he completed 327 of 516 passes (63.4%) for 3,693 yards with 21 TD passes and 11 INTs (89.4 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 73 times for 270 yards (3.7 ypc) with 2 TD runs.  It seems as if Cassel plays as well as he can with the cards that are dealt him.  So if the Chiefs improve at RB, WR and TE in the near future I’m confident that Cassel will do a good job for them.

With Larry Johnson seemingly out of the picture for the time being Dantrell Savage will likely be moving up to the #2 RB role and he might be the starting kickoff returner with Jamaal Charles likely giving up that job to concentrate on offense.  Savage has carried the all 8 times for 41 yards (5.1 ypc) and he has caught 6 passes for 43 yards (7.2 avg) so far this year.  He has also returned 5 kickoffs for 114 yards (22.8 avg) this year.  He will likely be taking Jamaal Charles’ spot on kickoff returns.  Charles has returned 23 kickoffs for 557 yards (24.2 avg) this year.  It will be interesting to see how well Savage handles his bigger workload.

Chiefs’ head coach Todd Haley was supposedly a offensive genius from his time in Arizona.  He thought so much of his own ability that he fired the offensive co-ordinator deciding to do the job himself.  This is too much of a burden on a rookie head coach and it has proven to be a really dumb move by him.  The Chiefs are averaging only 16.8 points per game this season and they are only averaging 258.0 yards per game on offense.  With all of those factors in mind the Chiefs should let Matt Cassel loose.  He has completed 98 of 147 passes (58.5%) for 711 yards with 7 TD passes and 2 INTs (85.1 QB Rating).  Cassel has also carried the ball 15 times for 86 yards (5.7 ypc) this season.  The Chiefs need to get the running game going as it would help slow the pass rush some as they have allowed Cassel to get sacked 14 times already this season.