CHIEFS SIGN ZACH THOMAS
The Kansas City Chiefs signed 13-year veteran linebacker, Zach Thomas, to a one year contract said to be $2 million. Thomas, a 7-time Pro Bowl performer, played in Miami for 12 years & then was signed in Dallas. The Cowboys chose not to resign him at season's end.
He joins 13-year vet Mike Vrabel, 12-year vet Mike Goff & 14-year man, Bobby Engram, on the Chiefs' roster. Before some of you begin bitching about the Chiefs signing another 'old guy', you should understand that G.M. Scott Pioli is plugging holes in the dike. I said weeks ago, the Chiefs have only 18-20 NFL quality players on their roster. He's buying himself & new head coach, Todd Haley, some time. Time to draft better players to both start & for depth. It's a stop-gap maneuver & the cost is minimal in terms of cap space Plus, he signed 4 on-field coaches. All 4 of these players have performed at a high level & all 4 have lived squeaky clean lives off the field as well, qualities they hopefully can pass on to younger players who will replace them in the next year or two. These are positive moves by Pioli, he can't plug all the holes in this team with 7 draft picks, there are far too many.
After June 1st, there will be additional salary cap casualties with similar resumes to the four he's already signed. If they are unable to draft a center, Melvin Fowler or Eric Ghiaciuc are unrestricted free agents who haven't caught on yet. Torry Holt is still out there as well. Rebuilding this franchise won't be an overnight project & enlisting the help of a few aging veterans with very good track records will fill a few holes, for now.
He joins 13-year vet Mike Vrabel, 12-year vet Mike Goff & 14-year man, Bobby Engram, on the Chiefs' roster. Before some of you begin bitching about the Chiefs signing another 'old guy', you should understand that G.M. Scott Pioli is plugging holes in the dike. I said weeks ago, the Chiefs have only 18-20 NFL quality players on their roster. He's buying himself & new head coach, Todd Haley, some time. Time to draft better players to both start & for depth. It's a stop-gap maneuver & the cost is minimal in terms of cap space Plus, he signed 4 on-field coaches. All 4 of these players have performed at a high level & all 4 have lived squeaky clean lives off the field as well, qualities they hopefully can pass on to younger players who will replace them in the next year or two. These are positive moves by Pioli, he can't plug all the holes in this team with 7 draft picks, there are far too many.
After June 1st, there will be additional salary cap casualties with similar resumes to the four he's already signed. If they are unable to draft a center, Melvin Fowler or Eric Ghiaciuc are unrestricted free agents who haven't caught on yet. Torry Holt is still out there as well. Rebuilding this franchise won't be an overnight project & enlisting the help of a few aging veterans with very good track records will fill a few holes, for now.
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