Let’s get one thing about this post straight. This is not a love song. If reading that once didn’t get the point across, you can click on the link to get a fuller meaning of what I’m saying. What it IS is me calling out Matt Cassel just as I’m sure the coaches in Kansas City are doing. The fans have already spoken their feelings about Cassel, having booed him at a celebrity game at Kaufman stadium last month and given the history of what he has been versus the expectations, you can understand why. Matt was brought into KC off the heels of a not great but promising 2008 campaign in New England when the holy-clefted one, Tom Brady, went down game one and was out for the season. Though the numbers weren’t Earth shattering – roughly 3700 passing yards to go with 21 TDs and 11 INTs – it was enough for KC to go out and trade for the career back-up. Though 2009 was nothing to write home about, he gave the Chiefs reason to gloat about their trade with his 27 TDs vs 7 INTs in 2010 while getting KC into the playoffs for the first time since 2006. There were high hopes at Arrowhead Stadium for a 2011 campaign that was flat all around. Of course, injuries were a large part of the team’s collapse last year. Couple that with an extremely conservative approach from an offensive standpoint and by the time Cassel went down with a season ending injury after only 9 games, he has pretty much fallen off the map heading into 2012. In fact, KC was doing their best to stay in the Peyton Manning sweepstakes this spring, eventually losing out to the Broncos for him. So where in all this does Sky find a reason to make this post? Let’s find out.
Kansas City has a lot – and I mean a lot with four capital letters – of weapons this year. Returning on offense we have Jamaal Charles who, though still an injury risk, is lightning in a bottle and a handy receiver for Cassel who caught 40 and 45 passes from Matt in 2009 and 2010, respectively. To keep Jamaal healthy and to give KC the option of pounding it in the endzone, they brought in Peyton Hillis who is also an adept pass-catcher in his own right, having amassed 61 recs in his pre-Madden cursed 2010 season. When you factor in a full season of Jon Baldwin – a potential sophomore break out player – with known commodities in Dwayne Bowe and Steve Breaston, Cassel is being given every opportunity to succeed this year.  He really needs to have a good year to stay at the helm with the Chiefs this year, which could be fairly easy for him to do if he puts the people around him to use. Again, this ain’t no sleeper post but for where he’s going in drafts, Cassel could totally go Gangnam Style on the competition this year. Let’s just say I’m intrigued and call it a week, shall we?
