KC Chiefs Football

Recently we got together with Bob Gretz to ask him some questions about the Chiefs. Gretz talks about his new blog, some surprises of the preseason and has a message for Chiefs fans.

Kansas City Chiefs Football: Congrats on your new blog at bobgretz.com. What are your plans for the blog?

Bob Gretz: Right now we are just trying to grow the website on a weekly basis. We will soon be adding podcasts each week and I think Chiefs and especially football fans will enjoy them. We’ll cover some college football and we’ll increase our overall NFL coverage coming up with the start of the regular season. Where it goes from there, who knows. That’s one thing that I liked about the web when I investigating getting involved: it can be whatever you want it to be. That’s ultimately why I named the site bobgretz.com. What you see is what I want it to be; right now it’s basically Chiefs related, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.

KCCF: What do you think of sports blogging in general?

Bob Gretz: I don’t think the world of sports blogging is any diferent than the world of newspaper writing, sports talk radio and TV: there are some misinformed idiots who clog up the information pipeline with material that’s wrong and poorly reported and there are people who see it and read it and they don’t understand what crap it is. There are also people on the web who do a nice job, who have opinions based on fact and who provide another avenue to the discussion.

KCCF: Which Chiefs’ players have surprised you so far this preseason?

Bob Gretz: There haven’t been too many surprises for me, since I saw all the off-season practices and had an idea for instance that Turk McBride was improved, and Tank Tyler was better and Pat Thomas was pushing for the starting job at MLB.
I guess the one surprise would be RG Adrian Jones. In the off-season practices there are no pads and it’s not real football for the linemen. But once he was in camp in Wisconsin, Jones has been solid the whole time, actually better than I thought he would be. whether that’s good enough for the spot, we still have to see.
Also rookie FB Mike Cox has been a bit of a surprise. He was signed because he played at Georgia Tech for Chan Gailey and knows the offense, but Cox has shown some skills. He should be the fullback.

KCCF: What Chiefs’ players did you expect to see more from this preseason?

Bob Gretz: The obvious is Branden Albert. The injury was a setback for their offense and for him. It’s not something that can’t be overcome if he stays on his rehab course and can get on the field early in September.

KCCF: What are you thoughts about Glenn Dorsey?

Bob Gretz: What a powerful force he’s going to be inside. He’s got some missed practice time to make up, but once he gets his feet under him and the Chiefs coaching staff sees more and more of him in action, I think he’ll show up more and more. He just explodes off the line of scrimmage and he’s going to start drawing a lot of attention from offensive lines. That’s going to help everybody else on that front.

KCCF: Do you think Dantrell Savage has done enough to make the final cut? What about Bobby Sippio?

Bob Gretz: Yes on Savage, and probably no on Sippio. Savage has done everything asked of him and with the exception of his rookie blunder in Miami of stepping out of bounds at the 2-yard line, he’s done a very good job. Sippio has been Sippio, it’s just that the numbers don’t add up for him. Now, that could change early in the season because of the injury suffered by Will Franklin. He’ll be out 2 to 4 weeks, so the roster may have to have an extra WR when it comes to the 53-man limit. That could give Sippio a chance. But right now I would put him sixth, behind Bowe-Darling-Franklin-Price-Webb.

KCCF: Who are some players that you think might not make the final cut that might come as a surprise to some of us?

Bob Gretz: That’s tough to guess because Chiefs fans have been paying attention and they’ve heard the chatter on this site, my site and others, so I don’t think anybody is going to come out of nowhere. Rookie free agents like Cox, LB Wes Dacus and CB Maurice Leggett have real shots at the final roster. I think the final three or four roster spots will be very fluid over the next couple weeks for this team as they investigate the players who are released by other teams.

KCCF: Any advice for Chiefs fans this year as it could possibly be a long one?

Bob Gretz: Chiefs fans need to be patient and I know they are tired of being patient. But I think the organization has done the things necessarily to get this ship turned in the right direction and allows them a chance to build a foundation that will keep this team among the contenders for a long period of time. There is however, a lot of work that remains to be done. The problem the Chiefs had in 2007 was very simple: a lack of talent. Teams don’t go 4-12 because of bad luck. It has everything to do with no having enough good players. They are changing that, but there were a lot of roster holes and there remain some. How quickly this turns around depends on the ability to Herm Edwards and Bill Kuharich to evaluate talent and then the coaching staff to take that talent and make it work.

Thanks again Mr. Gretz.

Bob Gretz’s blog can be found at www.bobgretz.com