Kansas City Chiefs Identity In 2010: Running The Football

Some people have thought that, because of the acquisition of Matt Cassel and Todd Haley, the Kansas City Chiefs will be a passing team moving forward. It more than likely won't be the case in 2010 and I can't see it happening in the next couple years to be honest.

The Chiefs are instead a running team, Chiefs head coach Todd Haley says.

"What I'm excited about is I feel like we're going to have a chance to be a pretty good running football team. I think that's the way, I believe, you win games. I think we're building on that. I'm starting to get excited that we can be pretty productive running the football."

The Chiefs made one change on the offensive line (maybe two if Casey Wiegmann replaces Rudy Niswanger) so they didn't do a whole lot there. But they did luck into Jamaal Charles and sign Thomas Jones. There are strong arguments on whether Charles or Jones will be the feature back but I think we all agree that they'll be a good combo together. They are a strong unit that, at least on the surface, seem to complement each other well.

"It appears that we're No.1, we're winning at the line of scrimmage these first two games. Then it appears to me that our backs are making yards, even if they're not there."

Clearly the first two games of the preseason the Chiefs strength has been running the ball.

It's sort of strange to think like that after GM Scott Pioli's first big move was to go out and hire the offensive coordinator of the high-scoring Arizona Cardinals. It's not a stretch of the imagination to think that Todd Haley got that job because of his offensive mind. Then Pioli went out and traded for a quarterback.

Those two moves made me think the Chiefs would ultimately want to be known as a passing team.

After about a year, I realize that that's not so important to the Chiefs. Clearly it's about wins and I do think that they'd run the ball as much as it takes to win. They did put some weapons around Cassel -- Dexter McCluster, Tony Moeaki and retaining Chris Chambers -- but I think this team will lead with the rush this year.