Chiefs Preseason Is An Opportunity To Understand What's Already There

The Kansas City Chiefs entered the 2010 preseason looking to make progress. Of course they wanted wins. That's what every player we talked to said, as did Todd Haley. They wanted to win.

But ultimately I think everyone would trade a 0-4 preseason for a 11-win regular season any day.

So the Chiefs set out to improve their team.

The continued move to the 3-4 defense, this time around with a few Romeo Crennel tweaks. The progression of the offense. Finally finding a return man.

There are a lot of things the Chiefs did to improve themselves.

Most importantly, they determined what they already had.

The Chiefs have a lot of moving parts and a lot of new pieces to the organization. The two men in charge of the offense and defense are new. The running back was new and there were a few more parts on the offensive line that had been moved around.

Along with of course improving every aspect of the team during training camp and preseason, the Chiefs were also finding out what these new parts could do.

If it weren't for the preseason games, there's a chance Jackie Battle wouldn't have made the team. Since he went on IR last year, the Chiefs signed a new running back, drafted a new part-time running back and allowed Jamaal Charles to become the feature back in the second half of last season. A lot changed. There's also a chance the Chiefs wouldn't see that Dexter McCluster can be an effective running back.

The Chiefs now know what they have. There's still more to learn, of course, but they can now accurately game plan for the San Diego Chargers. We know now that game plan will include plenty of run plays as well as plenty of conservative pass plays.

Sure, the Chiefs improved over the last month but they also understand what they have on the roster.