Chop Talk Highlights From Sunday, May 13th

There was some great Chiefs talk on Chop Talk this week with guests Kent Babb of the Kansas City Star, Cordell (@TheFilmRoom), and former Chiefs defensive tackle and two-time All-Pro selection, Bill Maas.

Here are just a few small bits from each of the guests. To listen to the full show follow this link.

Kent Babb

BJ, I'm actually kind of conflicted about this because I'm not an especially old guy but I really like old-time football. I don't like the punt Halo rule, I don't like the defenseless receiver rule. I don't like any of that stuff. I like going to a football game and somebody's going to get their lights knocked out. But I also am a human being and I understand and I've interacted a lot with these guys off the field and I know that's not exactly safe. So I'm not really even sure what should be done. I don't really want them to change the NFL. I love football and I love the way it is.

You're taking a generation, or part of a generation of future NFL players of America out of the pool. I think at that point a fear of these concussions and injuries and things like that, I think parents are going to get a lot more careful. So football in 20 years may be looking a lot different than what we see right now.

If I had to put money on it I'd still say that Jon Asamoah is the left guard of the future.

(On Bowe's possible signing long-term deal) That's a $50 million question....Nothing's ever simple with Dwayne Bowe. I think anyone who has followed his career since '07 when the Chiefs drafted him, it's never really simple with him. Depending upon how you look at it, it's either complicated or action-packed....I think it's going to drag-out, I definitely think it's possible there's going to be a training camp hold-out, and I'm not sure what I'd do for the Chiefs.

Sam (Mellinger) wrote a good column this weekend on how the Chiefs should just really start ignoring the fact that he was a knucklehead, well I don't think they can. I really don't, I disagree with Sam on this. Because right now the sample size for Dwayne Bowe is we've seen more knucklehead than we've seen electrifying receiver. Now it's close, there was three seasons of knucklehead and two seasons of electrifying receiver.

I bet Romeo Crennel doesn't have an enemy in the world. Everybody likes Romeo Crennel, Everyone wants to please him whether you're the guy doing his dry cleaning or the guy playing linebacker. You don't want to upset or disappoint Romeo Crennel. For now, I think guys are going to want to please him, they're not going to want to disappoint him. But if he's ineffective going into the season or maybe next season, nobody's going to care about that huggie bear stuff.

Babb joined us for a little over 30 minutes and these are just a few of the bits from his interview. We talked a little bit about the story he wrote for the Kansas City Star when he had a chance to sit down and talk with former Chief, Art Still. Lot of good stuff in that story that can be found here.

Cordell (@TheFilmRoom)

Everybody on twitter is probably familiar with the draftnik community. Guys who are 24/7, 365 scouting these college kids and giving them projections where they're going to go, 1st round, 2nd round.... But at the end of the day you're dealing with over 200 names 1st round through the 7th round. Being a Chiefs fan, especially for me, I love my team and how does all this apply to the team. Myself, Jason Madson and Jinx Allessio are going to do this upcoming season are going to target guys specifically for the Chiefs.

So we're going to look at the Chiefs cap situation, we're going to look at the contracts, we're going to evaluate the team as far as who's productive and where do we have holes at. Based on that information that is specifically geared towards the Chiefs we're going to apply that towards the prospects in the draft. So we're going to put a site together that's going to be more specific to the Chiefs needs.

In the past outside of Jamaal Charles as brilliant as he is, we had deficiencies. If Jamaal Charles got 250 carries there's still going to be another back that got just as many. So it wasn't to improve Jamaal Charles is was to improve the Thomas Jones of the world. It was to improve the Peyton Hillis' of the world. Guys who are going to get those 3 yards per carry, guys who are going to have to run up the middle. The Chiefs adding the offensive lineman that they did gave us more schematic versatility.

It's going to help Matt Cassel because he's going to be in more manageable situations.

What you get with Winston, you're getting that extra second as far as pass blocking. That means you're getting an additional read, you're getting the guy who stand at the top of his five-step drop and wait a little bit longer to process the defense. You're talking about an extra second for route development.

You don't pay for role players. So I could see Glenn Dorsey, in baseball terms, in having signability. With Tyson Jackson it's a little bit different simply because physically he has a little more versatility....I could see Tyson Jackson commanding money if he's able to put all those tools together for an entire season.

Former Kansas City Chief defensive tackle, Bill Maas.

They're handling it the way they need to handle it...It's two sides just like a negotiation. The interesting thing for me is that I talked about this back in 2007 with issues that I dealt with personally. I didn't know that all these guys, all these very proud guys, are going through the same thing that I did.

To hear everyone talking about the same issues that I live with is really a lot more comforting to me. As someone who has to deal with the things that this entails. But it's just comforting to know that I'm not alone....all these guys coming out and saying the same thing, they can't sleep at night, the ringing in their ears, their headaches, the forgetfullness, to know that you're not alone in all of this is more important than a law suit to me. Just to know that I'm not crazy, that I've got other guys that are all going through the same stuff.

What I would suggest is to put a panel together of some former players that understand the issues.

(On whether he'd want to be a part of a panel or committee to help league understand the issues) That's my nature, that's who I am. I want to help and I want to be involved in things that are not only relative to me that are near and dear, but a lot of different aspects of lifes' experiences. Yeah, I'd try to help, I definitely would.

It's been a warriors game since its' inception. I think the hypocrisy may fall on the players. I watched playoffs games this year where there were guys completely knocked out, unconscious, high-definition, brings it all to you. They didn't know their names but it's a playoff game, and by golly they were in there next series. Even with all the reprimands and all the awareness, players want to play and that's what you do. There in and of itself lye's the hypocrisy....who is going to be in charge of drawing the line?

When you're in a mindset of winning a game and battling somebody mano e mano every down. You don't have the capability to make a decision to "Nope, that's it, I can't go back in". All you know is to compete.

Here's a guy with a ton of talent and athletic ability (Poe), and when you're playing at a school like Memphis, it's Memphis, it's not Alabama. When you're a defensive player and there's not a lot of talent around you it's real, real easy to game plan an offense to make you not effective. You don't play against a guy like Dontari Poe and not game plan for him.

There's not a doubt in my mind and this is with no disrespect to any of the quarterbacks that I played with. There's no doubt in my mind we were always a quarterback away from finishing hard in the playoffs. That was always the reason and everyone on the team knew and that's why at the final point they were like, "Hey, this isn't working. Let's go out and get Joe Montana" ....It was the big elephant in the room and everyone knew it.

You don't have to condition your fan base if you have the right guy behind center. You don't have to market it, you don't have to tell any body, you don't have to ad lib, make stuff up, send stuff out, you don't have to draft accordingly. If you've got the right guy behind center, everybody knows it.

I've learned so much away from football, after football, about life, and things that life has to offer.... My advice would be to not settle to just be a football player. I know it consumes you, I know you put a lot of time, effort and energy into it, because I did, that was my life. That's all I did. But there's more out there. I'm not saying take it lightly, go get every bit of it you can get. But understand what's going on around you because when you come out of it if you're good, you're in your mid 30's, you're way behind....in life.

Chop Talk is on each Sunday from 7-8:30pm CT.