Weekly Chop Talk Highlights

Last Friday night, the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Arizona Cardinals inside of Arrowhead Stadium, 27-17. It was a strong showing for the Chiefs, a team that has struggled in the preseason in recent years. Romeo Crennel appears to have this team organized and ready to play football at a high level.

To cover all of the action, BJ Kissel, Matt Conner and Craig Brenner will continue to be there each and every Sunday night with another edition of Chop Talk ~ A Kansas City Chiefs podcast that airs from 7-8:30 p.m. CT.

This past Sunday's episode proudly featured special guests: Joel Thorman, Editor of Arrowhead Pride and Jinx Allessio, from KC Chiefs Draft.

Highlighted below are a few of the points that they made this week. However, if you would like to listen to the show in it's entirety then please just follow this link.

Joel Thorman, from Arrowhead Pride

Just how together they had it all. You know, we were used to football under Todd Haley in the preseason. It just seemed like there were so many problems with basic things like getting the play call in, looking organized and getting out of the huddle on time. To me, the biggest thing was the cohesiveness of the entire team; they looked like it was week eight, ya know? They didn’t look like their first preseason game and I think it was really what kind of surprised the Cardinals. Because, If you go back and watch the replays… The Chiefs were hustling, out of the huddle and they were moving the ball quick.

Everyone seemed to contribute, except for Baldwin basically. Everyone seemed to kind of have their own little role. Like Charles, for what we wanted to see out of him in limited action … he looked just fine. Hillis looked awesome, as did McCluster and it just seemed like that first quarter especially, everyone just played a role into it.

In general, the backup quarterback situation… That was the one kind of… the downside of the night, you know, there was really nothing there. Nothing was decided and it certainly didn’t look great.

Probably, at the end of the day, that was the biggest thing to come out all this… Cassel looked pretty darn good. So, you know, I guess he has got to do it multiple games in a row, which has always kind of been the thing. But, you know.... one quarter. It’s amazing how excited someone can make you get about the season.

Well, overreacting now, I say that Steve Maneri will make the team.

Bold prediction? Oh, after one preseason game… The Chiefs are going to win 11 games this year, that’s my bold prediction at least.

Jinx Allessio, from KC Chiefs Draft

I actually keenly remember that play… and that was the play where Jon Asamoah pretty much owned Darnell Dockett, which is no small task. He got good leverage on him, turned him away from the hole and opened up that lane for Hillis.

The offensive line is now a strength, whereas, for the last five or six years it was struggling. We’ve had some good parts here, but as a unit now, they look strong.

(On Allen Bailey) He definitely looked a little lost in that base formation and the thing is, he is a freak of an athlete, so seeing him get blown off the ball like he did, the three or four times I noticed was kind of shocking.

Well, it doesn’t help that Cassel looked so good and was just taken out after a couple of series. Then you had Brady Quinn go in there and then Stanzi. So it was kind of tough to gauge them, if you had to follow up what Cassel did… when it was mediocre performances to say the least. The accuracy for both is what kind of threw me off; I wasn’t happy with the accuracy. Quinn was pretty much, all over the place, Stanzi wasn’t that great either. I would just like to see them get more reps maybe. I’m not too concerned with it now, if it was week three or four in the preseason and they’re the same, then we would have an issue, but as long as they progress and get more snaps and get more chemistry with the 7,8,9,10,11,12 receivers. Then maybe we will see a little bit more of this continuity out there on the second and third team.

I’m not too worried about his pass rush. I put out some bold predictions and I actually think Justin Houston ends up leading the AFC West in sacks, I really think he is going to explode on the scene this year. I was always a big proponent of him.

I really think that he is going to lead the AFC West in sacks, and if I was to put a number on it... between 12 and 14, maybe 13.5 might be what I'd be betting on in Vegas. Other than that... write that one down, 13.5 sacks...

The quotes gathered here by SBNKC only represent a portion of the quotes from the show. If you would like to hear them all, be sure to click this link right here.

Joining the show next week will be TJ Carpenter, from Sports Radio 810 WHB and Matt Miller, NFL Lead Writer for Bleacher Report and founder of New Era Scouting.

Chop Talk airs live every Sunday night at 7pm CT and runs for 90 minutes.

Follow @Joel Thorman or @ArrowheadPride on Twitter

Follow @Jinx Allessio on Twitter