It's not the sort of celebratory news any Kansas City Chiefs fan wants to hear. Perhaps at the end of a long season, there's a bit of hope in realizing that the consolation prize of a miserable year is that your favorite team gets the chance to draft a franchise-changing talent (i.e. Cam Newton for the Carolina Panthers last spring). But one game into the season? This is not the time for NFL Draft conjecture for any team. Yet that's exactly what Adam Schefter of ESPN hinted toward when asked about the Chiefs chances to have the first pick in the 2012 NFL Draft -- a choice that would likely lead to Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck.
Before the season, the Chiefs were considered a possible repeat winner of the AFC West and definitely a young team on the rise that broke through last year with 10 wins, lots of money to spend and a solid core to build around. One loss later, they're suddenly a broke NFL franchise with numerous holes and the chance to win only a handful of games, if that. The perspective shift doesn't make sense when the common phrase "any given Sunday' signifies the fact that the tides in the NFL ebb and flow each week.
Yet specifically, Schefter isn't buying into the idea that KC just had a bad game. Instead, he answers a question on Twitter with the following, "Chiefs chances at #1 pick? ... Believe they'll be in race - and it would be best thing that could happen to them if they win." That line about the best thing to happen for them insinuates that the Chiefs aren't just some smaller pieces away from putting it all together, but that they actually need a franchise player -- assumedly Andrew Luck -- who could take over under center and lead the Chiefs for the next decade.
The Chiefs are certainly not resting on their laurels and even if the entire NFL is abandoning any belief that they are for real, both Todd Haley and several players have mentioned that the upcoming Lions game will be different. People were screaming about the Patriots blowout loss in the preseason to the Lions just two weeks ago and then Monday Night Football crowned them eventual NFL champions. While that's a preseason example, the reality is that each week one team will lay an egg, if not several teams. The Chiefs deserve the benefit of the doubt before answering such a question as this -- or even asking it in the first place.