The Kansas City Chiefs are set to host quarterback prospect Geno Smith on Monday night and Tuesday, according to ESPN. If the Chiefs have decided whom to select No. 1 in the NFL draft later this month, they aren't tipping their hand.

Head coach Andy Reid told assembled media at the owner’s meetings that the Chiefs were evaluating eight to 10 prospects for the No. 1 pick, but general manager John Dorsey told Albert Breer of NFL.com the pool has been narrowed to just four contenders.

Now you have to wonder if Smith is one of those four players or if bringing him in is an elaborate smokescreen to get a team to trade up for him.

If it’s indeed a smokescreen, the Chiefs aren’t fooling anyone. The Chiefs traded a small fortune of draft picks for Alex Smith and signed one of the most coveted free-agent quarterbacks in Chase Daniel. The well-publicized interest in Smith suggests that the Chiefs aren’t legitimately interested and that they are trying to get a team to trade for him.

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Carson Palmer was getting paid too much in 2013, Terrelle Pryor wasn’t ready to take over as the starter and the 2013 NFL draft appears to lack a great option at the quarterback position. The Oakland Raiders had no choice but to make a move if they couldn’t get Palmer to take a pay cut.

It took a weekend of talks, but the trade between the Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks that sends quarterback Matt Flynn to Oakland will be finalized once the paperwork is signed today according to Jay Glazer of Fox Sports. The Raiders announced the trade was for a 2014 fifth-round draft choice and a conditional pick in 2015.  

Flynn’s addition will have an extensive impact on the Raiders present and future. The team’s draft plans, their cap space, Pryor’s development and even the future of the leadership in Oakland could all be significantly altered based on the trade. The importance of the quarterback position can’t be understated.

With the Flynn trade being finalized, the Raiders are also working on a deal that would send Palmer to the Cardinals according to Glazer, presumably for a late-round draft pick. Palmer reportedly refused to take a pay cut to $10 million with the Raiders, but will end up making $8 million with the Cardinals according to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports.

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The Oakland Raiders have a very unstable quarterback situation going into the 2013 season and moved a step closer to stabilizing it on Friday. The expectation is that the Raiders will complete a trade with the Seattle Seahawks for quarterback Matt Flynn according to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports.

Once a deal is completed, Carson Palmer will likely be released or traded (according to a tweet by La Canfora). Palmer was going to be the starter if he remained with the team, but his $13 million salary is simply too much for the cash-strapped Raiders. Without some sort of pay cut for Palmer, the Raiders were forced to look at other options.

Flynn will bring stability to the quarterback position, buy Reggie McKenzie time to find a franchise quarterback and allow the Raiders to pass on a quarterback with the No. 3 overall pick. Although Flynn himself will not excite fans, he’s better than people think and McKenzie knows him well from their time together in Green Bay.

Despite what some fans wanted to believe, the Raiders were never going to enter 2013 without at least giving Terrelle Pryor serious competition for the starting job. With Flynn in the fold, the Raiders have their quarterback of the immediate future. A trade for Flynn also gives the Raiders time to develop Pryor if they determine he’s worth the effort.

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The Kansas City Chiefs announced, via the team's website, the hiring of Brad Childress to be the team’s “spread game analyst/special projects” coach. It’s a very odd title for a coach and one that is also difficult to decipher. Will Childress be coaching players or just breaking down film and working with the coaching staff? It’s tough to know exactly what the Chiefs have envisioned for the position.

Despite Philadelphia having a 29th-ranked scoring offense in 2012, Reid has basically brought with him his entire offensive coaching staff. Unlike the other hires though, Childress was an important part of Reid’s early success in Philadelphia and not his failures of the past few seasons.

What is a “spread game analyst,” and do the Chiefs need one, or is Reid is just giving another one of his buddies a job? At this stage of the offseason, Childress wasn’t going to land a coordinator or head-coaching position at the NFL or college level. Reid could have brought Childress in simply to give him an extra set of eyes.

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Reggie McKenzie left a stable job as the No. 2 in command with the Green Bay Packers to become the general manager of a franchise needing a fresh start. The Oakland Raiders hadn’t been a winning franchise in a decade, but an 8-8 record in 2011 had fans unrealistically hopeful that the team could take the next step.

Criticize McKenzie for the moves he has made, but don’t insult the man’s intelligence. McKenzie knew he was leaving one of the best jobs on the planet for perhaps the biggest franchise makeover in NFL history, and he still took the job. The Raiders could be stuck with a general manager with a much shorter track record than McKenzie if he didn’t take the job.

If you look simply at the team’s record, you will miss everything McKenzie has done to set up the Raiders for future success. It’s unrealistic to expect every move a general manager makes to work out, especially when he’s dealing with issues at every level of the franchise. If you consider the entire situation, McKenzie is doing a great job amid increasing criticism after just one year on the job.

Salary Cap

The quick fix for any franchise is to sign veteran free agents. Signing free agents is also the expensive way to go about filling a roster. The Raiders were significantly over the salary cap in 2012 thanks to the in-season acquisition of Carson Palmer, the man who is now balking at taking a $3 million pay cut, according to Yahoo! Sports.

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The best players on the free-agent market have all been signed by this point in the offseason, and teams have turned their attention to the NFL draft, less than a month away.

Perhaps the biggest reason a lot of players are still on the market is that they aren’t impressive on the field anymore. If teams believe they can get an equal player in the draft, it would benefit them to wait until after the draft before considering a pricier veteran.

Some of the most common flaws are age and health, but there are plenty of other reasons teams aren’t going crazy signing the remaining free agents. A player might not be a scheme fit for teams that have a need at certain position, plus free agents almost always cost significantly more than draft picks. There are also off-field concerns that could be preventing a team from expressing interest in a certain player.

Every player who remains unsigned has some type of flaw or weakness that is keeping them on the market, even if they have a lot of traits that could be useful to NFL teams.

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The popular opinion is that the Denver Broncos couldn’t go wrong pairing Wes Welker with Peyton Manning. The popular opinion may end up being 100 percent correct, but it seems like such a good marriage that no one stopped to think about how it might impact Denver’s offense.

Surely the team considered how Welker might help them, but in our rush for instant analysis, it was glossed over. We quickly shouted “great move” before moving on to the next free-agent signing without considering all the ramifications of signing such a high-profile player.

If Welker signing with the Broncos shifted the balance of power in the AFC, that means they got considerably better with his addition. It also means that Welker will not take away too many opportunities from Demaryius Thomas or Eric Decker, as doing so may hinder their continued development.

To know if signing Welker is going to stunt the growth of Thomas and Decker, there are a few things that need to be considered. Have Thomas and Decker already reached their potential? Will Welker take away opportunities from Thomas and Decker? To what extent do total opportunities aid in the development of a receiver?

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Perhaps one of the most under-the-radar quarterback situations in the entire league is the one in Oakland. Carson Palmer is due $13 million in 2013 if the Raiders don’t release him or get him to take a pay cut.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, it’s now “highly unlikely” that Palmer will be willing to restructure his contract. If that report is accurate, the Raiders would either have to pay Palmer what his contract stipulates or release him. The latter choice means going into 2013 with Terrelle Pryor, a rookie or a veteran free agent as the starter.

The Raiders are a rebuilding team, which would make a veteran free agent an odd choice to be the starter. There also aren’t really any quality vets looking for jobs at this point in the offseason. Since Palmer is still on the roster, we can only assume that the Raiders aren’t comfortable handing the job to Pryor.

Given all the factors, it’s not much of a leap to assume that Palmer’s fate could be tied to a rookie quarterback, presumably taken with the third-overall pick. Geno Smith is the player most people believe will be the first quarterback drafted, which makes it possible the Raiders are simply waiting until after the draft to make a decision on Palmer.

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