Kansas City Wins Keys to Cassel

Jon Larson — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:55:06 -0500

The Kansas City Chiefs acquired quarterback Matt Cassel Saturday in a trade with the New England Patriots. The trade included veteran linebacker Mike Vrabel to go along with Cassel.

Kansas City sent its second-round pick in this year's NFL draft to New England for the pair of players.

Cassel will be entering his fifth season in the NFL, and until last season Cassel had not started a football game since his senior year in high school.

Cassel played backup to the Cincinatti's Bengals' Carson Palmer and the Arizona Cardinals' Matt Leinert at the University of Southern California.

He then spent his first four years in the NFL with the New England Patriots, sitting behind future Hall of Famer Tom Brady.

It was because of the Chiefs and there safety Bernard Pollard that Cassel got his opportunity to play last season.

If you remember, safety Bernard Pollard was the player who hit quarterback Tom Brady in the lower leg, knocking him out for the remainder of the season. How ironic that Cassel has now ended up with the team who gave him his break, accidentally of course.

Cassel led the Patriots to a win in the opener over the Chiefs, 17-10. After Brady went down, Cassel ended up leading the Patriots to an 11-5 record in his first year as a starter, but his team fell just short making the playoffs.

Cassel threw for 3,693 yards and 21 touchdowns accumulating a quarterback rating of 89.4. Not too shabby for his first season as a starter since his high school days.

Kansas City is in major need of a franchise quarterback. New general manager Scott Pioli and Head Coach Todd Haley believe Cassel is their man. The last quarterback to win a playoff game for the Chiefs was the legendary Joe Montana.

Since Montana, the Chiefs have gone through seven starting quarterbacks. Those being; Steve Bono, Elvis Grbac, Rich Gannon, Trent Green, Damon Huard, Brodie Croyle, and Tyler Thigpen. The Chiefs had seven different players attempt a pass last season.

In the past three seasons, the Chiefs have chalked up an ugly record of 15 wins and 33 loses. With the Chiefs going 2-14 last season and 4-12 the year before that Cassel does not have any shoes to fill.

If Cassel can get eight wins this season in KC, he could be regarded as the Chiefs' savior.

I love the signing of Matt Cassel to Kansas City. He is a terrific young quarterback who now has a great opportunity to shine in Kansas City.

The Chiefs have a decent offense that has now upgraded drastically with the edition of Cassel. You place him along with a terrific offensive genius in new Head Coach Todd Haley, and I believe Kansas City fans now have plenty of hope for the future of their Chiefs.

Thinking Greene: Iowa's Shonn Greene Should Be a Heisman Candidate

Jon Larson — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:16:46 -0500

As the college football season winds down, the Heisman candidate talk is only increasing. It seems everyone has their mind set on the candidates being Texas Tech's Graham Harrell, Missouri's Chase Daniel, Texas's Colt McCoy, Oklahoma's Sam Bradford, and Florida's Tim Tebow.

Will anyone give Shonn Greene, Iowa's starting running back, some love? Since no one is...I will! I'm not saying Greene should win the Heisman, but can we at least give him some national love?

Harrell and the rest of the quarterbacks are great players and deserve their accolades, but please give Greene the attention he deserves. Iowa's Shonn Greene is the nation's leader in rushing yards with 1,585 yards on the ground this season, ahead of Michigan State's Javon Ringer, who gets constant national attention.

The Hawks have played 11 games so far this season, and Greene has been over a hundred yards rushing every game. In those 11 games Greene is averaging 144.1 yards a game and has punched the ball into the end zone 15 times.

Keep in mind, Iowa has no passing game, and it took until week four to determine who their starting quarterback was going to be. Teams were and still are loading eight in the box to stop Greene.

Against the Wisconsin Badgers, who I may remind you were ranked ninth in the preseason polls, Greene ran for 217 yards and four touchdowns. Against the No. 3 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions, Greene ran for 117 yards and two touchdowns and led Iowa to a huge upset. Against Purdue, Greene went over the 200-yard marker again, rushing for 211 yards and two touchdowns.

In my opinion, Shonn Greene deserves to go to New York for the Heisman ceremony. Chances are he will get left out and most likely it will be all quarterbacks in New York. I'd just like to see someone start giving him some national attention because he deserves it as much as any other player in the nation.

Bleacher Report - Articles by Jon Larson

Kansas City Wins Keys to Cassel

Thinking Greene: Iowa's Shonn Greene Should Be a Heisman Candidate