Good Enough for a Christmas List

This is the time of year where family and friends continuously come up to you and ask for your Christmas list. How many of us really have a clue what we want? There's the occasional doll for a young girl, a video game or a football for a boy, maybe even a new football player's jersey, if you're so inclined. Once you're an adult, I think it is more difficult because we look more to what we need rather than the junk that's going to feed our materialistic sense for a month or so and then becomes obsolete in our selfish world. Some of us choose to still ask for our wants, while others just request a gift card for a rainy day.
I think this analogy can describe several teams right now in the NFL. The Dallas Cowboys, I would say, fit into the materialistic mode. They had Barber, Owens, Witten, Jones, Romo, and others on offense, yet they threw conventional wisdom to the wind and blew the bank on Roy Williams in the middle of the season. It is the materialistic sense that Jerry Jones has that he will spend money to put what he "wants" on the field at all times. They have much of what they need, but there's an occasional Gucci Bag or H3 that they feel they can't live without.
The Tennessee Titans fit well into the example of those who have what they need, and ask for a gift card for a rainy day. Each year, the pundits say they don't have enough receivers. Yet Justin Gage broke out for two huge touchdowns yesterday against the Jags. Around the country people know maybe three players on their defense, yet they are among the best every season. By contrast, there is no one on that team who has done less to pursue their success than their most recognizable player, Vince Young. They'll take the gift card because they use what they have, they're not glamorous, and they are frugal enough to make the most of what they have. The Cowboys will only drive an H3 for 50,000 miles and trade it in for something else, while the Titans will drive a Honda Civic for 300,000 miles and get 50 miles per gallon on top of it.
But where do the Chiefs fit into this example? I would say that the Chiefs are a young adult right now, and much closer to the Tennessee Titans at this point than the Dallas Cowboys. They don't have everything around the house that they need but they know what they're missing. They have the refrigerator they need to store the steaks, but no grill to cook them on. They have the player but no DVDs. A reading lamp without bulbs. You get the picture.
Right now, the 20-something Chiefs have an offensive team to build upon, but still has a few holes. They have strong leadership in Gonzalez and Waters, a solid young QB in Tyler Thigpen, and they go three deep at Wide Receiver in Bowe, Bradley, and Franklin. Cottam is even a promising replacement to Gonzalez in a couple of years. Brandon Albert is a very auspicious Tackle who, during the Buccaneers game, missed one block that got his QB destroyed. He walked over to his QB with his head down, and an ashamed demeanor about him. Since then, I haven't seen him miss a block in the next two games. I didn't even discuss our young Running Backs, but there is talent there even with the likely termination of Larry Johnson in the off-season.
On Defense, we also know what we have. Dorsey and Tyler have played increasingly better in the middle. Our young secondary is probably the most encouraging unit on the team, if that unit had a pass rush to help them out, they would be talked about right now on the national level. Even on special teams, we have a great punter that is obviously a fixture of this team's future.We know what we want for Christmas, and it's easy to write a list. We're not wandering around Walmart trying to make up a list of things we don't even know exist, we absolutely know where our deficiencies are.On Offense, we absolutely need a new Center, Right Guard, and Right Tackle. New starters on Week 1 at those three positions are necessities. Also at Kicker, Connor Barth might have beat out other players to be the kicker, but he has yet to impress me. He was missing 45 yarders in warm-ups on Sunday. He needs to go.
Defense is where we have the most holes. Tamba Hali and Turk McBride can play the Left End position, but this team needs a strong Rush End to pressure the opponent's QB and take pressure off of the endowed secondary. The linebackers can all go. Derrick Johnson could probably command a high draft pick, and Demorrio Williams and Rocky Boiman can stay on for depth. Other than that, we need three players there.
That makes 8 of 24 players (counting kickers) that we need to turnover in this off season. This last season, we turned over QB, FB, LT, C, RG, RE, DT, WLB, MLB, CB, CB, and K. That's 12 last season. This season, we need to make it 8. We have solutions at several of those (QB, FB, LT, DT, CB, and CB). Now we're down to 8. Even good teams in the NFL can name 5 guys they need to replace, and the great ones can even name 2.
We're getting closer to being the Titans, but let's not make the mistake of being the Cowboys. Which one is looking more likely to win the Super Bowl this year?