Brody hurt; Chiefs sign old man

Brody Croyle is suffering from a sore back and may sit out of the San Diego game this Sunday, thus giving Huard another brief opportunity to start. This confirms one of my other major criticisms of Croyle, besides his poor decision making, which is that he doesn’t look durable enough to be an NFL quarterback. I’m not questioning his toughness. Anyone who can play nearly an entire college season with a separated left shoulder is tough. So is the fact that he finished last Sunday’s game against Oakland after taking the injuring hit on only the second offensive play of the game when he ran away from pursuit due to no open receivers. This sort of pressure will certainly continue this season with a patchwork offensive line that still struggles to create running lanes for our backs and protection for our passers. It could be Huard’s 34-year-old frame receiving the punishment from the likes of Shawne “Priest Killer” Merriman and Shuan Phillips. Imagine this headline: “Priest revered by entire city killed by homicidal Steroid Freak.” It happened…and it killed his NFL career, notwithstanding his brief flirtation with the league this season.
It’s nice to see that the Chiefs are gushing over this season’s third field goal kicker, NFL journeyman John Carney.
“But for now, we submit this scene for believe-it-or-not: the Chiefs cheering their kicker.
Yep. Happened around noon on Wednesday in their indoor practice facility, as new man John Carney was perfect on his first four kicks: from 30, 35, 38 and 40 yards.” { “Chiefs Cheer new kicker Carney” by Sam Melliinger in the Nov. 29 KC Star}
I presume Carney’s fifth attempt was beyond 40 yards and missed. Melllinger goes on to write that the longest field goal he made while filling in for Josh Scobee in Jacksonville this season was 41 yards. And we will lose field position compared to the Rayner days because of Carney’s poor range on kickoffs.
This just serves to highlight the huge whiff the Chiefs had drafting Justin Medlock instead of Packer rookie Mason Crosby. Medlock is now a basketcase sitting at home in his Southern California home wondering what could have been. Crosby on the other hand is tied for second in the NFL with 22 field goals made, although his field goal percentage is an unimpressive 26th at 79%. He is tied with Tennessee’s Rob Bironas for the most field goals attempted by a kicker this season. Crosby is 8 for 9 when kicking a 30-39 yard field goal, an improvement over Rayner’s 7 for 10. Crosby also sank a 53-yard field goal while Rayner missed his only attempt over 50 yards. Crosby has missed the bulk of his field goals in the 40-49 range, going 5-9 while Rayner is a hair better, making five out of eight attempts.
Crosby gets all the attention in KC because he was a Big 12 prospect, but the Chiefs could have also drafted the Dallas Cowboy’s Nick Folk, who along with Crosby went in the sixth round. Folk is sitting in the middle of the pack in field goal percentage at 15 with an 85%. An important note on that percentage, two of his three total misses were from beyond 50 yards.