Chiefs-Packers Preview: Picking Through Kansas City's Castoffs

The Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs have developed a strong connection over the past few years. This will be the fifth straight season that the two teams meet in the fourth and final preseason game, and Chiefs General Manager John Dorsey was a Packers executive for several years under Ted Thompson.

Furthermore, the Dorsey-led Chiefs have been known to pick up former Packers on occasion, as Jerron McMillian, Dezman Moses, and Frank Zombo all spent this training camp in Kansas City (though Zombo is the only one who lasted through the cut-down to 75 players).

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That got us and the Chiefs bloggers over at Arrowhead Pride thinking: if these two organizations think alike, wouldn't it be feasible that they might be interested in the players that the other team have released or will cut to get the roster back down to 53 on Saturday? Therefore, we swapped ideas on possible positions of need and asked each other who might become available at a few key positions for each team. Here are the responses from Joel Thorman of AP to the positions we identified as possible weak spots for the Packers.

Nose Tackle

Obviously, the loss of B.J. Raji for the year is substantial, and we wondered if there might be any veteran Chiefs who can't quite make the cut who could bolster the position and provide some healthy veteran depth:

Kyle Love is a possibility. You may remember him with the Patriots. He's a big, big man who takes up a ton of space in the middle. He's behind two others at nose tackle for the Chiefs and seems unlikely to make it.

Defensive End

With Raji's absence, Josh Boyd will be playing more nose tackle and reducing the depth somewhat at defensive end. Unfortunately, the Chiefs are unlikely to make any useful players available:

Jaye Howard now seems like a good bet to make the Chiefs roster since he's been the fill-in for starter Mike DeVito, who has been injured. The Chiefs probably won't have any surprises at defensive end.

Center

It appears that the Chiefs are better off than the Packers at the center position, mainly because they have two healthy roster-worthy players, but both are expected to make the team:

You're probably out of luck here. The Chiefs have their starter (Rodney Hudson) and backup (Eric Kush). They're both likely to make it. Ben Gottschalk is an undrafted free agent who has spent the offseason with the Chiefs. He will likely be available but he's been a third teamer throughout training camp.

Tight End

My thought here was to see if anyone interesting might be available for a few weeks until Brandon Bostick is fully ready to return to action. Here's Joel's response:

You might remember Demetrius Harris who played college basketball at UW-Milwaukee. He's athletic and fun to watch running routes. If the Chiefs keep three tight ends, which they probably will, he's in. Richard Gordon was with the Chiefs last season and could be one of those guys who fills in for a week or two.

Thanks to Joel for his responses. Let us know in the comments which Chiefs players you'll be watching closely on Thursday evening.