<table> </table> The safe bet is to fall in love with the offense, not the quarterback. Credit Chan Gailey more than you do Tyler Thigpen for Kansas City&#8217;s improved offensive production.</p><p>Look, I readily admit there&#8217;s a 1.5 percent chance that I&#8217;m wrong about Tyler Thigpen, and he is, as many of you Chiefs fans believe, the second coming of Rich Gannon. In fact, I hope you&#8217;re right and I&#8217;m wrong.</p><p>Tyler Thigpen as franchise quarterback would be a great story to chronicle. So were Derek Anderson in Cleveland, and Jon Kitna in Cincinnati a few years back, and Scott Mitchell in Miami and Detroit more than a decade ago.</p><p>For every Rich Gannon and Kurt Warner and Tony Romo unearthed from some obscure quarterback village, there is just as much fool&#8217;s gold hiding in the hills.</p><p>Some of you are offended that I regard Thigpen as Kansas City&#8217;s backup quarterback of the future. You think my evaluation is an insult. It&#8217;s not. It&#8217;s high praise for a second-year, late-round draft pick from Coastal Carolina who played running back in high school.</p><p>I&#8217;m acknowledging that Thigpen belongs in the NFL, something most scouts did not foresee two years ago and most Chiefs fans couldn&#8217;t fathom in training camp.</p><p>I&#8217;m not down on Thigpen. I&#8217;m high on offensive coordinator Chan Gailey&#8217;s midseason adjustment and future of the spread offense in the NFL. Gailey and the college-style attack have turned Thigpen into a viable player.</p><p>Given the widespread use of the strategy at the collegiate level, I envision more NFL coordinators incorporating the spread into their game plans. If you haven&#8217;t noticed, the allegedly broken-down, no-playoffs Division I game is heavily influencing the pro league. It seems like every week a new NFL team is implementing the &#8220;Wildcat&#8221; system that made Darren McFadden and Felix Jones superstars at Arkansas.</p><p>For years the shotgun spread turned Mike Leach&#8217;s Texas Tech quarterbacks into NCAA passing record-setters. Now, with the addition of Michael Crabtree and a powerful offensive line, the offense has the Red Raiders in the thick of the national-title race.</p><p>The spread is different from the old run-and-shoot offense. It totally abandoned the running game, did not use a tight end, asked receivers and quarterbacks to adjust on the fly and, for the most part, had the quarterback under center.</p><p>The run-and-shoot had a short NFL shelf life. Teams that ran it had a difficult time preparing for an opponent with a traditional offense and closing out games by milking the clock with the run.</p><p>The one relevant/significant knock on the spread is its ineffectiveness in goal-line and short-yardage situations. But I blame that on college coaches who don&#8217;t carry fullbacks and discard the shotgun spread when they absolutely must run the football.</p><p>OK, back to Thigpen. His passing numbers spiked considerably when Gailey employed the spread a month ago against the New York Jets. Before the spread (BTS), Thigpen completed 38 of 90 passes (42 percent) in four appearances running a traditional offense. Running the spread, Thigpen has connected on 85 of 140 passes (60 percent).</p><p>The system is the principal reason for the dramatic improvement. The spread, with its multiple wideouts and QB 6 yards off the line of scrimmage, makes defenses easier to read. The throws are generally a bit shorter, especially the drags across the middle, the receiver screens.</p><p>Texas runs a watered-down, NFL version of the spread. In that offense, Vince Young completed 65 percent of his passes for 3,036 yards, 26 TDs and 10 interceptions during the Longhorns&#8217; national-title run. Young is not an accurate passer or much of a field general.</p><p>The true spread turned Chase Daniel into a Heisman Trophy candidate and Todd Reesing into an Orange Bowl champion.</p><p>Don&#8217;t be fooled by the system. It has a future in the NFL, but it will need to be operated by a legit, hang-in-the-pocket, big-time talent to produce victories on a consistent basis.</p><p>Thigpen has yet to demonstrate he&#8217;s that guy. Maybe he will over time. Maybe his accuracy, touch and ability to deliver the ball on the move and from the &#8220;phone booth&#8221; will all improve between now and next season.</p><p>There&#8217;s just no reason to plan on it.</p><p>Finding a franchise quarterback remains the organization&#8217;s highest priority. I disagree with my respected peers who claim a pass rusher is the team&#8217;s greatest need.</p><p>We&#8217;ve had Derrick Thomas, Neil Smith and Jared Allen. I miss watching those guys. But, if my memory is correct, Lenny Dawson won Kansas City its lone Super Bowl.