It’s a good thing for the Chiefs that Herm Edwards has a fondness for young players. Otherwise, he’d have nothing to like about their wide receivers.
The only established player at the position, Dwayne Bowe, is all of 23. The old man of the group, Arena League veteran Bobby Sippio, is 27, and he’s not guaranteed to make the team.
But age isn’t necessarily the problem. A lack of accomplishments is. Bowe led all rookie receivers last year with 70 catches and 995 yards. Otherwise, Jeff Webb has two career starts, free-agent addition Devard Darling one, and the rest of the wide receivers either haven’t played in an NFL game or haven’t caught a pass in one.
“Is it a star-studded group? Is it household names? Maybe just one: Dwayne Bowe,” Edwards said. “But we’ve got some other guys who have a chance. They just have to go play.”
This can’t be what Edwards had in mind when the Chiefs cleared out two former starters, Eddie Kennison and Samie Parker, during the offseason. Or maybe it is.
The collection screams for the addition of a veteran even just as a safety net in case Webb, Darling, fourth-round draft pick Will Franklin of Missouri and all of the other wide receivers prove unworthy of a starting spot or playing time.
But Edwards said if the Chiefs sign a receiver, it wouldn’t be until after training camp has started.
“If we’re sitting there in the middle of the preseason and we don’t have a second receiver, there’s going to be a veteran receiver out there, a one-year Band-Aid if you’ve got to go that way,” he said. “But I don’t want to go that way. I really don’t. I would really like to stay away from that.”
The Chiefs have 10 wide receivers. The group also includes sixth-round pick Kevin Robinson, who was drafted mostly for his ability as a kick returner; Maurice Price, who spent all of last season as a rookie on the injured-reserve list; and three players signed after the draft.
Their best hope for immediate help lies with Webb and Darling. Webb was second among Chiefs wide receivers in catches last year with 28.
That’s a decent number considering that Webb didn’t play as much as Kennison or Parker and that the Chiefs had considerable offensive problems.
“I was the fourth receiver for a lot of the season,” Webb said. “I know I had a couple of big games against Cincinnati and the Jets and some other big catches, but I should have done better to drag my feet against Green Bay because we could have won that game if I had put my feet down.
“It goes with experience. If I have that same opportunity again, I guarantee you I’ll drag my feet.”
Webb was referring to a long sideline pass against the Packers that went incomplete. A catch probably would have given the Chiefs an upset win.
He will make good on his promise to make the catch in-bounds if he improves as much this year as he did last season. He was mainly a special-teams player as a rookie in 2006.
“If you look at my stats since my freshman year of college, I gradually move up every year,” Webb said. “My catches get higher, my yards get higher. The same thing happened from my rookie year to last year.
“The job’s not going to be given to me. But I’m comfortable competing for it. I got used to what it was like to play in the NFL last year. It’s basically my job to lose. I’m not going into camp thinking that way, but it’s an open opportunity to win the job, and that’s how I’m approaching it.”
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