One of the men who is a bridge between the old crew and the young guard is being serious now. He wants you to listen.</p><p>No, the Chiefs&#8217; offensive line hasn&#8217;t been perfect this year. Then again, few players have even been close to perfect. But the line, left guard Brian Waters says, is getting a bad rap.</p><p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s be real here,&#8221; he says, and off he goes.</p><p>He knows it doesn&#8217;t look good. He&#8217;s watched the tape from the odd angles and in slow motion. He&#8217;s seen the mistakes. Waters knows all about the 15 sacks allowed &#8212; a pace not far off last year&#8217;s, when Chiefs quarterbacks were sacked 55 times, the most in the NFL.</p><p>So here&#8217;s the question that set Waters off Wednesday: Is the Chiefs&#8217; offensive line just younger, or is it really better?</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re definitely better. It ain&#8217;t even close,&#8221; he says. &#8220;It may not look like we&#8217;ve gotten better, but we&#8217;ve definitely gotten better up front.&#8221;</p><p>Then Waters pauses.</p><p>&#8220;Ain&#8217;t even close,&#8221; he says.</p><p>Waters and Damion McIntosh are the only holdover starters from last year&#8217;s line, the unit that team president Carl Peterson admitted he let get too old. The regular starters&#8217; average age was about 31, and that wasn&#8217;t good.</p><p>The Chiefs overhauled the line in the offseason, drafting left tackle Branden Albert, replacing 34-year-old center Casey Wiegmann with 25-year-old Rudy Niswanger, shifting the 31-year-old McIntosh to right tackle and moving former tackle Adrian Jones to right guard. The 31-year-old Waters is the only man to keep his starting job, and he&#8217;s watched the average age drop this year to 27.</p><p>But the sacks keep coming. With Brodie Croyle returning to the starting lineup after missing four games with a separated right shoulder, protecting Kansas City&#8217;s quarterback might be more important than ever. The Chiefs want to know whether Croyle can be their long-term quarterback, and they can&#8217;t do that if he&#8217;s on the injured list.</p><p>Croyle was injured in week one after rookie running back Jamaal Charles blocked the wrong defender. A New England linebacker plowed into Croyle, driving the quarterback into the ground and onto his shoulder.</p><p>That&#8217;s what Waters is talking about. He says sacks aren&#8217;t always the offensive line&#8217;s fault. Running backs and receivers missing blocks &#8212; and the fact that reserve quarterback Tyler Thigpen is a scrambler &#8212; are to blame, too. Waters recites numbers and percentages with a mathematician&#8217;s proficiency, saying the line is responsible for seven of those 15 sacks.</p><p>&#8220;There have been some plays where those (linemen) haven&#8217;t done as well as we expect them to, but that&#8217;s no different from any other aspect of this football team,&#8221; Waters says. &#8220;We are not a good football team.&#8221;</p><p>The Chiefs are trying to change that, and few at Arrowhead Stadium will say it&#8217;s coming along as quickly as the team would like. Coach Herm Edwards says the offensive line has not jelled. He says the changes have held up the process, particularly on the line&#8217;s right side.</p><p>&#8220;You would hope they&#8217;d be a little better,&#8221; Edwards says.</p><p>McIntosh isn&#8217;t yet comfortable on the right side after playing left tackle his first eight seasons. Albert missed time in offseason practice, training camp and now the regular season with injuries; Edwards says he hopes Albert can play next week against Tennessee. And Jones, a converted tackle, says he&#8217;s gotten used to the interior position but still feels &#8220;pretty much in a cage &#8230; like boxed in.&#8221;