Should the Chiefs Consider Jimmy Clausen?

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We've slowly but surely come to the realization that Matt Cassel isn't the right quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. While his heart is in the right place, God's plan for him is not. He's killing us all softly, one dump off to SafeDex at a time.

So I begin to look towards who could be the next quarterback for the Chiefs. There is no more important position in sports (although the goalie in hockey sparks an interesting debate), and there's no better time than right now for Kansas City, with a bevy of rising talent on the team (even if 1/3 of them are nursing torn ACL's). Find the right quarterback and the franchise could be set up for the next 10 years.

My biggest fear right now is that the Chiefs are bad, but not quite bad enough to earn themselves the #1 pick in the NFL Draft, and declare victory in the Andrew Luck Sweepstakes (although these next two weeks will show just how serious of contenders we really are).

But before I swan dive into the NFL Draft pool, and convince myself that Landry Jones and his mustache could make even a decent NFL quarterback, I wanted to look around the rest of the NFL for an available, young quarterback. Which brought me to Jimmy Clausen. The former Golden Domer was drafted in the 2nd round in 2010, but will never sniff the field in Carolina now because of The People's Champion, Cam Newton.

So Jimmy Clausen is definitely available, but would he be worth giving a shot? Lets take a closer look...

Clausen's 2010 stats: 13 games, 10 starts, 1-9 record. 157-299 (52.5%), 1,558 yards (5.2 YPA), 3 TD, 9 INT, 9 fumbles. Click here for his game to game stats.

Obviously, those are some rather putrid numbers. However, it was the kid's rookie season and he was throwing the ball to David Gettis, Brandon LaFell, and Steve Smith (at 50% effort). John Fox was a lame duck coach, and there offensive coordinator was somebody named Jeff Davidson (who's past history was as an offensive line coach - sound familiar Chiefs fans?).

Clausen might not be the slam dunk that Luck is, but you can't expect to find a quarterback like that already in the league. You'd have to take a chance on a guy and coach him up. I'd feel stronger about either side of this argument if I had actually watched Clausen play at the professional level, but I have not (I spent my time last year actually focusing on my team - novel concept, eh?).

Jimmer will definitely get his shot in the league at some point. Quarterbacks with talent inevitably do. It would be real interesting to see what he could do with some playing time this year if Cam were to get nicked up at any point and time. Clausen could earn himself an immediate chance with a good game or two.

Conclusion: I'd definitely consider the option of acquiring Jimmy Clausen, and would be interested to see what the Panthers asking price was, however I don't think I would pull the trigger on a quarterback that hasn't shown much at the pro level, at a time when rookie quarterbacks are performing better than ever.

Although, this post was written more for the point of creating discussion on the topic, so I'd love to hear if any of you think Jimmy Clausen is worth giving a shot?

His Dirkness

2010 NFL Preview: NFC South

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Atlanta Falcons- The Dirty Birds would appear on my short list of possible surprise teams for the upcoming season. Matt Ryan could be looking at a breakout year, after a somewhat mediocre sophomore season. The third year is a popular time for good quarterbacks to breakout. Peyton Manning led the league in yards and touchdowns his third year. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Donovan McNabb all had things figured out by season number three. I predict they overtake the Saints for supremacy of the ever-changing NFC South division.

Carolina Panthers- A possible candidate for the first draft pick come next April (although last time I said that about the Panthas, Rodney Peete led them to a 3-0 start). But the laundry list reads like this: Breaking in a new Quarterback (Matt Moore), no more Julius Peppers, Steve Smith breaking his arm playing flag football (he told me he didn't play…jerk), and Jonathan Stewart has been hurt most of training camp. At least they drafted Dirkness favorite, Eric Norwood, in the 4th round. John Fox has done a lot with a little before, so not all hope is lost in Panthaland.

New Orleans Saints- Just don't seem good enough to repeat. Will have to deal with the more, more, more syndrome (coined by Evil Empire's Sports Guy) after winning the championship (more money, more touches, more competition). Drew Brees, who quietly set an NFL record for completion percentage last season, can cement his name atop the best quarterbacks by proving consistent this year. Repetitive success is a major factor. Peyton and Brady are both on the decline (or should be atleast), and the title is up for grabs this year. For whatever reason I wasn't that into the Super Bowl last year, leading me to completely overlook the significance of a surprise onside kick to start the second half. That may be the ballsiest move in NFL history.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers- All of my credibility for projecting Quarterback success in the NFL is on the line with Josh Freeman (thought he'd be terrible), so here's one towards him falling flat on his fro. People said he had a semi-successful freshman season, but dude still had 18 INT's on top of 9 fumbles in 10 games. It's hard to imagine the Bucs making any noise this year, but they could be setting themselves up for the future with a nice foundation of young talent.