A Sharper Linebacker

If you watched the 2004 playoffs it should be easy for you to recall the outstanding linebacker play by the Patriots, Steelers, and Eagles. Each of those squads won games through the power of their linebacking corps. Those games made the inadequacies of the Chiefs linebackers painfully obvious and for many it brought back memories of vicious Kansas City linebackers in the not so distant past. It also appears to have caught the eye of Chiefs personnel brass like Bill Kauharich and Lynn Stiles. Fortunately Kauharich and Stiles did take notice, they urged management to acquire free agent Kendrell Bell which is a fantastic start to strengthening the weakest portion of the Chiefs defense. Kendrell Bell will get the Chiefs closer to a respectable group of linebackers and Bell himself is a monstrous playmaker who is more than capable of producing the kind of plays we have seen out of Teddi Bruschi and Jeremiah Trotter. Unfortunately Kansas City is still only half way there. When you couple Shawn Barber still recovering from his serious knee injury and the poor play of every other linebacker on the roster there is no denying that the Chiefs still have a gaping hole to fill at outside linebacker.

The Chiefs could look to the draft for a potential fix for their linebacking woes or even roll the dice and hope one of their players can improve from within. The problem with that is that linebackers in this years draft are fairly weak and we already know what taking the gamble on improving from within looks like. I for one would like to throw my chips in with proven talent when it comes to netting an NFL playmaker. So for anyone who has ever wished the Chiefs would have never let go of Donnie Edwards I have a suggestion that might make it all better. The best answer for the Chiefs woes is a tackling machine that currently sits in Houston Texas named Jamie Sharper. For the past eight years Jamie Sharper has been quietly brutalizing offenses. He played an integral part in the Ravens 2000 Superbowl defense as 1/3rd of the best linebacking corps in recent memory. He doesn