Kansas City Chiefs – Local Chatter and the Countdown to Kickoff

During NFL training camps, we'll be taking some looks at the local reporting to see what stories the hometown papers and fan blogs are saying about their teams. Today, the Kansas City Chiefs and the holdout of star wide receiver Dwayne Bowe.

During his five years in KC, Dwayne Bowe has proven to be a valuable weapon. In his rookie season he missed 1,000 yards by just five, and other than his injury plagued 2009 season, he's had over a thousand yards in his other three full years. He came back in 2010 to set career highs in yards with 1,162 and TDs with 15. Bowe had nearly identical yards last year, but only 5 TDs.

Knowing Bowe would be looking for a long term deal, the Chiefs put the franchise tag on him, meaning he'd get paid the average of the five highest paid WRs in the league, a cool $9.5 million for this season. Bowe, however, refused to sign the tender and is holding out. How's that going over with Chiefs fans? Not well.

Kent Babbof the Kansas City Star says the emergence of Jon Baldwin, a second year receiver who showed a few flashes of brilliance in his injury riddled rookie year, is making Bowe look 'unimportant.' Babb writes:

Jon Baldwin, not Dwayne Bowe, has been the most important player for the Chiefs during this first week of the preseason, and boy, has he answered the challenge. Baldwin, not Bowe, is not only in attendance but is emerging as a player who looks like a young star who could give quarterback Matt Cassel a tall, powerful option down the field.

The Chiefs were also expecting Bowe to help mentor Baldwin, but sitting out pretty much negates that hope. Babb says that QB Matt Cassel looks extremely comfortable with Baldwin and that with each day of camp, the team seems less and less worried about Bowe having an extended holdout.

The holdout itself, makes little sense. Of course guys want the long term deals, just as Drew Brees said he wasn't going to camp without one. Brees got his, and Bowe is not to the Chiefs what Brees is to the Saints. But Bowe is only hurting himself and his chances at the big contract he wants.

Patrick Allen over at ArrowheadAddict.com points out that Bowe holding out is silly because the new collective bargaining agreement has pretty much painted him into a corner.

If he doesn't play under that contract, he can't play at all. He'll get no money and he will also miss out on being credited for a full NFL season, which means he doesn't get credit for playing a season under the tag, which means he can keep getting tagged.

So essentially Bowe is going to play this year, or cost himself nearly $10 million bucks and probably more in the long run. Get to camp, Dwayne.