“We expect he’ll improve during the course of the week,” Coach Tom Coughlin said before practice.  “He’ll be able to play in the game.”

During last Sunday’s 24-0 victory at Tampa Bay, Bradshaw gained 104 yards, 38 of them in the first quarter on a dazzling sprint that included feints and slips of several tackles.

Coughlin said Bradshaw had an old ankle injury and a foot problem that he described as a sprain.

“He’s got some issues,” Coughlin said.

Bradshaw sure looked healthy against the Bucs and this is probably just a precaution, but…

If the only healthy (capable) New York running back is Brandon Jacobs, that would be a huge help to the Chiefs as they try to topple the giant that is the Giants.  Jacobs is no slouch, but he has looked sluggish early on this season with a mediocre per carry average of 3.4 yards.  Without Bradshaw, Kansas City could work on knocking him around a bit without worrying about a fresh back coming in to give him a blow.

What does all this coming and going accomplish?  So far, not much based on the team’s record.  Pioli has talked about the number of players he inherited who have been removed from the roster and only a few have since found work in the NFL.  Right now that number of players who were on the active roster-injured reserve-practice squad when Pioli took over and are now gone is 32.  Only six are on NFL active rosters right now.

But pruning the roster of another administration’s players is only important if the spots opened up are filled by more talented, more accomplished and more productive players.  That type of improvement has not been visible.  There are four new starters on defense (Tyson Jackson, Mike Vrabel, Corey Mays and Mike Brown), five new starters on offense (Bobby Wade, Mike Goff, Sean Ryan, Ryan O’Callaghan and Matt Cassel) and one new starter in the kicking game (Ryan Succop.)

Of those 10 starters, Vrabel and Cassel would be the only two who have a hammer lock on being in the opening lineup.  Mays could find himself replaced this week by rookie Jovan Belcher.  The addition of Pope puts Ryan’s status as a starter in jeopardy.

When you look at how many of the players cut by Pioli are still looking for work it gives you an idea of just how far the franchise still has to go.  It’s not like he was replacing legitimate NFL starters with superstars.  Edwards and Carl Peterson left the roster on the brink of being a UFL team.  Bringing it back will take a lot of days like yesterday between now and training camp 2010.

Kansas City Chiefs GM Scott Pioli and his father-in-law Bill Parcells have made three trades in the past five months, sending multiple players and picks on the Kansas City-Miami shuttle.

The first trade was on draft day, when the Dolphins traded a 7th round pick for a 7th rounder in 2010.  The second swap was during training camp, when Miami shipped backup offensive linemen Andy Alleman and Ike Ndukwe to Kansas City for an undisclosed 2010 draft choice.  Finally, yesterday the Chiefs sent backup quarterback Tyler Thigpen to the Dolphins for an undisclosed pick.

There are a lot of moving parts to keep up with here.  I wonder if the Thigpen pick is conditional and depending on his playing time could not only affect the round of that pick but maybe could return one of the selections already traded to the Dolphins.

Pioli will already have an extra second round pick next year because of the Tony Gonzalez trade and with — presumably — high picks of his own to deal with, we could finally see the kind of movement out of the Chiefs on draft day that most of us expected this past April.

When the Giants come to Arrowhead, they will bring with them a nasty 1-2 punch in the running game.  There are some people in New York that think Ahmad Bradshaw is now the 1 in that punch.

Brandon Jacobs is still the starter, but through the first three games, Bradshaw has been far more effective.  He comes in earlier, gets the ball in more important situations and creates more of his own yardage.  He’s not just taking advantage of a tired defense sitting on its heels anymore.

Jacobs has always been more of a battering ram, although his effectiveness in that role was called into question by Fox’s Tony Siragusa, who said during Sunday’s broadcast (and in a next-day interview on ESPN radio) that Jacobs seems to be been tiptoeing to the line of scrimmage.  Tom Coughlin disagreed with that assessment, but seven months after Jacobs signed a four-year, $25 million extension, he hasn’t looked as explosive as he has in the past, and his numbers (58 carries for 196 yards) seem to back that up.  So does the fact that he has converted just four of his 10 short-yardage runs through three games.

Bradshaw, meanwhile, is doing more with less – 35 carries for 201 yards.  That includes an impressive 7.4 yards per carry in Tampa Bay.

And Bradshaw is doing it in Jacobs-like fashion.  Though only 5-9, 198, he’s more like Jacobs than most think.  He likes going between the tackles, and loves to lower his shoulder into a linebacker and deliver a bigger-than-expected hit.

“I just love the contact,” Bradshaw said.  “Coming from high school and playing defense (he was a star cornerback prospect), I just love being able to give the lick.”

A big money running back that no longer runs with the same type of intensity or efficiency?  Hmmm, what sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?

The same way the Giants are giving more touches to Bradshaw, the Chiefs need to get Jamaal Charles more involved in their offense.  I’m not saying Larry Johnson is done, but he clearly isn’t the same player and this week Todd Haley will get a look at how he should properly use his two running backs.

Haley and new general manager Scott Pioli have done their best to shake things up, bringing in new players, new schemes and a no-nonsense attitude.

So far, it hasn’t amounted to a win.

Three games into the season, the Chiefs are still generating more questions than answers.  The defense has been porous and sporadic. The offense is ineffective and, at times, ultraconservative.  Penalties, a point of emphasis for Haley in the preseason, have become a problem.

Nothing, it seems, is going right for the Chiefs.

“We’re not in a sense of panic right now,” receiver Mark Bradley said.  “We have a sense of urgency to try to get things turned around and put some W’s in the column.”

It’s not panic time, nor should it be at any point this season.  Unless of course the Chiefs are still winless as they enter the last quarter of the season.  But their schedule eases up considerably after the bye week.

Speaking of the Chiefs schedule…

Todd Haley and the Kansas City Chiefs are sitting at 0-3 and as the the Star’s Adam Teicher points out, things are only going to get more difficult with the undefeated New York Giants and beyond.

The Chiefs are in the middle of a rough stretch of schedule that also includes games against Dallas and San Diego.  Their schedule flattens out considerably in the second half of the season, though in late November the Chiefs have a home game against the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

Haley indicated the Chiefs would have to live with their slim margin for error, particularly against stronger opponents.

“I don’t know that our margin of error is going to change much this year,” Haley said.  “We’ll keep working at getting this team rosterwise as good as we can get it.  We’re going to have to play a certain type of football, and that’s going to have to be on point all the time.”

It will be hard to do, but while things are getting even uglier over the next few weeks try to remember that the Chiefs will have a lot of very winnable game in the second half of the season.  Coaches, players and fans don’t dream about looking forward to “winnable games” when the season starts, but it’s still something to keep in mind if Kansas City enters the bye with an 0-7 record.

Last week the Philadelphia Eagles presented a level of unpredictability due to their injuries and the return of Michael Vick.  This week the New York Giants are tough to game plan for simply because they can beat you equally on the ground and in the air.

When defenses shut down the Giants’ rushing attack the first two weeks of the season, Big Blue just opened up its passing game instead.  And when the Buccaneers backed off to defend that on Sunday, the Giants made them pay by hammering them on the ground.

So now, when future opponents look at the Giants on film, they’re faced with a dilemma.  Stop the run and the Giants can win with the pass.  Stop the pass and they’ll win with the run.

“Shoot, I don’t know what they’re going to do,” receiver Steve Smith said. “I guess they’re going to have to come up with a new defense or something.”

Don’t laugh, because the Giants’ performance through the first three weeks – including their 24-0 win in Tampa on Sunday – probably has a few defensive coordinators scurrying back to the drawing board.  The Giants clearly aren’t the one-dimensional, ground-based team so many thought they’d be coming out of training camp.  Nor are they the one-dimensional, pass-happy team they looked like at times the first two weeks.

What they are is a dangerous, versatile offense willing to play whatever style is necessary. They’re capable of doing whatever it takes to win.

Scary, scary, scary.  If you have to pick your poison with the Giants, which way do you go?

Even after getting killed in the air against the Eagles, I would force the Giants receivers to beat me.  Stopping Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw is easier said than done, but they have been much more consistent over the past two years than the New York receiving corps.