Here are three players (Offense, Defense and Special Teams) from each team to keep your eyes on.

Chiefs

Offense: Larry Johnson

Will the real LJ please stand up?  Or has he already?  After three games, Johnson is averaging 2.5 yards per carry, one full yard less than his worst professional season.  The Giants have an impressive defense when healthy, but right now they are hurting up front, which could help Johnson snap out of his funk and put up an average YPC closer to the 4.4 that backup Jamaal Charles has registered.

Defense: Brandon Flowers

If the Chiefs are going to stop the Giants running attack, defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast will have to keep extra men in the box virtually all game long.  In order for that to work, the Kansas City defensive backs need to step up their game with Flowers leading the way.  As good as he has been during his short career, Flowers will have to get to and stay at an elite level all day against the Giants if the defense is going to have any chance at slowing Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw.

Special Teams: Dantrell Savage

For the Chiefs to beat the Giants, they will have to deliver big plays in every facet of the game.  That means we will have to see the first long return of the season for the KC special teams.  After a lot of juggling in training camp and the preseason, Savage seems to have a lock on the kick return job for now after delivering a solid, albeit unspectacular, debut last week.

Giants

Offense: Brandon Jacobs

It’s hard to play with a chip on your shoulder when your team is undefeated, but that won’t stop Jacobs this weekend.  Last week against Tampa Bay, Fox analyst Tony Siragusa accused the Giants running back of tip toeing up to the line.  During practice this week Jacobs didn’t have much to say in response, preferring to let his play against the Chiefs do the talking.  Judging by his past two seasons, that’s bad news for Kansas City.

Defense: Osi Umenyiora

With Chris Canty out and Justin Tuck nursing an injury, Umenyiora will shoulder the load for the Giants along the defensive line.  After a huge first week against the Redskins he was virtually shut out the past two weeks versus the Cowboys and Bucs.  Umenyiora, like Jacobs, will be playing with a chip on his shoulder, so Branden Albert better bring his ‘A’ game if Matt Cassel is going to stay on his feet.

Special Teams: Lawrence Tynes

He’s baaaaack.  And it seems like Tynes is currently playing the role he played most of his tenure in Kansas City.  After playing a huge part in the Giants Super Bowl championship, Tynes missed most of last season with a knee injury and looked to be fully healed to start the season.  He then proceeded to miss kicks of 29 and 21 in back to back weeks.  His struggles haven’t gotten much publicity with the Giants being undefeated, but if the Chiefs can keep it close Tynes’ troubles could help them steal a victory.

“The last couple (of years), nobody would do anything about it.  I swear I was just sitting next to Monty Beisel, and I’m not sitting next to him anymore.  There were a lot of guys I was sitting next to, seen, said hi to and they’re not here any more.

“They’re dedicated to always making this team better day in and day out.  You always see this team changing.  This from my perspective is the first time I’ve actually seen them try to do something about it right now rather than wait until the draft or whatever.”

Johnson said the player moves have most of the Chiefs scared for their jobs, another novelty.

“Most guys never had that fear,” Johnson said.  “I’d see on guys’ faces: ‘Oh, I’m going to be here.  I’ll just ride it out.’  When (Dick) Vermeil was here, I would see guys real, real comfortable.  I wish I could be that comfortable.  I know I’m not comfortable.  My reputation is on the line as far as being with this team.  I have to prove myself day in and day out.”

There critics of Todd Haley and Scott Pioli feel there’s a problem with players fearing for their position, that it’s too tough on them mentally.  Well, you know what, this is a big boy league and if you can’t handle it then go play in the UFL.  I love that the players on an 0-3 team know they can show up at any point and be sent packing.  If the Chiefs turn things around, are one of the better teams in the league and the men in charge are still singing the same song about everyone under fire at all times then maybe we can start talking about it being too much.

If there are any “name” players that have to worry about their job security, it’s LJ.  He has his guaranteed contract since he made the roster out of training camp, but that doesn’t mean Pioli will hesitate to cut bait if Johnson keeps running two yards forward and falling down.

Devard Darling might be on injured reserve with a knee injury, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t keeping himself busy.  He will play host to the MVP of his summer football camp.

Leanne Gibbs, 13, and her family will be treated to a Chiefs weekend of fun, from October 2-5, 2009.  The first female MVP will experience a weekend of chauffeured limousines, outings with Darling and his family, a ‘meet and greet’ with Kansas City Chiefs players and coaches, and a tour of the practice facility and Arrowhead Stadium.  Game Day will be extra special with special VIP seating for young Gibbs and her family, and lunch served at the stadium while watching the game.

I have this funny feeling that Leanne will enjoy this weekend much more than any of the Chiefs players.

Talk at Giants practice this week has surrounded comments that Fox analyst Tony Siragusa made about running back Brandon Jacobs “tip-toeing” to the line last week in Tampa Bay.  When asked about the comments, Jacobs didn’t have much to say.

“I don’t care about analysts.  They are analysts.  They are going to say what they’ve got to say.  I am here, we are 3-0, and that’s all I am focusing on.  I don’t want to talk about the comment that was made by Tony Siragusa.  I don’t really care about a Tony Siragusa.  Next question.”

The problem is that there have been a lot of questions surrounding the Giants’ running game this season.  Through the first three games, the 6-4, 264-pound Jacobs has rushed for 196 yards and one touchdown and is averaging 3.4 yards per carry.  Jacobs is still searching for his first 100-yard game of the season after a season-high 92 yards last week against Tampa Bay.

“No, I don’t feel that I’m doing anything (differently),” Jacobs said.  “I feel like I’m running the same way I was running last year.  Getting a little bit smarter, being patient, let the scheme happen for me. You just can’t run in there and think that you can outrun your blocks.”

If there is anything slowing Jacobs down, it might be that he is thinking too much and trying to make the right read, according to offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride.  Jacobs might be too patient and thinking more than running on instinct, he says.

“If there is an error that is slowing him down, it is because he wants to be perfect,” Gilbride said.  “He is trying to make the perfect read, if that is it.  Sometimes you just have to trust your instincts and go out and play.  But I certainly don’t see anybody that is tip-toeing.”

Speaking again about funny feelings, I have one that tells me Jacobs is going to make it his mission to not only get into the end zone often Sunday but specifically right in front of Siragusa, who will be working the game as part of the Fox crew.

Especially with the Giants other running back, Ahmad Bradshaw, nursing an ankle injury, Jacobs is primed to put up huge numbers against the Chiefs.

Todd Haley said the idea is to relay to players that penalties cannot be tolerated.  The Chiefs were whistled 10 times in Sunday’s loss at Philadelphia.

“Reminders that it’s not all right,” Haley said of the punishments.  “In-season, it’s easy to get out of that mode because you’ve got very few reps to get a guy ready because you disrupt practice.  But we’re going to disrupt practice.”

During training camp at River Falls, Wis., players who committed certain penalties had to run to a wooden fence and back before resuming practice.  In some cases, position groups or even the whole team had to run.

“We have to be a disciplined team,” Haley said.  “That’s what penalties are: discipline.  I thought we were headed in that direction.  Obviously what’s been put out there the last two weeks indicates not.  But we’re going to work our butts off at being disciplined.”

Make them run, walk backwards, stand on their heads…  whatever prevents the team from looking like a bunch of guys that have never played the game before.  It has gotten to a point that every time the offense picks up a first down or the defense makes a stop I wait for the yellow indicator on the screen.  When Jamaal Charles broke a play against the Eagles for a score I knew a flag was coming, it was just how things have been going.

After working out for the Detroit Lions, former Chiefs wide receiver Taurus Johnson has signed with the Lions’ practice squad.

Johnson, undrafted out of the University of South Florida this year, spent training camp with Kansas City before being one of that team’s final roster cuts.

He is the only player at his position on Detroit’s eight-man practice squad.  He has five receivers ahead of him on the 53-man roster: Calvin Johnson, Dennis Northcutt, Yamon Figurs, Bryant Johnson and Derrick Williams.

After Calvin Johnson — the best in the league as far as I’m concerned — there is a big time drop off and a very real opportunity for Taurus to make his way to the Lions active roster.  I’m sure the Detroit marketing department would love to sell “Johnson & Johnson” signs to Johnson & Johnson.

Even though he missed practice yesterday, Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw told the New York media he will play in Kansas City Sunday.  As for his partner in crime — Brandon Jacobs — the Giants disagreed with the comments made by Fox analysts Sunday that he has lost some of his trademark power.

“I watched the TV copy and heard some of those comments,” guard Chris Snee said.  “I don’t really know where they’re coming from.  I haven’t seen anything different from him.  He’s always got the energy, the fire, and sets the physical tempo.”

Added center Shaun O’Hara: “I don’t think Brandon ever tip-toed on any carry.  He makes a decision and he goes with it.  Is he going to be right all the time?  No.  Nobody’s perfect.  But believe me, Brandon’s not going to be blamed for dancing very often.”

That’s true, but it has appeared to some that something is not right with Jacobs this season.  A year ago he averaged 5.0 yards per carry – the same number he posted in 2007.  And even after his 92-yard performance on Sunday, Jacobs still has only 196 yards (and one touchdown) through three games.  That puts him on pace for fewer than the 1,089 yards he had in 13 games last season.

Meanwhile, the Giants want Bradshaw to carry his share of the load too, but the 5-8, 198-pounder, who leads the Giants with 201 yards and averages 5.7 yards per carry, may not be able to do that this week.  He said he’s been fighting this ankle sprain for years, and that “I’ve been through way more pain than this.”  But he’s also never taken this much of a pounding.  His 35 carries through three games are more than half the 67 he had all of last year.

Still, both Bradshaw and Coughlin remained optimistic and said the ominous-looking boot is just a precaution.  They’re both hopeful that Bradshaw will be available, and the Giants’ 1-2 punch can get back to showing everyone what it can really do.

Bradshaw can claim the boot on his foot is nothing but a precaution and Jacobs’ teammates can defend him all day long, it doesn’t change the fact that both players are dealing with issues right now.  For the Chiefs to have any chance to win Sunday they will need Jacobs to “tip toe” and Bradshaw to be slowed by his ailing ankle.

It’s a lot to ask, but around here we have to grab on to any chance at a victory.

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.