By IVAN CARTER

The Kansas City Star

Respect comes in many forms when you are the NFL's best tight end. Sometimes it's a nationally televised commercial. Sometimes it's a trip to the Pro Bowl.

And sometimes it means looking up and seeing the game's best cornerback staring you in the face just as you are about to run your pass pattern.

That's exactly the kind of respect Gonzalez earned last Sunday night against Denver when Broncos defensive coordinator Larry Coyer pulled the unusual move of putting four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Champ Bailey over Gonzalez in nickel situations.

In addition to Bailey, Gonzalez also regularly saw another corner in Kelly Herndon as well as a safety in Kenoy Kennedy. As a result, Touchdown Tony finished the season opener with a harmless two receptions for 17 yards.

“I was talking to my brother about that the other day,” Gonzalez said. “I was like, man, I can't imagine that they are going to put two guys on me every week. But you know what? I invite it because that means if they do that to me, the guys on the outside are matched up one-on-one, and that gives them an opportunity to make big plays.”

The problem against Denver was that other than Eddie Kennison's 57-yard reception on the game's second play — which opened up because Herndon came off of Kennison and jumped Gonzalez — the Chiefs were unable to generate much downfield.

After Kennison's big play, Trent Green's longest completion covered 16 yards, leaving Priest Holmes to carry the offense yet again on the ground.

It doesn't take an NFL offensive coordinator long to figure out that Gonzalez will see that kind of attention until the Chiefs make opponents pay someplace else.

One of the key factors, according to Green, is the NFL's emphasis on limiting illegal contact on receivers downfield, the kind Gonzalez has dealt with his entire career. Defenses will now focus on getting physical with Gonzalez inside those first five yards, or they will simply put a smaller, quicker player on Gonzalez and ask that player to use coverage skills.

“With the five-yard bump rule, there are going to be teams banging him off the bat, in that first five-yard area,” Green said. “Some bang past the five-yard area. It's going to be something where he's going to have to deal with that all year. Maybe what they do is use their defensive ends and linebackers to bang him for a couple of yards, then they pass it over to a DB who can cover him.

“Whether or not that throws off the timing, if you're going to commit a couple of people to him, then obviously it's going to open up a couple of things for some other people. Now, those people are going to have to step up.”

Carolina will hit Arrowhead today with a pair of rookies in the starting secondary: cornerback Chris Gamble and free safety Colin Branch. To take advantage of that youth with their outside receivers, the Chiefs must stay in manageable third-down situations. Against the Broncos, the Chiefs converted just four-of-13 third downs.

Six of those situations were third-and-nine or longer, thus drastically limiting Green's drop-back time and his receiver's route options. The Chiefs had the NFL's highest-scoring offense the last two seasons in large part because they did so well on first and second down and avoided costly penalties.

The Chiefs ranked second in the NFL last season, gaining 6.37 yards on first down while they ranked seventh by converting 41.8 percent of third-down opportunities.

“The first thing is not to commit as many errors on third down, putting us into third-and-long,” Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil said, identifying his offensive goals against Carolina. “We had five penalties or something, which we can't have. We didn't get into our offense. We were out of sync. We weren't able to get into a lot of the things we do.”

One of those things is Gonzalez, who admits to being caught off guard by what he saw in Denver. During the preseason, the Broncos played a basic cover-2 in which the middle of the field was open to the tight end.

But against the Chiefs, Coyer mostly employed straight man-to-man on the outside while devoting at least one corner and often a corner and a safety to Gonzalez.

“I never saw that kind of coverage, even in my 93-catch year,” Gonzalez said. “That year, I usually saw a linebacker, then maybe a safety. I didn't expect to go in there and get double-teamed the first game of the year like that. But that's a good thing for Eddie, Johnnie (Morton) and Dante (Hall). If they're one-on-one, they'll make big plays. They have, and they're going to.”

In Holmes’ first three seasons with Chiefs has averaged 320 carries and 1,530 yards. If he continues on the pace of carries he will shatter the number of times Campbell rushed the ball for the Houston Oilers at 2,187

"If you would have asked me last year, I would have told you that I thought about retiring.” Holmes said to the Topeka Capital Journal. “It's a matter of going to the table every year and deciding what you want to do. At my position, if you go in there with any doubts or hesitation, you could get hurt."

In a season that requires a minimum of 19 games to win the Super Bowl and Holmes is hurting nine days into camp and was 39 percent of the Chiefs offense last year. So the coaching staff and Holmes agreed to take a day off.

"I just have to make sure I'm pacing myself and speaking up when the hip is sore," Holmes said. "As long as I'm doing that, they'll take care of me and make sure I get proper treatment and back on the field.” With injuries also come the surprises of camp, and one of those players is seventh round pick tackle Kevin Sampson. 230 draftees were picked before Sampson, and he is trying to beat the odds and join the lists of players such as Tony Richardson, Eric Hicks, Casey Wiegmann, Brian Waters, and earlier, players like Danan Hughes, Dave Szott, Todd McNair, Kevin Ross and many more. All of them were not high-touted draft picks, Sampson is clearly turning heads in River Falls.

“This is something I’ve dreamed about doing since I was a little kid and first put the pads on,” Sampson said.

Sampson was a starter for the Syracuse Orange his final two seasons. Many teams did not even have him on their draft board in April.

Northeast scout Cornell Gowdy felt otherwise. “There wasn’t much I didn’t like about him,” Gowdy said on kcchiefs.com. “He was tough, showed athletic ability, stayed on his feet, showed quickness and he was able to play in space. He projected the stuff we like to do here with our offensive linemen.”