FOXBOROUGH - The first game of the NFL season is kind of like a piñata. You know there is going to be some type of candy inside the papier-maché punching bag, but you don't know exactly what kind until it spills out on to the floor.
In an NFL season opener, you know football players are going to play, but you don't know how they're going to perform and what it's going to look like until the action unfolds on the field.
While all NFL openers are mysterious, today's Patriots-Chiefs game at Gillette Stadium has an added element of intrigue: inexperience. Both the Patriots and Chiefs are going to have rookies making their NFL debuts in key positions.
The Patriots, who could have as many as six rookies active, are expected to start first-round pick Jerod Mayo at inside linebacker and second-rounder Terrence Wheatley at left cornerback in their 3-4 defense.
Callow Kansas City has 15 rookies on its 53-man roster, and coach Herm Edwards said 11 of them could be active today, including likely starters Glenn Dorsey (right defensive tackle), Branden Albert (left tackle), and Brandon Flowers (cornerback).
That should make an already unpredictable game even more difficult to gauge.
"They have so much to learn, experience, and absorb on every level, whether it is preparation, playing on the field, off the field, plays, schemes, techniques, situations, rules - you name it," said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. "There are thousands of things that are different between college and pro football. It is a process for them to make that transition. We try to help them as much as we can, but it is a process.
"They are not going to get it all in one day, one week, or one regular-season game. You just hope that they get as much as you give them, so they don't make mistakes based on inexperience. If they make a mistake because they get beat on the play, well, that happens to everybody. You hate to give up a play on inexperience, so you try to eliminate those if you can."
Draft picks Mayo, Wheatley, outside linebacker Shawn Crable, quarterback Kevin O'Connell, cornerback Jonathan Wilhite, safety/wide receiver/special teamer Matthew Slater, linebacker Bo Ruud, and undrafted free agent linebacker Gary Guyton have given an aging team a needed infusion of youthful energy and athleticism. All but Ruud, who is out for the year with an ankle injury, are on the team, with rookie linebacker Vince Redd, running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis, and safety Mark Dillard on the eight-man practice squad.
However, the tradeoff is that the rookies are raw. You don't know how Flowers is going to react to having to cover Randy Moss or how Mayo will respond to having to recognize a screen pass to Larry Johnson in a key spot in the game.