"Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel doesn't make a habit of studying the offenses of opposing teams. But he admits to paying some attention when he's watching the offenses of Brian Daboll, who was the Patriots' receivers coach for a couple of seasons while Cassel played in New England.

"There were a lot of instances throughout the year with Miami last year where he would do a good job of mixing and matching personnel to create some mismatches," Cassel said. "That's the thing I noticed. He's really good at doing that."

Cassel will soon get to know Daboll, 36, even better. The Chiefs were on the verge of hiring Daboll as their new offensive coordinator. An announcement should come this week, perhaps as soon as today.

"I'm excited," Cassel said. "I think it will be a good fit for us. He's very detailed. He was very meticulous about his work and he expected a lot out of his players. I was always impressed with him as a coach."

The Chiefs had one of the NFL's most feeble offenses last year. They wound up 31st in scoring, averaging just 13 points per game, and 27th in yardage.

The rankings for Daboll's offenses during his three seasons as a coordinator wouldn't be much of an improvement. After he moved on from New England and became the coordinator in Cleveland, the Browns were 32nd in yardage in 2009 and 29th in 2010. He then became the coordinator in Miami, where the Dolphins were 22nd last year."