KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For a team on a youth movement, there's a lot of gray stubble on the chins of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Second-year man Brodie Croyle failed to distinguish himself in the preseason, so under center will be 34-year-old Damon Huard, a starting quarterback for the first time in an 11-year career that once saw him go five straight seasons without throwing more than one regular-season pass.

Huard's No. 1 wide receiver will be Eddie Kennison, 34. His tight end, still going strong at 31, is eight-time Pro Bowler Tony Gonzalez.

When Gonzalez, Priest Holmes and now-departed Trent Green were piling up team records during the first half of this decade, they enjoyed the luxury of one of the league's great offensive lines. But for the first time since 1993 the Chiefs are without the retired Will Shields, maybe the finest guard in team history.

And now into his second year of retirement is deluxe left tackle Willie Roaf. Without them, signs point to a substantial decline as holdovers get older and newcomers fail to perform with any consistency.

Pro Bowl left guard Brian Waters, 30, shows no indication of slowing down. But the line as a whole struggled all summer, with 31-year-old guard John Welbourn, 34-year-old center Casey Wiegmann, tackles Chris Terry, 32, and Kyle Turley, who'll be 32 on Sept. 24, and the injured Damion McIntosh, 30.

Still youthful, however, and coming off an NFL-record 416 carries for a team-record 1,789 yards, is Larry Johnson, 27. When he returned from a 25-day holdout that produced the richest contract any Chiefs player ever pocketed, Johnson reassured his blockers that things were not as bad as they seemed with backups carrying the ball.

"I know how to react on certain plays to help the offensive linemen out," he said. "Obviously, those running backs haven't been back there long enough to know if this would have happened to make another move, and stuff like that. You've got to be able to adjust. You've got to be able to handle everything. And I'm used to doing that with this offensive line."

The defense is a mixture of old and new and could be improved if cornerbacks Ty Law, 33, and Patrick Surtain, 31, recapture their former excellence at positions where thirtysomethings are practically geriatric.

They had better stay healthy and produce because behind them in the Cover-Two defense will be two very young safeties, Bernard Pollard and Jarrad Page, big hitters in only their second year but showing signs of great promise.