Kansas City, Mo. ? When they get back from their bye week to play host to Washington on Oct. 16, the Kansas City Chiefs won’t be the same team.

They’ll acquire during the break a great left tackle, an experienced starting cornerback and a versatile, valuable backup lineman.

How much difference that will make remains to be seen. Perhaps even if they’d had Willie Roaf, Eric Warfield and John Welbourn and been at full strength, the Chiefs would be 2-2 anyway, victors over two losing teams and victims of two contenders. And still in search of their own true identity.

But getting those three back on the field may also turn out to be a tremendous boost in the last 12 games of what probably will be the last team Dick Vermeil ever coaches.

“You bet it will be nice to see those guys,” wide receiver and kick returner Dante Hall said. “We can use all the help we can get.”

Welbourn, a former starter who can play both guard and tackle, served a four-game suspension for steroids. With injuries cutting down the effectiveness of the offensive line, his absence hurt.

Warfield, the only productive cornerback Kansas City’s had for several years, had to sit out the first quarter of the season for violation of the NFL’s drug-abuse policy. With him joining savvy newcomers Patrick Surtain and Sammy Knight in the secondary, maybe Chad Pennington and Donovan McNabb would not have torched the Chiefs for a combined 721 yards passing.

But the biggest plus will be Roaf. The hulking 10-time Pro Bowler popped a hamstring early in the first half of the first game and his absence has had an amazing trickle-down effect on the entire offense.

Without Roaf, quarterback Trent Green’s been fighting to stay upright. The Denver Broncos knocked him down eight times during a dominating 30-10 Monday night victory.

Pro Bowl tight end Tony Gonzalez, who set an NFL receiving record for his position last year with 102 catches, almost has been entirely neutralized. Frequently held in for maximum pass protection, Gonzalez hasn’t had a chance to make any meaningful catches when he does go downfield because the harried Green has not had time to wait for him to get there.

Without Roaf, the bread-and-butter running game that was so vital to an offense that set an NFL record with 398 first downs last year has been relegated almost entirely to wide stuff. There’s been little attempt to run Priest Holmes between the tackles.

“When the players come back, we’ll be healthier than we’ve been at any time this year, including training camp,” Vermeil said.