KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There are several ingredients that make for a competitive NFL team. Talented players are a must. Top shelf coaching is equally important. But often overlooked is a factor vital to the process of building a winning team.

It’s the ability of a franchise to acquire raw and/or specifically talented players while creating a coaching atmosphere that stresses development of those young players.

This factor can best be summarized as turning one team’s trash into another team’s treasure. In this case, it’s the treasure of the 2014 Kansas City Chiefs.

Consider this: in Sunday’s victory over the St. Louis Rams, the Chiefs had four starters that were not with the franchise during the offseason program, OTAs or mini-camp. One of those four players saw but a sliver of preseason playing time wearing a red Chiefs jersey. Another wasn’t part of the roster until after the regular-season opener.

Yet, the Chiefs beat the St. Louis Rams 34-7 with a strong second-half performance and 34 unanswered points. In a season that began with turmoil caused by major injuries, the Chiefs are now 4-3 and sitting on the edge of contention for another berth in the AFC playoffs. A big reason they overcame a poor start (0-2) and injuries were the contributions from the trash they’ve cleaned up and polished so they now sparkle.

Right tackle Ryan Harris, inside linebacker Josh Mauga, left guard Mike McGlynn and cornerback Jamell Fleming all arrived as late additions to the roster, signed because of injuries at their positions. None of the four will be a candidate for Pro Bowl consideration, but all are making contributions to winning, and that’s all that really matters for any team or player.

Harris starts for Jeff Allen, who was starting for Donald Stephenson, who opened the season on the sidelines with a four-game NFL suspension. Allen suffered a torn biceps muscle in the opener and Harris came off the bench and into the starting lineup. He was signed the day training camp started in late July. Since then, Stephenson has returned to the active roster, Allen is on injured-reserve for the rest of the season and Harris remains the starter.

Mauga was also signed on the first day of training camp. Since the third preseason game he has started for Joe Mays, who remains on the team’s injured reserve list thanks to a torn wrist tendon that required surgery. Mays was designated for return and began practicing on Wednesday.

McGlynn was signed just days before the final preseason game and moved into the starting lineup to replace Allen at left guard. Allen went to right tackle.

Fleming did not arrive in Kansas City until Sept. 12, when he was signed off the practice squad of the Baltimore Ravens. He became a starter on Oct. 19, moving ahead of Marcus Cooper on the depth chart.

Those four were declared deficient for various reasons by multiple teams like Houston and Denver (Harris), the New York Jets (Mauga), Washington (McGlynn) and Jacksonville and Baltimore (Fleming).

And, they are not alone; right now the Chiefs’ roster has 26 of 53 players that have been employed by another NFL team during their careers. In one fashion or another, whether released, traded or allowed to change zip codes through unrestricted free agency, they were not lasting members of their original teams.

This is where recognition of talent and the personnel to develop players into contributors becomes so very important. General manager John Dorsey and his group led by player personnel director Chris Ballard, director of pro scouting Will Lewis and director of college scouting Marvin Lewis are showing for the second season that they know potential treasure when they sift through the throwaways from the league’s 31 other teams.

“It helps to have John Dorsey who has been around this a long time and some of the other who have been in the business a long time; that helps I think with the whole process,” said Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. “It’s not just my set of eyes looking at it, it’s everybody’s. We try to evaluate the guys every day and not only from a personnel standpoint, but so the player knows where he sits every day. These are young guys and sometimes they want to know why they aren’t playing quite as much or what do they need to do to play more. You can tell them. That communication is important.”

Dorsey and group did the same thing last year, when it was the front office’s first season in the building. In the week before the regular-season opener and holding the first spot for picking off the waiver wire, the Chiefs claimed seven players released by other teams. Throughout the 2013 season, the Chiefs got contributions from six of those seven in their 11-5 season.

This season, four of those seven are still on the roster and three have been injury-replacement starters. Linebacker James-Michael Johnson is filling Derrick Johnson’s spot (Achilles). Ron Parker has opened five straight games at strong safety for Eric Berry (ankle). Jaye Howard has started three of seven games at right defensive end in place of Mike DeVito (Achilles). And, Marcus Cooper began the season as the starting left cornerback, but was benched for the San Diego game in favor of Fleming.

It’s impossible for the powers that run NFL teams to build strictly through the draft or strictly through free agency. There are only so many draft picks each year and only so many dollars to spend under the salary cap. Successful teams may lean one way and use the other avenue for help, but out necessity, they dive headfirst into the waiver wire, practice squads and street free agents to find contributors.

So far in 2014, that approach has kept the Chiefs in the AFC picture.

SERIES HISTORY: this is the 35th meeting between these original members of the American Football League that began life as the Titans (Jets) and Texans (Chiefs.) The Jets hold the edge in the series, 17-16-1. The teams last met in 2011, when the Jets won 37-10 in the Meadowlands. That was the third straight victory for New York over K.C. The last Chiefs victory was in 2005 at Arrowhead Stadium, when they grabbed a 27-7 decision in the season opener. The teams are 1-1 in the playoffs, with the Chiefs winning in 1969 on their way to a victory in Super Bowl IV. The Jets took the head-to-head meeting in the 1986 wild-card game.

MEDICAL WATCH: The Chiefs are juggling a bit in the secondary as they started the practice week without cornerback Jamell Fleming (hamstring) and nickel cornerback Chris Owens. That should give second-year corner Marcus Cooper a chance to get back into the first-defense after losing his job two weeks ago to Fleming. The status of strong safety Eric Berry remains up in the air as well, as he tries to come back from his sprained ankle. He has missed the last five games.

GAMEPLAN: With quarterback Michael Vick starting for the Jets, the biggest goal for the Chiefs is to protect the ball and force Vick to lead an effective offense. The Jets’ move the ball best when they get RBs Chris Ivory and Chris Johnson involved, and now there’s the wrinkle wide receiver Percy Harvin brings to the equation.

Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith won’t stretch the field often, but he is reading defenses exceptionally well. But against the Jets, who mix and match pressure packages, he’ll need to be on top of his game. New York’s secondary is a mess, so given time Smith should be highly productive.

MATCHUPS TO WATCH

— Chiefs left tackle Eric Fisher vs. Jets defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson: the first half of the Chiefs’ victory over St. Louis last Sunday was a tough one for Fisher as he had his hands full with Rams defensive end Robert Quinn. On back-to-back plays late in the second quarter, Quinn sacked Smith, beating Fisher on both plays. It was on the second of those sacks where Smith suffered a sprained right shoulder. Wilkerson does not have the overall quickness off the snap that Quinn has displayed, but there’s no question he can sack the quarterback – Wilkerson leads the Jets with 4.5. Again, Fisher will have plenty of explosions to handle Sunday afternoon.

— Chiefs inside linebacker Josh Mauga vs. Jets quarterback Michael Vick: The Jets did not re-sign Mauga after the linebacker missed most of the 2013 season with a shoulder injury. He landed with former Jets linebackers coach Bob Sutton, who is the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator. Injuries to starters Joe Mays and Derrick Johnson got Mauga in the starting lineup and now he never leaves the field, working in all sub-packages shown by the K.C. defense. Mauga’s ability to diagnose and then move laterally as well as north and south will be a puzzle that Vick must solve if he hopes to use any of his skills to move a struggling New York offense.