Chiefs Ineptitude

I have been prepared to write this for a few weeks now but other things have pushed it to the back burner.  I am just going to knock this out and be done with the Chiefs for a couple of months.  This team has frustrated me to no end and I am ready for their season to be over.

The negatives on this team are seemingly infinite but there are four components that are the root cause to all else.  The first is ownership.  Long time legendary owner Lamar Hunt died in December, 2006.  In the six seasons since, Kansas City has won 4, 2, 4, 10, 7, and 2 games for a total of 29 wins against 65 losses (this doesn’t count the two more that are coming to end this season).  Clark Hunt has just run this franchise into the ground.  Even so, this organization has been going the wrong way for quite a while now.  The Chiefs only have four winning records in the last 15 seasons.  In that time, they have a record of 105-133 (44%).  They have won more than 9 only three times and more than 10 just once in the last decade and a half.  And there have been zero playoff wins.  While the Chiefs weren’t tearing up the league in Lamar Hunt’s final years, it is much worse now with the team only winning 31% of their games since his passing.  That is flat out not acceptable, especially when the team is reportedly well under the salary cap.  Where is that extra money going???

I think we can all agree Scot Pioli has been a total and utter failure ass the General Manager of the Chiefs.  I admit to being excited when he was hired but he hitched his horse to Matt Cassel as his guy at quarterback, his new Tom Brady.  The “Patriot Way” certainly works better if you have the real Tom Brady.  Pioli’s biggest failings stem from Cassel not being even close to Brady in talent and Pioli’s lack of admission of this simple fact.  Pioli has also failed twice in hiring head coaches. 

Pioli has also been a horrible talent evaluator and has not build up good NFL-talent level back-ups.  Injuries have crushed his teams.  Injuries are part of the game and that is why depth is so important.  The guys backing up the starters in a lot of the positions are not good players.  I am still befuddled by the fact KC entered the season with no one with experience at center on the roster to back up Rodney Hudson.  Ryan Lilja, who had never played center in the NFL has had to play center for most of the season.  He has struggled mightily at times just getting the ball snapped in a timely and accurate fashion.  I don’t blame him.  He was set up to fail.  As I watched the corps of wide receivers the Chiefs ran out onto the field against the Raiders, I am convinced Pioli isn’t even trying.  His eschewing Brandon Carr in the off season and offering a big contract to Stanford Routt, who couldn’t even last the season with this lackluster team, is proof enough of Pioli’s incompetence.  Of course, this is just highlighted by the quarterback position.

The next complete failure of this team is the Head Coach and his staff.  I know this stems from Pioli’s failure but these guys look like they have just given up.  The team doesn’t look disciplined or well drilled.  The offensive and defensive game plans look vanilla and uninspired.  This whole mess with Steve Breaston is just plain ridiculous.  He is by far the most accomplished wide receiver on the roster with Bowe hurt.  The fact he has not been active the last several weeks is just mind blowing.  Also, I have been disappointed in the lack of improvement from the defensive backs as a unit and individually.  I think we can all agree it is time for Crennel and his whole staff just to disappear, the sooner the better. 

Finally, the quarterback position has been awful.  I think Cassel and Brady Quinn would be serviceable back-ups but they are obviously not starting NFL quarterbacks.  You can’t really blame the players.  I think both of these guys are gutsy, tough guys who want to succeed but just aren’t starting caliber signal callers.  The fact that Pioli/Haley/Crennel couldn’t recognize this fact is why their teams have been so terrible.  There hasn’t even been an effort to upgrade the position in the present GM regime.  Every single person who knows anything about the game of football knows that it is very difficult to win consistently without good play from the quarterback position.  Teams have to always be thinking of the future of that position for their organization and the Chiefs just haven’t done that.

That is enough of the negative.  Those topics have been covered pretty well.  Heck, I called for Pioli and Crennel to be fired after the first loss to Oakland weeks ago.  It is only fair to mention some positives.  There have been a handful of good performances from this squad.

Derrick Johnson, Jamaal Charles, and Justin Houston all played very well.  These three guys have shown heart and toughness throughout the season.  I think rookie offensive linemen Jeff Allen and Donald Stephenson appear to be legitimate NFL linemen.  They have had games in which they haven’t looked good but I see enough from them to feel good they can be part of the future.  I also saw some things from Dontari Poe that indicates he can develop into a good starting defensive tackle.  He seldom gets enough push to disrupt the pocket and needs to do a better job clogging the middle on runs but he has improved as the season has progress and with more experience, one can certainly see he could end up being very good.  Late in the season, I even saw some improvement from Tyson Jackson – finally.  It is probably too little, too late but it was nice to at last see him make some plays on the field.    I think the defensive line is unquestioningly better than it was a year ago but still has a long way to go to be a solid unit.

That’s about it.  I can’t think of a single position other than those above in which I wasn’t disappointed.  Lack of improvement or plain lack of talent seemed to be the theme under the present regime.  What is sad for Chiefs fans is that is going to take time to right this ship.  It really bugs me that Kansas City stills employs Pioli and Crennel.  Hunt needs to be proactive and just let these guys go.  The longer he delays, the more he alienates fans.  The fans of this once proud franchise deserve better and they deserve it sooner rather than later.  Hunt needs to fire these guys and shoot for the moon with his next hire and that person needs to shoot for the moon when hiring a new head coach.  It has been a long season, a long six years, and it has stretched into a long 15 years.  It is time for Clark Hunt to give a little back to the city of Kansas City and give us a winner.

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Chiefs Should Clean House Right Now

I am not a big fan of firing coaches that have been in their current position for less than two years.  I think under normal circumstances, coaches need at least that much time to put their own stamp on their team.  Occasionally though, a situation arises where an organization should extricate itself from a bad decision as soon as it becomes obvious that a coach is a wrong fit.  The Kansas City Chiefs are at that point right now.

Romeo Crennel should never have been named head coach in the first place.  After Todd Haley was deservedly axed a little less than a year ago, Romeo was named the interim coach, then the Chiefs turned things around a little bit and won two of their last three games, including the season finale at Denver.  Everyone had the warm and fuzzies for Romeo.  In a very predictable move, Kansas City removed the interim title and bestowed a more permanent one.  There is a chance that no other name coach even wanted the job.  We found out the general perspective of things in KC when Peyton Manning refused to even visit this past off season. 

So yes, now is the time to right that wrong and show Mr. Crennel the door.  Thank you, sir.  You are a nice guy and a decent coordinator but you are no head coach.  This leads me to my point.  The Chiefs should just start cleaning house right now.

Firing Crennel should be the first move, followed immediately by the firing of General Manager Scot Pioli.  Todd Haley and Crennel were both Pioli’s hires and they have been disasters for this franchise.  Pioli has also done a poor job drafting, retaining, and acquiring the necessary players to provide this team the depth of talent to survive a physically grueling schedule.  Most of all, Pioli should be fired for his perennially blindness in the matter of Matt Cassel.

Matt Cassel is a tough guy.  He works hard.  He gives it his all.  Whatever cliché you want to insert for a scrappy, talentless player can be inserted here. The fact is, he is no better than a good back-up.  If you need a guy to step in for a few games when your starting QB gets knocked out (not Brady Quinn), Matt Cassel would be a great option.  However, it is obvious to everyone with even an iota of football knowledge that Cassel is not a championship caliber quarterback in the NFL.

Pioli has also proved that the vaunted “Patriot Way” works a lot better if you have Tom Brady as your quarterback and Bill Belichick as your coach.  Matt Cassel, Todd Haley, and Romeo Crennel are not even close.  It is easy to look good when Tom Brady is the face of your organization.  Forget the “Patriot Way.”  Let’s just move on.  Now!

If I were Clark Hunt, I would call Bill Cowher today.  Offer him the GM and the head coaching positions.  Ask him what his number is.  How big of a check do you need to take over this franchise, Mr. Cowher?  If he says not for all the gold in Fort Knox, so be it.  Go to the next guy.  If you have to bring Marty Schottenheimer in to run the asylum on an interim basis so you have time to find the right people not named Cowher to run your franchise – do it.  It is time to break out the wrecking ball and pulverize this thing. 

The Chiefs were picked by most of the talking heads to challenge for the AFC West in 2012.  Even now, those talking heads, local and national, are befuddled because this team should have several more wins.  There is talent on this team.  The depth just isn’t all that great.  The lack of wins falls on Crennel’s shoulders and the lack of depth falls on Pioli’s head.  He learned nothing from last season and went to battle with basically the same guys.  The fact that Ryan Lilja, a fine left guard, has been the center (a position he has never played) for the past several games and can’t get the ball to the QB on a regular basis, is a problem.  GET A CENTER IN HERE.  Find one somewhere.  Pioli cannot do his job.  Find someone who can. 

The time is now to make these changes.  There is no point in waiting.  Chief fans have suffered through this present, incompetent regime long enough.  Pioli has had his chances and failed he has miserably.  Today is the day to start anew. 

I would like to thank all of my loyal readers and followers.  Between my two blog sits, jawssportsandstuff.blogspot.com and jawsrecliner.blogspot.com, I have passed the 5000 viewer mark in less than 20 months.  While not every hit is a loyal reader, I know many of you out there read my stuff on a regular basis and I appreciate your support.  Thanks for reading.