Mortensen: Chiefs had 4th worst offseason...

[DaWolf]

http://espn.go.com/chrismortensen/s/2001/0711/1224837.html

Nothing new here, just another guy panning us without getting in depth.

What's interesting is that he rates us ahead of the Cowboys. Did the Cowboys really have a better offseason than us?

Another interesting thing is that he was saying before the draft that we had to meet the Rams demands for Trent Green and that it would be a good deal. Now he's questioning his knee. So how is Green before the draft worth a first and third in his opinion, but now he's questionable because of the knee?

He also lists the loss of Donnell Bennett and Kimble Anders from the backfield as if those were significant losses. Great research there Mort.

But I guess if you're a national guy and the major things you've heard about the Chiefs in the offseason have been "Gunther fired over internet", "Chiefs $30 million over the cap", "Chiefs forced to give up 2nd and 3rd for Vermiel", "Chiefs trade first for Green", and "Chiefs lose Morris for season" it's going to look like a bad offseason.

Hopefully our players are seeing these things and getting even more motivated by it...

[ExtremeChief]

Guys like Mortensen don't have time to actually research anything, they are too busy in chat rooms and on writing bs...

If Blaylock and Horne produce for the Chiefs this year these "experts" will be saying what a great move it was to get Green, Horne, and Blaylock for just a 1st rounder.

Also, the addition of Stryzinski, while not exciting news, should have a very positive effect on our ST in terms of field position. It's just not exciting news to talk about punters.


enjoying being underestimated, AGAIN...

[soliday]

The only national guys that I really respect are Pasquerrelli (although now that he's w/ ESPN, I hope he doesn't pick up their sloppinesss), Dan Pompeii, Joel Buschbaum, and What's-his-name with the Dallass Morning News.

The rest are strictly in it for the buffets.

[Cannibal]

We did have a sh1tty offseason. We always do.

The last true bonafide impact player we acquired was Gonzo, and that was 4 years ago.

You homers can spin all you like, but the truth hurts.

Cap mismanagement by Peterson will not allow us to bring in superstars that will put us over the top. Facts are facts.

Hopefully the cutting of Glock, Grbac, Hasty and Gray will get us some good cap room next year and allow us to sign a real player or two. However, I am sure it'll be more of the same and Peterson will bring in some dipsh1t that should've retired 5 or 6 years ago. God I can't wait until he's gone:rolleyes:

[Cannibal]

BTW, I sincerely apologize for being such a prick about it.

I just get tired of the fans complaining about the lack of respect when we haven't earned it [in a very long time].

Until we get this house in order and win some playoff games, no respect will be coming our way.

[nickman]

Cannibal, I agree for the most part. We have not had a great off season. Green is a possible upgrade from Grbac but Grbac was not killing us last year. I think the coaching staff can be the biggest chance we have for improvement. The second area we should be improved is special teams, they really could not be worse and I think our new punter and returner should help.

I think our defense can be worse. I think Hasty played a big role in shutting down half the field and Crockett is not as good.

On offense we should be the same or worse...

I think the learning curve will cost us a couple of games we might win the next year.

[Packfan]

For those of you that dont think Mortenson is credible, covering the NFL is all this guy does. Nothing else. Just because he rates the Chiefs offseason as a disappointment doesnt mean that he doesnt know football.

I agree with Cannibal. The Chiefs had a poor offseason. Entering the last game, they had a pro bowl QB, a very high first round draft pick and two solid wide recievers. NOW, they dont have the pro bowl QB, they lost their first and second round picks to replace the QB and coach, Morris is out for the year, and salary cap problems forced the Chiefs to get rid of a bunch of starters. Anyway you slice it, this has been a poor offseason.

IF the Chief had hung onto the 12th pick, fired Peterson, and hired a YOUNG coordinator from a good program, I would say that the Chiefs are on the right track. Instead, they have assured themselves of continued mediocrity by trading top draft picks for a journey man/ free agent to be QB and a 67 year old head coach. Thats not how you build a winner.

The next three years are going to be very similar to the previous three years. Maybe some of the Chief fans will finally dummy-up to this unacceptable mediocrity and call for Peterson dismissal.

I doubt it.

[Cormac]

Packfan,

It's funny how Elvis just became a pro-bowl QB in your mind! Hilarious!

Seriously, which do you think is the better QB - Elvis or Green?

Also, would those starters which the Chiefs were forced to get rid of be.......hmmmm..........let's see............the "overpaid, underachieving malcontents" you so regularly allude to? Let me refresh your memory, guys like Hasty (who constantly wanted out during the offseason), Chet (who couldn't have sucked worse, or caused more 1st and 5's), Grbac (who never won a playoff game), Bennett and Anders (our converted FB and 37 year old starting HB).

Help me out here, it appears as though you're spinning the facts :confused: I must be mis-reading your posts :rolleyes: :p

[KCinGA]

Mortenson is not credible. He opens his mouth before knowing all of the facts. Whether you liked the Chiefs' off-season moves or not, the bottom line is that we have improved. Great strides have been made in the coaching staff... special teams have vastly improved... they've brought on a new QB/RB to help run the new offensive gameplan effectively.

Vermeil has gotten his QB in Green and I fully believe in the move. He IS an improvement over Grbac! Every good play he ever made was countered by highly questionable decisions he made in crucial moments of the game.

Knee-shmee!! The guy will be healthy and ready to play by the season-opener. He's made all the right moves and said all the right things since becoming a Chief. To me... the difference from Grbac is that Green is a true leader.

As far as the Morris injury goes, if ol' Mort really did his homework on the Chiefs - he would know that Minnis was already pushing Morris for the starting job in training camp. It had been reported more than once how Morris struggled in this newly installed offense.

I think the Chiefs have the right mix of veteran players and young players. I like the changes on the O-line and D-line. I'm even excited about the youthful secondary and the contributions that they could make. If they pick up the CM from New Orleans, I'll even be more pleased.

The only real argument that Mort has is depth. I'll agree that the depth is probably not what we want it to be. But, you can't have everything. The organization has made all of the moves that they needed to this year to clear the cap problems and position ourselves for the future... plus, giving us the chance to succeed THIS year at the same time!

Peterson is not the problem... neither is Vermeil... and we do have a young coordinator in Saunders to take over the reigns at the head-coaching position.:rolleyes:

[kcred]

I really could care less about our off season. No, it hasn't been a good one. But the subtle accomplishments, getting the cap back in shape, ridding the team of troublesome players and best of all, getting rid of one of the worst coaching staffs in the NFL, to me, add up to a decent off season. Did we improve with Green, performance wise maybe not. Leadership wise, yes we did. Our ST looks improved. Offense, no. Defense, no. But we haven't even gone to camp yet, so let's see what develops.

[RedandGold]

I'm not a big Mort fan (in fact I think the guy is full of sh*t most of the time), but he isn't saying that the Chiefs had the 4th worst offseason. The whole point of the article is who had a TOUGH offseason.

I would agree that the Chiefs have had a tough offseason with all of the changes that we were forced to make due to salary cap implications, coaching personnel/philosophy changes and injury. With that being said, I think we have made drastic improvements from the team/coaching staff that we saw under Gunther last season.

Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing the effect of these changes in the regular season!

[phillfree]

To keep things in perspective this offseason couldn't even come close to being as bad as last years. As far as Mort is concerned he's just doing his job filling in space and giving us starving football fans a snak pak to digest. We all should know that football games aren't won by player acquisition and the outcomes of the games are unpredictable.Which is why we play the games on the field and not with computer analysis.
I've reached the point where I can't stand those guys who do football on ESPN. They're Bronco sympathizers and when I here Burman say "no one circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills" I want to puke. And I can't stand to watch that stupid film clip of him catching a pass wearing his Bucs jersey. Excuse me. (barrrrrrrrrrrrrrphPuuuuuuukearhggggggaaag) I'm better now! Where was I? Oh yea. Boombers let his celeb status go to his head and he's become a pompous ***.

PhilFree :cool:
~Ready for some FOOTBALL~

[Packfan]

Cormac,

I dont care for Elvis, you know that. He was, however, a pro bowl QB last year. I dont think he has what it takes (upstairs) to win a playoff game. As far as who is better, Green or Grbac?? I would probably take Grbac. What has Green done besides make a lot of money?? At least Grbac has put together a "pro bowl season". To give up the 12th pick in the draft for either Grbac or Green is assinine. The Ravens needed a QB and got one for free. The Chiefs needed a QB and got a lessor one for the 12th pick in the draft. That pretty much says it all when asking why the Ravens are successful and the Chiefs are not.

As far as the starters getting cut. Hasty and McGlocton are malcontents and overpaid. But the Chiefs have NOBODY to replace these guys. Poor planning by Peterson once again.

I agree with Mort on this. The Chiefs team got worse in the offseason. Anytime you have to give up the 12th pick in the draft for a journey man QB, you are really hurting.

[nickman]

I have to believe that Mortensen is credible. He certainly has talked to coaches and players. I haven't. I think most of his comments are at least attempting to be accurate. He doesn't just ramble like some. No one is right all the time. And we have not had a great off season. We are retooling and changing to a new system. No finetuning a solid one.

[Baby Lee]

Interesting to look conversely at who he thinks had the BEST offseasons. The ENTIRE AFC-W [save the Chiefs] is in his 'top' 7 [3. Seahawks, 5. Raiders, 6. Chargers, 7. Broncos].
Ravens take the top spot. Rams come in #2. Great, . . between defections, cross-state rivalries and our own conference - every team I would like to see do poorly, has [in Mort's humble estimation] raised the roof.

[NaptownChief]

Hey Packfan,

While we are on the topic of being critical of other peoples teams, I thought I would share my experience yesterday in Green Bay. I drove through yesterday on my way back from Door County. Stopped off to see the famed Lambeu Field, what a $hit hole...I like the Kmart that is about a sand wedge away, that is a nice touch...You can catch a packer game and a blue light special all at the same time...

[Cormac]

Packfan,

Nobody really knows how good Green is. Yeah, we gave up a lot for him, but he is the one DV wanted above all else, and it's a calculated risk that the Chiefs negotiated hard for. The original price was whittled down, and CP did a good job of bargaining on DV's behalf. Now, whether it works or not is anybody's guess, and is DV's responsibility IMO.

Let's think about what we lost by getting rid of those starters. First of all, the names that are gone are many of the ones that you most frequently referred to as the "cancers" on our team. So, basically, we couldn't have lost much???

Grbac.......his 4169yds and 29TDs will be very hard to replace. But his 2 minute offense is easily superceded. If Green stays healthy we'll be happy to have moved on. Grbac's stats don't mean everything..........right?

McGlockton........I totally agree that we are really thin in experienced and healthy players on the D-line. FWIW, that is what I wanted us to spend our #12 on. But by getting rid of Chet we remove a bad influence, give time to starters who most likely want to be there more than he did, and replace him with somebody who probably is not as physically talented, but hopefully more mentally tuned in. This is a push. We can replace his 3 sacks and 20-odd tackles a year with just about any back-up as Clint says. Also, according to you, he never commanded a double-team, so where's the loss? This is a weak argument. What could possibly lead you to say we'll miss Chet (which is obviously what you mean by saying we have no-one to replace him)???? What would you be saying if we had kept him???

Hasty........while a great player, he was slowing down, and probably not the most solid locker room presence. We don't have starters to replace him and Crockett was a terrible signing IMO. However, we have tried to fill that position through the draft the last couple of years, and have plenty of TC bodies to try out for a diamond in the rough. Until we see our draftees in man-to-man coverage, it's too early to tell whether Hasty can be replaced or not. I'm willing to guess we'll be short-handed, but Hasty couldn't fix that all on his own, and we saved about $6m by cutting him. Now we have to see how good our drafting of CBs has been. And before you slam any Chiefs, think of your own situation........how good are/were Fred Vinson and Antwan Edwards??? ;)

Bennett........don't even go there. He is not a loss, and is replaced by T-Rich and Layne.

Anders........once great, unfortunately past it, as you regularly reminded us by saying (incorrectly) that we had a 37 year-old starting RB. He has been "replaced" by Holmes and the aforementioned FBs.

Coaching staff.........replaced Gobsh!te and his little helpers with SB-winning staff members. The new HC is in position, being groomed for the job if he lives up to expectations. DV makes CP a better GM IMO, because I doubt all this cap-cutting stuff would have happened without DV's influence. We are now in a much better position to re-sign Gonzo etc next season because of it.

When you think about it Ken, the guys who are now gone (coaching staff and players), are the ones you have been screaming about the last 2 years (that I've been on the boards). Now that they are gone, you make it sound like we lost guys that we can't replace. While they were here you wanted the cap money saved, and the younger players to get experience. We had to do something.......and we did the right thing, we cut them! Of course we took cap-hits to do that, and now don't have a lot of money to go FA shopping this season. You can blame that on CP if you like. But this team is on the verge of a big up-turn IMO. 7 or 8 wins this season is all I expect, but then we should be play-off bound. Anything less and I'll be disappointed. If we still had Gunther, I'd only be predicting 3-4 wins this season.

[htismaqe]

You can't win this argument with Dienberg, guys...give it up...

unless of course you understand "blah, blah, blah...Carl Peterson...blah, blah, blah..."

[Packfan]

jl80,

You must have been at a different stadium. There is no k-mart that is a "sandwedge away" from Lambeau. You want a sandwedge shot, how about the Denny's that is a sandwedge away from Arrowhead?? (actually, that and amoco are about the only things close to Arrowhead)

Cormac,

If you recall, I am all for rebuilding. Cutting Chester, Hasty, Anders, ect are great for the team IF they are truly REBUILDING. It is clear that they are not rebuilding. Trading the #12 pick for a journey man QB who is 30 years old isnt the right way to rebuild. The Chiefs have so many holes that by the time the fill them, Green contract will be up and the Chiefs wont be able to afford him, or he will continue to perform the way he has his entire career and just be another stopgap QB for the Chiefs and they will let him go.

It would be nice if the Chiefs could find a franchise QB to build around. Trent Green isnt a franchise QB. Washington and St Louis found that out. Now the Chiefs are going to find that out too. If Trent were 24 years old and didnt have a bum leg, it would be a different story.

Its the same old story for the Chiefs: Knee jerk reactions when things dont go as planned. Grbac suddenly departs and the Chiefs panic and get bent over in the Trent Green deal. The Chiefs should have been negotiating with Grbac's agent prior to the end of the season. Maybe they would have found out Grbac's true intentions and then go after a Green look-a-like that they could have gotten for FREE.

You dont give up the 12th pick in the draft for a journey man QB.

[WisChief]

Geez, I've been gone for a month or so now and I come back to see that Ken has not stopped. Wow.....

I'll extend my offer to you again Ken. Camp starts in just a few days at River Falls. If you're interested, you can make a trip here. I'm sure you have friends and/or family in Wisconsin that would make it worth the trip. Anyway, then you could see for yourself if Green and Vermiel are the real deal or not....

[phillfree]

I don't think there is rebuilding in the NFL as it used to be. With Free Agency you are losing players every year. And the worse your team is the more likely it is that star players like Gonzo won't stick around. At this point in time NFL teams are building all the time instead of rebuilding every 5 years or so. Is the Pack rebuilding or do they just suck right now?I think the latter. Bringing in new and unprove personnel is no excuse to lose games. On the contrary! It's a way to find stars and elevate your level of play.

PhilFree :cool:

[phillfree]

Double vision! I didn't think either post went through.

[phillfree]

I am going to post this again. No way this offseason is even close to as bad as last years. Can I get an Amen Brother from someone on that or has everybody foregot.............

[DaWolf]

For those of you that dont think Mortenson is credible, covering the NFL is all this guy does. Nothing else. Just because he rates the Chiefs offseason as a disappointment doesnt mean that he doesnt know football.

You dont give up the 12th pick in the draft for a journey man QB.

According to Mort, you do give up the 12th pick for Green.

As far as the offseason, I'm not saying we did or didn't have a great offseason. That's relative. You can focus on cap problems, or you can focus on the fac that we had the 5th most room under the cap in the NFL at the start of free agency. You can say giving up the first was bad, or getting Green was good. You can say getting Holmes was bad or good. You can say losing Grbac was bad or good. Etc.

I was relatively OK with the offseason we had. New coaching staff was the key to me. I feel there is already talent enough here to win, they just need to be better coached to reach their potentual.

Positives: QB, RB, special teams, coaching staff, DL depth, safety and LB depth.

Negatives: Lost draft picks, lost WR for year, DT and CB positions remain questionable.

I frankly feel we were a quality corner away from having a pretty nice offseason. Unfortunately the staff seems to feel the young guys with Crockett will be enough. I'm not confident in that.

Plus, like someone else said, this offseason sets us up nicely for next offseason, where Vermiel will know exactly what he has here and what he needs.

So like Cannibal said, we are in a position where we will have to prove ourselves to get any respect. And frankly that's the way it should be. Based on the last 3 years, we deserve no respect, and I expect that. I look at what the Rams did in going from laughingstock to shutting everyone up. Now they are getting all the respect in the world. That is where we need to be in a few years...

[Luzap]

phillfree, et al...

You shouldn't confuse pacfan with facts and logic.

Luz
it will distract him from sending out his resumes for NFL GM positions...

[Logical]

You know I have indeed got a winner with Packfan. I have selected the option to ignore him and I do not see his BS schlock. Now even if he post a scathing diatribe, the BB considers the source so I do not have to anymore.


Great feature Kyle! Unfortunately the feature is implemented but not working at the alternate site.

[Warrior5]

Phillfree: Amen, Brother!

Everyone else: in honor of Packfan's presence, can we start up the <B>All-Idiot Team</B> roster again?

[Cannibal]

Getting rid of that sorry coaching staff is a plus for sure, but it's also a given!

I'd probably be sitting in prison right now for sniping Peterson had he not fired those f()cks! That's a joke for the faint of heart BTW.

[Abba-Dabba]

Simply put Chris Mortenson is a bonafide idiot! Mortenson has been forever down on the Chiefs as long as I can remember. To put all of this into perspective look at Mort's power rankings, he has the Chiefs at #25. I know alot will say that is about right but I tend to disagree. Look at the teams surrounding the Chiefs in his rankings, he rates the Patriots who I might add do not know if they want their #1WR on their team and their RB hopes pinned on J.R.Redmond at #24, huh? I just don't understand his logic on that 1. Or how about the Atlanta Falcons, they are rated by him at #22....WTF? Mort talks about T.Green being injury prone, What about Mr.Chris Chandelier Mort? To put his dislike for the Chiefs organization as a whole more into perspective, he ranks the Arizona Cardinals #26...thats right 1 spot lower than the Chiefs. Now honestly does anyone really think that the Chiefs are really that bad? I don't and I am sure the other organizations in the NFL don't think so either.

[TEX]

Packfan,
I'll stand by what I said when we traded the #12 for Green and that was that IMO it was worht it. We needed a QB and got a player who could help the team more so than any player chosen at # 12 could have given the needs of the team at the time. Maybe Peterson did handle the Grbac thing wrong, who really cares now? It's time to move on! The fact is that had Grbac wanted to stay , he would have. Also, Green would still be a BETTER choice than Grbac for this offense which depends on quick reads and accuracy - both were Grbac shortcomings. Plus, Green has already shown MORE leadership ability in his short stint in KC than GrRetard ever did.

Also, I don't care what anybody says, the Chiefs now have a clean slate and a much better foundation to build on. They have a much better coaching staff and they're rebuilding the correct way now. This off season was all good for that reason alone. :cool:

[Rausch]

Cooter,


i don't think the Chiefs are that bad, I think our division is that good. The cardinals get to play the Cowboys twice and now the Boys have only Emmitt and.......uh........Ok, just him....Should win both games there. The Cards have a garbage schedule and we have the...what was it, 12 toughest in the League!?!

I will say that while Denvers' old Defensive general does not impress me in the least, he will be aggressive. Spurt was far from that, and even a minimal upgrade there is a given.

I also think the loss of DT was as big a factor on and off the field last year as any. Yes this has been argued forever but it's a point that should not be forgotten.

Chester being a loss is laughable. Hicks and Clemons are solid to say the least, and Steve "Booty" Martin can adequately aquire 3 sacks, jump offsides twice a quarter, and lean on offensive lineman for 16 games. I feel confident in that.

Can Browning stay healthy, that's my only concern. I think he's got the tools, just not the health.

[Abba-Dabba]

Brad,

See I don't figure power rankings based upon toughness of schedule, but if you base it upon schedule let's look at Atlanta and N.E. schedule

Atlanta faces StL and N.O. twice a year, those are pretty damn good teams right now but what I find interesting about Atlanta schedule is that they close out the season with consecutive games vs.Green Bay, Carolina, St.Louis, N.O., Indy, Buffalo, Miami.
That is a pretty damn tough way to finish a season besides the Carolina game, hell they could finish the season with 5 straight losses or 6 losses out of the last 7 games. #22 yeah right

N.E. from Sept 23rd(week3) to Oct.28th(week8) they face N.Y.J., Indy, Miami, S.D., Indy, and Denver in that respective order, they face Atlanta week 9 then a 4 game stretch playing Buffalo, St.Louis, N.O., and the Jets, then closing out the season with games against Cleveland, Buffalo and Miami. Both Atlanta and N.E. face tough schedules too.

Right now I kinda have taken up the opinion the AFC West is a crap shoot. Every team has questions in someway or another.

Raiders concern is age, can all those 30 something guys stay healthy for a 16 game and beyond season?

Denver has made alot of free agent dignings but alot of those signings are question with undesirable people.

S.D. is 6 months removed from a 1-15 season, sure they have revamped the team, they also spent the money for it too. Will these guys have chemistry coming right out the gate? WIll previous seasons have any forebearing on this season? Memories are hard to get rid of especially in football.

Seattle has a new QB that has taken less than 50 snaps in a NFL game...Can he do the job? I have heard he can but have heard him having trouble in minicamp. Do they have a proven veteren reciever? How does the Ricky Watters, Shaun Alexander saga workout?

We all know the Chiefs questions but my point is the AFC West has some very good teams IMO 5 very good teams, only time will tell, hell who knows the whole division could go 8-8, wouldn't that be funny?

[Packfan]

Cooter,

You dont understand why Atlanta, New England, and San Diego are rated higher?? Here is your answer:

All three beat the Chiefs during the final weeks of the season. And all three have had better off seasons then the Chiefs have had. Its really that simple. Face it Cooter, your team is in the bottom tier of the NFL.

Phillfree,

If the 9-7 Packers, with a top ten draft pick and Brett Favre suck, then what do you have to say about the 7-9 Chiefs and them giving up their first two draft picks for a coach and a backup QB??

Chief fans,

I see that some p ussies like Logical and Titus have chosen to "ignore" me. I guess they dont want to have unbiased conversation regarding the Chiefs. What a bunch of cowards. It shouldnt surprise me based on conversations I have had with them the last few years. For the rest of you, I enjoy chatting every now and then and respect most of you for sticking up for the Chiefs and trying to prove your points with facts and statistics. I think we all would like the Chiefs to do better and most of us believe that they are a long way from challenging for a title.

Some Chiefs fans (logical, Titus, Bliss, Luzap, ect) just got worn down by me and gave up. Dont be the wimps that these guys are.

[philfree]

PackFan,
Honestly I don't think that last years performance of the Chiefs will have any bearing on this years Chiefs. We have some good players and we have some question marks. Most fans feel like we are better because of the coaching change and that we will not suffer the loses we did last year due to bad game day decision making. If Green stays healthy and performs anywhere close to his career numbers we'll be a pretty good on offense. But at this point he is one of our questions. If our young corners step up our D will be pretty good too. But that's a big if. I can't wait to see how it all turns out. As far as the Packers go I used to like them a little but after reading all your BS I can't stand them. I bet if they new of you and your BS they would want you to change your user name as you are not a good spokes person for their franchise.

PhilFree :cool:

[NaptownChief]

Originally posted by Packfan
jl80,

You must have been at a different stadium. There is no k-mart that is a "sandwedge away" from Lambeau


Ken,

I apologize. I forgot how you cheeseheads play golf...Sandwedge for me... Driver, six iron and a pitching wedge for you....

[chiefdoc]

I sure am not going to take Mortenson's word. What does he know, it can't be too much. IMHO, the entire AFC West is going to be vey tough. Everyone has made improvements. The faiders are getting old though, but on a more important thought, Preseason is around the corner.

GO CHIEFS!!!!:D

[ck_IN]

I love this. Someone has a critical comment on the Chiefs and immediately he's 'not credible'. I see Homervision is running at full strength.

Now I don't follow Mort so I won't comment on his credibility, but after reading this article my response, excluding the DV comments, was 'Yeah that's about right'.

We had a bad offseason gang and right now we're a mediocre team. There's no harm in admitting it. It's obvious and it's the truth. We went too far down a bad road and now we're taking some bitter medicine. Hopefully it'll pay off in a few years but the immediate future is dim.

We hopelessly overpaid for our QB, due to DV's high school crush on him. Because of CP's back room moves we wound up hopelessly overpaying for DV and our first two picks in the draft were reaches that I doubt will contribute soon if at all. Our first good pick (Layne) was not even at a position of need. All in all it was a horid draft.

As for free agents, we got Mayes, Holmes, Weigman, Owens, and Strysinksi (sp?) All good. Then we wasted roster spots on Crockett and Cadrez. Very bad.

Coaching wise, the Stooges are gone (insert chorus of joy). However in terms of Kurt/Shaw vs Robinson and Stock vs Ganz Jr. I fear we traded Lary for Shemp.

Our O will put up lots of points and alas, so will the opposition. We'll lose some shootouts and gain a high draft choices next April. Hopefully we'll use them more wisely than this years.

I can see us anywere from 8-8 to 4-12 but barring injury to one of the front dogs, 6-10 and 5th is probably our lot for this year.

[milkman]

CK,
While I, like you, have my concerns about Robinson and Ganz Jr., I still have no doubt that they are upgrades from the the Stooges.

Seems more like a trade of Larry and Shemp for Rowan and Martin.

[ck_IN]

Milkman, Rowan & Martin is giving too much credit IMO at this point so, what'll ya say we split the difference?

Larry & Shemp for Chico & Harpo.

[milkman]

CK,
Deal!;)

[NaptownChief]

I think Mort is very credible and I usually agree with his opinions on many things and he might very well be right about our off season...But that aside this team is good enough to win and win now...

I look at it like this, between the Titans, Rams, Raiders and Broncos we went 3-3 last year and if SlyMo doesn't fumble late in the 1st Raider game and we win the OT coin toss in Tennessee we could very easily been 5-1 in those games...All four of those teams were considered to be among the best in the league...Well, if you can go 3-3 and just be a RCH away from 5-1 against teams that are considered to be among the best then that tells me you have plenty of horsepower to compete at the highest level...The coaching change alone will be enough to put us near the top regardless of our offseason IMO....

[philfree]

I have to agree with jl. We are better then most people think, and I hope Tony is right and we "shock the world". The Rams and the Ravens both did, why can't we?

PhilFree :cool:

[Cannibal]

jl80,


So now just because Bobby Knight [the ex-coach of your favorite team] is the Texas Tech coach, you have become a fan of Texas Tech?!

Sounds an awful lot like Proctor becoming a fan of the Skins to me. I hope you weren't one of the people castigating Proctor for becoming a Skins fan.

[NaptownChief]

Never said a word to KCJ about being a ForeSkins fan...You would have to have grown up in Bloomington to understand the Knight thing...Half of central Indiana has a Texas Tech license plate holder or sticker in their car window...Texas Tech now has more fans than any school in the Big 12, maybe the country....

[Chiefs Pantalones]

Jl,

I agree. Good points.