The myth of Pioli
 

LOL I wonder if he's sharing that loaded contract he got from Clark with Bellichik.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/c...148&position=0

This time it’s personnel
Building to collapse
By Ron Borges
Monday, December 7, 2009 - Updated 4m ago
+ Recent Articles

MIAMI - Slowly but inexorably they are dissolving in front of our eyes. It is a process that didn’t begin this year for the New England Patriots [team stats] but way back in 2004, when nobody was paying attention to much else but the lifting of another Super Bowl banner.

That season they won their third Super Bowl in four seasons but also began a widely ignored decline that manifested itself emphatically the past month and came to a sad head yesterday at Land Shark Stadium when they lost for the third time in four weeks, blowing a 14-0 lead to be beaten at the buzzer by the Miami Dolphins [team stats], 22-21.

Five years ago, the Patriots draft garnered two starters, both on the first round. Not another player drafted in April of 2004 is still in uniform. That fallowness continued in 2005 when they again picked only two current starters. In 2006, they got only one, running back Laurence Maroney [stats], plus kicker Stephen Gostkowski. Then came the disaster of 2007, when only first-round pick Brandon Meriweather was good enough to still be in pro
football.

It is a bit early to know about 2008 but other than linebacker Jerod Mayo it again appears to be a sad lot. Second- and third-round picks Terrence Wheatley and Shawn Crable seldom see the field (Crable never has) and it is becoming increasingly more disastrous that cornerback Jonathan Wilhite sees so much of it. In those five years, the Patriots drafted 41 players and got eight starters, six on the first round. Otherwise they got what Bill Belichick kept saying was “value.” Yesterday, it didn’t look that way.

Free agency has produced similarly skimpy results. Early hits were made on Rodney Harrison [stats] and Mike Vrabel, but after that the cupboard has been bare. They paid $30 million to Adalius Thomas and promised he could cover Ocho Cinco and sack Peyton Manning. He’s done neither. Shawn Springs signed a three-year, $10.5 million deal last spring and hasn’t played a snap in a month, while poor Wilhite struggles out of position because he’s a nickel back asked to play corner and rookie Darius Butler goes out and proves that while he has potential he never saw receivers at UConn like the ones catching balls behind and in front of him now, as Greg Camarillo did on fourth-and-6 on the game’s most critical play yesterday.

While there were fruitful trades for Randy Moss and Wes Welker, they have netted big numbers but no championships, which is the same amount Moss’ teams have won since he first came into the NFL.

These facts led New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton to tell his team before last Monday night’s game to be stout hearted and unafraid because “this isn’t the team that accomplished all that stuff.” Although his language was more colorful, his point was clear. These Patriots aren’t those Patriots.

“It’s not for lack of effort,” center Dan Koppen said not long after Dolphins kicker Dan Carpenter nailed a 41-yard field goal and Tom Brady [stats] responded by throwing his second interception of the day with :35 to play as Cameron Wake hammered him.

Koppen is right. The Patriots’ problems are not from lack of effort or lack of planning. They are from lack of talent. Not so lacking that they aren’t competitive, but lacking enough that most every game is a struggle now.

Today everyone will say, “They need a better pass rush.” From whom?

They will say, “They need better pass coverage.” From whom?

Some will say they need to run the ball more to take pressure off Brady and his ailing ring finger, sore shoulder and aching ribs. By whom?

Years ago, Chuck Fairbanks said it best. “It’s not about X’s and O’s. It’s about Jimmys and Joes.” For half a decade with the Pats people believed otherwise. In Bill We Trust became the motto, but does anyone honestly believe Bill Belichick forgot how to coach? A guy who has been watching game film since he was 6 now can’t break down film and discover a team’s weaknesses?

That’s not the problem. The problem is he can’t ask people to do what they are not capable of doing. Or, worse, he does and you end up with Sam Aiken, a guy brought here to replace Larry Izzo [stats] on special teams, as your third receiver making one great catch for a touchdown and dropping two key ones. Did he have a great game or a disastrous one? Probably both, which is A) not his fault because he’s playing a role he was never supposed to, and B) not something Belichick can change.

“We’ve got to find a way to play better football for 60 minutes in all phases,” Brady said. “Everyone has to focus on what they need to do better. I think that’s the most important thing. And be mentally tough to overcome adversity and if things don’t go your way, you’ve got to fight back. That’s a challenge for all of us. At times I think we do, and other times, I don’t think we fight very hard.”

The latter is a damning statement, but it’s also part of what separates the 2001 Pats from today’s. Remaining undaunted is a skill too and not everyone has it.

“We have leads in the second half, and leads in the fourth quarter,” Brady continued. “We’re just not closing the game out when we have the opportunity to. We’re searching for the answers, too.

“Coach always says, ‘You get what you deserve.’ In too many ways, you don’t deserve to win when you make as many mistakes as we do.”

That’s true whether you make them on the field or in the front office.

That's well known though, the Patriots have been drafting like total shit for quite awhile now.

what is this "myth"?

Here's the problem:

If Belichick was the one making all the decisions, then Pioli didn't deserve the job b/c he wasn't the pro personnel genius he'd been lauded to be.

If Pioli was making decisions along with Belichick, he didn't deserve the job b/c he's done an awful job of evaluating talent

However, I'm sure that many will say it's C): All the good picks are on Pioli and the bad ones are on Belichick...or Carl...or the Jews.

The myth is Pioli as a talent evaluation god.

I don't think there's much doubt that myth has been destroyed around here but, you know, if there were still any doubts........

What I want to know is how he was voted front officer of the decade or whatever it was...

That tends to happen when your team wins Super Bowls.

Probably because he assembled a group of players with sufficient talent to become a dynasty.

FAX

Pioli's contract is gauranteed in full. Any remaining time left on his contract will be payable in full on his last day as the GM of the Chiefs.

Pioli is going no where. He and Clark are in this for the long haul together.

Carmen "Cap Hell" Policy was voted Executive of the Year, FFS.

the gross domestic product in new england is based around Tom Brady

And it was Hephaestion who was responsible for the conquests of Alexander.

It was all luck and he didn't anything anyway. Basically he sat in his office all day and collected paychecks and executive awards.

Yes, I'm quite certain that Pioli spent those years sitting on his thumbs and collecting his substantial (if not enormous) paycheck while watching Belichick make all the decisions and moves. Equally obvious is the fact that NFL executives know far less than internet BB posters when it comes to evaluating the contribution of their peers to their respective franchises.

FAX

:doh!: I wonder how many people get that...

So excited about this. Thrilled.

He didn't draft Ray Lewis, either. :Elvis:

And Eric Mangini was a great hire b/c of the tutelage of Belichick.
And Romeo Crennel.
And Charlie Weis had his "decided schematic advantage".


Jesus Christ, people. Barry Switzer won a Super Bowl as a head coach. Barry ****ing Switzer.

Lovie Smith, Dick Jauron, Jim Haslett, Ray Rhodes, Dom Capers, and yes the great Wayne Fontes were all voted as Coaches of the year.

Ted Thompson won executive of the year as did Randy Mueller, architect of the 2007 Miami Dolphins, and Carmen Policy of the 1999-2004 Browns.

Okay. It's reasonable to be pissed at Haley's decision-making lately. It's also understandable that fans are disappointed in Cassel who, apparently, has some serious delivery issues. Not only that, as Chiefs fans, we have every reason and right to heave giant cans of pork & beans at our run defense.

But, we have to recognize that our GM and HC are human. As such, they will make some mistakes. Throwing Pioli under the wheels because he has been unable to turn this enormous pile of dogshit of a franchise around in less than a year is just girlish.

Guys, we are an abysmal team. Talent-wise, we are Estelle Getty's wardrobe malfunction. With precious few exceptions, our personnel suck across the board. They need to be replaced, but it cannot be done in a year ... or even two. It's just something that we're going to have to deal with.

FAX

There is an argument you can make for every single avaialble GM candidate this last off-season.

DeCosta is with Ozzie Newsome.
Chris Polian is with his father.

It's impossible to know how much those guys are responsible for the success of their organizations and drafts - much like Pioli.

I just don't get the point arguing who the brains behind the operation was. No one is going to prove it for sure.

I'll give him more than a year on the job before I'm ready to shoot him out back.

DeCosta....That's the guy i wanted. Couldn't remember his name...

BB won 3 SBs with the rosters that they built.

BB shut down the Colts, Rams, and other high flying attacks, and coached the most dangerous offense in the history of football.
Pioli was the GM,and BB the coach when players such as Ty Law, Asante Samuel were acquired, along with Richard Seymore, and .. screw it, you know the names.

So far this season, the genius BB, has shown that his team is going to lose more games with Tom Terrific, at QB than it did with a Matt Cassel.

He's also shown that it's not his genius that won all those games. It was a special group of players who he, and Pioli, hand picked. If he was such a genius. He wouldn't be losing games, by constantly going for it on 4th, and he sure as hell wouldn't be getting his ass handed to him by Sean Payton.
Not to mention the fact that Tom Coughlin out coached him in one SB, and Mike Martz handed him another by not running the ball.
As far as all of you guys already giving up on a regime after one draft, and 12 games with one of the worst rosters in the league. I just have to laugh.
Is it very possible that they Fail? Ugh.... yeah, but they haven't failed yet morons. We won 2 games last year. We will probably win 4 this year. It's a start, and it as much as anyone could ask for considering the circumstances.
Nancies.

FAX, you know that's a false choice.

No one was expecting this team to be the '85 Bears. I wasn't expecting them to be the '85 Chiefs 6-10.

With that said, when his two biggest acquisitions look like botched abortions, how does that inspire any confidence.

We aren't looking for dominance, we're looking for signs of life near the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

You know, if Bellichick gets the credit, then he should get the blame. He's also the one who decided to dump Seymour for a draft pick two years from now.

If Pioli gets the blame, then he also ought to get the credit for putting together a three time super bowl champion and the team of the decade.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle. It's really never one guy, it's the organization and how it is structured. How good are your scouts? Is your head coach asking for the right players that as a GM you are supposed to get him? Are you evaluating well? Is your organizational structure sound? Did you get lucky on some draft picks?

You have to give Pioli a few more years to see if he truly has a plan to get talent in here and build this team properly. Everyone said his process would take a few years, so Clark agreed to give him that. My biggest concern is his choice as head coach, but we'll see.

As far as the Pats go, some people around here were blaming the Pats going "only" 11-5 last year on Matt Cassel. Now that we've seen that Tom Brady himself is only good enough to go 7-5 this year, it's obvious that this isn't the same team it was two years ago.

Who knows? Based on this past offseason and even some of his in game decisions this year, and electing to call the plays himself instead of hiring an OC, maybe B.B. has gotten to the point that he's just trying to outsmart himself, what with all the draft day trading down and the Seymour trade. Maybe that's why Pioli felt it was the right time to leave. Or maybe the Pats got lucky for a few years and all of that is coming back at them now. Time will tell. But I will agree that this season and the moves we made in the offseason don't reflect well on the current administration.

If we're going to get anywhere, improvement must occur from the top down and mistakes must be learned from and not repeated, otherwise there will be a new management team in a few years...

It's amazing that none of you dumb mother****ers, in spending voluminous time defending him, still don't realize that VP of Pro Personnel isn't the ****ing GM of the team.

Scott Pioli has been a GM for one offseason and 12 games. That's his experience in this position.

Why do people not understand this?

This team was HORRIBLE. What could you have possibly been expecting?

They should have gotten this thing turned around by now. If we're not good now we'll never be any good with Pioli running the show. It's time to clean house and start over........./Chiefs Planet


PhilFree:arrow:

ROFL:clap:

Well, the SB rings are real. And, although people can trot out endless examples of failed HCs and GMs who were hired away from winning franchises, it doesn't take history major to figure out that every situation is different and that generalizations are pointless to the level of silliness.

Will Pioli be successful here? Can he transfer his acknowledged success at NE to KC? Who knows? But, condemning Pioli after 1 off-season and 11 games (regardless of what we're currently registering on the suckometer) is nothing short of foolishness. It really is.

We desperately need talent. Almost everywhere. Even if we're lucky enough to acquire a difference-making, impact player, franchise god-man on both sides of the ball, it will take time to fill out this team. The sad fact is that we're below average at almost every position.

FAX

And yet you've already declared him a failure because he didn't fix this roster in an off season.. Yeah, we're the morons.

We should have traded away our first for Vernon Gholston.
SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!!!!

I can't wait till Pioli builds a winner here.

Lol. I was thinking the same thing. Only not so rude. Pioli was NOT the GM for the Pats.

Regardless, I know this season has been a disaster, but im not ready to throw in the Towel on Pioli and Haley. I think they both have what it takes.

I admire Haley for sticking to his philosophy, and I think Pioli will get this team headed in the right direction.

Cassel, im starting to loose faith in though.

You have one big fact wrong. Pioli was NEVER the GM in New England. His highest title was VP of Player Personnel. He was Bill Kuharich. Pioli has never dealt with all the issues a GM has to deal with. The job requires a lot more than player evaluation, and until now that is all he has done. The Chiefs have a GM and a HC that are both learning on the job.

ROFL

That's deep.

Look, I understand the concern. As I mentioned, we have every right to be pissed. It appears that Pioli may well have made a mistake with the Cassel move. And, who knows what going to happen with Haley? He may start eating the wallpaper at any moment.

Still, it's way too early to call Pioli out on this. He'll make some good decisions and some bad ones along the way. There will be plenty of time to determine if he brought the skills with him. Right now, however, unless you're the reincarnation of Edgar KC, it's far too early to tell.

FAX

That's obviously how most people feel, only with the exact opposite sentiment you're using those words in conjunction with. I'm giving him a long leash myself, because I don't believe he would have taken the job unless he thought he could build a winner here. The biggest mark against him at this point, IMO, is it looks like he may have made a big mistake with his first coaching hire.

His role in New England was to identify talent that would fit BB's coaching style and the organization's philosophy, and bring that talent in.

To me, he can continue to do that here but as a GM, his real issue will be whether or not he can build an organization. That starts with the scouting/pro personnel department, and the coaches he hires. It's like how I evaluate any head coach: if you surround yourself with good people, you have a shot at being successful. If not, then good luck to you. I look at our coaching staff, and I look at the Lions coaching staff, and I can pretty much tell that neither Haley nor Schwartz were going to have great turnarounds this year. Same goes for Pioli, he will only be as good as the personnel department he puts together and the head coach he hires. If he fails in those aspects, he fails as a GM...

The myth we should be talking about is the apparent fan expectation of a one-year turnaround from a franchise that's been in bad shape for over a decade. One offseason and people are throwing themselves off buildings, and trying to take the GM, coach and anybody else they can reach with them.

Maybe they'll fail. Maybe they won't. It's too soon to tell either way.

Completely agree with this.

However, I'm more than prepared to see some evidence that he knows what the **** he's doing in KC, beyond our ****ing kicker.

Hamas already addressed this.

The only thing people really wanted to see this year was PROGRESS.

And yet here we sit with just about the worst goddamn offense AND defense in the league again.

And you can argue this team is GETTING WORSE!!! We sure weren't losing 87-27 in back to back weeks during September and October.

I knew that, I just hadn't thought about it in a long time.

I made a mistake.

My opinion remains unchanged. I agree also that Haley is the man for the job, but that Cassel may be shell shocked, and it's 50-50 whether he recovers or not. I hope so, but I would like another QB brought in to push him, or take his job.
Everybody around here sucks A.J. Smith form S.D.'s balls, but he let Michael turner, and Drew Brees walk, and it probably cost them a SB or three. People make mistakes. Nobody's perfect. There is a lot of luck involved.

I really can't understand how anyone can see it any other way. It baffles me.

Based on what? The Jenny Craig franchise he installed at Arrowhead?

It's not about giving him time, we don't have any choice, it's about seeing positive steps in the right direction. Thus far, EVERY move Pioli's made appears to be negative. Virtually EVERY player hes acquired or drafted has sucked. Players hes let go have gone to other teams and succeeded.

I think we'd have seen more positives by now if he knew what he was doing.

Trading for Cassell looks like a mistake - Giving Cassell an unnecessary 60 million was an outright abortion.

The NFL is full of "suits" who know nothing about playing or coaching football who take credit for players, coaches, and scouts success. As of now I have to put Pioli smack dab in the middle of that group, which shouldn't really be surprising considering how his reputation came about largely thru the media.

The biggest problem with this football team is Clark. Not only does he not want to spend money, but his lack of football knowledge leads him into getting suckered by the suits, which is pretty common with really bad football teams.

Yeah, if the Pats demise is five years in the making, you're seeing the results of over 10 years of failure by Carl Peterson here.

Brodie Croyle, Tamba Hali, Dustin Colquitt, Derrick Johnson, Jarrad Page, and Dwayne Bowe are I believe the only guys left on this team drafted prior to '08. That's hardly a solid, veteran core group of players that you inherit that you can build around, and NONE of them play at the critical LOS positions (OL, DL) that good teams are built on...

Regarding Haley, based on what?

For Cassel, whose fault will that be?

Post of the decade

Regardless of what perceived mistakes Smith has made, his starting lineup is about 75 percent comprised of his draft picks over the past several years, if not more. That's not really luck.

This team IS getting better. We have had opportunities, and we just haven't been able to take advantage of them. Which is more that we can say for a Herm peterson team. That will come with time, and upgrades at a lot of positions. If we had a decent #2 WR , some linemen, and a badass power back, we would have had a huge momentum swing in this last game, and it would have looked a lot different. BUT Wade dropped the damn ball, Haley called a damn sweep, and you could see the life just sucking out of them. We need A LOT of players man. A LOT. Playmakers.
We need Krumrie gone, and we need a NT so bad that we will never be able to stop anyone without one. Wilfork?

Bullcrap.

That team last year lost how many games by a touchdown or less? They had opportunities, too.

It's the same shit in a different wrapper, except the last half of 08 the Chiefs were mediocre on offense.

I agree. He's good. But he also is the sole reason that his team is NOT going to win the SB. Because Drew Brees, and the Burner would be unstoppable with the rest of that roster.
That was an unlucky break for him. And until he DOES have a SB, I don't care how many draft picks he has on his team. He's accomplished LESS in his career than Carl Peterson.

So we're ready to say Pioli sucks? Ya'll are drama queens.

The fact that he had Brees on his roster and STILL acquired Rivers should be a lesson to executives around the league.

Granted, Drew wasn't playing at his current insane level at the time, but he was still a solid player and FAR better than anything we've seen from our "franchise" player.

Let's look at the moves that he's made while he's actually been the one in charge:

The hire of Todd Haley: Not damnable, but not inspiring of confidence either

The trade for Cassel: Looks god awful, and not because of his lack of fantasy stats. He doesn't appear to have the native ability to succeed in his position.

The contract to Cassel: We already owned his rights for 2 years, and were massively under the cap. This to, me, is the most damning move he's yet made.

The hire of Clancy Pendergast: ****ing awful. Arizona has the same talent in place as last year and is demonstrably better. Meanwhile, the Chiefs added their first three draft picks to the D and it's arguably just as bad (if not worse) than last year's D. At least we had ****ing injuries last year.

The trade of Gonzalez: His best move. It was a forward looking move that brings us quick help for a player at the end of his career.

The signing of Zach Thomas: FAIL
Bobby Engram: FAIL
Bobby Wade: FAIL
Amani Toomer: FAIL
Monty Beisel: FAIL
Mike Brown: FAIL

Cutting Pollard: FAIL

Trading a draft pick for Alleman and Eat Dookie: FAIL

Addressing the OL through draft and FA: FAIL. It wasn't an OL-empty draft, either, nor was Ryan O'Callaghan the only RT available after September cuts.


Bringing in Vrabel along w/ Cassel to establish veteran leadership: Nothing shows leadership like a 34 year old player flipping off the opposing sideline because he's experiencing multiple blowout losses for the first time in his career.

Drafting a 5 Technique at 3 overall b/c you've painted yourself into a corner: FAIL

Sean Ryan: FAIL

Thigpen trade: Great move.

Signing of Chris Chambers: Great move.

I should be optimistic, huh?

Progress won't come until the roster is overhauled. People were asking for a miracle if they expected this roster take any steps forward during the season. There's a reason street free agents come in here and start the week they get a contract. This is a bad, bad team, and no amount of smoke and mirrors is going to change that fact. Talent wins games. Period. No matter how much you polish a turd, it's still a turd. Which is why most realistic people, in and out of town, expected a maximum of 5 wins in 2009.

It's fine to hate losing and to get upset when it happens. Yesterday sucked. End of story. But burying the front office now? Too soon.

'course most of the people doing it started months ago.

If the 2010 or 2011 Chiefs look like this, if next offseason doesn't look any different than last, then I'll worry.

Unlucky. Sometimes things don't work out.

LMAO

Individuals are getting better.

The team? Not so much.

I'm not telling you what you should be, I just find it funny how the "Cassel sucks" threads disappear when they beat Pittsburgh and everyone praises him. Its 1 year the team has a chance to double it's win total from last year. New Englands first year with Belicheck they went 5-11.

Yes, maybe being more active in FA and playing to the strengths of the draft class would have obviated the need for trying to sift through the current list of garbage players who are available.

How so? His team has won as many playoff games in the past 3 years as Carl's did in 20.

Don't forget Succop!

Is this going to be like the college football smack where people say off the wall stupid shit then not own up to there words? Peterson better than Pioli? That's ridiculous.

Not necessarily "optimistic", but maybe tone down the screaming and wailing just a tad. You're waking the baby.

Look, so far, the worst thing Pioli has done is give the contract to Cassel. That's 28 million guaranteed (not necessarily the 60 million people like to talk about). Worst case (and assuming that Pioli can't unload him), he becomes an over-paid backup ... and a pretty decent backup, at that.

As for the other coaching and personnel moves, don't forget that Pioli was hired late - that's on Clark. Haley was, therefore, hired late and the inventory of staff coaches was depleted by then. We were stuck.

The personnel stuff was Pioli responding to urgent needs and problems. Some of those worked and some didn't. However, (and this is important) would you prefer that Pioli play all year with the hand he was dealt ala Peterson? I think not.

Temper fury with reason, for God's sake.

FAX

I don't know that you can say that at this point. It's silly to say that Clark does not want to spend money when he went out and got one of the most sought after and expensive pro-personnel men in football. He also paid a good chunk of change for a QB and has swallowed a lot of money for expensive players the new regime wanted to dump. It's not cheapness that is the issue. They will spend when they want to. You look at the Pats and the Steelers, teams Clark wants to model the Chiefs after, especially the Steelers, and historically they have not overpayed players or FA's and have instead relied on drafting and developing guys who fit their system. That's probably what Clark wants, not spending money on the Dan Williams and Carlton Gray's of the world but rather on productive players when need be, and drafting the core of the team. Of course Cassel could turn out to be a mistake as well if things don't improve, but we'll see.

Clark made a conscious decision to reshape the organization from the ground up this offseason. That will take time to shape into place. We have to keep in mind this was a team that had won 6 games in 2 years and had virtually no talent or talent that was overrated by some based on "potential" and had years of bad drafts this decade.

This team may not be much better than it was the last two years, but there wasn't much to work with in the first place. Most of the other teams in the NFL that were bad last year are again bad this year, which seems to indicate that all the free agent help that was supposedly out there probably wouldn't have been all that helpful. Pioli got rid of Pollard and Gonzo, and while those guys have been productive in their new environments, neither is on a winning team.

I dunno, maybe Pioli will prove to be a failure, obviously it was a risk as any new hire would be. But I don't think you can attribute that to Hunt not caring or wanting to spend. He went out and hired who he felt and who was widely believed to be the best guy out there, and he may yet prove to be that guy, but right now the results are obviously quite disappointing...

BULLSHIT!!!!

If the Chiefs had added the right players in four or five key positions they'd be a much better team right now.

We could have gone after Brian Dawkins...instead we got Mike Brown.

We could have found a guard or tackle in an OL-deep draft...instead we ****ed around with Goff and Newdookie.

They won 2 games. They ran the spread. They were completely devoid of talent. What exactly did you expect? Progress? How much progress can you make when you don't have an every down back, a pass rush spec., a #3 rec., a center, a guard, a RT, NT, a MLB, a safety, a TE, or even a FB? I'm sorry, but I expected some big wins, and some huge blowout losses. I really don't know what you guys were expecting. I still think we may win 5 games. Maybe you guys forgot that we were 3-2 over a 5 game stretch not too long ago. Everybody saw improvement then, hell even Whitlock. Now we've played two horrible games, and it's like it never happened. You people are too easily butt hurt. This team IS progressing. We are 3-4 over the last 7 games, with a cpl stinkers. That is exactly what we should be expecting form this pile of shat roster.
3-2 over 5 games=progress
No LJ= Progress
a #2 WR= progress. yes I think Chambers is a legit #2, and his presence will help Bowe.

Brian Dawkins would look like shit on this team too.

You must have been intimately familiar with his credentials.

The Truth Monkey just let out a big one over this post.

It's as though people don't realize just how bad we were/are. When Pioli took over, the sign over the stadium read; "Arrowhead, Home Of The Laughing Stocks." He's supposed to turn that culture around in 12 months? That's crazy talk.

Besides, as mentioned, he has a lot more on his plate than just personnel issues. The Chiefs were a broken organization from top to bottom. Give the poor guy a little time to sort things out, I say.

FAX

Chiefsplanet John Kerry

What ****ing good is a 34?? yr old safety to us?
How will that make us a better team in the long run? You do know that the only thing that matters is the long run right? We are not winning 10 games with Dawkins the way Denver is, and I would be willing to bet, that if Dawkins was playing with Tamba Hali, and Not Elvis Dumerville, he would look like shit.

Jesum Crow, FAX, it's not like there wasn't a clear and established list of things that many of us wanted the team to do this offseason.

This isn't people bitching just to bitch. It's people bitching because the moves that were made (and were criticized at the time of them being made) are what we thought they were!!

And through all of that, we were told to STFD and STFU because we aren't "Pioli".

Well, based upon the cult of personality that surrounded him as a candidate, Pioli isn't Pioli, either. Just some fat Italian in a suit throwing darts at the Patriots roster castoffs.

Well, that should be encouraging to us, that he is also learning on the job.
He has made some strange moves, and some apparent bad moves. Hopefully, once he has time to put together a competent coaching staff, those moves will work out.

I doubt he'd be taking Mike Brown angles to the ball.

What ****ing good is Vrabel to us?

Christ, who cares? The Chiefs had to do SOMETHING to improve this year. There is no way they wanted to rank in the bottom 5 on offense and defense again.

FAIL

Now break down all the Awesome moves that BB made this past off-season.
And don't give me Richard Seymore. That's Raiders hilarity, not BB genius.
Guess what. The Patriots are falling fast.

quote
Bobby Engram: FAIL
"Bobby Wade: FAIL
Amani Toomer: FAIL
Monty Beisel: FAIL
Mike Brown: FAIL" [Hamas]

We turned over a third of the roster, and you're gonna point at a bunch of league minimum guys we brought in, and say fail because they didn't work out?

I'm with ya man. I think a team should be able to bring in 23 players, and have everyone of them start, and contribute at a high level. **snicker**

This question has been asked countless times, but who was asking for that to happen?

Tangent: "changing a culture" is an empty rhetorical phrase and is usually cited by those failing at their jobs. It's the line of choice, for example, for university presidents facing a vote of no confidence from the faculty.

I haven't.

Dude is going to kick for us for the next decade. Not bad for the last pick in the draft.

Dude has a ****in donkey leg.

Sure, if all you care about is how the team looks right now, if the (false) perception that they're "getting better" in 2009 matters all that much to you. If winning a few more games during a losing season is a big deal to you, if going 8-8 so you don't have to suffer through any down times is more important that working towards a long-term turnaround. If you're a big fan of the way Carl Peterson did business. Which I am not.

As for me, well, in my view, the team would not be better in any meaningful way if they exchanged some of the scrubs that are starting now for different scrubs. YOU might feel better, if they'd won 4 or 5 games now instead of 3 (and there's no guarantee that anything would be any different with different names on the jerseys), but at the end of the day it would end exactly the same way: looking for replacements in 2010 and beyond to build the team that they want.

This year was not the time for bold free agent moves, in my opinion. I think they have to build the core of their team first, through the drafts, and then fill in the holes that way. All of the guys you're bitching about are placeholders for guys who'll be drafted later on. Which is I think the right approach.

Can they do it? I don't know. I do know it's not something that can be done in one offseason. Or two. And I'm not supporting Pioli or anybody else when I say that. What I am saying is that I can't judge the quality or lack thereof of their philosophy or approach at this point.

Because it's too soon.

Which I'm sure I've said before.

But by all means don't let me interrupt your hilarious overreaction and bi-polar weekly behavior.

Go and look at the moves the Broncos made on defense.

Why not the Chiefs?

I'll tell you why - the people running things at Arrowhead ****ed it all up this year.