Live chat with Babb at 11:30 today...
 

http://www.kansascity.com/coveritlive/

In case any of you have any questions we would all like answered.

Do you reuse your Arrowhead cathator

why are they such assbags there. really? i want us to win damit

submitted a question long ago and it is still not up there.

Comment From Stokes
Are we to believe that this toxic work environment is part of the reason that coaches like Jeff Fisher were reportedly not interested in coming to the Chiefs?











11:51


Kent Babb:
Stokes, It's hard for me to say with certainty and without clearly speculating, but I definitely think that's a legitimate question.

JFC he said he'd go with Cassel over Orton

I have had 3 questions answered so far.

Comment From Terry
If Pioli screws up with Romeo, is it over for him in your opinion?


11:55


Kent Babb:
Terry, GMs usually get only two chances at picking a successful coach. He'll be hard-pressed to retain his job if Romeo doesn't win, and win almost immediately.

Comment From Dan Mc
Who would you choose Orton, if he stays, or Cassel?

11:53
Kent Babb: Dan, Let me put on my flak jacket real quick: I would choose Cassel. I think he is far from a perfect quarterback, but look at it this way: If you give up on Cassel and go with Orton, you're giving up on a lot of familiarity and experience with the Chiefs, for a quarterback who's not exactly a perennial Pro Bowler. I just think that's a monumental risk. I think the right call is retaining Cassel, letting him enter the 2012 season as the starter, but drafting his backup and letting him grow into becoming the starter.



This is why Kent should stick with investigative journalism.

Comment From Suzanne
As a former Chiefs employee, I just want to say thank you for your article. There are so many more of us that you could talk to about our time there and how happy we aren't there anymore.

So far the toxic work environment has lost Haley his job and made Fisher be not interested in us.


Whoa, I'm kind of liking that environment.

Didn't we do that already?

He listed RT as the number one need of the team. QB was 2nd or 3rd on his list (he said he could go either way between QB and NT for 2nd greatest need). Babb might be a decent reporter, but not the sharpest knife in the drawer on team needs.

But hey...this qualifies him as a "true fan" since he's on the RT in the first bandwagon.

Ask him what he thinks various Plantet members look like, if he prefers a McRib with or without poop, and if he's heard any strange noises while outdoors.

You know it's bad when a Cassel supporter is writing articles that are critical of the working environment at Arrowhead.

Holy hell Babb is Sacopoo

Questions need to be in areas that Babb has some insider info rather than questions about on the field stuff. Who cares what Babb thinks about Cassel or a NT?

Exactly. Lots of wasted questions by the moderator...

Total waste of time. No new info at all.

Hopefully Stanzi crushes his competitive fire in camp and we never have to listen to it again.

Kent Babb:
Joey, Matt Flynn will be the most promising free agent, but I really believe the Chiefs need to draft and develop their own quarterback. This is a tired stat, but it's amazing: The Chiefs haven't drafted a quarterback who went on to win a regular-season game since 1983 and Todd Blackledge. Unreal. That's almost my entire lifetime. I don't see Stanzi as a legitimate starter. I think he was drafted to be the team's backup of the future.

Babb thinks stanzi was drafted as the backup of the future.

2011 Last in AFC West
2010 Win weak AFC West
2009 Last in AFC West
2008 Last in AFC West
2007 Last in AFC West


LMAO


:banghead:

A lot of people don't see Stanzi as a threat to start simply because he was drafted in the 5th round. They never saw him play (and play well) in college.

LMAO:doh!:

And some of us saw him play a fair bit and were never all that impressed.

I think he could develop into a fine long-term backup, along the lines of Todd Collins, but I would be surprised if he became much more than that. Pleasantly surprised, because it would be a real boon for the franchise, but surprised nonetheless.

That is quite possibly the dumbest statement of 2012. Backup of the future? What the hell is that?

Stanzi played at a 2nd-tier Big 10 school and all he did was put together one of the most successful 2-season stints in the history of the school.

You know I have a ton of respect for you and your football takes, but if you honestly saw him a "fair bit" and were never all the impressed, I have to question what the hell you were looking for.

Well, we're a year removed now, but as I recall I tended to think of him as a stronger-armed Greg McElroy. Which was why I always expected him to be drafted here, both because of the Ferentz connection and because the franchise seems to want a game manager behind center. And I thought he made some real strides his final season, after what I considered to be a couple of lackluster initial years as a starter. But in the end, heading into the 2011 draft, my opinion of him was that he was a high floor/low ceiling player, and I thought his most likely upside would be as a career backup. Which is why around the draft that year I was one of the ones against the idea of drafting him in the 2nd or 3rd round, but ultimately okay with taking him in the 5th.

I would love nothing more than to see him exceed my expectations...

And I'd never pretend to be some kind of QB guru or something. It's just my opinion on the guy, and it might well turn out to be wrong. All you have to do to see that is look back at my takes on Drew Brees back in '01.

The problem with your analysis is that he wasn't a game manager at all. In both his junior and senior seasons, he won games all by himself. In his junior season, he had to win several games because it was his interceptions that put them in a hole in the 1st place. He was the antithesis of a game manager for 75% of his time at Iowa. My guess is the one or two times you REALLY got to see him was when he played Michigan or Georgia Tech. Those are pretty specific game plans that called for him to play like that.

I was wrong about Brees too. After his first couple of seasons in Sandy Eggo, I declared him a bust. :)

Iowa's on ESPN all the time, man. Pretty sure I watched him play more than twice. LMAO

His picks are part of the reason I put him in the McElroy category.

I called him Ricky Cassel heading into the draft, because I thought that's the kind of player he would have to be at the pro level: heavily constrained in the confines of a safe system to have any success. So the only way I could ever see him playing at this level was in a strictly controlled manager role. He was not somebody that I would expect (or want) to try and carry a pro team. He's not Stafford or Ryan or even Dirty Sanchez. And I would guess that scouts agreed with that assessment, since he was ultimately drafted where he was.

I think if he was a sure-fire stud the way that some Iowa fans seem to believe that he was, he would not have been drafted in the fifth round. And "second tier Big 10 school (which Iowa is not anymore, they're one of the better teams in the league now)" would not be a reason for that fall, since QBs from no-name schools, who couldn't even hope to be in the same class as Iowa, regularly get drafted early now.

I'm in full agreement here

Good post.

the dumber thing would be to suggest that he was the QBOTF

I do want to reiterate that I am not saying that Stanzi can't ever or won't ever be a starter. I'm just laying out my assessment of him heading into the last draft, and outlining why I think it's not likely. But players do sometimes exceed our expectations. We watched one throw 6 TD on Saturday (and speaking as a Michigan fan who watched most if not all of Brady's college starts, I never expected him to be one of the best of all time...) and I sincerely hope Stanzi ends up being one of those.

Because the Chiefs need something like that to happen. And they need it desperately.

Not to overplay his flaws, but recklessness with the ball and a propensity to press and throw picks is the opposite of game manager, right?

Well, I have to disagree there. They let him open it up quite a bit his senior season and he did pretty well in protecting the ball while continuing to push it downfield. The comparison to Cassel is laughable.

He's inferior to Stafford all around and superior to Sanchez where it matters, intangibles.

I never said he was a sure-fire stud. In fact, I never suggested he could guaranteed be a full-time starter in this league.

However, labeling him a game manager or career backup before he's EVER taken a regular season snap is ridiculous.

It's funny, every time I see QBOTF , I think of somebody that drives a Delorian. :LOL:

If projecting what you think a draft pick might be in the NFL is ridiculous, than all of us are ridiculous all the time every April.

You know what I mean, Kyle. You've written the guy off without giving him any chance to prove otherwise.

What kind of logic is that, especially when this team DESPERATELY needs a QB? Not saying he's Tom Brady (because he's obviously not) but Brady had similar concerns coming out and look where he ended up. If everybody had given up on him, we'd have missed seeing one of the greatest QBs to ever play the game.

I was always very impressed with Stanzi.

Here's the kicker. QBs who fall to the 5th round usually have a significant fatal flaw. Character. Physical limitations (too short, weak arm, etc...). Dumb as a box of rocks. No big game / tough competition experience.

Stanzi had none of those red flags. He played in a competitive conference, has the size, arm strength and accuracy, and is a good leader.

32 teams said despite no flags, he's not good enough. That worries me more than just a little bit. There is most definitely some fatal flaw scouts saw in him for him to fall that low.

Stanzi is more Favre than game manager.

Also, nobody ever said Stanzi is a sure fire great player.

I started the thread at the quarter mark of last year asking who would spend a late second rounder on him. Nobody ever advocated him as a first rounder.

All I'm saying is that he is every bit deserving of a shot as any quarterback to come out last year.

Did he fall to the start of the 5th? Yes

Did multiple draftniks say he has a chance to be the best quarterback out of this class? Yes

It's beyond foolish that he hasn't played yet when everybody that did play is unlikely to return.

Dude, I think you missed my post immediately above your next-to-last one. LMAO :)

I sure did! :doh!:

I'm a firm believer that EVERYTHING that was viewed as a flaw in his game is coachable.

He was seen as a quarterback that didn't have the arm strength to push the ball downfield in the NFL. Thing is, Zorn is probably the first premier position coach he has had. I could see the ball coming out of his hand better and with more zip than while at Iowa and that was only after a few short weeks of work.

He also made some mistakes early in games that put his team in holes.

Almost half of his picks came in the first quarter of his games on average. Half. He only threw 4 interventions last year and 3 of those came in the first quarter of games. That was likely viewed as a serious red flag to pro scouts and will definitely be something he needs to work on if he wants to stick as the starter once given a chance.

A lot of his picks came from forcing the ball and were thrown with lazy mechanics...he threw a few pick 6s that came off his back foot. Again, coachable faults in his game.

It's just totally tragic he didn't get a chance last year.

Kent, ya know i love ya... thats why i'm going to kill you... before you do your reputation any more serious damage.

Stick with Cassel? hey! go out into that field, i left a bundle of money out there... no, a little farther, nope keep going... *click, BOOM*

This is assuming that he wasn't given the chance to earn the job during the season and failed to do so. Is that a safe assumption to make?

Maybe I'm naive, maybe I'm too trusting, but I'd tend to think that had he shown anything to the staff during the regular season on the practice field, he'd have gotten his shot. Especially with Palko out there shitting all over the field. And while I always take rumors with a hefty grain of salt, I have heard on a couple of different occasions from a couple of different sources that they were not entirely satisfied with Stanzi's development in 2011.

So maybe it's not a situation of him not being given a chance, maybe it's a situation of him not taking the job, when it was right there for him.

Which would also be a tragedy, of course...

But who knows.

One things for sure. It's gonna be an interesting training camp.

Most people here believe Haley is a lunatic. If you believe that, it's nearly impossible to also believe that Stanzi had any chance to win anything.

I have it on pretty good authority that Palko was Haley's guy (he apparently went apeshit in the locker room after the Chicago win, as if he'd proven everybody wrong) and Palko was going to play no matter what.

We hope.

Although, unfortunately, history tells us it probably won't be. At least not at quarterback.

Yeah, can't wait to hear all the stories about Cassel running with the 1st team, throwing interceptions to LBs.

You could probably fill a phone book with the conspiracy theories about it that have shown up here. Haley was playing Palko as a '**** you' to Pioli. Haley was playing Palko because Cassel is Pioli's guy and they didn't want a QB controversy after Stanzi came. It made for some entertaining reading during the season.

I think some things are gonna change once the new OC is hired.

That being Romeos move can definitely make a difference.

Actually, this was something that came from a couple of different people and is not a conspiracy theory.

Haley was yelling "nobody thought we could do it" type stuff directly at Palko after the Chicago game.

If Haley was really kookoo for Palko, then i couldnt be happier that he's gone.

He didnt deserve to keep his job.

Tyler Palko was Larry Fitgeralds quarterback and a Pittsburgh guy.

No doubt he was Haleys guy.

Didn't Haley say something like "This is Stanzi's season" during preseason? I agree that he never had a chance. I think that might have been the plan from the git go. Stanzi rides the pine for a year and learns from there.

Stanzi did become the #2 as soon as Haley was fired though so yeah Palko was Haleys pet.

You keep talking about this "fatal flaw".

Well what is it? Enough people have looked at the kid I would think someone would have put it out there.

Maybe with the run on qbs early, ponder even went earlier than expected, teams hitched their wagon to the guy they fell in love with and he fell.
Posted via Mobile Device

Not specifically with Stanzi but I do think there's a building trend with the NFL draft. We've talked about it as nauseum so you can bet your ass NFL execs are fully aware of it - like 90% of all Super Bowl QBs are 1st rounders, right? And the rest of them are the Tom Brady/Kurt Warner anomalies.

So what I think is happening and we'll see a lot more is team's either taking QBs in the 1st or not until the 5th/6th.

2nd, 3rd, and 4th round picks are valuable enough not to throw away on a position that has virtually NO chance of contributing to a Super Bowl berth. Those picks are valuable for getting linemen, LBs, and all kinds of other positions.

Stanzi should see the field because we all know that Cassel is not capable of being a quality NFL QB.

Somehow that stance has morphed into Stanzi being some stud that everyone missed on.

He deserves a shot in light of our alternatives. Anything beyond that, including treating him like our qbotf is absurdly optimistic.

Makes sense, which could ruin those averages over time
Posted via Mobile Device

If you can't see it, got to be in the head

I can't speak for anyone else but I'm certainly not suggesting that he's a "stud". I think he certainly has the potential - he also has the potential to be out of the league in a couple of years.

And given what this franchise has done at the QB position, he IS our QBotF, by DEFAULT.

Iirc he scored well on the wonderlic
Posted via Mobile Device

I fall into the camp of people who believe it's probably for the best that he didn't see the field in 2011. Because I believe that the NFL has ruined far more quarterbacks over the years than it's developed, and I think a large part of that is due to playing them before they're ready. I sometimes wonder just how many more Trent Greens or Rich Gannons or even Alex Smiths (if this year's not a fluke...) we might have seen if the league could afford to be more patient.

And we the fans buy into it just as much as the league. Draft picks are seen as saviors, and tossed aside so quickly. I mean, seriously, we're here posting with disgust because a fifth round pick wasn't handed the reins as a rookie. Like there's some kind of rush.

Ask him is his wife is hot ..and if so does she swing

It like choosing between a turd and a runny turd, I mean who cares? they are equally worthless.

If we do draft / get a QBOTF I'd rather have Cassel. First he will flame out faster and two he's actually a good guy that might help the new guy. Just no talent.

He must have went full Gabbert in practice
If he did that in a game he'd already be done