ChiefsPlanet - Chiefs Whitlock: Seeds have been planted for a QB controversy

Seeds have been planted for a QB controversy
JASON WHITLOCK COMMENTARY

You don’t need a legitimate backup to manufacture a quarterback controversy.

What you need is an overpriced starter, a reckless head coach, a frustrated fan base and bored, ratings-starved journalists and broadcasters.

Without question, the necessary ingredients are in play in Kansas City.

OK, Matt Cassel, The Sixty Million Dollar Man, is the Chiefs’ unquestioned starting quarterback. First-time head coach Todd Haley might be disappointed by Cassel’s training-camp play, but Cassel and his bionic contract will take the opening snap on opening day.

Brodie Croyle is not going to beat out The Sixty Million Dollar Man. Haley’s lip-flapping about all positions being competitive is just that — meaningless lip-flapping.

That does not mean we won’t be treated to a quarterback controversy.

The seeds have been planted, and they can take root tonight when the Chiefs take on the Minnesota Vikings in KC’s second preseason game.

Thanks to Haley’s immature decision to play Kansas City’s best offensive player, receiver Dwayne Bowe, with the second unit last weekend, the door has been opened for reporters, fans and players to wonder about The Sixty Million Dollar Man.

Haley followed up Cassel’s mediocre performance against the Texans by acknowledging that Cassel has done nothing to distinguish himself from the Chiefs’ injury-prone, winless former quarterback of the future, Brodie Croyle.

You can call me a pot-stirrer, but Haley brought the pot from the pantry and placed it on the stove. Forgive me for reaching to turn the fire on.

We can put the pot away if Cassel puts together a decent showing tonight against one of the league’s top defenses.

Oh, boy. Cassel’s first important game in a Chiefs uniform is at the Metrodome on Brett Favre Night, featuring Jared Allen, The Williams Wall and Vikings fans believing tonight is the launching of their Super Bowl bandwagon.

Oh, boy. Quarterback controversies start out tiny, build a life of their own and become these all-encompassing, massive, uncontrollable snowballs.

It’s tiny right now. All it will take is a tiny nudge to get this thing really rolling.

I can’t for the life of me understand why Haley sent The Sixty Million Dollar Man out into Arrowhead Stadium without his best weapon. It was foolish.

Did ABC ever send Steve Austin out on camera without his bionic right arm and left eye? If the network had, the show would’ve been called The Two Million Dollar Man.

Matt Cassel without a No. 1 or No. 2 receiver is a career backup. What we might learn this season is that Matt Cassel without Randy Moss and Wes Welker is a career backup.

We’ll have a little bit more information after tonight’s game. We might get an early indication on whether The Sixty Million Dollar Man is overpriced.

If he is, that’s a strike against Scott Pioli, not Todd Haley. Pioli masterminded the Cassel acquisition.

Last week, when Bowe made Brodie Croyle look like a competent NFL quarterback, I wondered what Pioli thought of Bowe’s use. More than likely, Pioli agreed with Haley’s get-tough policy with Bowe.

But there’s a chance Pioli was most interested in how Bowe’s use influenced the play of the quarterback Pioli sweet-talked Clark Hunt into giving $30 million in guarantees.

Football teams operate like every other business. The people in charge largely do what’s in their own best interest. If they hire someone and their credibility is attached to the new hire’s success, then they’ll do whatever is ethical or unethical to see that their new hire shines.

If it would help Cassel, Pioli would spring O.J. Simpson from the joint and line him up 7 yards deep. It’s hard for me to believe that Pioli thinks Bowe’s practice habits are so poor that the only way to get him to perform is demote him to third team, especially when The Sixty Million Dollar Man is stuck throwing to Terrance Copper.

Cassel doesn’t need to post big numbers tonight. He just has to sustain a drive or two, put a couple of field goals on the board. The Minnesota defense is really good. And the Metrodome is going to be electric with Favre in the house.