Teicher: Fired Chiefs scouts were good football people
 

Fired Chiefs scouts were good football people

There’s a perception out there among Chiefs fans that the Chiefs had a lousy group of scouts, given their spotty draft record over the years. But I can tell you from talking to people around the league about the Chiefs scouts that they had a good group; these were well-respected people.

I’m using the past tense here because the Chiefs fired a number of their college scouts, and among those fired was Chuck Cook, the director of college scouting.

Now, there’s no arguing the Chiefs have had some spotty drafts over the years, but for that you can blame Carl Peterson, who was in charge and made the final call. I can tell you some instances where the Chiefs went against their draft board to reach for a player at a position of need and it just didn’t work out. That’s the kind of thing that gets you into trouble on draft day.

Now, Scott Pioli came in, he wants his own people in there and you can’t blame him for that. I think a lot of these scouts knew this day was coming. But don’t cast a negative eye toward them because of this. They’re all good football people, and they’ll all stay in the business if that’s what they choose to do.

Famous miss

Back in early March, juco big man Jarrid Famous visited Columbia and attended the MU-OU game. Famous was said to be high on Mizzou, and with Mike Anderson still having a pair of scholarships available, it seemed like a good match. How’d that work out?

It didn’t. According to the various recruiting tidbits I read, Famous had narrowed his choices to Mizzou, Xavier, South Florida and Villanova. Famous is apparently talented enough that he would have been the best big-man recruit in Columbia since Doug Smith.

So it would have been quite a coup for Anderson to land Famous. It would have also been reassuring for those like me that still have lingering doubts about Anderson’s ability to make inroads on a higher level of the recruiting game.

As it turned out, Famous took a visit to Arizona after Xavier’s Sean Miller took the coaching job in Tucson. Immediately upon returning home, Famous met with South Florida coach Stan Heath. If you read between the lines of the reports, Heath was basically waiting on Famous’ doorstep. In short order, Famous signed a letter of intent.

Where was Anderson during all of this? Who knows? The bottom line is that Mizzou, coming off a high-profile triumph, lost out to South Florida on a prime recruit.

Along the same lines, mega-recruit DeMarcus Cousins came back into play when John Calipari defected from Memphis to Kentucky. Cousins was once believed to have included Mizzou in his “final four” — a group that did not include Kentucky. However, when Calipari left, Cousins followed. The moral: It’s the coach that wins the recruit, not the school. And that’s why I find it troubling that Anderson was not able to close on Jarrid Famous.

I'm guessing that since the Star had a recent downsizing, Adam's been given other sports to cover, in which he'll equally suck at?

Nice.

Good Lord. I thought Gretz was Gretz, but now Teicher?

It's almost as if these people received blowjobs from Chuck Cook and his staff every week.

22 guys bitches

That didn't sound right, so I went over to the Star's website. The part about MU Bball was written by Bradford Doolittle on his Upon Further Review blog for the Star. Teicher's bit about the scouts was from his Chiefs vlog. Both were complied in a thing called "daily download," which Tribal linked to without telling anybody what it was.

Vermeil cried, and called them men.

Sucked all no contacts...

um, ok....so ****ing tell us....

you're a journalist...quit hiding secrets, you don't work for the Chiefs....

amazing how in the bag KC "news" people are....

so they told King Carl and King Carl ignorned them? These were the sources for the "journalists" in town and now they are gone and the "journalists" are ticked off.


anyone remember anything of consequence that was broken by Teicher in the 10-12 years as the beat reporter for the Chiefs? He should have had everything broken. He is a lazy chit.

As much as I will get flamed, Teicher is right. CP gave his coaches WAY too much say in the draft. You ask a DC what his favorite player is, oh, and he happens to need a DT badly, who is surprised that he will say Junior Siavii?

Now, this did in fact change when Herm was brought on board. Things were reorganized which is why the last three drafts, while not spectacular, were still MUCH better than the five prior to them.

I have no doubt that the guys they let go are among the better scouts in the league. They will get snapped up quickly.

But, much like the trade of Tony Gonzalez, it is about more than just the 'talent'. It is about the culture. Pioli wants guys that will totally buy into the way he does things. Anyone who has ever taken an established organization of any kind (and, I don't care if it is the PTA at the local school, or Ford Motor Co.), there are guys (and gals) that believe the old way was better. They fight you on details, those that are too cowardly to challenge you to your face will bicker amongst each other and undermine your leadership.

Make no mistake that the people let go were not let go because they can't do the job. They were let go because Scott Pioli can't work against that much of a tide.

Now, you can flame me for my information, but if you go back two years and read about the drafts, you will find verification of what I said regarding Herm's complete restructuring of the scouting department. This was because Herm was a scout and put more faith into what the scouts said.

I expect this to go even further given that Haley's dad is a scout and that Haley was a scout.

Look, the NFL is a business and while I'm sure these guys are all good football men Pioli has the right to bring in his own team. I also agree that Herm drafted better players than our other coaches. Its too bad he couldn't coach a game to save his life.

Finally we have a GM in KC who is running the football organization, not just the business dealings of the team. Make no mistake, this is Scott Pioli's team and Todd Haley just gets to coach it.

We are making a radical change on both sides of the ball. Its not all going to be smooth, but I think it is what will make this team a champion one day and that is all I really care about.

The admission that he's a huge Raiders fan?

Becoming respectable is hard to do sometimes ladies. :deevee:

I always thought that Chuck Cook was a better football man than Carl, and the coaches that Carl listened to.

I won't flame, because as much as it pains me to say this, I agree.