ChiefsPlanet - Green Back in '07

Is this a repost?
Do we still talk about Chiefs football?
Are there horse-socks?

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansas...s/16324196.htm

Green will be the man in ’07
Edwards says quarterback shouldn’t be penalized because of the injury that robbed a chunk of his season.
By ELIZABETH MERRILL
The Kansas City Star

Herm’s terms: Excerpts from the coach's weekly news conference
They are at least one week away from the dreaded year-end evaluation, the one that comes when your team doesn’t make the playoffs, but Herm Edwards has already made his mind up about one thing.

Trent Green will be the Chiefs’ starting quarterback in 2007.

“Why wouldn’t he be?” Edwards asked Tuesday.

“I don’t think we need to get in a panic after one season of a guy basically being knocked out for half of the year and then having to come back and play. … Yeah, he doesn’t have the stats he had last year. Well, how can he? He missed a lot of games.”

This will be an offseason full of uncertainty in Kansas City, and quarterback is one of the most unsettled issues. Green is 3-4 as a starter and has not looked like himself since coming back from a severe concussion. He has a passer rating of 74.6, has thrown six touchdowns and seven interceptions, and has been sacked 21 times.

Oh, and he’ll be 37 next season, and his trusty backup, Damon Huard, will no doubt be getting a few feelers after leading the Chiefs to a 5-3 record.

Edwards bristled when asked Tuesday whether it will be hard to re-sign Huard, who agreed to a one-year deal last spring.

“You’re asking me questions that I can’t answer right now,” Edwards said. “I don’t think it’s fair for me to answer those questions, because I truly don’t know. That’s what the offseason is for.”

Edwards has avoided slipping into 2007 mode because his team is playing Jacksonville on Sunday and isn’t quite out of the playoff picture. At 8-7, the Chiefs would need a win over the Jaguars, a loss from the Broncos and losses or ties from Cincinnati and Tennessee to slide into a wild-card spot.

Things are iffy enough that there has been no directive to block out the scores from around the league during Sunday’s noon game. That’s what the Chiefs did last year in the final day of the season, when they needed a win over the Bengals and a loss from the Steelers.

They beat Cincinnati but watched Pittsburgh win and wind up Super Bowl champs.

But back to Edwards’ playoff angst. Assuming things don’t fall into place Sunday, Edwards said it would be the first time in 14 seasons that he has missed the playoffs in back-to-back years.

“Sure, I’m disappointed,” he said. “I didn’t come in here just to win some games. I came in here to try to win a division, win a championship. We’ve fallen short right now, unless we get in.

“I’ve been spoiled, I guess. I don’t want to make this a habit. It’s not a lot of fun, sitting here the last week worrying about five accidents, maybe two teams not showing up for you to get in if you win. That’s not a lot of fun. You want control of your own destiny. You don’t want other people to do your business. We had some chances to do that, and we didn’t do it. So we have no one to blame but ourselves.”

The Chiefs will no doubt look back to the Cleveland game at the start of the month and wonder what could’ve been. They were up by two touchdowns in that game with 9 minutes to play. They lost to a team that has just four wins all season.

Or maybe they’ll ponder Miami and Denver, games lost by a field goal.

One thing is certain — Edwards isn’t going to think about 2007 just yet. At one point Tuesday, he seemed irritated by all the questions about the future, comparing it to the New York media hounding him in week 10 about the next season while he was the Jets coach.

He did say that he’d be more worried about the quarterback position if the Chiefs hadn’t drafted rookie Brodie Croyle.

Croyle almost seemed like an afterthought for much of the season, throwing just seven passes and having two of them picked off. But he’ll undoubtedly be the topic of conversation when the stadium clears and Edwards finally can look to the future.

“The whole season has been (an evaluation) for me,” Edwards said. “You come in your first year, that’s what you do. You evaluate your football team, you evaluate your coaching staff. I’ve got to evaluate myself. That’s the first thing.

“How can I as a football coach help this team win a championship?”