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Ask anyone that knows me and they’ll tell you there are times when I get mental road blocks in my thinking pathways. The wife, my daughters, my sister, even my Mom would all say that sometimes you have to explain things to me in the simplest of terms, like I was a fifth-grader trying to understand quantum physics.
I’m having one of those episodes with this quarterback competition and the Chiefs. I keep hearing one thing, but apparently those speaking about a competitive situation at quarterback mean something different, because I do not understand the explanation in conjunction with actions.
Back in early February, Chiefs GM Scott Pioli said the following:
“We’ve been saying it for three years, and I’m going to continue to say it, because it’s a core part of our philosophy: There will be increased competition at every position, including the quarterback position. Who that is, I don’t know … very few people can perform at an extremely high level without competition.”
As I read that comment from Pioli I don’t find a lot of gray area. There will be increased competition at quarterback because it’s tough for anyone to get better without competition. That’s what I hear him saying.
Yet, somewhere between what he’s saying, my understanding and what he’s actually doing, there’s a disconnection. It’s about six weeks after that first comment and now Pioli says there’s competition for Cassel in the house. NFL free agency is more than a week old and the greatest free agent in NFL history became available on the open market and just happened to be a quarterback.
And the Chiefs answer to increased competition for Matt Cassel at the quarterback position is Brady Quinn?
“I know competition makes everybody better, and we’ll just have to see what kind of competition we’re going to have at the quarterback position,” Romeo Crennel said back in February.
When they signed Quinn to a one-year contract earlier this week, Pioli and Crennel told him that Cassel was the Chiefs No. 1 quarterback.
“They stated that Matt Cassel is the starting quarterback right now and that’s where things are,” Quinn told the Kansas City media. “But obviously there is going to be competition, like there should be on every team in every room. Competition makes everyone better.”
Even Quinn seems to be caught in the spider web of words being spewed about competition and the quarterback position. He’s been told Cassel is the starter. Yet he’s buying the legend that there is going to be competition for the starting job.
In an attempt to clear my confusion, I made a visit to Mr. Webster. He defines competition as:
“The act of competing; rivalry; a contest or match; official participation in organized sport; effective opposition in a contest or match; striving for the same object, position or prize in according with certain fixed rules; keen competition between opponents more or less evenly matched.”
Certain fixed rules? Opponents more or less evenly matched? At every level and angle of looking at the Chiefs quarterback depth chart I don’t see competition in any fixed rules. Opponents that are evenly matched for the competition are nowhere to be seen.
Pioli is playing word games and it’s hard to tell whether he’s doing it for the sake of Chiefs fans, players, or his ownership. Maybe it’s all about covering his behind since Cassel is connected to him in a big way. That’s a $63 million umbilical cord between GM and quarterback and it’s important for Pioli that Cassel is successful to validate his decision to not only trade for the quarterback, but to hand him that big contract before he’d even played a down for the team.
As Pioli has explained several times in the last few weeks, his definition of competition basically comes down to signing two other quarterbacks to work in practice with Cassel. Thus the mere act of going out and signing Quinn means there is competition.
In the immortal words of Waylon Jennings:
“You think that you can say some words and take away the hurt. And I’ll still be your number one.
But when it ain’t working out we got a saying down South; Baby that dog won’t hunt.”
As much as Cassel needs the competition to improve, he’s not going to see it battling against the likes of Quinn and Ricky Stanzi. The fixed rules – the starting quarterback is going to get two out of every three snaps in the off-season and training camp. The other one-third will likely be split 50-50 between the other quarterbacks. So in the average training camp practice, Cassel will throw in the neighborhood of 45 to 50 passes in team work and passing drills. Quinn will get 15 to 20 and Stanzi will see 10 to 15 passes.
How is that competition?
In the last two seasons (2010-11) Cassel has played in 24 of 32 regular season games, thrown 719 passes, 37 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. In the last two seasons, Quinn has played zero of 32 regular season games, thus not throwing a pass, touchdown or interception. Stanzi did not play in any of 16 games last year, his first in the league.
How is that competition?
Chiefs fans want to be excited about the moves made in the last week by the team. And, there are decisions that are worthy of being praised, particularly Eric Winston at right tackle, and the addition of Kevin Boss at tight end.
But Stanford Routt is not Brandon Carr on the corner, and Brady Quinn is not competition at quarterback for Cassel. If he is, then the Chiefs have a problem bigger than anybody anticipated. Is Quinn better than Tyler Palko? Yes, but please, talk about damning someone with faint praise!
Under Pioli’s definition Tyler Thigpen, Brodie Croyle and Palko were competitors for Matt Cassel.
I’m just so confused.
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