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So what about Herm?
Early Wednesday evening the Chiefs will introduce new GM Scott Pioli during a press conference at the team’s facilities. Pioli’s hiring was officially announced Tuesday evening by the club, as he steps into the football role held for the previous 20 years by Carl Peterson.
One of the first questions that will be fired at Clark Hunt and Pioli will be the status of head coach Herm Edwards. Throughout Tuesday evening, that was the new No. 1 question floating through the NFL grapevine now that Pioli is on board.
Assumptions have been made by national media types that the hiring of Pioli means that Edwards is out and a new head coach will be coming to Arrowhead. Some have speculated that New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is now the No. 1 candidate to join Pioli. Others believe the new head coach could be Pioli’s good friend, University of Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz.
No GM should have a head coach handcuffed to him, and it’s doubtful that Hunt will do that Pioli. But there’s also little doubt that Edwards was part of the discussions with Pioli leading up to an agreement between the two parties. Remember, when Hunt announced the resignation of Peterson, he said he would decide on Edwards’ future, with input from his new GM.
Hunt has said he supports Edwards and the job he undertook in trying to rebuild the team. The Chiefs also made it clear in their annoucement Tuesday evening that Pioli “will have final say over all football operations … “ Obviously, the head coach is part of football operations.
Edwards deserves a chance to keep his job. Many of his decisions in the last year were based on the support he was receiving from Hunt. It’s safe to say that if the head coach had known he was going to be on shaky ground in the rebuilding process, he would have approached things in a different manner. Every move that Edwards made came with the belief that Hunt was in his corner.
And here’s a tidbit that a lot of people don’t know. One of the people in the league that pumped up Edwards during the long ‘08 season was New England head coach Bill Belichick. He encouraged Edwards in a pre-game meeting before the season opener between the teams.
When the holiday season rolled around, Edwards received a Christmas card from Belichick, who expressed support for the manner in which he was rebuilding the Chiefs with a hand written inscription.