Teicher:Weis says it’s coincidence offense sputters after he accepts Florida job

[Tribal Warfare]

Weis says it’s coincidence offense sputters after he accepts Florida job
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis will be leaving Kansas City the day after the season ends to take the same position at the University of Florida, but he said his new job won’t be a distraction for him as the Chiefs prepare for the playoffs.

“I will do everything I can to help the Chiefs be successful,” Weis said after the Chiefs lost 31-10 to Oakland on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium in their final regular-season game. “I’m working for the Chiefs as long as we can make this work. Now that we’re in the tournament, I’m hoping we play until February.”

The Chiefs played one of their worst offensive games of the season one day after Weis accepted the Florida position.

Weis said that was mere coincidence and that his preparation for the Oakland game didn’t suffer because he was talking to the Gators.

“I didn’t even talk about the job (with Florida) until I got home at 10 o’clock at night,” said Weis, who was offensive coordinator during a Super Bowl championship run with the Patriots in 2005 after becoming the head coach at Notre Dame.

“I’ve gone through this once before, so I have a very good reference on how to separate family business from work.

“It was even worse then. I was recruiting from 8 to 11 every night but working up until 8 and on until 2 afterwards to do my job with the Patriots.”

Weis said his relationship with head coach Todd Haley has not deteriorated as has been speculated.

“I almost get offended when people say that,” Weis said. “People always want to look for a different angle for why you’re doing this. Scott (Pioli), Todd (Haley), Clark (Hunt), they brought me in to Kansas City when I was sitting at home in South Bend. I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity I had to come here as the offensive coordinator and I’ll always wish them well.

“But this decision had absolutely zero to do with relationships in Kansas City.”

Weis and Haley worked together with the New York Jets for three years in the late 1990s, Weis as receivers coach and then the offensive coordinator and Haley as an offensive assistant.

At that time, Haley took some of his orders from Weis. That changed last winter when Haley hired Weis as offensive coordinator.

Asked to describe his working relationship with Haley, Weis said: “He’s the head coach, and I’m the offensive coordinator. We’ve known each other forever. Todd and I grew up under the same tree. We understand the way of doing business. It’s kind of interesting for me to reflect on how we’ve grown in the last decade or so since we’ve worked together.

“When you’re the boss, you’re the boss. When you’re an assistant, you’re an assistant. He’s definitely the boss, and I’m definitely the offensive coordinator. I think we had a very good understanding of what our roles were without any reservation.”

Weis indicated family matters played a large role in his decision. Weis is a friend of new Florida head coach Will Muschamp.

Weis’ son Charlie will soon graduate from St. Pius X High School in Kansas City and will attend Florida, where he will be an assistant coach for the Gators while attending school.

“This was a really tough decision for the Weis family,” Weis said. “This opportunity is one of those unique situations where I can go to a great institution where my son goes to matriculate and be able to spend the next bunch of years watching my son grow.

“He wants to coach. It took us very long to try to find a place where he could be involved with the football program in a student assistant capacity. At the end of the day, I don’t think anybody could understand how wonderful an opportunity it would be to be able to work at a place and see your kid on a daily basis.”

Haley said despite what happened against the Raiders he was satisfied Weis would be effective working for the Chiefs after taking the Florida job.

“Charlie is a professional,” Haley said. “Charlie has been through a similar situation back a few years ago. . . He, being a professional, did his job to the fullest to help the team win a Super Bowl.

“I have the utmost confidence that’s what will go on here.”

[milkman]

Originally Posted by BossChief

The whole Weis thing is so damn disappointing. He actually had us believing that he would have Cassel playing well for the foreseeable future and now this crap.

WTF is gonna happen if we dont add Josh McDaniels or another QB guru?

Will Cassel regress BIG TIME next year against better competition?

I have been asking this question for some time now.

Why is McDumbass seen as a QB guru?

Is it because, rather than developing Matt Cassel's QB skills, he opted to run a larger number of snaps out of the shotgun spread?

Or is it because he saw a QB, in Orton, who had already shown signs of developing into an NFL QB in Chicago when he made the trade for him?

McDumbass gets a lot of credit for actually doing nothing.

As to the Weis distraction, I guess his play calling and game plan for teh Raiders was so bad, because he talked to Florida and took the job there, that the O-Line said, **** it and decided not to show up.

Not to mention that the defense decided that Weis' performance was so bad that they decided not to tackle.

Yep, it's all about Weis.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by WVChiefFan

Depending on who replaces Weis I don't see much of a change. I didn't and still don't think Weis is all that, IMO Haley could call a better game than Weis. He gets way to much credit for his years in NE if you ask me.

WTF? Did you watch any Chiefs games last year? Any of them? Did you happen to see Haley calling plays? Did you miss the dramatic improvement in all areas of the offense this year when Weis took over?

Good grief.... Weis was brought it to "Fix the QB". And since then, Cassel has gone from "Drooling checkdown reerun" to "Better stats than Peyton" in one season. But you can't see much of a change....

[milkman]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

WTF? Did you watch any Chiefs games last year? Any of them? Did you happen to see Haley calling plays? Did you miss the dramatic improvement in all areas of the offense this year when Weis took over?

Good grief.... Weis was brought it to "Fix the QB". And since then, Cassel has gone from "Drooling checkdown reerun" to "Better stats than Peyton" in one season. But you can't see much of a change....

I think a big problem with Haley's play calling is that he had too much on his plate to be effective at it.

I would hope he brings in an OC that he has confidence in continuing to delegate the majority of play calling to, so that Haley can continue to focus on the the team as a whole.

[InChiefsHeaven]

There should be no doubt that Weis helped the CHiefs immensely this season, and his departure sucks. But, he's not irreplaceable, we have a good foundation and many of the skill pieces in place. Add to that Haley's fingerprints are all over the offense, and I'd think finding a serviceable replacement won't be the hardest thing the Chiefs will have to deal with this off season.

[FringeNC]

Originally Posted by milkman

I think a big problem with Haley's play calling is that he had too much on his plate to be effective at it.

I would hope he brings in an OC that he has confidence in continuing to delegate the majority of play calling to, so that Haley can continue to focus on the the team as a whole.

I think you have to look at the progress of the offense over the 2009 season. Pre-bye, the first 7 games, we average 254 yards of offense per game. Post-bye, the last 9 games, we average 341 yards of offense per game.

I don't understand how people who post on this board can't remember (and I am not including you amongst those) simple facts about Haley's first year. Yeah, the offense sucked the beginning of the season due mainly to the O-line not understanding the blocking schemes, but by the end of the year, it was league-average at minimum. Haley was far from incompetent with the offense last year. Add Lilja, improve Cassel's footwork, and we have shown some improvement from the 2nd half of last year, but nothing like the improvement we showed pre vs. post bye. I just don't buy that this is all or even mainly Weis.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by FringeNC

I think you have to look at the progress of the offense over the 2009 season. Pre-bye, the first 7 games, we average 254 yards of offense per game. Post-bye, the last 9 games, we average 341 yards of offense per game.

I don't understand how people who post on this board can't remember (and I am not including you amongst those) simple facts about Haley's first year. Yeah, the offense sucked the beginning of the season due mainly to the O-line not understanding the blocking schemes, but by the end of the year, it was league-average at minimum. Haley was far from incompetent with the offense last year. Add Lilja, improve Cassel's footwork, and we have shown some improvement from the 2nd half of last year, but nothing like the improvement we showed pre vs. post bye. I just don't buy that this is all or even mainly Weis.

Actually, I knew that the offense improved, but I think that was due, in large part, to Charles' emergence.

I really thought that there were just a lot of head sctatching play calls from Haley throughout the season.

[FringeNC]

Originally Posted by milkman

Actually, I knew that the offense improved, but I think that was due, in large part, to Charles' emergence.

I really thought that there were just a lot of head sctatching play calls from Haley throughout the season.

I think in the second half of the season, the O-line actually started blocking for Charles a little. The first part of the season, it pretty much looked like it did on Sunday.

[InChiefsHeaven]

Well, the first part of last year we were suffering through the LJ thing. But I recall the o-line getting better pass protection at the end as well, but Cassel was not keeping pace with that improvement. This season we have progressed, had a productive off season and added a competent OC so that Haley could concentrate on bigger picture stuff. Haley did a pretty remarkable job last year, all things considered. Yes, we could have kept Chan Gaily and run the wildcat or whatever, but Haley realized that the development of the team into HIS kind of offense would stagnate and put him that much further behind. SO, he blew it up and went through the pain of last season. I think the progress speaks for itself.

[MahiMike]

Chiefs players were clearly distracted last week. As mad as I was (and still am) at Weis, it was better to lay the egg last week. Now hopefully it's behind them.

[BigChiefFan]

Originally Posted by FringeNC

I think you have to look at the progress of the offense over the 2009 season. Pre-bye, the first 7 games, we average 254 yards of offense per game. Post-bye, the last 9 games, we average 341 yards of offense per game.

I don't understand how people who post on this board can't remember (and I am not including you amongst those) simple facts about Haley's first year. Yeah, the offense sucked the beginning of the season due mainly to the O-line not understanding the blocking schemes, but by the end of the year, it was league-average at minimum. Haley was far from incompetent with the offense last year. Add Lilja, improve Cassel's footwork, and we have shown some improvement from the 2nd half of last year, but nothing like the improvement we showed pre vs. post bye. I just don't buy that this is all or even mainly Weis.

Agreed. Excellent post.

Weis has done a great job this year, but it's the same offense that Haley is accustomed to, as well. Too many live in the instant gratification world and when things go bad, that are quick to make snap judgements and throw people under the bus. .

Putting it in perspective, this is only Haley's SECOND YEAR, as our coach...let's also not forget he was coordinating the offense for a Super Bowl team just a few years back.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by milkman

Actually, I knew that the offense improved, but I think that was due, in large part, to Charles' emergence.

I really thought that there were just a lot of head sctatching play calls from Haley throughout the season.

Nothing like a FB pass back to the QB to kill momentum.

[Chiefnj2]

I hate to say this, but anyone could have improved the offense this year. 2009 was perhaps the worst situation any team could have been in.