Case for Croyle

[LaChapelle]

Josh Looney:Insider's blog

January 8th – 6:30 AM

Brodie Croyle is likely on cloud nine this morning after ‘Bama’s 37-21 thrashing of Texas in last night’s national title game. As sweet as that win was for Croyle, his NFL future has to make him feel pretty good as well.

Don’t misconstrue the title of this blog. Matt Cassel is, without a doubt, the quarterback for 2010 and is very much a part of the Chiefs nucleus of talent going forward. Offensive success in the years ahead will likely come and go with Cassel’s performance. The Chiefs need Matt Cassel to be “the man.”

With that said, Cassel’s backup made quite a name for himself with the new coaching staff this season and he fought improbable odds to do so.

“Brodie Croyle you can’t overlook,” Chiefs head coach Todd Haley said. “I perceive him playing a critical role for us as we go forward.”

What a wild ride it’s been in Kansas City the man from Rainbow City, Alabama. Drafted in 2006 as the Chiefs “quarterback of the future,” Croyle’s career with the Chiefs has resembled a blueprint for The Mamba at World’s of Fun or the stock chart for Bank of America more than anything else.

In 2007, Kansas City traded away its franchise leader in virtually every passing category to make room for Croyle to guide the offensive reigns. Trent Green was at the twilight of his career and the Chiefs had a 24-year old with a rifle-arm ready to take his place, or so it was thought.

The job was essentially Croyle’s to lose as training camp began in 2007. Sure enough, he lost it. A 42.5% completion percentage, three INTs and a 34.5 quarterback rating wasn’t going to get it done. Veteran Damon Huard, who sparked the Chiefs playoff run in 2006 when Green was out with a major head injury, would be the starter over the youngster from ‘Bama.

Take it up one more year and Croyle found himself in a nearly identical situation. He did start six games instead of the anticipated 16 the year before, but he still had some work to do in order to quiet the doubters and officially earn the starting role. He did. Then he fell again.

Not 20 pass attempts into the 2008 season Huard was back in as the Chiefs primary signal caller. Croyle had suffered a right shoulder injury when he was sacked by Patriots LB Adalius Thomas in the third quarter of the season opener. He’d miss the next five games.

Croyle returned to the field vs. Tennessee, and we all know what happened from there. Croyle started out his return by completing nine of his first 10 passes before DT Albert Haynesworth broke through the line and sent his 350-pound frame (that’s roughly 7/40 of a ton if my math skills are up to par) directly into Croyle’s lower-half. Another setback, Croyle’s left knee was shredded.

So there Croyle was, sitting on the sidelines, rehabbing a knee injury while his teammates worked to impress their new head coach during a demanding 2009 offseason. A head coach with an emphasis on accountability and players being available walked into a program to see a player who had been touted by the previous administration as the up-and-coming quarterback of the future. When that up-and-comer carries a lengthy report of injury history on his resume and spends the entire offseason off the field, it’s not exactly an ideal first impression.

The scenario that evolved created a seemingly impossible situation for Croyle in Kansas City, but Croyle found a way to make the impossible possible.

The chance that Brodie Croyle would be released before the season probably outweighed the chance that he would start the season opener at Baltimore. His first day of workouts came on the first day of training camp. The Chiefs other three QBs competing with Croyle – Matt Cassel, Tyler Thigpen and Ingle Martin – all had a couple-hundred-hours head start. The new administration had all but announced their “quarterback of the future” and Croyle was left on the outside looking in.

Slowly, snap-by-snap, Croyle began to win over his new head coach. He’d get ridden hard at camp for an error, only to take the next snap and deliver a perfectly thrown football. Croyle was starting to show some mental fortitude. Mental fortitude is something that Haley likes. Slowly, that non-existent start Croyle produced during Haley’s first few months on the job became an afterthought.

Croyle kept going and going. His camp grew more impressive by the day and word of mouth was beginning to spread. Those that covered the team began to write about Croyle’s performance and those that visited River Falls went home to tell about it to their friends.

“Brodie Croyle looks good. I mean, Brodie Croyle looks really good.”

Croyle’s critics in the media and fan base began to turn into supporters, at least in Croyle serving as the primary backup to Cassel. That’s exactly what Croyle did. His camp earned him the job ahead of Tyler Thigpen, the player who ignited a lot of exciting plays for the Chiefs a year before and who had Haley talking positively throughout the spring.

Croyle simply beat him out.

When Croyle spot-started the season opener for an injured Cassel, and turned in the team’s first 100+ QB rating (over 20 attempts) since 2006, he cemented himself as the primary backup for 2009. He did everything Haley had asked and more. Thigpen then became dispensable and was traded to Miami for a draft pick.

Over a period of just six weeks in 2009, Croyle’s career had taken yet another turn. He earned the respect of his new head coach and re-established himself as a leader among his teammates.

This week, Croyle’s career in Kansas City came back full-circle. Once again he’s been tabbed as an important part of the organization’s future; an improbable feat not six months ago.

“I’m trying to touch on guys that I see as core guys for us in one role or another,” Haley said earlier this week. “That’s a critical spot and he developed as the year went on and gained confidence in what we were doing.

“That role is pretty critical that there is cohesiveness in the [quarterback meeting] room and it’s not always the case,” Haley continued. “Everybody wants to play and everybody can’t play.”

Croyle has embraced his new role and Haley has embraced Croyle. There seems to be a mutual appreciation for each other based off nothing more than respect for one another and the things that each must do to be successful. By the end of the year, Haley’s confidence in Croyle had grown so much that his once overlooked QB was suggesting third-down play calls in the red zone (If you haven’t read ANATOMY OF A PLAY, go check it out).

Now, Croyle is part of the “core” that we’ve discussed and identified over the latter half of this week. His role my carry a heavy off-the-field impact, but his progress this offseason is just as important as any other player the Chiefs are planning to go forward with in 2010.

Not to say that Haley didn’t like Croyle six months ago, but it certainly doesn’t take a psychologist to see that Haley likes Croyle today. The two carry very different personas that feed off each other in a positive way.

Croyle signed a four-year contract as a rookie in 2006 and would have been in line to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. Instead, without a new collective bargaining deal in place, it looks like Croyle will become a restricted free agent instead. This means that the Chiefs have the right to match any offer and receive compensation via draft picks if they don’t.

More than likely, it looks like Croyle will be back in 2010. How can you not like this guy