Poor Preseason Puts Heat on Pioli, Cassel

[Hammock Parties]

Poor Preseason Puts Heat on Pioli, Cassel


Did the Chiefs seriously just complete another losing preseason?

If you’re keeping score at home, that’s 1-7 in the preseason for the Scott Pioli era. Over the last four years, the Chiefs are a woeful 3-13 in preseason. While it would be foolish to assign too much relevance to exhibition wins and losses, when they come in tandem with 10 Chiefs regular season wins in three years, the correlation is a concern.

When you factor in the performance of the Chiefs’ key starters and draft picks this preseason, there’s even more reason for concern.

Aside from the shocking revelation that Todd Haley can control his previously nuclear sideline temper for an entire month, the most important thing we learned from August is that Pioli and his highly-paid quarterback, Matt Cassel, still have a lot to prove. Preseason provided no legitimate answers to the questions that have surrounded the pair since last season.

In Pioli’s case, the question is simple – can he effectively identify and cultivate game-changing, impact players?

Most of his initial draft class appears to have been written off already. Jake O’Connell, Javarris Williams, Quinten Lawrence, Colin Brown and Donald Washington have been pushed down the depth chart by 2010 rookies.

The three who don’t appear to have been written off - Alex Magee, Tyson Jackson and Ryan Succop – are a mixed bag. Magee actually showed up this preseason, recording a sack, which makes the crown jewel of Pioli’s 2009 rookie class, Tyson Jackson, look like a lump of cubic zirconia. After a disastrous rookie year, Jackson didn’t show much progress over the last month. He was invisible. If he made an impact play, I missed it.

Clearly, the Chiefs don’t consider Jackson much of a threat as a pass rusher. He comes off the field frequently on third down. It’s not hard to see why – Magee and Wallace Gilberry are far more athletic and explosive, not to mention cheaper. Considering his price tag, Jackson’s impact should be more noticeable.

Has Pioli picked the right players? Getty Images

After missing four field goals all of last year, Succop missed three this preseason. Sure, they were long kicks. Is that supposed to make Chiefs fans feel better when a game is on the line this season and Succop needs to make another long kick?

Conclusion: there are no signs from the 2009 draft class of a game-changing, impact player. How about Pioli’s 2010 draft class? Any signs there?

Pencil in safety Eric Berry as a legit possibility. After seeing Berry blast through a fullback to upend a ball carrier against the Buccaneers two weeks ago, I began speaking in tongues. The Chiefs shut down starting quarterbacks this preseason (apart from one busted play against Tampa) and Berry was definitely part of it.

The problem is Pioli’s second-round picks, wide receiver Dexter McCluster and cornerback Javier Arenas, and his third-round pick, tight end Tony Moeaki. Carl Peterson is no longer hanging around Arrowhead Stadium, which means second-round picks should be having a huge impact, even as rookies.

Are McCluster and Arenas having a huge impact? Based on preseason, the answer is no. While they’ve both proven to be exciting, athletic players who can change a game on special teams, they have to be more.

Arenas has to make an impact on defense. In a perfect world, he’d challenge for Brandon Carr’s starting job by season’s end. If he’s Allen Rossum, a great “cornerback” who has elite return skills but never plays defense, Pioli reached on the pick.

McCluster’s preseason receiving numbers – seven catches, 40 yards, no touchdowns, two or three drops – are disappointing. While it’s great that McCluster can make explosive plays as a running back, he needs 600 receiving yards and three or four touchdowns to justify the pick Pioli spent, and that’s setting the bar low. Kenny Britt and Hakeem Nicks, selected in 2009 in roughly the same draft slot as McCluster, both went over 700 yards as rookies.

And let’s go ahead and set the bar a little higher for Moeaki, who finally caught a pass Thursday night. Third-round picks, especially on teams lacking viable starting tight ends, have to make more of an impact.

But maybe we should temper the expectations for any of KC’s pass catchers. Because based on Cassel’s preseason, the Chiefs will again struggle to throw the ball.

Will Cassel chuck it down the field? Getty Images

I’m honestly flabbergasted that Cassel managed to complete 64 percent of his passes this preseason, throw more touchdowns than interceptions, and finish with a lousy 79.3 rating. Previously, football scientists believed such a feat was impossible, because the NFL weights completion percentage and touchdown-to-interception ratio so heavily in their passer rating formula.

But Cassel pulled it off by quickly dumping the ball short on almost every snap this preseason, averaging a shockingly low five yards per pass attempt. In some cases, Cassel was dumping the ball to running backs behind the line of scrimmage before receivers running down the field had even completed their patterns.

Either the approach was Cassel’s diabolical plan to avoid looking too inept, or KC’s new offensive coordinator, Charlie Weis, watched film of Cassel taking too many sacks and missing too many throws down the field the last two seasons. After sweating profusely for a moment, Weis yanked his 1983 Morristown High School Football playbook out of mothballs, fired up a Xerox machine, and voila! He produced the 2010 Kansas City Chiefs playbook and hatched a plot to turn Cassel into a mistake-free, accurate passer.

Humor aside, here are the facts: had Dwayne Bowe not caught a short pass from Cassel and rumbled for a 30-yard gain Thursday night, every one of Kansas City’s starting receivers and tight ends would have averaged fewer than 10 yards per catch this preseason. Quite literally, in four exhibition games, Cassel did not complete a pass that traveled 15 yards or more from the line of scrimmage.

All of this happened in the midst of an improved offensive line that barely resembled the unit responsible for Cassel’s knee injury last year. Cassel handed the ball to three dynamite running backs this preseason, threw it to a receiver (Bowe) who appears to have made a quantum leap in maturity, and had not one, but two former Super Bowl offensive coordinators talking inside his helmet between plays.

Chan Gailey, Bobby Wade, Larry Johnson and Mike Goff are gone. The excuses are drying up.

Is preseason a mirage, or will Cassel continue to play quarterback as if he were coached by Herm Edwards and Dick Curl? We’re talking about a player who will make more money this year than Donovan McNabb, Tony Romo, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees and Tom Brady.

That means he has something to prove. So does Pioli. The heat is on.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Originally Posted by prhom

The funny thing is that I really like that stuff as a kid. I guess no one told me it sucked. I'd eat three bowls for breakfast and go to school wanting more.

I used to look at it and go, "a ****ing Moose"? "Count Chocula, please"...

[prhom]

Originally Posted by ROR

I used to look at it and go, "a ****ing Moose"? "Count Chocula, please"...

Ha! I didn't get to eat Count Chocula as a kid. I'm sure I would have liked it more.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Originally Posted by prhom

Ha! I didn't get to eat Count Chocula as a kid. I'm sure I would have liked it more.

Cookie Crisp was pretty bomb too.

[Reaper16]

Oftentimes, when coming home from school when was in second grade, I would open a box of Golden Grahams and eat that cereal straight out the box with my hands while I played Toejam & Earl for Sega Genesis.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I'm heading out for the night, but this is the closing thought. When Clay uses "poor", this is why I ahve a problem with the assessment.

I used "poor" only because "disappointing" was too long.

You shouldn't get too worked up over a headline.

[googlegoogle]

this article is biased. T. Jackson, Magee, Suckop and Cassel are hardly busts.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by googlegoogle

this article is biased. T. Jackson, Magee, Suckop and Cassel are hardly busts.

Great NFL franchises are mostly comprised of players who can be described as "hardly busts."

The only thing you really need to take from what I wrote is this -where are the ****ing GAME CHANGERS?

[prhom]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Oftentimes, when coming home from school when was in second grade, I would open a box of Golden Grahams and eat that cereal straight out the box with my hands while I played Toejam & Earl for Sega Genesis.

Lots of good memories about those days, though you must be a little younger than I. I think I was in 6th grade when that game was out.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

I used "poor" only because "disappointing" was too long.

You shouldn't get too worked up over a headline.

Either way, agree 100% on 2009 being horrendous personnel-wise. But I disagree that we didn't show major signs of improvement over 2009. And I think it's way too soon to make any kind of judgments on rookies. I think it's a pretty unfair standard to expect 2nd round picks to net over 700 yards in their rookie season or to already be ready to be a shutdown corner. You point out a few exceptions, but hey... just because Tom Brady became a great QB doesn't mean that all QBs in the 6th round should be expected to be great QBs. The truth is, around half of second round picks are going to fail, around 75% will not be solid starters, and around 85-90% will not be pro bowl type starters. Chiefs Planet has a weird way of overstating how much of a guarantee and how good second round picks are supposed to be.

[OnTheWarpath15]

This is too ****ing good not to post.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Great NFL franchises are mostly comprised of players who can be described as "hardly busts."

The only thing you really need to take from what I wrote is this -where are the ****ing GAME CHANGERS?

Berry,Flowers, Charles and McCluster could all be that person.

As well as Bowe if he actually performs to his potential.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Berry,Flowers, Charles and McCluster could all be that person.

As well as Bowe if he actually performs to his potential.

Bowe and Charles?

Who drafted them again?

[Bane]

I wonder if that picture of Pioli in the OP is recent.Compared to pics from last year he looks like he has aged 10 years already in KC.Poor kid.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I think it's a pretty unfair standard to expect 2nd round picks to net over 700 yards in their rookie season

Pioli needs something GOOD to start happening with the players he selects.

Since his first draft was a bag of horrible shit, he damn well needs someone from his second class to live up to the bar set by other rookies just last year.

Maybe if Tyson Jackson was a badass and Colin Brown had turned into a competent right tackle we wouldn't demand so much from McCluster and Arenas.

But Pioli shit his bed, and now he has to lay in it.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Berry,Flowers, Charles and McCluster could all be that person.

As well as Bowe if he actually performs to his potential.

You can put Aarinas on that list. His return game can be huge for this team. He may/may not become a great CB but he is a play maker on ST. He can change the dynamics of a game with a big return.