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.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Bowe and Charles?

Who drafted them again?

So give CP 1.5 in the last how many year of his tenure and Pioli has hit on at leat 2 this draft class and maybe 2.5 with Arenas return ability. He woudl have to be a probowl type returner and that is possible.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Cool han Luke

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.

Which won't do us much good if we can't score and can't stop people on defense because we lack game-changing starters.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

So give CP 1.5 in the last how many year of his tenure and Pioli has hit on at leat 2 this draft class and maybe 2.5 with Arenas return ability. He woudl have to be a probowl type returner and that is possible.

Huh, what?

The best players on this team are all still from the Carl Peterson era.

ALL OF THEM. Dorsey, Charles, DJ, Flowers, Carr, Albert, etc. Barry Richardson is outclassing Pioli's golden boy right tackle, O'Failaghan. Even Carl's shitty leftovers, like Ron Edwards, are better than anything Pioli has signed at nose tackle. Wallace Gilberry? CARL. Andy Studebaker? CARL. Dustin Colquitt? CARL. DeMorrio Williams? CARL.

The only guy Pioli has produced that looks really good is Berry, and that was a no brainer. So was signing Chris Chambers.

Oh, he gets credit for Succop.

Pioli hasn't "hit" on any other draft picks so far. Arenas and McCluster didn't do anything to inspire confidence that they were the right picks in preseason. Maybe if they were 4th rounders...but not as 2nd rounders.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Huh, what?

The best players on this team are all still from the Carl Peterson era.

ALL OF THEM. Dorsey, Charles, DJ, Flowers, Carr, Albert, etc. Barry Richardson is outclassing Pioli's golden boy right tackle, O'Failaghan. Even Carl's shitty leftovers, like Ron Edwards, are better than anything Pioli has signed at nose tackle. Wallace Gilberry? CARL. Andy Studebaker? CARL. Dustin Colquitt? CARL. DeMorrio Williams? CARL.

The only guy Pioli has produced that looks really good is Berry, and that was a no brainer. So was signing Chris Chambers.

Oh, he gets credit for Succop.

Pioli hasn't "hit" on any other draft picks so far. Arenas and McCluster didn't do anything to inspire confidence that they were the right picks in preseason. Maybe if they were 4th rounders...but not as 2nd rounders.

Did you not specify game changers? Stick to the topic.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Did you not specify game changers?

Yeah, I did.

But the fact that guys like Studebaker are beating out ANYONE Pioli has signed or drafted only drives home my point.

HE HAS A LOT TO ****ING PROVE.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Huh, what?

The best players on this team are all still from the Carl Peterson era.

ALL OF THEM. Dorsey, Charles, DJ, Flowers, Carr, Albert, etc. Barry Richardson is outclassing Pioli's golden boy right tackle, O'Failaghan. Even Carl's shitty leftovers, like Ron Edwards, are better than anything Pioli has signed at nose tackle. Wallace Gilberry? CARL. Andy Studebaker? CARL. Dustin Colquitt? CARL. DeMorrio Williams? CARL.

The only guy Pioli has produced that looks really good is Berry, and that was a no brainer. So was signing Chris Chambers.

Oh, he gets credit for Succop.

Pioli hasn't "hit" on any other draft picks so far. Arenas and McCluster didn't do anything to inspire confidence that they were the right picks in preseason. Maybe if they were 4th rounders...but not as 2nd rounders.

And once again another CP myth rears it's ugly head. Yes we should have drafted a bust NT tackle instead of a playmaker.

McCluster was worth the pick, deal with it. Your analysis of him in this article is ****ing Ignorant. ****ing ignorant. I will say it again ****ING IGNORANT.

If what you have seen out of McCluster doesn't inspire you, you are ****ING IGNORANT.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

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.

We're learning pretty quickly that the 2009 offseason was a season to forget. I don't agree at all that this means you use 2010 as a panic reaction to cover up for your previous mistakes. Nor does it mean that you set ridiculous standards for rookies. McCluster doesn't need to be Percy Harvin today. He needs to develop into a Percy Harvin within 2 years. I don't see why that makes him a bust because he scrounges up 500 yards, let's say, which is actually terrific production for a rookie. Especially a second rounder.

I just want this team to get better. And the young guys deserve time to get better. Pioli ****ed up big time in 2009. But if we continue to improve in 2010 and beyond, I'm wiping the slate clean. And I don't see how anyone can look at the preseason as any justification that we should be nervous about the 2010 draft class not contributing. Berry, McCluster, Arenas, Kendrick Lewis... probably Asamoah down the road. If you look at this as a single class and not as a class that's supposed to make us forget 2010, you'll realize that they have potential to be very solid contributors to this team within the next 2-3 years.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

If what you have seen out of McCluster doesn't inspire you, you are ****ING IGNORANT.

I should be inspired by 7 catches for 40 yards?

[Mr. Flopnuts]

****ing ignorant? I'm just clarifying.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

McCluster doesn't need to be Percy Harvin today.

I agree completely.

Pioli needs McCluster to be Percy Harvin today, though

He needs something GOOD to happen. It would do something for his reputation.

[L.A. Chieffan]

If mccluster starts tearing it up and arenas is returning tds and making people look foolish, nobody is going to remember what round they got picked in

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

I should be inspired by 7 catches for 40 yards?

I am not going to continue to argue McCluster with you. After you have shot your wad and made your tribute video by half season you will be singing a different tune and saying hey I was wrong, I'm glad.

You have become Mecca Light.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

I am not going to continue to argue McCluster with you.

Why should you? You don't have half a leg to stand on.

McCluster is a lot closer to Kris Wilson 2.0 than Percy Harvin right now in terms of actual offensive production.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Why should you? You don't have half a leg to stand on.

McCluster is a lot closer to Kris Wilson 2.0 than Percy Harvin right now in terms of actual offensive production.

You are making yourself sound dumber by the post. Chris Wilson? Was Chris Wilson also a return guy and a RB as well as a receiver?

Did Chris Wilson avg 6.9 yards per carry on 12 carries in any preseason?

I also like the way you edited my post.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

I should be inspired by 7 catches for 40 yards?

GoChiefs, you can't necessarily look at his production based on statistics. Especially when you consider that our receivers' stats are reliant on Matt Cassel finding open receivers and hitting them in stride. By the way, he's also rushed for 100 yards on fairly limited carries.

What I've seen this preseason is that Weis has been using him all over the place. So when people call him a matchup nightmare, I don't see why he couldn't be, even if he's not a 1,000 yard guy. The guy's lining up in the slot, in the backfield, and he's showing he can be a legit threat from either spot. And I doubt that Weis has come even close to showing his hand in terms of the creative ways they plan to use him.

No, we haven't seen enough to say he's worth the pick. But you can't possibly tell me that you haven't seen hints that he's going to be as electric as a lot of experts seem to think he'll be.