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.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

But you can't waste 2nd round picks on purely ST players......it's ****ing dumb and it sets your franchise back.

They've been better than Clausen this preseason though...just throwing that out there.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

They've been better than Clausen this preseason though...just throwing that out there.

Nah dude. Clausen was THERE AT 5.

WHY DIDN'T YOU DRAFT HIM SCOTT????

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

all indications so far are that he hit a HR in 2010

How?

Arenas and McCluster look like part-time gimmicks.

Moeaki had one catch and one interception.

Unimpressive.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Pioli Zombie

The proof is in the record. If they go 8-8 this year then they are on the right track. If not then all the criticism is warranted.

God bless 8-8 fans/ true fans / next year 13-3 & play off loss/ lets keep it going again 8-8 oops looks like we need another retread QB from another team/ We are one player away from Super Bowl yada yada/ 10-6 back in the play offs loss/ next season 8-8/ it's a never ending cycle....

Retread QBs are good temps, but not for building a long term solution to our failures to win in the playoffs and going to the Super Bowl.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

How?

Arenas and McCluster look like part-time gimmicks.

Moeaki had one catch and one interception.

Unimpressive.

I got an idea, lets judge them after some actual games are played.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Dude we could have won 7 games last year without several defensive collapses late in games. Cassel should be better even if it is only marginally.

Cassel can't even **** things up enough to stop 8-8. That's the scary part, we could go 9-7 and stand pat at QB.

I think you're setting yourself for disappointment.

I think this team is what the Raiders and Browns were last year--good tough team that will be in a lot of games but won't close out a lot of them.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by PostRockPablo

Nah dude. Clausen was THERE AT 5.

WHY DIDN'T YOU DRAFT HIM SCOTT????

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by Cool han Luke

God bless 8-8 fans/ true fans / next year 13-3 & play off loss/ lets keep it going again 8-8 oops looks like we need another retread QB from another team/ We are one player away from Super Bowl yada yada/ 10-6 back in the play offs loss/ next season 8-8/ it's a never ending cycle....

Retread QBs are good temps, but not for building a long term solution to our failures to win in the playoffs and going to the Super Bowl.

Holy shit! You are like a football savant. Without this pearl of wisdom and insight I don't think anyone would have figured this out. And here I was thinking we could pick up David Carr this next off-season so that he could finally have that magic season and lead the Chiefs to the promised land. Or Joey Harrington. Or, perhaps, just maybe, Pioli could talk Plummer out of his handball championships and have him return to football.

[B_Ambuehl]

Claythan, Whitlock never missed anything and now that he's gone I was hoping someone could step up on a weekly basis and unleash enough hate to keep the Pioli regime on their toes. This article shows a little bit of the potential you have to become that guy. I hope you continue to build upon that. May the force be with you.

[Messier]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

How?

Arenas and McCluster look like part-time gimmicks.

Moeaki had one catch and one interception.

Unimpressive.

Wow! Hard to please, or are you just following the temp on CP. Everyone seems to be down on the Chiefs! All Aboard the suck train!

This has been an impressive draft class.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

Holy shit! You are like a football savant. Without this pearl of wisdom and insight I don't think anyone would have figured this out. And here I was thinking we could pick up David Carr this next off-season so that he could finally have that magic season and lead the Chiefs to the promised land. Or Joey Harrington. Or, perhaps, just maybe, Pioli could talk Plummer out of his handball championships and have him return to football.

you cracked me up

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by B_Ambuehl

Claythan, Whitlock never missed anything and now that he's gone I was hoping someone could step up on a weekly basis and unleash enough hate to keep the Pioli regime on their toes. This article shows a little bit of the potential you have to become that guy. I hope you continue to build upon that. May the force be with you.

Dude, there's a void and I intend to fill it. Sam Mellinger is far too wishy washy. Someone has to bring the pain.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Messier

This has been an impressive draft class.

See, this is what happens when a draft class doesn't absolutely suck ass.

The 2009 draft was so god awful that we see guys like McCluster make a couple plays - not even BIG plays - and we think "impressive!"

I'll say this much - it certainly looks like Berry, Lewis, DMC and Arenas will actually contribute, which is a far cry from completely disappearing ala scrubs like Donald Washington. But Berry may be the only true game changer.

Gotta have elite talent to win it all.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Dude, there's a void and I intend to fill it. Sam Mellinger is far too wishy washy. Someone has to bring the pain.

Sound like objective journalism to me.

I understand the need to not be a blind homer when writing articles. That fluff shit gets old.

Thing is going off the deep end the other way just be that person is just as bad and just as tiring.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Dude, there's a void and I intend to fill it. Sam Mellinger is far too wishy washy. Someone has to bring the pain.

Yeah, I was thinking that since the Whitlock departure, the Kansas City Sports press was really lacking a complete and utter dildo whose literary acumen, wit and insight is akin to a peyote stuffed chimp hammering away at a keyboard. If anyone can step into that void, C.E. most certainly has as much potential as anyone.

Can we start a "Bring back Jason" petition?