Babb goes the dynamite - Baldwin’s play limiting Bowe’s importance

[Hammock Parties]

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/01...mportance.html

Baldwin’s play limiting Bowe’s importance

Baldwin is all in; Bowe still absent

BY KENT BABB

ST. JOSEPH -- The first segment of Chiefs training camp ended Tuesday with a night practice at Spratt Stadium, and whether you were there or not, you probably know about the first week’s biggest storyline.

Yes, that wide receiver everyone keeps talking about. It’s a shame he has baggage, because we could all be a little more certain about him if not for that. As it stands, this young wideout with so much talent — you’re not a first-round pick without big skills — could be a significant reason why the 2012 season is a success and not a failure.

Jon Baldwin, not Dwayne Bowe, has been the most important player for the Chiefs during this first week of the preseason, and boy, has he answered the challenge. Baldwin, not Bowe, is not only in attendance but is emerging as a player who looks like a young star who could give quarterback Matt Cassel a tall, powerful option down the field. Baldwin, not Bowe, is doing everything right when the man who was supposed to be his mentor is making a career mistake by refusing to sign his franchise tender — and allowing a second-year receiver to show the Chiefs how it’s done.

Let’s discuss Bowe for a moment. This is actually bad news for him. When a player decides to skip practices or weeks or an entire camp, it is to remind the team that it would be in trouble without him. Think this week was tough? Just imagine what it’d be like to go an entire season like this.

As it stands, with each passing day and each time Baldwin leaps to catch a touchdown pass in the back of the end zone, as he did Tuesday night, Bowe’s value and importance to the Chiefs drops. Oh, the Chiefs still want and expect Bowe to be on the practice field at some point, and would likely still pencil him into the starting lineup, but the absence of their 2007 first-round pick is being overshadowed by the presence of their 2011 first-round pick.

Baldwin has been so good that there’s no panic here. Cassel already looks more comfortable with the youngster than he ever has with Bowe. There’s more confidence that Baldwin will run a perfect route, will be there when the ball arrives, will hold onto it when it hits his hands. Baldwin has, in offseason practices and in a week of training camp, been everything you want a first-round receiver to be. For months now, Baldwin has taken such an impressive step that there’s not just hope but budding certainty that the Chiefs will be, for however long it’s necessary, just fine without Bowe.

There was suspicion last year that Baldwin might have been built in the same, undependable mold as his veteran teammate. When he stepped to running back Thomas Jones during last year’s camp, suffering a broken hand that would sideline him the first six weeks, it was easy to think that Baldwin was a high-risk player whose future already looked murky. He couldn’t even finish camp without finding trouble — a fight with a respected team leader, no less.

Time passed, though, and the Chiefs started asking questions and hearing encouraging answers. The first was whether Baldwin, a rookie, had been intimidated by Jones, who’s maybe the last person on Planet Earth that anyone should pick a fight with. When the team learned that Baldwin hadn’t been scared and had defended himself, coaches were disappointed that he’d been hurt, sure, but they kind of respected that he hadn’t been rattled.

Later, they asked whether Baldwin was doing all the right things in rehab and in the downtime that can make or break a rookie’s career. The kid kept his mouth closed, did what was asked, and when the cast finally came off and Baldwin made his NFL debut, he was well-conditioned, focused and able. A week later, in a home win against San Diego on Monday night, he came down with an acrobatic 39-yard touchdown catch that began to show what the Chiefs had been waiting for.

Those are the kinds of catches that Baldwin has been making consistently in OTAs and so far in training camp. If the Chiefs asked a new question — how will Baldwin respond when the spotlight shifts in his direction? — they’re learning the answer.

He’s making it look easy, while Bowe is just making life difficult.

It’s understandable that Bowe has no interest in participating in practices that’ll earn him zero additional dollars on top of his $9.5 million tender. These weeks are hot and thankless, and if you ask any veteran player what he won’t miss when it’s time to retire, he’ll likely say training camp. But the problem with Bowe is that there’s no way to know what he’ll look and play like when he finally does join the Chiefs, whether that’s Thursday (almost inconceivable) or shortly before the regular season begins (looking more likely by the day). This has been discussed and written to death, but Bowe doesn’t have a spotless history when it comes to these matters. With a new coach and quarterback in 2009, he arrived to camp around 30 pounds heavier than his target weight, and whether it was an accident or not, as he said at the time, Bowe turned to a diuretic to shed the extra pounds — a move that got him suspended for four games by the NFL.

So life with Bowe has been an adventure, and it continues to be. If he arrives out of shape and with no knowledge of the offense, there will be no hurry to rush him back into the starting lineup. That’s what he must have thought it would be like when he opted to skip practices and remind the Chiefs of his value. But that plan has now blown up in his face.

What’s interesting is that another receiver with a spotty history seems to have vowed to erase the doubt that lingers from the past; without a new contract to play for or a statement to make, Baldwin keeps making the dazzling plays and the easy ones, saying the right things, and just being a player the Chiefs can depend on day after day.

Now that Baldwin has made us think about it, none of that has ever been true of Bowe.

[durtyrute]

Originally Posted by TEX

I agree - but he needs to come off his demands a bit. He's not worth what he is asking. He is not a top 3 WR.

What is he asking?

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by the Talking Can

While Baldwin was out as a rookie for getting in a fight, Bowe was putting up another 80 catch, 1100 yard season.

Bowe had 1000 yards as a rookie on a much less talented team, the best other WR was Samie Parker. His QBs were Croyle and Huard.

This franchise is a joke. I didn't see anything in the article about fielding the best team, or winning a superbowl.

What a hatchet job by Pioli...should have titled the article "Bowe Is Probably A Rapist, Baldwin Goes To Church."

oh well, the fans don't give a shit as long as Pioli saves Clark's money...

WTF does this article have to do with Pioli? Do you know how ridiculous you sound right now blaming Pioli for a Piece that Babb wrote?

Are you kidding me? Have you lost your goddamn mind or something?

You think Babb, the guy who wrote the Wire Tap scandal article, is doing fluff pieces for Pioli?



You done lost your mind, son.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Dave

Pioli propaganda machine working hard...

reeruned.....JFC....what is wrong with you people....

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by the Talking Can

watching Pioli turn the fanbase against one of our best players has been sad, and enlightening...

You are sad, sad little man. Blaming Pioli for this article makes you sound like Gochiefs, it really does.

[Hammock Parties]

After Babb roasted Pioli over an open spit for Spygate II/CandyWrappergate, there's no way he's a shill for the Chiefs.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by the Talking Can

we could have:

Bowe, Baldwin, Breaston (potentially one of the best groups in the league)


instead Pioli has convinced fans to prefer:

Baldwin, Breaston, McCluster (unproven and unremarkable)

Man you are a dumbass.

What fan prefers that? Name 1?

[durtyrute]

Originally Posted by The Macho Man

reeruned.....JFC....what is wrong with you people....

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

After Babb roasted Pioli over an open spit for Spygate II/CandyWrappergate, there's no way he's a shill for the Chiefs.

I just dont get it. Babb could've gotten Pioli thrown in Jail with those allegations, he could've created a whole mess for the Chiefs organization if those allegations were true....

Yet these guys think Babb is Pioli's media puppet.

When GoChiefs and The Macho Man have to be your voice of reason, then you've gone full ****ing reerun.

Jesus H. Christ, kids wtf have you been smoking?

[the Talking Can]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Man you are a dumbass.

What fan prefers that? Name 1?

every fan who has posted about Bowe being and overrated #2, not as good as Antonio Brown, primadonna thug who flexed once and is asking for a $4000 million dollar contract so trade him for draft picks...

all points made are from actual posts on this board...it's the reading thing, you do it poorly

[Chiefnj2]

Babb might not be a shill, but he does not care for Bowe. He's been running the Bowe is a problem player crap all off season.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj2

Babb might not be a shill, but he does not care for Bowe. He's been running the Bowe is a problem player crap all off season.

That very well may be, but that sure as **** doesn't mean he is writing fluff pieces for Pioli....

[the Talking Can]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Man you are a dumbass.

What fan prefers that? Name 1?

and to answer your dumb question directly: bosschief, who wants him traded yesterday...


again, the reading thing

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by the Talking Can

every fan who has posted about Bowe being and overrated #2, not as good as Antonio Brown, primadonna thug who flexed once and is asking for a $4000 million dollar contract so trade him for draft picks...

all points made are from actual posts on this board...it's the reading thing, you do it poorly

Really?

What fan here has called Bowe a "Primadonna thug"? or an "Overrated #2"?

The only guy who even comes close to spewing that kinda BS is that Chiefsfootball fan guy, and not even he knocks Bowe that much.

You've gone full reerun through out this whole thread.

You're hate (Founded or not) for Pioli has completely consumed you.

[Chiefnj2]

Originally Posted by The Macho Man

That very well may be, but that sure as **** doesn't mean he is writing fluff pieces for Pioli....

Was his article about Haley being a delusional paranoid really a negative about Pioli, or did it just bring further heat on Haley and give Pioli leverage when firing Haley?

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj2

Was his article about Haley being a delusional paranoid really a negative about Pioli, or did it just bring further heat on Haley and give Pioli leverage when firing Haley?

The article wasn't about Haley being a delusional paranoid. It didn't paint Haley in that light at all, so stop trying to play that BS card. You know damn well what the intentions of that article were.