Edwards promises offensive changes for Chiefs

[Oz_Chief]

...but Solari stays.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...s/16406684.htm

By Adam Teicher

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - One day after a pathetic performance bounced his team from the playoffs, Herm Edwards promised offensive changes for the Chiefs in 2007.

Edwards said he couldn't be specific about many of the changes because they are still to be decided. But he indicated they would probably include a different scheme_and maybe a new starting quarterback.

They won't include a new coordinator. Edwards said Mike Solari would continue in that job no matter what type of offense the Chiefs use.

Edwards also said defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham and the rest of his assistant coaches would be welcome to return next season.

Edwards has contemplated changes through the course of a bumpy offensive season. Saturday's 23-8 loss to the Colts in a first-round playoff game in Indianapolis helped drive home the point.

The Chiefs had 126 yards and failed to get a first down until their eighth possession.

"We didn't handle their speed real well," Edwards said.

"We have to take a hard look at ourselves. You have to be realistic and ask yourself if we're really capable of (successfully running their current system). I want to make sure of one thing: Whatever type of system we run, young players have to be able to play. They can't wait a year or two to get on the field. I don't want to be in a situation where young guys who have some talent can't play because the system is too complex.

"There are some things we do very well. There are things we can do even better. That's what I'm talking about here: How do we do these things better? It's not a laundry list of things. These are just things that allow us to get the football to the right players."

Edwards said the Chiefs would keep their power running game centered on Larry Johnson and a play-action passing game. But they will simplify by cutting back on the number of plays and their complexities.

Those changes would be aimed toward making things easier for younger players. Edwards wouldn't identify those players he would like to play more next season, but he may have been talking about rookie wide receivers Jeff Webb and Chris Hannon and perhaps even rookie quarterback Brodie Croyle.

"I just know it has to be player-friendly," Edwards said. "It has to be something that young players at all positions can play. I want to give the quarterback even more ability to change some things at the line of scrimmage. I want him to have the ability to get to anything we have right now.

Edwards wouldn't address the issue of whether Trent Green would return as the starting quarterback. Green's play dropped off significantly this season after he missed eight games because of a concussion.

"That's not even something we're discussing right now," Edwards said. "There are a whole lot of other things we have to do as far as the program before we start worrying about player situations. That's second on the agenda."

But his refusal to back Green, who will turn 37 next summer, speaks loudly. The conservative Edwards believes in ball control above all. Green committed three turnovers in the final regular-season game against Jacksonville and three more in the loss to the Colts.

He had no such hesitation about supporting Solari, a career offensive-line coach until promoted to coordinator by Edwards this season.

"I told Mike today that he did a good job for his first year," Edwards said. "That's a tough seat he's sitting in. A lot of the things that happened to us - losing some players, losing the quarterback_affected him. He had never called an offensive play. That's hard. He will be so much better next year. It won't even be close.

"Mike's the guy. He's going to be a heck of an offensive coordinator. Next year will be a lot different for him. I was so much better my second year as a head coach. He'll gain more confidence. He knows me better now. Mike had to learn the passing game. You don't learn that in a year unless you're a coordinator. He was an offensive-line coach. That's something he had to go through."

Edwards also said he was pleased with how he and Cunningham worked together.

"We think a whole lot alike as far as the things we want to get done," he said. "I know people think he's blitz-crazy, but he's really not. He's got to do what the players allow him to do."

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Coach

Hey Coach Dumbass Edwards, the scheme is not the goddamn problem, the players already know it and set RECORDS WITH IT. Use your goddamn head, if you have one!

Only a f**king moron could take over this team, watch the offense flop, then blame the SYSTEM for it. I mean... the offensive system has always been a problem right?

I now like Herm even less, but so long as it's nothing that's HIS fault... see? It's Vermeil's fault for the system that's to complicated for 11 players who were in the same offense last season. What?!

This clown makes no sense, I'm already tired of him. We need some personell upgrades... change is not always improvement.... in this case it's a way of skirting blame for a piss poor gameplan.

How can they 'keep' a play action passing game that was nearly non existant all this season?!

I agree, this was my worst fear when he took over. He broke the best part of the team.

[the Talking Can]

when your RB sets the NFL record for most carries in a season you lose the right to describe your offense as "too complicated"....

[Silock]

Originally Posted by FringeNC

Let me get this straight. We struggled because we were far too simple on offense, and the solution is to get even simpler?

That's not the point at all.

[dirk digler]

I am not trying to defend Herm here but from everything that I have read the last couple of days the consensus from the Chiefs is this offense looked slow and old on Saturday. I can't necessarily disagree with that.

I think he is wanting to go young so we can play fast again.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by FringeNC

If this offense is so hard to learn, how was Martz able to take the Rams from about the worst offense in the league to the best his first year?

He had talent. Look at Detroit. They're a far cry.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by DaWolf

For goodness sakes, look at the damn roster.

NO Willie Roaf
A 37 year old QB
A 34 year old No 1 receiver
A 36 year old guard
A revolving RT position
A 33 year old center
NO TRich
NO Priest Holmes

This is not the same damned team that broke records and kept missing the playoffs. They are older, slower, broken. This #$%^ing system is built on SPEED. We don't have speed anymore. We started losing it last year, the cracks were showing, and this year we totally lost it.

What, did the system look so damned good in 2001 when Al Saunders and Vermeil took over and we went 6-10 with Snoop Minnis catching the ball?

ANY offensive system will look good as long as you have the players with the ability to EXECUTE the system. When the QB is getting killed, is turning the ball over, when we can't block, when the receivers aren't outrunning opponents anymore, it doesn't fit. Use a system that will fit the players and will win ballgames. And get better players, get younger players who can keep up.

What, the Steelers and Pats have been winning the last few Lombardis with a record setting offense?

What I am sick of is pansy ass players who go out and get hit in the mouth by the other team and fold. This offense has been as SOFT as our defense has been, and that's why we have ZERO postseason wins since 1993. We need a damn offense which goes out there and pushes the other team around and a defense that does the same. This team needs to get rid of all the damned wusses playing on it and get some football players who will go out there and lay some wood and win some important games on the *&^%ing road...

THANK YOU.

You pretty much said everything I was going to say.

Nothing lasts forever. All good things must come to an end. Insert cliche here, but it's the damned truth.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by Bob Dole

Those two paragraphs illustrate Herm's brilliance.

Instead of giving an experienced QB who could recite the playbook in his sleep the option to audible this season, let's go with an inexperienced QB and give him more flexibility next year.

Nobody will expect it. Pure brilliance!

You cannot audible very well in this offense. THAT is the point. That's not how this offense works. There are too many packages and motions and shifting for you to be able to sit at the line and audible in and out of a bunch of different plays.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by EM31

First of all I will self identify as a Jets fan who was in the anti-Herm camp.

No offense, but that just made me zone out of even trying to read something good out of your post. Herm is either a like him or hate him guy, and for Jets fans, he's always been hated. If you are incapable of being unbiased, how can anyone really take what you say seriously?

[King_Chief_Fan]

Originally Posted by EM31

Hi everyone. Post#1 and I know you have heard from plenty disgruntled Jets fans before or ones who "just want to help you out" so I will try not to be too predictable here.

First of all I will self identify as a Jets fan who was in the anti-Herm camp. Fundemantally dishonest snake oil salesman and shameless self promoter about sums it up. Oh, and someone who makes a virtue out of being a likeable dope. Only after he has gutted your team long enough the whole "likeable" thing gets to be a bit questionable.

Anyway, as to the discussion in this thread. Herm is up to his old tricks again I see. If you start from the understanding that NOTHING is ever Herm's fault then you will also appreciate the need for Herm to find scapegoats (plausible or otherwise). So now it is your OC who gets thrown under the bus in large part for doing what Herm ordered him to do. We saw the same thing twice!! First with Teddy Cottrell and then with Paul Hackett. (yes THAT Paul Hackett. A belated thanks to Chiefs fans who came over to our boards and tried to give us a heads up on Hackett).

Anyway, The OC gets blamed, "Changes will be made" but not a firing. And that part is important. Not a firing. This has the effect of deflecting blame away from Herm (today), forcing the OC in a position where he feels grateful to Herm for "saving his job" and finally it gives Herm another year with this guy and a plausible excuse if the same mess happens next year. After all, if the crap hits the fan then Herm was just being too loyal to his guys right? Any improvements on the other hand are because Herm came in and "took charge". And you know he will call a press conference and allude ever so subtly to the Herm-changes that worked.

It is a brilliant strategy.

Anyhow, congrats on having Larry Johnson and I mean that. You could have four of five top 5 picks in the next decade and not find another one like him. I hope the workload does not abbreviate his career. I would take Gonzalez in a heartbeat. He seems to have something left.

With Herm for better or for worse the palyoffs this year, however improbable at 9-7 mean that he is now at four playoffs out of six years (one of six without extreme luck). Four playoffs in six years looks good on paper and Paul Hackett knows what that can mean to the longevity of your career. I think 4-of-6 by itself added AT LEAST one more year to his tenure with the Chiefs and probably added another HC gig to his career after the Chiefs as well.

Good luck.

thanks for coming over. You know you wasted your breath. LOts of yahoos on this board were hanging Jets fans who tried to tell them ahead of time. Don't be surprised to hear more yahoos tell you to get lost, or yeah we know, etc. etc.
congratulations on a good year post Herm. We hope to have one soon.

[Red Dawg]

I have no problem with anything he said. We need young talent on offense that can make an impact. If the book is too complex, and we know it is, then simplify it so young WR's can get on the field.

[Fairplay]

Our offense isn't that complicated.

Herm already slashed a lot of the offensive plays when he got here.

[Que Card QB]

Offensive changes...yeah it's called starting over.

[EM31]

Originally Posted by Silock

No offense, but that just made me zone out of even trying to read something good out of your post. Herm is either a like him or hate him guy, and for Jets fans, he's always been hated. If you are incapable of being unbiased, how can anyone really take what you say seriously?

Well obviously everyone is going to decide for themselves but I would say the first few years of Herman Edwards with the Jets I was a kool-aid drinker. A Herm defender if you will. I would say that there was a tremendous benefit of the doubt afforded to Herm by the fan base and the media when he was with the Jets, so it really is incorrect to say that Herm has "always been hated" by Jets fans. It makes for an interesting rhetorical strawman but is far from the case. I can see some of that same sentiment here amongst the defenders of Herman Edwards. Over time I expect that you will begin to see more and more of the "I was a Herm defender but this is the final straw..." type posts.

Again, I was not in the anti-Herm camp for much of the time but it was more of a case fool me shame on me type deal. Looking back I was pretty gullible.

As to your final point, people will take me seriously or not based upon the contrent of my posting. My post here was intended to relate Herm's history of throwing his coordinators under the bus and in slow motion no less. Meaning that he throws them under one year then keeps them around so he can throw them under the next year as he did with BOTH Teddy Cottrell and Paul Hackett. If you don't see a pattern then you do not see it. If on the other hand, you can see a pattern emerging where Herman is never actually to blame for anything bad happening, where Herman always has an OC, or a running back, or a quarterback to blame when things go wrong yet is front-and-center ready to step up to the mic when something goes well then I think you would be seeing the same pattern that I eventually cottoned on to.

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by EM31

Well obviously everyone is going to decide for themselves but I would say the first few years of Herman Edwards with the Jets I was a kool-aid drinker. A Herm defender if you will. I would say that there was a tremendous benefit of the doubt afforded to Herm by the fan base and the media when he was with the Jets, so it really is incorrect to say that Herm has "always been hated" by Jets fans. It makes for an interesting rhetorical strawman but is far from the case. I can see some of that same sentiment here amongst the defenders of Herman Edwards. Over time I expect that you will begin to see more and more of the "I was a Herm defender but this is the final straw..." type posts.

Again, I was not in the anti-Herm camp for much of the time but it was more of a case fool me shame on me type deal. Looking back I was pretty gullible.

As to your final point, people will take me seriously or not based upon the contrent of my posting. My post here was intended to relate Herm's history of throwing his coordinators under the bus and in slow motion no less. Meaning that he throws them under one year then keeps them around so he can throw them under the next year as he did with BOTH Teddy Cottrell and Paul Hackett. If you don't see a pattern then you do not see it. If on the other hand, you can see a pattern emerging where Herman is never actually to blame for anything bad happening, where Herman always has an OC, or a running back, or a quarterback to blame when things go wrong yet is front-and-center ready to step up to the mic when something goes well then I think you would be seeing the same pattern that I eventually cottoned on to.

Nice Post. We saw that alot this year. Herm chucked Solari under the bus in the pre-season for passing in the redzone... So we have seen this first hand.

Thanks for the info and we love the way Herms talks to us at his press conferences... How dare we question the Great Herm Edwards..

This guys is a joke and a disgrace to Lamar Hunt's memory...

[Archie Bunker]

Originally Posted by DaWolf

For goodness sakes, look at the damn roster.

NO Willie Roaf
A 37 year old QB
A 34 year old No 1 receiver
A 36 year old guard
A revolving RT position
A 33 year old center
NO TRich
NO Priest Holmes

This is not the same damned team that broke records and kept missing the playoffs. They are older, slower, broken. This #$%^ing system is built on SPEED. We don't have speed anymore. We started losing it last year, the cracks were showing, and this year we totally lost it.

What, did the system look so damned good in 2001 when Al Saunders and Vermeil took over and we went 6-10 with Snoop Minnis catching the ball?

ANY offensive system will look good as long as you have the players with the ability to EXECUTE the system. When the QB is getting killed, is turning the ball over, when we can't block, when the receivers aren't outrunning opponents anymore, it doesn't fit. Use a system that will fit the players and will win ballgames. And get better players, get younger players who can keep up.

What, the Steelers and Pats have been winning the last few Lombardis with a record setting offense?

What I am sick of is pansy ass players who go out and get hit in the mouth by the other team and fold. This offense has been as SOFT as our defense has been, and that's why we have ZERO postseason wins since 1993. We need a damn offense which goes out there and pushes the other team around and a defense that does the same. This team needs to get rid of all the damned wusses playing on it and get some football players who will go out there and lay some wood and win some important games on the *&^%ing road...

Rep sir.