Mellinger: Marcus Peters is gone. The Chiefs have some explaining to do.

[DaFace]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt...201907719.html

Marcus Peters is gone. The Chiefs have some explaining to do.

BY SAM MELLINGER
smellinger@kcstar.com
February 23, 2018 07:27 PM

Clark Hunt, Andy Reid and Brett Veach deserve an opportunity to explain, because as it stands right now they have cloaked their franchise with failure.

That word is not used without thought. That word is not used without intent.

The Chiefs on Friday agreed to trade Marcus Peters to the Rams, reportedly for draft picks. Without hearing from the men who made this decision, the explanation that makes the most sense is one lacking in guts, ambition, commitment to success, and realism.

A difficult situation presents itself, and the Chiefs hit the eject button.

Starting with Reid being hired and paid more than any NFL coach who has not won a Super Bowl, the Chiefs have branded themselves as a place for second chances, where strong personalities are welcomed and supported.

Here, then, they failed with their strongest-willed and one of their best players. This was supposed to be their edge. Let players show their personalities. Get the most out of them. Except with Peters, the Chiefs failed to do it, apparently allowing the situation to become so untenable they traded him without a strong market of interest.

Again, Hunt, Reid, and Veach should be allowed to explain. This has all the markings of the Chiefs pushing Peters out, but there is always a chance the trade return was so overwhelming the Chiefs couldn’t resist. So these words are an initial reaction, not the final judgment. Still, the following is true:

Peters plays one of the most important non-quarterback positions in football, creates more turnovers than anyone else in the league, and just turned 25 in January with a year left on his rookie deal plus up to three more years of club control.

And he’s gone. For what?

The Chiefs traded a cheap, young star at a premium position despite the limited leverage of just two teams interested.

Why?

For draft picks? So they have an opportunity to select Peters’ replacement? That’s not the action of a successful franchise.

That’s the action of a franchise with more blown leads than wins in playoff games.

One more time, maybe there is a better and more sensible explanation, but here’s what it looks like at the moment: Hunt, who cowered when given the opportunity to stand up for his players’ rights last fall, wanted the headache gone.

He has been outspoken about wanting players to stand for the anthem, and talked Peters into staying in the locker room for the song. Hunt is a conservative man by nature, and it’s not a stretch to believe he wanted one of the NFL’s least conservative players off his team.

Because the other explanations don’t make as much sense.

The Chiefs want you to believe they are serious about winning and just traded one of their best players.

The Chiefs are trying to get younger and just traded a 25-year-old star.

The Chiefs’ secondary was awful last year and they just dumped (by far) their best cornerback.

The Chiefs retained a defensive coordinator who was exposed in 2017, deciding it was more about a lack of talent, and just shipped off one of the league’s most productive and dangerous defenders.

The Chiefs’ defense emphasizes creating turnovers, and they just traded the man who has created more turnovers than anyone else since he entered the league.

The Chiefs, in other words, have a disconnected vision of their future, or no serious expectations of success this season, or both.

Peters is not without his faults. Obviously. He is hyper competitive, which is his greatest strength right until the moment it becomes his greatest flaw. You don’t know when he’ll draw a personal foul, but you can expect at least a few every season.

Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters has lost his cool or done something that has resulted in a fine several times during the 2017 season. Neil Nakahodo, Pete Grathoff, David EulittThe Kansas City Star

Reid is by reputation one of the league’s great players’ coaches, and along with Terrell Owens, Peters is one of just two players Reid has suspended in 19 years. Peters’ protests during the national anthem angered a loud portion of the Chiefs’ fan base, and despite handing out turkeys and coats in Kansas City last year, the drama was never going fully away.

There is little doubt he was unhappy in Kansas City. Some of this was inevitable, because the player and his adopted home were so different. Peters could have asked to be traded, but his only leverage was a threat to sit out (which would mean not being paid, and not accruing service time toward free agency) or to not sign an extension (but the Chiefs could’ve controlled him for up to four more seasons).

The Chiefs were not against the clock here. They had time on their side.

The Chiefs could have supported the player, could have worked with the player. They could have found common ground. They could have defended the player against unfair public criticism, if that’s what it took.

Good organizations do that. The Chiefs traded the player. Organizations whose last Super Bowl appearance is old enough to be a grandfather do that.

One more time for the people in the back: Hunt, Reid, and Veach deserve the opportunity to explain. Chiefs fans deserve that, too. Maybe there is something that brings it all together.

But at the moment, only two explanations come to mind that make more sense than Hunt wanting the player out.

The first is that Peters had somehow become such a problem that he was breaking the locker room, and the organization made the advance decision to deal him now before he made more money and his trade value slipped.

That would have to account for the Chiefs players upset by the trade, require something much worse than what’s known so far, and be a tacit admission of failure by a coach hired in part because of his ability to get the best out of strong personalities.

The second apparent explanation would be that the Chiefs are fully embracing a rebuild, and selling off all valuable parts while they reset around quarterback Patrick Mahomes. If that’s the case, then more big trades should be expected.

There are varied holes in this logic, too, from the Chiefs having a good roster already to the NFL’s established history of teams winning with quarterbacks on rookie contracts.

But, at least it would be something.

At least it would be something that didn’t leave the sinking suspicion that the Chiefs just caved to the ugliest parts of their fan base and the weakest part of human nature by avoiding discomfort even as it sets them back competitively.

[oldman]

Originally Posted by WhiteWhale

I'm not happy about this, but I think a lot of stuff will come out in the next few months. I don't want to completely lose my shit until I know more information.

Mellinger's take is moronic, and it's not a hot take. "KC fans are racist, and Clark wants to appease them' is the dumbest take one could possibly have over this. That requires a LOT of uncharitable assumptions.

I tend to agree with you on this. I'm not a happy camper about this trade, but we don't know what was behind the curtain. Maybe Peters was threatening to hold out, it wouldn't be the first time a player under contract has done so. Maybe some of the team leaders decided he was a cancer in the locker room and went to Veach. I'm just not buying it's all racism here. Yeah, we have a lot of idiot fans, but I'll bet there are plenty in just about every stadium.

[MahiMike]

Originally Posted by aturnis

Chiefs have one of the more racist fanbases in the NFL... This board is chock full of the bullshit.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

ok, so what's your point?

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by aturnis

Chiefs have one of the more racist fanbases in the NFL... This board is chock full of the bullshit.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

go get your big red nose you ****ing clown

[Chiefshrink]

Originally Posted by Titty Meat

It really hurt the Panthers when they released their talented headcase CB in the middle of spring a few years ago

On the surface it would seem so but looking deeper, what has really hurt the Panthers is Cam Newton's "stalled development" as a QB. He still has trouble reading defenses, arm accuracy is mediocre at best and relies way too much on his athletic ability when his primary is covered and still just takes off.

Two years ago when the Chiefs came back and won that game in Carolina, in reality IF Cam was truly developing the Chiefs had no business winning that game because Newton should have been dismantling us big time. But he still doesn't know how to dismantle a defense with his physical talent and offensive fire power he has around him pure and simple.

[Al Bundy]

Originally Posted by aturnis

Chiefs have one of the more racist fanbases in the NFL... This board is chock full of the bullshit.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Every fanbase has it's racists. The Chiefs just have more of a midwestern conservative type of racist. The Patriots probably have the worst when it comes to that.

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

Originally Posted by aturnis

Chiefs have one of the more racist fanbases in the NFL... This board is chock full of the bullshit.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Yea... All of us who loved Derrick Thomas or love Patrick Mahomme hate black people...

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Chiefshrink

On the surface it would seem so but looking deeper, what has really hurt the Panthers is Cam Newton's "stalled development" as a QB.

Cam Newton has more playoff wins in the last four years than the Chiefs have in the last 24.

[Chief Roundup]

Originally Posted by aturnis

Chiefs have one of the more racist fanbases in the NFL... This board is chock full of the bullshit.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Bullshit is right. Your statement is full of it.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Originally Posted by Easy 6

Sweet Daddy, love ya man... but you're wronger than two Boy Scouts ****ing

Peters behavior was only going to escalate, he was going to torpedo any semblance of cohesion with his dickhead personality... Marcus can go **** himself

You just wait, he'll wear out his welcome in LA soon enough... the guy has a legit personality disorder, and now that he is close to home, and his worst influences, it will only accelerate

We're better off without that mfer, no doubt about it

Winning cures all ills.

[TripleThreat]

Originally Posted by TripleThreat

Frankly, this post makes 0 logical sense.

Let’s do it your way. Marcus peters shut up and play football and quit your crying!

Marcus peters turns around and cry’s louder and harder.

What do you do now? Bench him? Turn the other cheek? Neither of these options work since the first will lead to more crying and an eventual release, and the second option tells everyone else on your team it’s ok to cry too “if your good enough”.

Trading him was the only reasonable option.

Originally Posted by TEX

Frankly, THIS post makes 0 logical sense...

The Chiefs should have kept one of the best young CB's in the league and tried to work things out.

The fact that apparently there was not many trade partners is even more reason to keep Peters, rather than giving him away for nothing and forcing a trade that wasn't there. You never trade from a position of weakness. The Chiefs did.

Now EVERYONE knows the Chiefs are spineless.

You do not keep someone that doesn’t want to play for you or is causing a disruption with coaches. Period. You are pretending like you know/knew more than the chiefs office did which simply just isn’t true.

You say “they should have tried to work things out”. What gives you this impression that they haven’t been trying? Not many trade partners?? Hmm maybe That’s why thE chiefs traded him before it was too late? Maybe no one wants the nonfootball related problems he brings with himself.

In what way does this say the chiefs are spineless? It’s quite the opposite actually, they threw their huge dick on the table and said bye bye, we don’t take that shit around here...

[splatbass]

Originally Posted by Chiefshrink

Alinsky much ? You better get your "community organizing" on better than this if you are going to Alinsky me my friend.

You may want to research the word "neighborhood" in which I used a shorten version of it using "hood". Just your simple allegation here of me say's you are the "true bigot". You told on yourself for sure.

Looks like Chiefshrink needs a shrink.

[BryanBusby]

Originally Posted by Titty Meat

It really hurt the Panthers when they released their talented headcase CB in the middle of spring a few years ago

But it did? The Panthers didn't make the playoffs and dealt with bad CB play.

[FloridaMan88]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

After LJ, the Chiefs are never going to pay big money to a jackass ever again.

That's why this was done.

Interesting who is defined as a "jackass".

Marcus Peters does some immature at times but harmless shit and he's a "jackass".

Tyreek Hill is convicted of beating the shit out his pregnant girlfriend and he's not apparently a "jackass" (or at least he's not as much of a "jackass" relative to Marcus Peters in the eyes of True Fans).

Interesting.

[Best22]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

Interesting who is defined as a "jackass".

Marcus Peters does some immature at times but harmless shit and he's a "jackass".

Tyreek Hill is convicted of beating the shit out his pregnant girlfriend and he's not apparently a "jackass" (or at least he's not as much of a "jackass" relative to Marcus Peters in the eyes of True Fans).

Interesting.

I used to be Peters biggest fan. Hell, that's why my name is "Best22"

Not anymore.

I wish he was more like Jalen Ramsey

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

Interesting who is defined as a "jackass".

Marcus Peters does some immature at times but harmless shit and he's a "jackass".

Tyreek Hill is convicted of beating the shit out his pregnant girlfriend and he's not apparently a "jackass" (or at least he's not as much of a "jackass" relative to Marcus Peters in the eyes of True Fans).

Interesting.

Marcus Peters is definitely a jackass who does absolutely harmful things on the football field that are detrimental to the team winning.

Tyreek Hill has been an angel in the NFL.