Chiefs Hunt in no hurty to make a most important hire for Chiefs

FloridaMan88 · 01-03-2009, 11:42 PM

I especially like the part about an updated lobby for the Chiefs offices. If anyone has been inside the old administrative offices lobby at Arrowhead, it is a dark, wooded design that looks like something out of the '70s.

From the KC Star:

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/963875.html

Hunt in no hurry to make a most important hire for Chiefs

As the weeks pass and anticipation of Clark Hunt’s first major hire as Chiefs chairman gathers intensity, the man at the center of the storm has resolved to be calm — and, most of all, be right.

Details are scarce these days about Hunt’s line of thinking, but one prevailing fact continues to surround the search for the Chiefs’ first new general manager in 20 years: Hunt is more interested in being thorough than timely.

“This is critical,” said Jack Steadman, a longtime former Chiefs president and general manager. “There’s no easy turnaround; it’s like turning around a battleship.”

The battle that Hunt, 43, is undertaking could have drastic consequences if he makes a mistake. If he hires the wrong man to lead the Chiefs’ football operations, it begins a chain reaction that could plague the team for years.

That general manager will hear input from Hunt but, Hunt has said, will be given the freedom to steer the Chiefs’ most important decisions: whether Herm Edwards is retained as coach, whether last year’s youth movement will continue without strategic changes, and the overall direction the Chiefs take as they advance into their most pivotal offseason in decades.

The Chiefs aren’t hiring just a general manager, after all. They’re hiring a man who’ll be expected to take a laughingstock franchise that has gone 6-26 the last two seasons and has lost the trust of its fans, and turn it into the model organization the Chiefs were 15 years ago. Those are important things to consider, and according to sources close to the process, Hunt is not taking that responsibility lightly.

It has been nearly three weeks since the Chiefs announced Carl Peterson would step down. Hunt said at the time he wanted to get an early start on identifying possible replacements. But 20 days later, the Chiefs aren’t much closer to announcing a GM — and now they are competing with other teams for the top names.

Kansas City likes New England personnel man Scott Pioli, but so does Cleveland. The Chiefs are one of three teams searching for the NFL’s best available organizational mind, whoever that might be, and Hunt hasn’t said Kansas City wouldn’t soon join the four other teams looking for a coach (or six when you count the Rams and Raiders with interim coaches).

So while it appears that time isn’t on the Chiefs’ side, those clued in on Hunt’s plan said he isn’t about to rush into a move without being comfortable, even if it drags on for weeks.

“You have to make sure you have the right people in place,” former Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer said. “When you come out of the dialogue, everybody’s got to be on the same page.”

Schottenheimer was one of the architects the last time the Chiefs underwent such a massive overhaul. Peterson hired Schottenheimer as coach in 1989, and the men formed a union that led the Chiefs to the playoffs seven times in the next decade. Schottenheimer has been mentioned as a possible candidate for a front-office position in Kansas City.

But Schottenheimer said this week that a return to Arrowhead Stadium was “highly unlikely,” although he admitted speaking often with Hunt about forming a blueprint for this team’s turnaround.

Schottenheimer said Hunt’s research began no later than seven weeks before the announcement that Peterson wouldn’t return.

Hunt and Schottenheimer spoke on the field at the Meadowlands as the Chiefs prepared to play the New York Jets. Schottenheimer was in New York to visit his son, Brian, and Hunt was interested in picking Schottenheimer’s brain about the things that go into a successful rebuild: the first steps, the follow-ups and so on — all things that Schottenheimer said Hunt is determined to get right.

Schottenheimer said he told Hunt about how Schottenheimer and Peterson always agreed on big-picture issues, even if they sometimes argued about the finer points. The point, Schottenheimer said he told Hunt, was that the men believed in the same thing; that they might disagree on footwork and grip, but their secret was to always pull in the same direction.

“We had a mutual trust in each other,” Schottenheimer said. “We used to go round and round, but at the end, I always trusted — as did he — that we were after the same thing.”

Peterson never stopped pulling the Chiefs toward a Super Bowl, but insiders have said his philosophy grew gradually apart from the one shared by Hunt and Edwards. Peterson at first balked at the idea of starting from scratch, and by the time he accepted the project, the roster wasn’t the only thing the Chiefs noticed was outdated.

Peterson has admitted he let the team get old, and that’s similar to what happened before Peterson took over in December 1988. Steadman was the Chiefs’ president before Peterson assumed the organization’s three top positions: president, GM and chief executive.

Steadman admits now that he made mistakes that led to the last low point in Kansas City, in the late 1980s. Steadman said he didn’t update the roster as he should have, and the game changed so much during his tenure that he didn’t realize until later that he couldn’t handle so many responsibilities.

Steadman said Peterson experienced the same thing, taking over a company that employed about 80 people in 1988, less than half as many as the organization Peterson left behind when he stepped away a week ago.

“It finally just consumed Carl,” Steadman said.

Peterson has said that one of the things that drew him to Kansas City was the idea of total control; he told team founder Lamar Hunt that he would take the job only if he were given all three titles.

Clark Hunt isn’t planning to begin such a discussion with Peterson’s replacement. He has said those titles will be separate, one man leading the team’s business and another leading its football operations. It is one more way the Chiefs are entering a new generation at Arrowhead, with the second-youngest of Lamar Hunt’s four children leading that revolution.

“It’s not the same old Chiefs,” said Deron Cherry, a former safety who is in the team’s ring of honor. “You have to get rid of the past.”

The Chiefs are taking a wrecking ball to the way things were, renovating the outdated décor in Arrowhead’s lobby and offices, and moving the team’s headquarters into a new building with doors that open with touch keypads, flatscreen televisions in the glass-enclosed lobby, and modern accents that couldn’t seem farther removed from the Chiefs’ memorable, but decades-old, glory days.

Now the Chiefs move forward with their more important project: securing the team’s personnel foundation. Schottenheimer said Hunt understands the significance of this offseason as it relates to Kansas City’s future.

Team insiders have said Hunt admires the Pittsburgh Steelers’ model of consistency among its decision makers, so Hunt wants to hire a GM who will lead the Chiefs for a long time. And he knows whomever he hires will determine the direction of the team’s coaching staff, free agency and the draft. Hunt is taking his time, and Schottenheimer said there’s nothing wrong with that.

“You need to do it with a scalpel,” Schottenheimer said.

Those close to Hunt say he is not the type to panic into such an important decision, regardless of what other teams are doing. Pioli reportedly is seeking an arrangement in which he would possess total control of an organization, similar to the setup Peterson held.

Hunt has authorized only himself to speak publicly about the Chiefs’ search, and he has not indicated he’ll back off his plan to split Peterson’s former titles, even if that prevents the Chiefs from landing the NFL’s most desired executive.

The Chiefs are trying to overshadow that difference by talking up the quality and stability of the Kansas City GM job. Sources say Hunt is offering autonomy in addition to the selling point that the Chiefs have a solid foundation of young players and might be closer to contending than Cleveland — which reportedly would be willing to consider offering full control to its top executive.

Regardless, the Chiefs want someone who’s different from Peterson but who can deliver the results Peterson did alongside Schottenheimer.

The Chiefs were 8-22-1 in the two seasons before the last time Kansas City needed a GM. Two years later, the Chiefs were in the playoffs, a solid foundation was in place, and the team won back a community of jaded but passionate fans.

“Everybody likes to be a part of that,” Schottenheimer said.

Schottenheimer said a similar turnaround begins with research and communication, which Schottenheimer said Hunt has proved he is committed to. Now it’s a matter of Hunt finding his man — the right man, however long that takes.

“If you make a mistake or you slip up,” Cherry said, “then fans are going to be on you. The expectation here has been so high for so long. It continues to be that way.

“I can remember when Carl came and everything changed. That can happen again. But there are some tough decisions to make.”

**Tribal Warfare** · 01-03-2009, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KCChiefsfan88

That general manager will hear input from Hunt but, Hunt has said, will be given the freedom to steer the Chiefs’ most important decisions:

Like wanting a Franchise QB

**Bowser** · 01-03-2009, 11:49 PM

We can't hire a GM yet. The Ravens and Steelers are still playing.

**Tribal Warfare** · 01-03-2009, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bowser

We can't hire a GM yet. The Ravens and Steelers are still playing.

I bet Herm gets canned right before the Senior Bowl

**Bowser** · 01-03-2009, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tribal Warfare

I bet Herm gets canned right before the Senior Bowl

The important part of that statement is the Herm getting canned part.

Mecca · 01-03-2009, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bowser

We can't hire a GM yet. The Ravens and Steelers are still playing.

That makes me a little leery both guys that have come out of those organizations in the past and taken jobs have failed.

**Bowser** · 01-03-2009, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mecca

That makes me a little leery both guys that have come out of those organizations in the past and taken jobs have failed.

I've gotten to that "meh" stage at the thought of Pioli, especially if he demands to bring Ferentz on as coach. I'd just as soon take a chance on a young exec from a team that has been successful, and/or solid with drafts.

2bikemike · 01-03-2009, 11:56 PM

I am glad Clark is being deliberate in his search. And I hope that if he finds the right guy I hope he is as agressive as hell in landing him.

**BigMeatballDave** · 01-03-2009, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tribal Warfare

Like wanting a Franchise QB

and a new coaching staff

**OnTheWarpath15** · 01-03-2009, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mecca

That makes me a little leery both guys that have come out of those organizations in the past and taken jobs have failed.

How did Savage fail, other than taking a job in which the HC was already in place, and not being able to pick his own guy?

Mecca · 01-03-2009, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

How did Savage fail, other than taking a job in which the HC was already in place, and not being able to pick his own guy?

Well ok he's not a total failure but trading all your draft picks is pretty questionable, also refusing to trade Anderson when he had value...

**Tribal Warfare** · 01-04-2009, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mecca

Well ok he's not a total failure but trading all your draft picks is pretty questionable, also refusing to trade Anderson when he had value...

Hey, it's a positive in a way too, if he wants a Franchise QB he'll get one

**OnTheWarpath15** · 01-04-2009, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mecca

Well ok he's not a total failure but trading all your draft picks is pretty questionable, also refusing to trade Anderson when he had value...

Neither of us know the entire situation.

If Crennel and Lerner wanted him to make those moves, then what is he to do? I think refusing to trade Anderson was more of Crennel's doing, because Crennel knew his job would be on the line if they didn't improve on 2007.

Reagrding the trades:

The Quinn trade was the right move, IMO.

The Corey Williams deal? I would have kept the pick.

Rogers? Toss up, IMO.

**OnTheWarpath15** · 01-04-2009, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tribal Warfare

Hey, it's a positive in a way too, if he wants a Franchise QB he'll get one

Yep.

Hell, you know the Ravens aren't afraid.

They traded a future 1st round pick for Boller, then came right back after he busted to take Flacco.

KChiefs1 · 01-04-2009, 12:07 AM

It's a process....

1. Clark Hunt hires new GM
2. New GM hires new Head Coach
3. New GM & Head Coach drafts Franchise QB in first round
4. New GM & Head Coach put roster together using FA's & College Players from draft

01-03-2009, 11:49 PM	#3
Bowser sorta mod-ish Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: KC North Casino cash: $3461616	We can't hire a GM yet. The Ravens and Steelers are still playing.
Posts: 100,603

01-03-2009, 11:56 PM	#8
2bikemike Born to Ride Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: NWA Casino cash: $2475377	I am glad Clark is being deliberate in his search. And I hope that if he finds the right guy I hope he is as agressive as hell in landing him.
Posts: 16,302

01-04-2009, 12:07 AM	#15
KChiefs1 I’m a Mahomo! Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Mid-Missouri Casino cash: $6771021	It's a process.... 1. Clark Hunt hires new GM 2. New GM hires new Head Coach 3. New GM & Head Coach drafts Franchise QB in first round 4. New GM & Head Coach put roster together using FA's & College Players from draft __________________
Posts: 54,038

01-03-2009, 11:42 PM
FloridaMan88 Mahomes: We Are All Witnesses Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Miami, FL Casino cash: $3182906	I especially like the part about an updated lobby for the Chiefs offices. If anyone has been inside the old administrative offices lobby at Arrowhead, it is a dark, wooded design that looks like something out of the '70s. From the KC Star: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/963875.html Hunt in no hurry to make a most important hire for Chiefs As the weeks pass and anticipation of Clark Hunt’s first major hire as Chiefs chairman gathers intensity, the man at the center of the storm has resolved to be calm — and, most of all, be right. Details are scarce these days about Hunt’s line of thinking, but one prevailing fact continues to surround the search for the Chiefs’ first new general manager in 20 years: Hunt is more interested in being thorough than timely. “This is critical,” said Jack Steadman, a longtime former Chiefs president and general manager. “There’s no easy turnaround; it’s like turning around a battleship.” The battle that Hunt, 43, is undertaking could have drastic consequences if he makes a mistake. If he hires the wrong man to lead the Chiefs’ football operations, it begins a chain reaction that could plague the team for years. That general manager will hear input from Hunt but, Hunt has said, will be given the freedom to steer the Chiefs’ most important decisions: whether Herm Edwards is retained as coach, whether last year’s youth movement will continue without strategic changes, and the overall direction the Chiefs take as they advance into their most pivotal offseason in decades. The Chiefs aren’t hiring just a general manager, after all. They’re hiring a man who’ll be expected to take a laughingstock franchise that has gone 6-26 the last two seasons and has lost the trust of its fans, and turn it into the model organization the Chiefs were 15 years ago. Those are important things to consider, and according to sources close to the process, Hunt is not taking that responsibility lightly. It has been nearly three weeks since the Chiefs announced Carl Peterson would step down. Hunt said at the time he wanted to get an early start on identifying possible replacements. But 20 days later, the Chiefs aren’t much closer to announcing a GM — and now they are competing with other teams for the top names. Kansas City likes New England personnel man Scott Pioli, but so does Cleveland. The Chiefs are one of three teams searching for the NFL’s best available organizational mind, whoever that might be, and Hunt hasn’t said Kansas City wouldn’t soon join the four other teams looking for a coach (or six when you count the Rams and Raiders with interim coaches). So while it appears that time isn’t on the Chiefs’ side, those clued in on Hunt’s plan said he isn’t about to rush into a move without being comfortable, even if it drags on for weeks. “You have to make sure you have the right people in place,” former Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer said. “When you come out of the dialogue, everybody’s got to be on the same page.” Schottenheimer was one of the architects the last time the Chiefs underwent such a massive overhaul. Peterson hired Schottenheimer as coach in 1989, and the men formed a union that led the Chiefs to the playoffs seven times in the next decade. Schottenheimer has been mentioned as a possible candidate for a front-office position in Kansas City. But Schottenheimer said this week that a return to Arrowhead Stadium was “highly unlikely,” although he admitted speaking often with Hunt about forming a blueprint for this team’s turnaround. Schottenheimer said Hunt’s research began no later than seven weeks before the announcement that Peterson wouldn’t return. Hunt and Schottenheimer spoke on the field at the Meadowlands as the Chiefs prepared to play the New York Jets. Schottenheimer was in New York to visit his son, Brian, and Hunt was interested in picking Schottenheimer’s brain about the things that go into a successful rebuild: the first steps, the follow-ups and so on — all things that Schottenheimer said Hunt is determined to get right. Schottenheimer said he told Hunt about how Schottenheimer and Peterson always agreed on big-picture issues, even if they sometimes argued about the finer points. The point, Schottenheimer said he told Hunt, was that the men believed in the same thing; that they might disagree on footwork and grip, but their secret was to always pull in the same direction. “We had a mutual trust in each other,” Schottenheimer said. “We used to go round and round, but at the end, I always trusted — as did he — that we were after the same thing.” Peterson never stopped pulling the Chiefs toward a Super Bowl, but insiders have said his philosophy grew gradually apart from the one shared by Hunt and Edwards. Peterson at first balked at the idea of starting from scratch, and by the time he accepted the project, the roster wasn’t the only thing the Chiefs noticed was outdated. Peterson has admitted he let the team get old, and that’s similar to what happened before Peterson took over in December 1988. Steadman was the Chiefs’ president before Peterson assumed the organization’s three top positions: president, GM and chief executive. Steadman admits now that he made mistakes that led to the last low point in Kansas City, in the late 1980s. Steadman said he didn’t update the roster as he should have, and the game changed so much during his tenure that he didn’t realize until later that he couldn’t handle so many responsibilities. Steadman said Peterson experienced the same thing, taking over a company that employed about 80 people in 1988, less than half as many as the organization Peterson left behind when he stepped away a week ago. “It finally just consumed Carl,” Steadman said. Peterson has said that one of the things that drew him to Kansas City was the idea of total control; he told team founder Lamar Hunt that he would take the job only if he were given all three titles. Clark Hunt isn’t planning to begin such a discussion with Peterson’s replacement. He has said those titles will be separate, one man leading the team’s business and another leading its football operations. It is one more way the Chiefs are entering a new generation at Arrowhead, with the second-youngest of Lamar Hunt’s four children leading that revolution. “It’s not the same old Chiefs,” said Deron Cherry, a former safety who is in the team’s ring of honor. “You have to get rid of the past.” The Chiefs are taking a wrecking ball to the way things were, renovating the outdated décor in Arrowhead’s lobby and offices, and moving the team’s headquarters into a new building with doors that open with touch keypads, flatscreen televisions in the glass-enclosed lobby, and modern accents that couldn’t seem farther removed from the Chiefs’ memorable, but decades-old, glory days. Now the Chiefs move forward with their more important project: securing the team’s personnel foundation. Schottenheimer said Hunt understands the significance of this offseason as it relates to Kansas City’s future. Team insiders have said Hunt admires the Pittsburgh Steelers’ model of consistency among its decision makers, so Hunt wants to hire a GM who will lead the Chiefs for a long time. And he knows whomever he hires will determine the direction of the team’s coaching staff, free agency and the draft. Hunt is taking his time, and Schottenheimer said there’s nothing wrong with that. “You need to do it with a scalpel,” Schottenheimer said. Those close to Hunt say he is not the type to panic into such an important decision, regardless of what other teams are doing. Pioli reportedly is seeking an arrangement in which he would possess total control of an organization, similar to the setup Peterson held. Hunt has authorized only himself to speak publicly about the Chiefs’ search, and he has not indicated he’ll back off his plan to split Peterson’s former titles, even if that prevents the Chiefs from landing the NFL’s most desired executive. The Chiefs are trying to overshadow that difference by talking up the quality and stability of the Kansas City GM job. Sources say Hunt is offering autonomy in addition to the selling point that the Chiefs have a solid foundation of young players and might be closer to contending than Cleveland — which reportedly would be willing to consider offering full control to its top executive. Regardless, the Chiefs want someone who’s different from Peterson but who can deliver the results Peterson did alongside Schottenheimer. The Chiefs were 8-22-1 in the two seasons before the last time Kansas City needed a GM. Two years later, the Chiefs were in the playoffs, a solid foundation was in place, and the team won back a community of jaded but passionate fans. “Everybody likes to be a part of that,” Schottenheimer said. Schottenheimer said a similar turnaround begins with research and communication, which Schottenheimer said Hunt has proved he is committed to. Now it’s a matter of Hunt finding his man — the right man, however long that takes. “If you make a mistake or you slip up,” Cherry said, “then fans are going to be on you. The expectation here has been so high for so long. It continues to be that way. “I can remember when Carl came and everything changed. That can happen again. But there are some tough decisions to make.”
Posts: 38,175