Chiefs Dear, Vikings: Thanks for our quarterback; Sincerely, Chiefs - Page 12

**DaKCMan AP** · 12-04-2008, 10:35 AM

Dear, Vikings: Thanks for our quarterback; Sincerely, Chiefs

By Clark Judge
CBSSports.com Senior Writer

I heard someone last week ask if there were any way the Minnesota Vikings could repay Kansas City for dropping star defensive end Jared Allen on their doorstep, and, yes, I said, there is. In fact, they've already done it.

Meet Tyler Thigpen.

He's the Chiefs' quarterback for now and maybe the future, but he wouldn't be in Kansas City if the Vikings hadn't cut him loose a year ago to make room for a reserve tight end.

The move was a gamble, and Minnesota knew it, but it figured it could re-sign Thigpen -- chosen by the Vikings in the seventh round of the 2007 draft -- to its practice squad after he cleared waivers.

Only he didn't clear. Kansas City claimed him.

Now he's playing so well that Chiefs coach Herman Edwards confessed he's considering scrapping the Chiefs' run-heavy offense next season and going with what works for Tyler Thigpen -- a more spread-out, wide-open, two-minute approach that usually has Thigpen operating out of the shotgun.

That can't be good news for someone like running back Larry Johnson, but it is for Thigpen. It means someone has a conviction about the guy, and that someone is Edwards -- with the coach considering a change next season from his offenses of the past just to suit his young quarterback.

If that happens, it means Edwards believes in Thigpen as his future starter. But he isn't there yet, and he emphasized that when I reached him Wednesday.

"We've got four games left," he said. "Let's see what he does. But one thing I do know: He's a No. 2. There is no doubt about that. That we know."

Others within the Kansas City hierarchy admit "cautious optimism" about Thigpen, who produced his first victory last weekend and who has played well for one of the league's bottom feeders. In fact, in a recent four-game stretch, he threw eight touchdown passes and one interception and took, in order, the Jets, Tampa Bay and San Diego to the mat, with all three games decided in the closing seconds.

Now, let's make something clear: Tyler Thigpen is not the next Eli or Peyton Manning. But he is a pleasant discovery in a not-so-pleasant season in Kansas City, and the Chiefs can address those "thank you" notes to 9520 Viking Drive, Eden Prairie, Minn. They wouldn't have Thigpen were it not for the Vikings' gamble.

The common perception is that Kansas City discovered Thigpen when the Chiefs and Vikings held a preseason scrimmage, but Edwards shot down that idea, saying Thigpen didn't play "that much" when the two teams practiced against each other. Instead, he said, Thigpen appeared on the Kansas City radar when he was a star quarterback at Coastal Carolina, with the Chiefs rating him a low fifth- or high sixth-round choice.

He could run. He had a strong arm. He was accurate. He was durable. And he won. Basically, he was everything you wanted from a quarterback, with a couple of drawbacks: 1) He didn't operate in a pro offense, working instead out of the shotgun, and 2) he played at a small school against lesser competition.

Nevertheless, when the team's vice president of player personnel, Bill Kuharich, watched him that summer in the fourth quarter of an exhibition game, he noticed something he liked.

"It was just the way he handled himself and the pressure," said Kuharich. "It reinforced what I had seen on tape. (Team president) Carl (Peterson), Herm and I decided if he ever became available we would claim him."

Which, of course, they did when Minnesota stuck with Tarvaris Jackson and acquired veteran backup Kelly Holcomb. Now, Holcomb is gone, Jackson is benched and Thigpen is playing for Kansas City. Hindsight is 20-20, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out the Vikings erred when they let Thigpen go.

I came to that conclusion last weekend when Thigpen led Kansas City on a 16-play, 91-yard drive that broke a 10-10 deadlock against Oakland. He completed three of four passes and ran for two first downs on that series.

I came to that conclusion again that afternoon when, on third-and-3 with just over two minutes to play, he iced the game by hitting Dwayne Bowe with a 12-yard completion.

"We've got ourselves a pretty good quarterback," said Edwards.

That's as strong a statement as you get from the head coach, but it tells you what he will not: That Tyler Thigpen could be the quarterback the Chiefs envisioned when they drafted Brodie Croyle in 2006. Croyle was supposed to be the Chiefs' quarterback of the future, but those plans have been scrapped because he can't stay healthy.

Thigpen can. He can also win, with last weekend's defeat of Oakland a breakthrough. After close calls against four opponents -- including New Orleans -- he finally demonstrated that he can close a deal, and that's what the Chiefs have been missing the past year and a half.

But that's just the beginning. They rave about Thigpen's mobility. In fact, it was the first quality Edwards ticked off when he listed his quarterback's strengths. Thigpen can throw with accuracy, too, with a string of 161 passes without an interception and a third-down passer-rating higher than those of Brett Favre and Jay Cutler. Plus, he's an outstanding athlete -- the only quarterback in Kansas City history to score a touchdown by running, passing and receiving.

"The question now," said Edwards, "is how will he continue to play and do we want to change the offense? I have to talk to (offensive coordinator) Chan Gailey, but right now I'm thinking we would.

"We changed everything to build the offense around him. It's like we're operating with a three-page notebook, adding a little with each week. Now the question is: Do we stay with this? Because it means you would have to do some things differently, like look at a little different offensive linemen."

The Chiefs have four games to produce an answer, but that they are even considering a change in their offense tells me one thing: They may have found themselves a quarterback.

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/11149961

Fish · 12-04-2008, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigChiefFan

Brilliant. Herm was Hell Bent on scrap heaping a potent offense for 40 plus games and now all the sudden, he's had a revelation? Bullshit. This is, save your own ass, coach speak and I'm not buying it. Herm will be right back to his conservative ways, when ever the heat is off. Besides that, who in the Hell actually buys that Thigpen was Herm's starter form day one? Two-Face is full of shit.

This excuse just makes no sense at all.... Save his own ass? Herm will go conservative when the heat is off?

What heat? What pressure? Clark hasn't said or done shit. Everybody knew we were going to suck this year. Herm's job was never on the line, and it's not on the line now. If it was ever on the line, he would have been fired after the home opener. To say that Herm changed the offense "to save his job" is just stupid. He's proving the majority wrong with the offense, and some people are butthurt. The same people who said he'd never deviate from the R2P2 offense. He'll never pass the ball. He hates TDs. Nothing but fieldgoals. Up the centers ass and punt. Well BS.....

KChiefsQT · 12-04-2008, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Chief Homer

Dear Chiefs, Thanks for your entire pass rush.

Vikings

EXACTLY!! I miss that ****ing monkey!!!!

JohnnyV13 · 12-04-2008, 07:27 PM

Aw heck...we don't need Jared Allen when we have Tamba Hali.

Thig Lyfe · 12-04-2008, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Dear, Vikings: Thanks for our quarterback; Sincerely, Chiefs

Jesus ****ing Christ, do they even have a copyeditor at CBSSports.com? It's like they just vomited a bunch of commas, colons and semicolons all over that sentence.

**MahiMike** · 12-04-2008, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darth CarlSatan

Yeah, but if the philosophy is a flawed pile of shit; there's nothing to be happy about.

Dude, what r u spewing about? The change to the offense is the ONLY good thing Herm has done this year. The O is coming around. Don't complain about it.

Sweet Daddy Hate · 12-04-2008, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KChiefsQT

EXACTLY!! I miss that ****ing monkey!!!!

MAS-TER OF MUL-LET; HEAR HIS MIGHTY ROAR. . .

Dude; what's up with "Shaak-Ti" in the avatar?

Sweet Daddy Hate · 12-04-2008, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MahiMike

Dude, what r u spewing about? The change to the offense is the ONLY good thing Chan has done this year. The O is coming around. Don't complain about it.

FYP.

You're a day late and a dollar short; we've already been through this and reached a consensus.

TEX · 12-04-2008, 08:31 PM

Man I HATE Herm as the HC of my favorite football team. I keep holding out hope that he'll get shit canned after the season, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Sweet Daddy Hate · 12-04-2008, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TEX

Man I HATE Herm as the HC of my favorite football team. I keep holding out hope that he'll get shit canned after the season, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

This always cheers me up when I have Herm-Rage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-BYzaDwNoE

Sweet Daddy Hate · 12-04-2008, 08:39 PM

Chaser:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyjxb...eature=related

Valiant · 12-04-2008, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darth CarlSatan

Oh baby; that is one laundry list full of Wrong.

You can't handicap the running game by working out of the shotgun all day. I'm a fan of Thigpen, but this is just scary stupid.

IF done correctly you can set up the run from passing in the spread, tweak what the PATS and Eagles did in the past.. The problem is I don't see them sticking with the style they are playing right now next year.. It is not Herm or Carl's m.o. to do it..

But we still need to fix the defense..

KChiefsQT · 12-04-2008, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darth CarlSatan

MAS-TER OF MUL-LET; HEAR HIS MIGHTY ROAR. . .

Dude; what's up with "Shaak-Ti" in the avatar?

"Shaak-Ti" ???

Sweet Daddy Hate · 12-04-2008, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valiant

IF done correctly you can set up the run from passing in the spread, tweak what the PATS and Eagles did in the past.. The problem is I don't see them sticking with the style they are playing right now next year.. It is not Herm or Carl's m.o. to do it..

But we still need to fix the defense..

Agreed.

Sweet Daddy Hate · 12-04-2008, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KChiefsQT

"Shaak-Ti" ???

http://www.rabittooth.com/800x600Sta...2Wallpaper.jpg

beer bacon · 12-04-2008, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darth CarlSatan

I'm no fan of R2P2, and I DO like the creativity that Gailey has brought to the table with Thigpen.
I just believe that you're not going to get to the playoffs running the football out of a shotgun.

There is a very simple way to get to the playoffs running the football out of the shotgun. It is called a top ten defense.

Since Thigpen took over at QB, we have scored over 23 ppg and ran for over 120 ypg at over 5 ypc. None of this matters. We are giving up 30 ppg. No team will win more then three or four games giving up 30 ppg.

12-04-2008, 10:35 AM
DaKCMan AP Beloved & Awesome CP Celebrity Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Florida Casino cash: $6724952	Dear, Vikings: Thanks for our quarterback; Sincerely, Chiefs Dear, Vikings: Thanks for our quarterback; Sincerely, Chiefs By Clark Judge CBSSports.com Senior Writer I heard someone last week ask if there were any way the Minnesota Vikings could repay Kansas City for dropping star defensive end Jared Allen on their doorstep, and, yes, I said, there is. In fact, they've already done it. Meet Tyler Thigpen. He's the Chiefs' quarterback for now and maybe the future, but he wouldn't be in Kansas City if the Vikings hadn't cut him loose a year ago to make room for a reserve tight end. The move was a gamble, and Minnesota knew it, but it figured it could re-sign Thigpen -- chosen by the Vikings in the seventh round of the 2007 draft -- to its practice squad after he cleared waivers. Only he didn't clear. Kansas City claimed him. Now he's playing so well that Chiefs coach Herman Edwards confessed he's considering scrapping the Chiefs' run-heavy offense next season and going with what works for Tyler Thigpen -- a more spread-out, wide-open, two-minute approach that usually has Thigpen operating out of the shotgun. That can't be good news for someone like running back Larry Johnson, but it is for Thigpen. It means someone has a conviction about the guy, and that someone is Edwards -- with the coach considering a change next season from his offenses of the past just to suit his young quarterback. If that happens, it means Edwards believes in Thigpen as his future starter. But he isn't there yet, and he emphasized that when I reached him Wednesday. "We've got four games left," he said. "Let's see what he does. But one thing I do know: He's a No. 2. There is no doubt about that. That we know." Others within the Kansas City hierarchy admit "cautious optimism" about Thigpen, who produced his first victory last weekend and who has played well for one of the league's bottom feeders. In fact, in a recent four-game stretch, he threw eight touchdown passes and one interception and took, in order, the Jets, Tampa Bay and San Diego to the mat, with all three games decided in the closing seconds. Now, let's make something clear: Tyler Thigpen is not the next Eli or Peyton Manning. But he is a pleasant discovery in a not-so-pleasant season in Kansas City, and the Chiefs can address those "thank you" notes to 9520 Viking Drive, Eden Prairie, Minn. They wouldn't have Thigpen were it not for the Vikings' gamble. The common perception is that Kansas City discovered Thigpen when the Chiefs and Vikings held a preseason scrimmage, but Edwards shot down that idea, saying Thigpen didn't play "that much" when the two teams practiced against each other. Instead, he said, Thigpen appeared on the Kansas City radar when he was a star quarterback at Coastal Carolina, with the Chiefs rating him a low fifth- or high sixth-round choice. He could run. He had a strong arm. He was accurate. He was durable. And he won. Basically, he was everything you wanted from a quarterback, with a couple of drawbacks: 1) He didn't operate in a pro offense, working instead out of the shotgun, and 2) he played at a small school against lesser competition. Nevertheless, when the team's vice president of player personnel, Bill Kuharich, watched him that summer in the fourth quarter of an exhibition game, he noticed something he liked. "It was just the way he handled himself and the pressure," said Kuharich. "It reinforced what I had seen on tape. (Team president) Carl (Peterson), Herm and I decided if he ever became available we would claim him." Which, of course, they did when Minnesota stuck with Tarvaris Jackson and acquired veteran backup Kelly Holcomb. Now, Holcomb is gone, Jackson is benched and Thigpen is playing for Kansas City. Hindsight is 20-20, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out the Vikings erred when they let Thigpen go. I came to that conclusion last weekend when Thigpen led Kansas City on a 16-play, 91-yard drive that broke a 10-10 deadlock against Oakland. He completed three of four passes and ran for two first downs on that series. I came to that conclusion again that afternoon when, on third-and-3 with just over two minutes to play, he iced the game by hitting Dwayne Bowe with a 12-yard completion. "We've got ourselves a pretty good quarterback," said Edwards. That's as strong a statement as you get from the head coach, but it tells you what he will not: That Tyler Thigpen could be the quarterback the Chiefs envisioned when they drafted Brodie Croyle in 2006. Croyle was supposed to be the Chiefs' quarterback of the future, but those plans have been scrapped because he can't stay healthy. Thigpen can. He can also win, with last weekend's defeat of Oakland a breakthrough. After close calls against four opponents -- including New Orleans -- he finally demonstrated that he can close a deal, and that's what the Chiefs have been missing the past year and a half. But that's just the beginning. They rave about Thigpen's mobility. In fact, it was the first quality Edwards ticked off when he listed his quarterback's strengths. Thigpen can throw with accuracy, too, with a string of 161 passes without an interception and a third-down passer-rating higher than those of Brett Favre and Jay Cutler. Plus, he's an outstanding athlete -- the only quarterback in Kansas City history to score a touchdown by running, passing and receiving. "The question now," said Edwards, "is how will he continue to play and do we want to change the offense? I have to talk to (offensive coordinator) Chan Gailey, but right now I'm thinking we would. "We changed everything to build the offense around him. It's like we're operating with a three-page notebook, adding a little with each week. Now the question is: Do we stay with this? Because it means you would have to do some things differently, like look at a little different offensive linemen." The Chiefs have four games to produce an answer, but that they are even considering a change in their offense tells me one thing: They may have found themselves a quarterback. http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/11149961
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12-04-2008, 07:27 PM	#168
JohnnyV13 Veteran Join Date: May 2003 Location: Tucson AZ Casino cash: $6125200	Aw heck...we don't need Jared Allen when we have Tamba Hali.
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12-04-2008, 08:31 PM	#173
TEX Out Gunning CP's Fandom Police Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Laguna Beach, CA Casino cash: $2193127	Man I HATE Herm as the HC of my favorite football team. I keep holding out hope that he'll get shit canned after the season, but that doesn't seem to be the case. __________________ "The CHIEFS, HAVE THEIR DYNASTY!"
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12-04-2008, 08:39 PM	#175
Sweet Daddy Hate Unsparing Join Date: Aug 2008 Casino cash: $10004900	Chaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyjxb...eature=related __________________ 1. Merciless, severe. 2. Given freely and generously. 100% refusal to overrate 20 year Head Coaches with ZERO **ing rings as a Head Coach. CP's Official Professor of 'Dem Blues for 2019/2020!**
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