Q&A with Herm 5/19 (first day of OTA's)
 

Q&A with Herm Edwards - 5/19
May 19, 2008, 2:55:00 PM


OTA
Highlights
HERM EDWARDS: “The thing the veteran guys realized was they’re in the minority now. A bunch of them grabbed me and asked, ‘who are these guys?’ I said, ‘you’d better find out who they are. That’s what this team is.’ I think they’re embracing it. I think the turnout was good. Everyone was here except one kid from Rutgers (Ron Girault) who wasn’t here because of school. We had 91 guys, I believe, out there. You can only go to camp with 80 so there will be some guys that are going to have to be let go before that. They know that.”

Q: What are you asking your players to do?

EDWARDS: “They’re in the classroom. I told them it’s like going to school on the first day. When you go from elementary school to junior high school you always had a nice shirt on, your pants were clean and you had sharp pencil. It’s the same way when you come here now: you need to have a sharp pencil. And you need to stay sharp and 10 days from now it can’t get dull. It’s about learning and that was established early today in how we’re going to coach them in the classroom. Take it from the classroom to the practice field and try to apply it.

“We’ve got two stages going right now. The first four days are basically more of a passing thing. We’re having a walk-through offensively and defensively because for a lot of these guys it’s a new offense. So, that alone will take some time.”

Q: What do you want to get out of these OTA’s?

EDWARDS: “I think you find out what these guys transfer from the classroom to the field and then the competitiveness in what we ask them to do. It’s going to be very competitive here. There are actually 12 players left with seven or more years of experience on this football team. It might be six years, but the point is the rest of them are five years or less. I told those guys there are going to be a lot of guys competing for jobs here. I’m talking about at every position.”

Q: Are all your veterans here today?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, they’re all here.”

Q: What’s going on with Greg Wesley? Was he here? Are you trying to trade him or release him?

EDWARDS: “He wasn’t here. We’re not worried about Greg. We’re moving and practicing.”

Q: He was you only guy under contract not here.

EDWARDS: “Right.”

Q: You kind of have him out of your plans?

EDWARDS: “I don’t want to talk about one guy who isn’t here when there are 91 who are here.”

Q: With so many young guys is the objective of these OTA’s different than past years?

EDWARDS: “Oh yeah. I think your install[ation period], for example. It’s a new system offensively. Defensively we’ve tweaked that a little bit and we’ve changed some guys position-wise. There are different ways we’re going to do things on defense.

“You’re really putting in a new system [on offense] and then you’ve got a bunch of new players trying to learn a new system. I think there are 31 drafted and college free agent kids here right now. That’s a lot of college or drafted kids.”

Q: Any team that wants to have success wants a certain amount of experience. Are you concerned at all that you don’t have enough?

EDWARDS: “I’m comfortable with it because if you look now it’s more balanced. The problem is if you do this slowly no one makes a big deal out of it. But because after last year we were going to do this it’s a mass of numbers right now. We were lopsided as a football team. Now we’re more even. We have a bunch of young guys, a bunch of middle-aged guys that are good players and then we’ve got a group of guys who have 10 or more years of experience. At one time we had 17 or 18 players 30 years or older. That’s too many, too many. We’ve weaned ourselves away from that, not going after guys like that in free agency. We were going to sign some guys who were on their second contracts who were free agents.”

Q: This is Brodie Croyle’s second year starting and with a new offense, too. Do you feel comfortable with that? Do you feel good with his grasp of it?

EDWARDS: “I feel good with his grasp of it. He’ll be fine. All those guys will be fine. They’ll figure out that it’s pretty simple. We’ve simplified it a lot. We really have. Young guys will have to play a lot for us. Chan (Gailey) is a veteran coach and he’s coached a lot of football in this league. He has a way of running his system. He’s coached a lot of teams that have been in the playoffs. I think it’s 11 out of 14 times he’s been in the playoffs. The system will speak for itself; the players will get it, and we’ll go.”

Q: When you first got here this was Trent Green’s football team. Is this Brodie Croyle’s team yet?

EDWARDS: “I don’t think it’s anybody’s team yet. It’s forming. He’s the guy who’s taking all the snaps with the first team right now. He’s up and it’s his turn to show that he can be a starting quarterback in the National Football League and not only that but to win games. I think he knows that he’s been waiting for his opportunity. Thigpen is behind him and Damon Huard is the veteran.

“Damon’s not going to get a lot of reps. It’s not because we don’t trust him it’s just that we know what Damon is capable of doing. So, he’s not going to get a lot of reps right now. He’ll get his reps in training camp. But in OTA’s Damon doesn’t need a lot of reps.”

Q: Have you talked to Brodie about this season and how anxious is he to get a win and prove he can do it?

EDWARDS: “Very, but he can’t do it by himself. It’s the people around him and how we play as a team. I think he realizes that and I think the players know that, too. Now, he’s going to get a lot of the blame because he’s the quarterback. He’s got a pretty good mindset right now. He threw the ball pretty well today. It’s seven-on-seven with no rush. He threw the ball well on the first day out. He threw it in some tight spots.”

Q: Did Larry Johnson make it through today?

EDWARDS: “Yep, did everything, made it through. He was fine.”

Q: With so many new players it seems like an unwieldy process for you. Do you hope to figure out who your starters may be going into training camp?

EDWARDS: “You’d like to know by training camp. You would pretty much have guys penciled in. You’d have a pretty good idea athletically who they are and then mentally who they are. You put the pads on, however, you see difference sometimes.”

Q: Did you have Branden Albert working at left tackle?

EDWARDS: Yep. Left tackle.”

Q: Where was McIntosh?

EDWARDS: “He’s at the right tackle. We’re pretty big on our offensive line all of a sudden when you look at us. They look good. We’ll see.”

Q: Because the dynamics in experience on this team has changed, have the goals changed at all?

EDWARDS: “We won’t get into that depth right now. But we’ll set expectations and they’ll understand what they are. That never changes. It’s about winning and last year was a terrible season for everybody: players, coaches, fans, staff, for everybody.

“But I sense from the guys that were involved then – and it’s just today and everyone’s excited – but there is a different way they’re carrying themselves right now, a different demeanor, a different look.

“And for the others who are here? They don’t know anything else. It’s all new to them. They’re sitting in the classroom of a National Football League for the first time and they’re excited. You’ve got 31 guys from college trying to win a job.”

Q: Did you or do you feel it necessary to pull some of your veteran players aside and say this might not be fun right now but hang in there?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, and I’ve spoken to a lot of those guys before this even took place when the season was over with. So they knew. They anticipated what was going to happen and I’ve spoken to them since after the draft. They’re excited and you’ll visit with them. But I think when they walked in the locker room today they looked around and I know Brian [Waters] looked at me and said, ‘who are these guys?’ I said this is the team now. He said this has really changed. That’s good because it needed to.”

Fat Albert at LT...amen, thats the news i want to hear.

Mac at RT...eh, not so much.

Brandon Albert at LT, that's what I wanted to see.

I really hope he wasn't referring to Alphonso Boone when he was talking about guys in new positions.

Just going through the motions, but I like what i hear.

Bye Bye Wesley

He hates Wesley.

yep, pretty much. But you don't have to worry about Herm, he is entirely objective and open minded about everything.

Only Chiefs fans could talk themselves into thinking Greg Wesley matters.

ditto

He hates Wesley cause he smells like rotten bacon and has nappy ass dreads.

LMAO

Yup.....

How much simpler can you get than

Run up the middle
Run to the left
Dump the pass off over the middle
Punt

??????

Some dumbass the other day was whining about the loss of Dante Hall and Weigmann as well....

You'd have thought Carl traded Derrick Johnson for a new leather trenchcoat the way this fool was acting.

So far he hasn't liked Samie Parker or Greg Wesley
Herm isn't all bad

...

So basically he doesn't like extremely talented players who simply can't get it done on the field. I like that about him. Parker has the speed that should allow him to scare a secondary but he doesn't. And Wesley has the size, strength, and speed to be one of the best safeties in the NFL. But he isn't. I like that about Herm. I can see him being upset when he wasn't the most physically gifted player in the world yet he got by on great determination and intelligence. It must really piss him off to see players with the talent he never had not live up to their potential.

Hmmm. This sounds like a let down in coaching to me.

Are you saying it's Herm's fault Samie had hands of stone and Wesley always tried to cremate everyone with every hit instead of just tackling like a normal fucking human being?

So you're of the opinion that a 9 year, veteran player with enormous talent needs to be "coached up", even at this stage of his career to succeed?

Sorry, but I don't agree with that, whatsoever. Some guys LOVE football and work their asses off to succeed and some guys don't love football and just collect a paycheck, because they can.

Wesley definitely falls into the latter category.

So did Elvis Grbac.

It really does, Mr. bogey.

FAX

At some point the player himself has to be accountable for his play.

How so?

So Charlie Joiner could "coach up" Eddie Kennison but not Samie Parker? Samie Parker didn't flourish under Dick Vermeil/Al Saunders or Herm/Solari but that's somehow a "coaching" issue? If the guy is so scary talented, why wasn't he swooped up and sign a big-time contract when free-agency began?

Same goes for Wesley: He was coached under Gunther, Robinson & Gunther again. Several DB coaches have come and gone but he while he's a "hard hitter", he's a freakin' bonehead on the field.

So, Jarrad Page, a 7th round draft choice can be "coached up" well enough to play but Wesley can't?

Sorry, Mr. Fax. I call Bullshit.

Couldn't agree more, Dane.

Other than implying that Greg Wesley has "enormous talent."

Well, that was probably an overstatement on my part but the guy is most certainly talented. He's just a dumbass headcase.

I guess that's why he went to Pine-Bluff Arkansas instead of an SEC, Pac-10, ACC, Big East, Big Ten or Big 12 school.

He's a moron.

Call away, Mr. DaneMcCloud. I hope some shows up.

As to the subject at hand, I'm of the opinion that one aspect of a coach's job is to maximize the talent he has. Some players respond better than others, but that doesn't mean the coach is off the hook when a player fails to respond. To be sure, eventually, some players peak and never realize their potential and, when that happens, decision have to be made. Still, when the talent is there, it's partly the coach's job to get it out on the field. I don't put it all on the coach or all on the player ... to my mind there is blame to share.

FAX

Now I'm with you 100%

ahhhh....youth movement. i love it.

Wesley doesn't have very good football instincts. That's pretty much a necessity if you want to be considered a great safety.

Wesley's reputation was greatly enhanced by one Jason Whitlock, who thought Wesley, following his rookie year, was a young Ronnie Lott. Now that was some bullshit.

I don't think that is what they mean by simpler. IIRC, I heard or read an interview with Croyle a while back in which he stated something about the terminology this season is much easier to understand. I could be wrong, but I would assume that is what they mean by simpler.

When things are explained in crayon lettering it's hard to understand .

I would be interested to see what the competition is like at RG. It sounds like the O Line is pretty much set with Branden Albert at LT, Brian Waters at LG, Rudy Niswanger (pronounced nI-zwonger) at C, and Damien McIntosh at RT. I have heard rumors of Adrian Jones, Herb Taylor, Wade Smith, etc...but nothing for sure.

Over any position, I would love KC to go out and find a decently young RG to plug the hole. Shane Olivea is still out there as well as a couple of other decent prospects.

Without Samie dropping the ball or Bigfoot catching it and going out or getting tackled one yard short of the marker...

I wonder if Sippio knows where his feet are while playing. If so we're going to have to get a different WR.

ok why are we still talking about parker? hes an F'n Bronco now! sh*t on his grave and make him kiss our a**!

Agree with all but the Shane (fat, slow, lard, no feet) Olivea suggestion. hes not that great...

:D Nice!

Have you guys ever saw the commercial on NFLNetwork where Matt Hasselback is setting on his couch calling off a play from the Seahawks playbook, and then pretty much calling the same play and saying the 2nd time it means something else? Man, I could see where that could get pretty darn confusing. Especially to rookies.

Way harder than say... "65 toss power trap".

i'd rather see what herb taylor has to offer at RG instead of signing a vet.

I love that commercial...it's really amazing to hear that jargon...then you know what they mean by "making it simple"...


...now in the huddle, Brodie says "32 Dive, on one, on one, ready...Break!" Just like my son's 10 year old team used to do...:p

:thumb: to both parts. I love the commercial too. And "32 Dive on one"... I've got to believe that type of play calling could work at the pro level just as well as what the commercial type of play call.

With this new offense they're implementing, I wonder if they are going to like try to score touchdowns ?

whoa backup there, this ain't no damned arena league

LMAO

I agree, it didn't seem to complictaed last year.

Maybe he is speaking of the terminology.

Thats more like it!

Your kidding right?

Just because our Head Coach is in above his head, doesnt mean we have to make this team a stupid as he is...

If that was the case, then why dont all of the real NFL coaches use this simplified terminology?

:shrug:

Even when Al Saunders was here, you sort of knew what plays were going to be called when, and his playbook/terminology was supposed to be some of the most complex out there. For example, inside of the 5 yard line when Priest was our RB, it was almost a given it was going to be a sweep either left or right for the TD. Instead of giving it a complicated name, call it what I called it from my couch at home. Sweep left.

Q&A with HERM EDWARDS - 5/27
May 27, 2008, 3:26:10 PM

Highlights

Q: How was the start of the second week of OTA’s?

HERM EDWARDS: “It was good to get outside. I like the attitude. We’re pretty athletic as you watch us on the field. We’re really athletic and the young guys show us that. I like their attitude and how they’re approaching practice. They’re doing a good job in the class room. That’s half of it right there.”

Q: What about the adjustment for you?

EDWARDS: “It’s similar. Systems are systems. To be quite honest, it’s similar to the system we ran in Tampa. I understand it. It’s good for the players. It’s something new. Obviously, with Gunther [Cunningham] going over and coaching the linebackers too that’s added a new dimension. I think all the players are in the mode to learn what we’re going to do on offense and defense. That’s been good.”

Q: Will Tony [Gonzalez] be gone all week?

EDWARDS: “I don’t know. Maybe. He’s supposed to have a little girl today, but I don’t know. We haven’t heard anything today. That’s obviously more important than this. He’ll be back for mini-camp.”

Q: Can you talk about Larry Johnson’s progress?

EDWARDS: “You guys saw him practicing today. He’s fine. He’s in pretty good condition. He’s finishing his runs. He’s excited about the offense and what we’re going to ask him to do in it. But he’s ready to play. Nothing wrong with him.”

Q: Any rust giving the players four days off?

EDWARDS: “I thought there was going to be but they got into it pretty good. We talked about it in the classroom this morning that we needed to come out and not waste a day. There are only three days this week. They came out and did a good job – very focused right from the beginning. That helps you when you’ve got a bunch of a young guys because they understand the importance of trying to learn what we’re trying to do. They come to practice with that kind of attitude, really honing in on what the coaches are teaching them in the room and then on the field. The coaches have also done a good job of bringing energy.”

Q: [Offensive coordinator] Chan Gailey says there is no name for his offense. But as you look at it what would it be the closest to?

EDWARDS: “Power running game and a play-action offense. He’s right. It’s the Chiefs offense. There’s no name. I love Chan because he says, ‘I’m not a genius. Don’t label me a genius. I never wanted to be a genius. I’m just a football coach.’ I think the players like that. He’s simple but he understands what needs to be done. He’s very organized, very detailed. It’s an efficient offense where players can play right now. Young guys can get on the field. That was important.”

Q: So you’re confident that everything Larry Johnson can do before he got hurt he can do now?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he’s running fine. Now he hasn’t been tackled yet. You guys looked at him. When he got hurt he didn’t even get tackled really. He just twisted his foot. He’s worked hard over the off-season and is in good shape.”

Q: Leadership-wise, he used to be one of the young guys. Now he’s one of the older guys. Is he going to be one of your leaders off the field?

EDWARDS: “Well, that’s on him. He’s maturing and he knew he missed a lot of time last year when he got hurt. He feels like he wants to come back and is prepared to come back.

“Any time an injury likes that happens you take a look at where you’re at. Nothing is guaranteed and you can get hurt. He missed half the season. He’s using that as a way of getting motivated. Larry’s a very competitive guy. He wants to be the best running back in the league.”

Q: Can you update us on Jarrad Page’s injury status?

EDWARDS: “We’re bringing him along. He’s doing drills, but he can’t do anything with the helmet on yet. He’s coming along. He had the shoulder surgery. He’ll be back – all those injured guys will – for training camp.”

Q: You’ve been around Larry now for a couple of years. Is he more ready to be a leader now?

EDWARDS: “You’d have to ask him that. I don’t want to put words in his mouth. The way he can lead now is by the way he practices. He’s doing a good job of that. He’s taking [Jamaal] Charles and putting his locker next to his. He wanted that. He wanted Charles to be next to him. That’s a good thing. I think he’s taking it step by step and preparing himself to have a good season. He wants to show him what it’s like to be in the National Football League.

“Jamaal’s going to play. He’s going to be part of our backfield. We’re going to try and give him the ball too. He’s a very explosive player and can make big plays.”

Q: You’ve lost some veterans and you’ve talked about how important they are on a team.

EDWARDS: “There will be some young guys, too. All of a sudden you’re not talking about a guy with seven or eight years of experience. We don’t have that many on this team any more. It’ll be a guy with four years of experience and that’s ok. I think you lead by example, how you prepare yourself, how you come to work and your attitude. I think your attitude plays a big part in what we’re trying to accomplish. Right now we’ve got a good attitude. We have a good way about ourselves as a football team right now.”

Q: Is Brodie Croyle one of those quiet type leaders?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he has that ability in the huddle. I think players like him, like his command in the huddle. He’s got a lot of talent.”

Q: How can you tell anything about a team when they really haven’t done anything yet?

EDWARDS: “You get a feel about it when you’re around athletics. You know the guys that step forward and the guys that just do what they do. There are players that other players follow. They just follow them. You’ve got enough of those guys here.”

Q: Once the games start do you look for Larry to carry the ball 40 times?

EDWARDS: “No. He won’t carry it 40.”

Q: But guys coming off injuries have a mental hurdle to overcome sometimes.

EDWARDS: “Larry and I have a pretty good rapport. He trusts me and he knows he’s going to get the ball and is a focal point of our offense. We’re going to dress three running backs.”

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Johnson is in a great spot and should have the opportunity to have fresh legs in each game this season.

Charles adds an excellent dimension to this offense and I think we have a good idea of what Kolby Smith can do.

The way he(LJ) can lead now is by the way he practices. He’s doing a good job of that. He’s taking [Jamaal] Charles and putting his locker next to his. He wanted that. He wanted Charles to be next to him. That’s a good thing. I think he’s taking it step by step and preparing himself to have a good season. He wants to show him what it’s like to be in the National Football League.


-errand boy(rookie)

Herm has the dancingest mouth I have have ever witnessed. This guy truly answers nothing.