Mellinger: Chiefs need to make fixes, but not at head coach
 

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/01...ennel-and.html

Chiefs need to make fixes, but not at head coach
By SAM MELLINGER

The Kansas City Star

DENVER | They are chanting his name in the locker room, over and over and over, the second time in three weeks they’ve busted out in beautiful, spontaneous, united success for the man they overwhelmingly want to coach them next year.

RAC! … RAC! … RAC! …

Those Chiefs players will almost certainly get their wish, and very soon, as general manager Scott Pioli is expected to make interim coach Romeo Crennel the permanent leader of a roster already dedicated to him.

Crennel deserves it. He’s earned it, removing the most reasonable doubts by beating the Broncos 7-3 here on Sunday. That’s wins over two playoff teams in three games for a man who embodies most of the characteristics the organization wants to project.

Three respected Chiefs players — Tamba Hali, Steve Breaston and Le’Ron McClain — agreed that Crennel has “overwhelming” support from the players. So the Chiefs are best served with him as the head coach, but only under the following condition:

They don’t get fooled into believing the rest of the fixes from a disappointing season are in-house.

Early indications are good. The coaching staff will undergo major changes, almost certainly with a new offensive coordinator and new special-teams coach.

Crennel would have final say in hiring assistants, and that includes Josh McDaniels, with whom he worked four seasons in New England and will reportedly be fired as Rams offensive coordinator. Chiefs fans have spent a lot of time agonizing over McDaniels, but a Chiefs source said he was not and will not be interviewed for the head coaching job.

That’s a good start, but not enough. The players seem to understand this.

“Yeah, you need to bring in some guys,” says Hali, who with a long-term contract and universal respect is among the Chiefs who can speak most freely. “We need some younger guys. Guys like Derrick (Johnson) and I, we are aging in this game. I do believe you need to bring in some younger guys to help us.”

Hali goes on. He says that “we have to make sure that (quarterback) position is solidified,” and that “nothing against our old coach, but Romeo’s a little older, experienced, he knows what he’s doing.”

There is more, and it is echoed throughout the locker room, with a season now officially over and the players as honest and reflective as the NFL and Chiefs culture allows.

Breaston talks of being proud that his team played hard, when it had nothing to play for and the Broncos had so much. He thinks that’s equal parts Crennel’s influence and what he’s come to think of as a unique vibe within the Chiefs’ locker room.

McClain talks of hoping to be back next year, so he can see this thing through, only without an absurd string of injuries that hampered so much of what would’ve otherwise been possible.

Changes will be made, of course, mostly because changes are always made in the NFL, but also because changes need to be made with the Chiefs.

Injuries have become a crutch for apologists, and this is counterproductive if it allows anyone to believe that a near-historic number of blowout losses can be fixed by a doctor.

The offensive line was perfectly healthy, for instance, and it stunk for most of the season. Same with the defensive line, though Allen Bailey’s emergence is encouraging.

The Chiefs’ decision-makers seem to understand this. You get that sense through private conversations, anyway, though there is enough deliberate ambiguity within the organization that it’s hard to tell for sure.

One of the most dangerous temptations is to believe that the Chiefs are this close to the playoffs because they weren’t eliminated until last week.

You can even point out that if Dwayne Bowe hadn’t dropped a touchdown pass against the Raiders, or if Ryan Succop had made one of those field goals, the Chiefs would be in the playoffs.

Except that’s not a reason to be comfortable; it’s the opposite. The Chiefs came within a game of the playoffs because the AFC West is worse than chicken pox. Failing to take advantage would be a shame — a fireable offense.

Realistically, the Chiefs quit against the Jets and Dolphins, lost by 27 or more points five times and actually got pretty lucky with a schedule that gave them a string of failing quarterbacks (including the Chargers’ Philip Rivers fumbling away a win on Halloween) and breaks in Chicago.

Just by virtue of medical technology, the Chiefs will be the AFC West’s most improved team if Jamaal Charles, Eric Berry and Tony Moeaki fully recover. There is no way to plan for a similar stack of injuries next year, but only fools would rely on duplicating the remarkably injury-free season of 2010.

Hali understands this. He talked for about 10 minutes as the locker room around him cleared out for the last time this season. He talked mostly about his coach, and about how Crennel is one of those “special people … almost like your father” whom players want to make proud.

“You know our league,” he says. “Some guys buy in, some guys don’t. It seems like a lot of guys have bought into Romeo. His philosophy and everything he wants to get done, we’ve bought into it.”

The Chiefs need to make that matter. But they also need to understand that to capitalize on a beautiful opportunity next year, many of the other needed changes must come from outside the organization.

Coach was not the problem.

GM was... (hopefully implying that problem will soon be in the PAST)

If the players want him THIS bad, there is NO WAY you hire him. None.

This story does not end well.

Mellinger suggests it's a done deal.

Jesus, this is awful.

More proof that Pioli has no clue.

By the way, it would be ****ing stupid to get rid of Steve Hoffman.

Indeed, who wants a HC who gets the players to play hard for him...


Raheem Morris - he's your guy. The Bucs hate him. Let's hire him. He really had the Bucs sucking and slacking off. Some of the efforts yesterday against the Falcons were worthy of "Paper Lion..."

The Charger players LOVE Norv Turner.

I supported him as our acting HC but I really hope he just goes back to DC if he stays at all.

Hey, sounds like the locker room loves Cassel.

We are so ****ed. RAC is going to be a terrible head coach. A perfect example is this last game. Meaningless worthless game yet he won't start Stanzi, Powe or Hudson to give them some seasoning. When asked about it in the press conference he said I'm going with the players that got us here.

Thats all I need to hear. We need someone with some balls and some vision for blending in rooks and getting them some playing time.

I don't have strong feelings about RAC one way or another, but if Pioli does bring back Cassel, that will put a big damper on my enthusiasm for next year.

Mellinger, why are you such a ****ing idiot?

Hali for GM?

No, the Spanos family does, or did...

The Chargers did not play that hard for Norv. The Chiefs did for Romeo.

Another upgrade.

Can't wait for more 7 point games. ****ing stellar.

That is 99% Pioli and 1% Crennel, the offense...

Philip Rivers said yesterday that he loves Norv. You're delusional.

Pioli is THE reason RAC is here in the first place.

so is Crennel going to insist on getting a new QB?

or is he just going to be foot shuffling porter and play Cassel?

as good as he is with defense, does he understand any better than pioli how important the QB is?

Come on dude. Romeo was playing for his job. He's not gonna put in the young'uns. He's going to try to win the game because from his standpoint, winning is everything and there are no meaningless games. I get that. I understand what you are saying, but I don't think you are taking the circumstances into account. Romeo is not as interested in next year because there's no guarantee he'll be here. A win on the other hand helps to solidify that.

I don't blame him for that at all. That's to be expected.

Thank god you're not in charge.

Crennel HC and McDaniels OC just means cassel will be back

LOL!!!


Everyone is "delusional" who disagrees with you.

Rivers is not the Chargers roster. Rivers likes Norv's offense which has Rivers throwing and throwing and throwing for massive fantasy stats and NO RINGS...

Gee, I thought Romeo was calling the offense. :rolleyes:

He was the head coach for the final 3 games and the offense still stunk to high heaven. He'll stick with a veteran QB, even though it's another band-aid approach. More of the same.

RAC would have landed somewhere else. Pioli knew him from NE. So what. RAC is an experienced NFL DC and HC, and the players played hard for him. RAC is not the problem with the offense. Pioli's decisions are...

Bill Walsh could resurrect and call the plays, and with this roster, the O would still blow...

mellingerSam Mellinger

Yes. RT @ChiefsandOsFan @mellinger crennel the man in 2012? are you 99%sure?

Pioli will get his yes man, and we'll be stuck with a giant turd at QB.

Mellinger is an idiot.

Unless Chiefs fans DEMAND Pioli gets FIRED for doing a terrible job here...

teicher gives him a run for his money and biggest dumbass KC sports writer. Also Babb. So its really like a 3 way tie at the top

You are wrong. They won 4 out of their last 5. If they didn't like Norv you would have seen a Tampa Bay style meltdown.

And it appears that the Spanos might be reconsidering keeping Norv

Because to criticize Norv would prove that one is ####-#######

Did you ever think the man you are listening to is one?

How do fans "demand" Pioli be fired? Pioli will be fired when and if the next coach doesn't. Work out.

Ah shut up and get back to hockey...


Chiefs have season ticket holders. They need to tell the Hunts that Pioli had his chance and doesn't deserve another season as Chiefs GM...

fyp

Does everyone forget that Romeo was the D coordinator with some of the worst blow-out losses in the history of the franchise and now some want him to have even more control?

IMO it could be worse. Hiring someone like Fisher would be nearly the same or worse. Mediocrity and the Chiefs seem to go hand and hand.

Wow, Crennel is going to be the HC in 2012?

:facepalm:

But that was Haleys fault...

Yesterdays game made me miss Herm...

People have very short memories it seems.

Too many spend their time knee jerking off the flavor of the hour here..

Instead of looking at the bigger picture and the furture of this Franchise...

Yep. I don't see the future as bright if they hire RAC. JMVHO as long as the Hunts run the team we will never compete for a SB again.

Bingo... /thread

So not only do you not want him as HC, but you don't think he's a good coordinator either.

Above Average...

Not the best ever, but good enough to win a superbowl with as history proves...

So what has Hunt done besides make Pioli the highest paid GM in the league and have one of the highest paid coaching staffs in the league?

Sign DJ, Hali, Flowers, JC, Succup (lol), etc......

You are going to say Hunt is cheap because he didn't sign x-players.

Who are those players? You think a RT or center was going to cost a fortune? $ wasn't the issue there, Pioli is.

You going to say they didn't want to pay a back up QB? Then they gave $2.6MM to Orton for 5 games?

You are entitled to your opinion but what has Clark ****ed up recently that doesn't point directly back to Pioli?

Hiring Pioli is his biggest sin, and that is something 95% of this place was ecstatic about.

Cheap owners let key players walk rather than paying them, I haven't seen that happen one time since Clark took over. I hope it doesn't happen with Bowe.

Then we should give up, because the Chiefs will always be owned by the Hunts.

I think he's a pretty good coordinator, but I'm not going to ignore the huge blow-outs that happened under his watch.

A fair approach is to look at his ENTIRE body of work.

His defenses were taken to the woodshed in a few games, that's reality.

At least Tamba mentioned that the QB position needs to be solidified. Maybe that will make it clear to Pioli and Hunt that the team is not drinking the Cassel Kool Aid any more

FTR, if we're going after St. Louis Rams castoff coaches I'd rather have Spags @ DC than McDaniels @ OC but Spags will probably go back to the NFC East.

Look for Spags to PHI immediately

This is pretty much how I feel, though I'm not super-high on Romeo. Need to replace Muir and Cassel or there will be more tears in 2012.

Just Redzone Tears....

The fans don't Have power to tell Clark to fire GMs. Not renewing season tickets won't make Hunt say, It must be Pioli! I've got to get rid of him, fast! The chiefs need to be bad for awhile under Pioli for a move to be made.

Messier doesn't stand for Mark.

How can they? The guy has one good game out of every four and then only against crap defenses. He's just not good. Everyone seems to recognize this except the powers that be Arrowhead.

I'm okay with Orton or Flynn or drafting someone with upside. Just no more Cassel.

How do you know it's not Orton?

Because The Defense hasnt spent the entire game on the field the last 3 games?

Some dude on NFLN just said Muir is going to retire. Good.

Awesome.

Right, he is awesome between the 20's...

If we can fix his career long issue, you might have a Stopgap Mediocrity QB...

Agreed. I wonder if the players like Orton more than Cassel. I would imagine so, but maybe thats just me liking Orton more.

Lol. You mean like playing guys like Bailey, Baldwin and Houston? Or how about all of our 2nd and 3rd year players like Amon Gordon?

....dude.....dumbest post you've ever made.

"Hiring Pioli is his biggest sin, and that is something 95% of this place was ecstatic about. "


Bill Belichick is still ecstatic about it...

This.

All this "Clark is cheap" crap is nonsense.

it would be like liking aids or cancer more...

Neither speak will for your long term future...

Giving Orton 2.6 for 5 was a WTF move for damn sure... Allowing the Chiefs not to address the QB position in the offseason of last year was a WTF move... Allowing Pioli and Haley to keep Palko was a WTF move. Then allowing Pioli and Haley to menstrate with each other...

But hey, $30 for parking and would you like some nachos?

Hunt cares about one thing. Keeping the stands full. Its been beaten to death here...

Lol.

Hunt allowed a GM to do a GM's job, like most of the owners in Pro Sports. There is only one Jerry Jones in the NFL. Sounds like that's what you think teams need to make SB runs. How well is that working out for Dallas? Or Washington?

You're bitching just to bitch.

It doesn't help your defense when your offense can't get a ****ing 1st down, let alone score more than 10 points.

Not one thing you have mentioned directly points at the owner. It all points at Pioli but feel free to blame Hunt. Didn't adress the QB position? Hunt gave Cassel $60MM because Pioli told Clark he was the guy.
Failure to solidify the #2 QB position was not a money issue. If it was who did they not pay they should have? Who did we not get because we didn't want to pay them the $? It was a shit ass personnel move that left Palko sittng at #2. Thats on Pioli and Haley.



Its easy to point at ownership and say well there is the issue when the team hasn't won in so long.

But then when you try to break down what Clark has ****ed up there is not a damn thing there except hire Pioli which was highly endorsed as being the correct hire.

You hire they big $ GM I think you have to trust his decision making at least to begin, if you are just going to step in and make the decisions for him why hire him and pay him?

I say again, Hunt hired Pioli so that is on him but Pioli was not cheap so the whole Clark is cheap crying ass BS is exactly that. BS. Hiring someone like Pioli is exactly opposite of what Lamar would have done IMO. Lamar would have went with one of his old school cronies or kept Peterson around until we were all dead.

Complain you want to see some different behavior from ownership, Clark steps out of the box and hires Pioli and you still bitch.

If you want to blame someone blame Pioli, I do.

I remember when Bill Parcells left New England, and they hired "Pom Pom" Pete Carroll. The players talked about how great it would be to have a "players' coach". At the press conference, one of the Patriots defensive players had his arm around Carroll.

And I also remember last year's epic collapse by the Boston Red Sox, with players eating chicken and drinking beer in the dugout while the team had the biggest September collapse in MLB history under another "players' coach", Terry Francona. Just before the September slide, after a victory no less, Francona tried to grow some balls and had a meeting with the players where he said he didn't like things that were going on; they responded with the biggest choke job in baseball.

Now, this all does validate your point somewhat but, the thing is, we don't know why the Chiefs players want/like Romeo. Is it because he's a great coach? Is it because he's coming up with unique and victorious plays? Those are great reasons to like him, and keep him. But if it's because he "isn't as mean as Haley", then, yeah, this could be a bad thing.

I can understand that. He is coaching for his job. for him it was not a meaningless game. Lilja has played pretty well in the last couple of games and truthfully Weigman's record doesn't allow him to sit his final game on the bench.

Clark is cheap. In that light if you are Pioli doesn't it look better for you having saved the owner all that money? I can't see how the Chiefs staff could be one of the highest paid staffs in football with what was a HC on his first contract, an OC that was promoted from position coach. Crennel was probably well paid as a DC.

adbrandtAndrew Brandt


Teams that left the most Cap room on the table in 2011: Jax, TB and KC. Just don't tell Del Rio, Raheem and Haley that:)

Marty II, Marty II, Marty II!!!

Too bad he blew 40 million on 3 years of Cassel...