Mellinger: In the Jets, there's a lesson for Chiefs fan about taking the safe route
 

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt...le3481340.html



In the structure of the modern NFL, the most important decision a franchise can make is who plays quarterback. Two years ago, two franchises walked away from this decision on two very different paths.

The Chiefs played it safe, were largely criticized for it, then made the playoffs and have a chance to do it again this season. The Jets took the gamble that many in Kansas City had been screaming for, and are now 1-7 in what is a virtual certainty to be a fourth consecutive season without the playoffs.

They will play this weekend at Arrowhead Stadium in what for Chiefs fans could be fairly called The Upside of Boring.

Boring hardly ever plays well with sports fans, right? We want bold, we want daring. We want to toast those with enough guts to go for it all and laugh at the cowards who don’t.


But when it came time for the Chiefs’ new power structure to choose a quarterback, they did it with all of the flair of a ham sandwich.

They traded for a known commodity in Alex Smith, a man who had demonstrated what scouts often call “a high floor” but also “a low ceiling” which is often translated by fans and media as “weak sauce.” Then, when Smith performed well in their system and with their coaches, they signed him to a long-term extension for a higher salary than two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning, among others. Solid, logical, conservative thinking.

This has always been the Chiefs’ way. Trading for the 49ers’ backup quarterback is a time-honored tradition here.

One of the byproducts of this approach is a fan base that often clamors for bold, for daring, for, come to think of it, what the Jets sometimes do.

Two years ago, the same offseason when the Chiefs traded for Smith, the Jets were coming off 6-10 and also needed a quarterback. They’d drafted Mark Sanchez four years earlier with the fifth overall pick and watched him deteriorate from promising to an unplayable mess. They felt a compelling need to upgrade, to find the quarterback of their future.

Many around Kansas City wanted the Chiefs to draft Geno Smith, the three-year starter at West Virginia who completed 67 percent of his passes for 98 touchdowns and 21 interceptions.

Full disclosure, I was in that crowd, at least until hearing from league insiders who questioned his drive, personality and ability to read defenses, among other things. Every draft prospect is questioned, obviously, but there was something different about the tone and scope of the criticism of Smith. It’s one reason he fell into the second round, and surely one reason the Chiefs went with a different Smith at quarterback.

Coincidence or not, Geno Smith has been fairly terrible in his short time in the NFL. He’s thrown 19 touchdowns and 31 interceptions. By passer rating, Total Quarterback Rating, and the advanced metrics at Pro Football Focus and Football Outsiders, Smith is either the worst, second-worst, or third-worst quarterback this season.

He was benched this week. Michael Vick, who has completed 26 of 56 passes this season, will start instead.

Think the Jets would like that pick back?


Alex Smith was the top overall pick in the 2005 draft, but generally lacks the type of elite, obvious, natural ability that fans and scouts like in brand name quarterbacks.

The story about the Chiefs’ Smith is often the story about what he isn’t. He’s a good athlete with a great feel for the pocket, but can’t really be called elusive. He reads defenses well and is usually quite accurate, but has occasional lapses and doesn’t throw the best deep ball.

The Chiefs lost at the goal line as time expired in Denver, and with an interception on their final drive in San Francisco. The quarterback is the one who gets the most credit when things go well (like the two-minute drill that won a game in San Diego) and the one with the most blame when things fail. That’s part of the job description.

But in Smith’s case, it misses the point that the Chiefs are 11th in the league in scoring with a flimsy group of receivers and an offensive line that struggles in pass protection.

Jamaal Charles is the star of the offense, obviously, the one defenses plan for every week. But Smith makes enough good decisions, and is reliable enough with short and medium-range passes, to keep the offense moving and — through a season and a half in Kansas City — the Chiefs winning.

Now, clearly, the Chiefs would love to draft and develop their own quarterback. That has proven to be the most successful way to find a top passer and win Super Bowls.

But the Chiefs picked first overall the year after Andrew Luck. They went boring, and traded for a guy who led them to the playoffs. The Jets reached, and drafted a guy they just benched.

Boring is better, sometimes.

Don't try!

If you take risks they might backfire...

Do they mention at any points the Jets went to two AFCC games while the Chiefs (safe) route won us 2 playoff games in 20 years?...

I don't ****ing believe it.

We went from Saving Our Chiefs from "safe route" QBs that the myopic GMs know well... to sucking our own cocks for repeating the same ****ing process that got us into that earlier mess. All in under two years.

If I weren't a KC fan, I would hate the Chiefs more than any other team in the league

Does Mellinger not understand that no matter who is in the Jets front office because they are the Jets they will draft horribly?

Whomever is the Jets GM turns into Matt Millen as if by magic.

Heres another prime candidate for *thread tools/ignore*

I'm really starting to enjoy that feature, I dont have to block a single user, just a single topic... it keeps me from peeking into threads I'm sure to hate with all my guts and getting sucked into them.

LMAO

The battle cry of the Chiefs: We might make the playoffs!

I was at a bar in LA this past Sunday with a surprising number of Chiefs fans and they just ate up that shit, along with of course 78,000 people at Arrowhead.... can't risk taking that away, beating shitty teams in October.

Poor Jets fans don't have the chance to watch mediocre football this year. :(

Man, I bet the Colts, Seahawks, Giants, Steelers, etc. wish they went the "safe route"!

Go the safe route and you too can be in third place in your division!

Better than the other route and being in last I guess.

If I didn't know any better, I'd be looking for a link to The Onion... but, it's different this time!

One example proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt!

Mellinger wrote a dumb ****ing blowjob article. He should be ashamed.

The Seahawks lucked into their QB. The Colts, Giants and Steelers all took QB's that had a higher floor and less questions than Geno Smith.

Naturally, a lot of you failed to realize that the point of the article was not to dismiss the idea of taking a 1st round QB, but to reinforce the idea that blindly drafting one just because you want one isn't always the best idea.

There's not really anything controversial in the article. The guy's right. In the 'battle' of Geno v. Alex, Alex is the clear winner.

He proclaims Alex smith was the right choice. You proclaimed matt cassel was the guy in an article.

It is what it is

I most certainly did not.

It's a humility piece, not an apologist piece. Of course, some people around here can't handle a little humility. Apparently Mellinger can.

If geno smith was the prospect any of those teams mentioned qbs were, I'd imagine they'd have taken him

It's nothing but undeserved dick suckery.

The Chiefs haven't won Ebolashit yet with their safe decision. Mellinger acts like the Royals and the Chiefs are the same team.

Not drafting Geno was the right choice.

Paying Alex wasn't, though.

Yes.


It's what a lot of fans can't comprehend.

The Chiefs were coming of a season in which banners were flying over the stadium and a player murdered his go and himself in the parking lot.

All that added to the fact that they were historically one of the west football teams in history.

Can't imagine why they did what they did

Not taking Geno Smith should deserve some Dick Suckery, otherwise you'd have the worst starting QB in the NFL right now.

If you read the article carefully you'll notice that he does not dismiss the idea that the Chiefs should and even want to draft an early round QB.

Again, the point of the article is to say that drafting one just to draft one doesn't always work out.

And he's right.

He's cherry-picking the worst-case scenario in order to defend the "trading for another team's game-managing backup" strategy, even though history overwhelmingly favors the drafted QB.

It's akin to saying that no team should ever draft a quarterback because Kurt Warner went undrafted while Ryan Leaf and JaMarcus Russell were drafted in the top two picks.

Remember how we got to that awesome 2-14 sandwich from 2007-2009?

We played it safe with Trent Green, gave him a contract extension, and called it a success.

We didn't give a **** about that old bag of bones falling apart one day. Because at the time we didn't suck! WHEEEEE!

We're doing the exact same ****ing shit with Alex.

It's been a year and a half. Does that guy have to be in the roster right now?

Except the part where Alex Smith is much younger and has legitimate prospects in Murray and Bray behind him?

Yeah not buying it. Reid has a history or drafting and developing QB's and he hasn't shown us otherwise thus far in KC, go so far as to retain 4 QB's when he could've simply cut one.

And avoiding a QB in the draft like the plague because your franchise is dickless and scared doesn't always work out, either.

You know that list of Cleveland Brown QBs that everybody likes to use as an argument for waiting for Andrew Luck to fall to you in the draft? 90% of those QBs are dudes that the Cleveland Browns tried to "play it safe" with

He's not cherry picking at all. We're playing the Jets this week and Geno Smith and Alex Smith are clearly tied to each other considering those were the two routes weighed in on....the fan base was split on it.

The Jets are relevant to the conversation right now. If he were cherry picking you would've seen a whole host of 1st round busts in the article that would've served as better examples.

I understand you guys want a reason to bitch about Alex smith, but this article isn't the reason.

Look elsewhere.

LMAO LMAO LMAO

Those guys are straight up turds who will never win an NFL game.

Get real.

Neither I or the article said that the Chiefs should avoid it.

Again, you guys are misunderstanding the article just to get roused up over the Peterson way.

Maybe.

But they come with a high pedigree and are just as legitimate as any other back up QB prospect in the league right now.

The argument isn't whether these guys will work out, but whether or not Reid is willing to draft and develop QB's.

Did you guys even read the article? Mellinger alludes to his opinion on the matter here.

He's not disagreeing with you......

???

Same old shit from the same old crowd.

79,000 strong, cheering on the checkdown.

yep.. just another Alex thread for the vaginas to bleed all over.

( regardless of whether you meant well, OP )

But, it's constructive this time! People will change their minds after this masterfully written article that might actually just be a modified article from 1997 or 2003 or 2006 or 2010.

Mellinger wrote this bullshit just to troll us.

I miss Whitlock. At least his trolling had the truth behind it.

This has truth in it. He comes out and says getting a top QB is how Superbowls are won. In this case, it wouldn't have worked. We were wrong about Geno. Be thankful for that.

It's a risk and one that's not easily analyzed by simply assuming Geno would be in the exact same situation had he been drafted by the Chiefs.

But, let's play it safe for another few decades just in case the Chiefs are just really unlucky with their current strategy.

It's a calculated risk and by their calculations they decided that Geno wasn't going to work for them, possibly for the same exact reasons he's not working out in NY.

That's all this means.

It DOESN'T mean that they're afraid to take a QB.

Not taking Geno Smith does not mean they're afraid to take a QB. However, it does mean that they're pretty good at identifying busts.

Signing Alex does...maybe not afraid...but head over heels for Alex.

READ MY LIPS: NO FIRST ROUND QBS

Yes he is. He's saying, "WELP I LEARNED A LESSON AND SO SHOULD ALL OF YOU," and that's to trade for the backup when you're unsure.

If your franchise is crap, and there's no QB available, try to trade draft picks for 8-8.

His evidence? The 4-3 Chiefs with Alex Smith.

Pretty shitty article.

WTF happened to the random thought thread? Im high as **** and having all kinds of great ideas.

The article is a big steamy pile of Captain Hindsight's pet elephant's diarrhea

and if SNR, clay or Sac ran this franchise they'd be fired in shorter time than Pioli.

The Hunt family went 1 of 2 in Super Bowls and earns a playoff bid once every fourth or fifth year with veteran QBs acquired from another team.

Drafting a first Round QB risks that kind of run. That's why you'll never see the Chiefs draft a Geno Smith or an Andrew Luck.

That and they're afraid of investing a guaranteed 70 million in one guy.

The past 30 years would indicate otherwise.

Signing Carson Palmer, starting him, and drafting a QB in 2013 with Andy Reid as my QB guru/HC = fired?

I probably wouldn't have made the playoffs in 2013, I guess. Oh no. What would this team ****ing do without that playoff berth?

Oh, that's right. We'd have a better LT, would have had the money to afford Emmanuel Sanders, and would be up two 2nd round picks over two drafts.

I TOTALLY would have run the team into the ground :rolleyes:

This article would make more sense if the Jets had taken Geno in the first round rather than the second. That pick was not New York making some "bold move". They had not one but two chances to take him early, and went for Milliner and Sheldon Richardson instead. So it was pretty clear they weren't all that high on Smith. He happened to fall to the second and they took a flyer.

Maybe the lesson we should take from the Jets, even if it hasn't worked for them yet, is to keep trying. Although maybe the Chiefs already are, picking up Bray and then Murray.

I BET YOU COULD HOLD DOWN THE JOB BRO

And let's say you buy into the narrative that Clark and Andy decided in the Philadelphia airport meeting that Alex Smith would be the starting QB going forward and that was that.

If that happened, I would have burned our 1.1 pick on Alex Smith and a gift card to Subway. You know... used the undesirable draft stock to work for our benefit and get the necessities done so we wouldn't be tied down with that shitty trade going into the NEXT draft as well.

And that's not hindsight, either. I said that in the weeks following the Smith trade before the draft. Go look it up.

I, at least, have some testicles, unlike 90% of this dumbass forum that sticks their fingers up their butts all day and say stupid shit like, "I probably would have aimed for Hitler if I were a WWI Allied commander"

:popcorn:

So the Jets bet the farm, and get to 2 AFC championship games. We "play it safe" and lose to the frackin Ravens in Arrowhead.

Not sure what this piece is trying to prove. We have had no better luck with Smith than we have with Cassel. Suck it out a year, Make playoffs once our sched. goes to Cleveland and Jacksonville. Suck it out another year or 2. Make playoffs when our Sched goes back to Cleveland and Jacksonville. We get hope. They get crushed.. Rinse repeat till I'm 72. Win Superbowl 99

If we make the playoffs this year it's a bit of a better sign, we at least had some form of competition. If we make it we deserve it, but we gotta win a damn playoff game. If we make the playoffs this year at least Smith an the coaching staff is an improvement in my estimation.

I wanna win more than anything, but it's just the same crap over and over. I wanna break the cycle.

Didn't realize Dorsey and Reid have been running the franchise for the last 30 years. Where the **** have i been.

so Mellinger is callin Gochiefs out

go get him count, this is a personal attack

Why? You're the one who was firmly in the Sanchez and Geno camp. You write dumb blowjob posts all the time. Are you ashamed?

Of course they should try to find a franchise QB in the draft. However, if they don't deem one worthy of a high pick, they should just spend it anyway?

Yes, we all want them to try, but it shouldn't be blind trying and hoping to strike gold. It should be they have confidence that the player can turn into that caliber, not forcing the issue.

I was not in the Sanchez camp.

Very ashamed of my Geno love affair, however.

Embarrassing, but I'm not going to crawl into bed with game managers.

They gave me herpes.

Sorry you are wrong.


2 playoff wins in 43 years...

I wasn't a Sanchez fan but I was a Geno fan. If its true Geno played Angry Birds during his interview with Andy then there's no way we could have pulled the trigger on him at 1.1. This year I think it was even a worse mistake to pass on Bridgewater but that's water under the bridge.

God forbid a new regime addressed their qb position with a proven NFL qb, vs drafting a walking shit storm of a qb in their first draft. Because yeah, Reid doesn't have a history of drafting qbs even if he has one. I swear reading comprehension is horrible on here. We should have drafted a qb that most decent teams could see there were problems with instead of trading for one who knows how to win in the NFL. When the right qb comes along and is sitting in a position to draft I feel confidant they will draft him. But I don't want them to draft one just to make a bunch of dumbass fans happy they finally took one in the first round when he's gonna suck much like Geno has! Some people are actually good and get paid for scouting talent (Dorsey) while others are better suited for running the fryer at McDonalds (most of CP)

Clayness and his Geno Smith predictions - ROFL

Yes u were and you even crawled into bed with Brodie ****ing Croyle ...FOOL! ROFL

Herpes are the least of your worries...

Every time someone mentions Alex as a QB who knows how to win when he's got 1 playoff win in 10 years I throw up in my mouth.

Putting everything else aside, your inclusion of Andrew Luck in this email made it completely absurd. No NFL team that didn't already have a HOF QB in his prime would have passed on Luck. NOT ONE.

(insert same old arguments from the past 4000 times it's been discussed)

Black and white argument!

(insert same old arguments from the past 4001 times it's been discussed, but worded slightly differently)

Hyperbole!

(insert same old argument from the past 4002 times it's been discussed, but very sarcastically)

Personal attack!

(insert that one gif of Matt Cassel trying to put on his cap, for no apparent reason)

Why is everyone obsessed with bringing up our lack of playoff wins? Would winning a playoff game every other year be any better? The Chiefs are finally on the right track to building a team with depth that can compete for a championship and possibly win one and that is all that matters. Playoff wins are worthless if you are not tbe champ. The champ is the only winner in pro sports.

So you ask the question of why people care about playoff wins and then you say we should only care about winning a SB.

Awesome.

Let us know how the Chiefs can be so good that they are just given the Lombardi.

Uh, those two things are the same argument. They've used the same strategy with every coach and/or GM change for the past 180 years and have fewer playoff wins in their history in KC than the Royals had in October.

The argument for the safe route is having a chance to make the playoffs every year. The argument against it is that making the playoffs and even winning one playoff game every once in a while (or every couple years) shouldn't be the goal, so maybe change up that strategy now that it's been 3 decades since you last tried something different. But of course, it's different this time!!

I think you know what I mean. Winning a playoff game then getting bounced in the next one is not anything special. Only winning the championship is worth something. Ask any player if he would rather have a bunch off playoff wins or one chanpionship? Pretty obvious what they say.

I am also pretty sure that if the Royals had won game seven nobody would give two damns that had not made the post season since 85 anymore.

Go lie down and sober up and come back later.

EDIT: quick edit there my man. Very nice.

Actually, you are wrong.

I count at least 3 playoff wins (vs Raiders in 1991 playoffs, vs Steelers and vs Oilers in 1993 playoffs). ;)

Mirror. Meet Count Zarth.

Chiefs Planet is awful at evaluating QB play. Just unbelievably bad....End of thread and every other one like it

/Thread

I am getting so sick of this argument comparing the Royals and the Chiefs. Baseball is a completely different animal. They are series', not single elimination games (WC game, notwithstanding). And let us not forget that the Royals had not even been to the playoffs for 3 decades. Also, let us not forget that they barely got in as a WC and nearly lost that game, as well. I suppose you could compare winning a series in baseball as similar to winning a playoff game in the NFL. Even then, I don't believe it is a completely accurate comparison. But I do think that if the Chiefs had series' to win against teams they lost to over the years that they would have won a few of those. Finally, as the Royals proved this year is that the first step to winning a championship is getting into the tournament.

Looks to me like Sam has been reading the Planet, and instead of posting his take here, did it in the Star.

At this point, unless you have a QB crystal ball, you have no idea how far Alex is going to take this team. He is the perfect QB for this system. Look at what he is doing with trash WR and OL. It is a team sport! Imagine what he could do with better teammates. Your argument should not be with Alex. He is clearly light years ahead of Geno and the article merely states only that.

Your argument should be whether or not the brass can get him some protection and WR's before his window closes and his skills start to deteriorate.

And add in his lapdog/ROR/505 or whoever that guys is and it has become priceless...

We will see Clayanus predictions come true on Sunday when Geno rips this D...