John Dorsey handled the difficult 2014 offseason unbelievably well.
 

The Chiefs faced a difficult offseason following the 2013 playoff meltdown. After GM John Dorsey's spending spree in the 2013 offseason, the Chiefs had a half dozen premier free agents getting ready to hit the market, no cap room to sign any of them (or any incoming free agents of any renown), and no second round pick due to the Alex Smith deal. How do you make a team betterwhen you're set to lose so much talent and have so little resources to replace them?

Now, I'm not an NFL General Manager, and y'all better be glad I don't run the Chiefs, because I must have ran three dozen simulations of that offseason for the Chiefs before it arrived, and every one of them had the Chiefs doing their damnedest to stay afloat replacing our departing players with free agents from the Salvation Army and midround draft picks. The intense spending spree of 2013 now looked like it had hopelessly hamstrung the Chiefs, who at this point would just have to hope to stay afloat until cap space opened up in future years.

John Dorsey, however, is an NFL General Manager. And armed with few draft picks and a shoestring budget, he totally dismantled my expectations of what can be accomplished by a Chiefs team that knows exactly what it's doing.

Let's start with the free agent departures, because this part is astonishing. The Chiefs limited budget meant that they would ultimately have to wave bye-bye to left tackle Brandon Albert, starting guards Jon Asamoah and Geoff Schwartz, playmaker Dexter McCluster, run stopping extraordinaire Tyson Jackson, starting linebacker Akeem Jordan, starting free safety Kendrick Lewis, dynamic kick returner and dime safety Quentin Demps, and would eventually cut Pro Bowl corner Brandon Flowers. Whatever you think of some of the players individually, that is objectively a lot of talent to replace. Once these players left Kansas City, they all went to sign contracts with new teams for a combined $100 million. ($140 million if you count Flowers' new deal this past offseason.)

That's right. John Dorsey allowed $100 million in talent to walk out the door, with roughly a tenth of that in cap space with which to replace said players. It was impossible to imagine a world where the Chiefs emerged from this offseason stronger than they were entering it, missing this much talent.

So armed virtually no money, Dorsey's free agent signings were meager, but solid, it's crazy to see how much he built the team for 2014 (and 2015!) with so little:

• Franchise QB Alex Smith was boxed in to a four year extension at a "middle class" pay rate for QBs.
• Stud safety Husain Abdullah was re-signed.
• Valuable reserve safeties Kurt Coleman and Daniel Sorensen were brought in, and Kelcie McCray was traded for by throwing impending-bust guard Rishaw Johnson at the Buccaneers.
• Underrated starting linebacker Josh Mauga was ushered in by DC Bob Sutton.
• Underrated interior passrusher Vance Walker was inked.
• Nickel corner Chris Owens was signed, which paid dividends until the last month of the year.
• Prototypical third down back Joe McKnight was given a chance.
• OL Jeff Linkenbach and ILB Joe Mays did very little in limited action, but were signed for pennies on the dollar.
• The one disastrous signing from this entire offseason of bargain bin shopping was guard Mike McGlynn, whom the Chiefs started at left guard for most of 2014, providing nightmares to any Chiefs fans who love to watch offensive line play.

Several of these players are still helping the Chiefs today in Abdullah, Sorensen, and Mauga.

Now, it is worth mentioning that the Chiefs' limited cap space arguably did cause them to lose out on free agent WRs Emmanuel Sanders and DeSean Jackson. But by otherwise refusing to make any ridiculously-structured, ultra-back-loaded contracts that would have saddled the Chiefs' cap in future years, the cap came mostly clean in 2015, allowing the Chiefs to pay studs OLB Justin Houston, WR Jeremy Maclin, and DE Allen Bailey bundles of cash in the coming year and still have close to $30 million in clean cap space in 2015.

However, it should be mentioned that John Dorsey was just getting started. Check out this draft class from 2014, even without a 2nd rounder due to Alex Smith:

• Promising pass rusher Dee Ford in the first round.
• Promising corner Phillip Gaines in the third round.
• Electric playmaker De'Anthony Thomas in the fourth.
• Starting linemen Zach Fulton and Laurent Duvarney-Tardif in the sixth round.
• WR Albert Wilson and RB Charcandrick West signed as undrafted free agents, which is a stupidly ridiculous haul.

All of these players are contributing to the Chiefs now, significantly so, though Gaines and Thomas are battling injury.

It's worth summarizing for emphasis: With little cap space, $100 million in departing free agents, and no second round pick, John Dorsey made the Chiefs a better team in 2014.

Almost every team needs those splashy free agency signings to help put it over the top. But those quiet offseasons, where teams confidently stuck to the plan and didn't make any egregious errors out of impatience or impertinence, are just as important, and Dorsey aced it.

The depth that he's built on this team in a short time is pretty remarkable. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love how he's building this team for longterm success

Damn lucky to have him.

He is the franchise's MVP if you ask me.

It should be noted that John Dorsey also brought in the following players in 2014:

Promising RB breakout Spencer Ware
Promising DE Nick Williams

Pretty ****ing impressive.

You are seriously overstating and over valuing most of these player losses.

I would like to have kept Albert if he could stay healthy, and Swartz at a reasonable contract.
But the fact is, they are all just jags, and the teams that gave them that money overpaid them, and for the most part are likely regretting the coin they dropped to sign them.

Dorsey's done a nice job, but he still has a long way to go.

You are seriously overstating the work, though.

The depth is better, and that has been a contributing factor in this streak, but the reality is that this team is winning because the guys that were here before Dorsey, DJ, Hali, Poe, and Berry are all playing exceptionally well and leading this team.

You're understating his work, but we're largely saying the same thing.

He brought in Ware/West in 2014, and that has kept our run game thriving, which Alex Smith needs. His restraint in 2014 allowed us cap space to bring in Maclin, whom Alex Smith needs, as well as Albert Wilson for essentially free. And he bargained Smith down to a "middle class QB" contract in 2014. Dee Ford has been critical the past couple weeks, as has Zach Fulton and Laurent Duvarney-Tardif.

The 2014 offseason is a significant reason the Chiefs are 9-5.

But your point about the soul of the defense being almost entirely constructed prior to Dorsey's arrival is also very significant.

He bargained down a "middle class QB" to a "middle class QB" contract.

I would hope the **** so.

Dude, have you SEEN the QB contracts this league's been handing out to middle of the road QBs? Cutler, Kaepernick, Dalton.

QB play is so atrocious in the NFL that even middle class QBs have all the leverage over their teams.

We've got a fair deal that doesn't hurt the rest of the team, cap-wise.

West/Ware have 800+ yards and 9 TD's combined in this 8 game streak, Maclin and Kelce are both going to be 1,000 yard receivers and Peters has more INT's than the entire team last season.

This is a huge credit to Dorsey

To be fair to milk, Kelce was acquired in 2013 and Peters in 2015, so they aren't as relevant to this discussion as you think.

I am not saying that Dorsey hasn't done a great job.
He has.

But Direckshun has oversold it with his observations.

Some of, if not all, those free agent losses have been insignificant, while many of the free agent signings have been okay, at best.

Those QBs all got middle tier contracts.

And a couple of those were set up so that those teams could cut their losses if needed after a couple of seasons with minimal negative cap implications.

And you underestimate the work of Dorsey, Reid and A Smith.

Why didn't those guys you mentioned win under other regimes??

Alex's first 1000 yard receiver of his career comes in a year when he has TWO 1000 yard receivers?

Bizarre.

Actually, Kelce isn't going to get there, IMO.

He needs to average 89 yards over the last two games. He hasn't averaged 89 yards over any two game span this year, and has only broken that mark in a single game once - opening weekend against Houston.

kelce would get their if he wasn't being a dumbass

He cost himself

How many laughed when you read that Alex is a Franchise QB.

This is too polite. Just call people out for being stupid.

Cp wanted jairus Byrd and DeSean jackson
Most bitched about not bringing back Albert and schwartz
Cp criticized the hell out of anyone who praised the last offseason for being conservative
Cp marginalized the value of comp picks
Cp all demanded a restructure of hali
And to boot, in their tantrum, most of the forum claimed last year's team would be lucky to win 4 games

Dorsey has made some missteps. But they aren't close to the missteps of the dumbass armchair qbs, most of whom call people out the loudest but then squeak a mouse fart when it comes to owning up to mistakes.

Dorsey was right to go light last offseason. We significantly cleaned up our cap situation. We earned a ton of comp picks. And we improved a lot of positions on the cheap that we could have spent a shitload of money on. And not panicking on dumbass restructures like Hali gave us leverage to negotiate an ultra friendly contract this year. Period.

"run stopping extraordinaire Tyson Jackson"

This part made me laugh out loud.

And with all that said...

If they don't win a playoff game - or two - or God forbid **** up and miss them all together somehow - it won't matter.

Competitive regular seasons should be the floor at this point. Winning consistently in January is the mark of a successful organization.

It certainly did help the Chiefs that those over-paid talents weren't retained with KC.

Considering that this is going to be our third straight winning season with Smith as our QB and what looks to be the second appearence in the playoffs in three years, I'd say we got a goddamn bargain considering what Smith signed for.

And for this system and what he's done with it, I would hardly consider Smith "middle of the road." Maybe the best QB in the NFL for what Reid runs and it's really taken two plus seasons to finally get this ship righted and playing to their potential. And that's still with a questionable receiving corps and a continually rotating offensive line that's starting two rookies (Morse and LDT) and a guy at RT (Jah Reid) who was discarded by what is currently the worst team in the NFL (Ravens).

I mean, the guy got internal organs ruptured he was getting hit so much and so hard last season playing behind what might have been the worst line in football while throwing to the worst receiving corps in NFL history. And he still got us to a winning season.

Smith has been a ****ing stud if you ask me.

At this point?

Only the stupid ones.

Luckily for him, both the next two teams they play are shit at covering TE's so he might get there.

Right. Kudos to Dorsey for recognizing what those teams couldn't.

I agree. Dorsey is doing a great job. I know that we all want wins in January and I fully believe that we will get there. If not this year, then soon. Right now, it's good to see this team winning consistently again
With one more win, Andy will pass Schottenheimer for most wins by a Chiefs coach in his first three seasons. That from a team that won only 2 games the season before he started. It wasn't like when Vermeil came in and took over a team loaded with talent and with a winning record the year before. He took a team picking first in the draft and built a winner overnight. Do you realize that the Buffalo Bills have missed the playoffs for 16 years in a row now?? That's not even one postseason appearance this century! We could be in that boat. But we're not. Kudos John Dorsey. Kudos.

I tripped at:

"run stopping extraordinaire Tyson Jackson"

I mean dude was OK his last season here but the Falcons went on to have a mediocre to poor D-Line the year he arrived there on a huge Pioli-soaked contract. Since his arrival he has 22 and 27 combined solo and assisted tackles, 0 sacks, and 2 plays stuffed.

No problems debating that with you. We've disagreed a lot but you always keep it respectful. Like above.

You're right. Has Dorsey been the best negotiator? Did he take good advantage of his draft picks and the comp picks he brilliantly got? Is he banking too much on Alex Smith? Will his loyalty to every coach on staff pay off? I don't know. But those are separate issues to me. I sense those are the main issues you're hung up on.

I believed last year that Dorsey had an excellent offseason last year. And considering how many grenades I took, like I always do for some reason, I'm going to gloat a hit.

Teams that win year in and year out have continuity. We should keep Andy and Dorsey as long as possible. I do hope they grab a young QB prospect this year. But getting rid of Smith after next season should not mean the coach and GM should go. Especially not Doesey who is well connected and respected in the NFL. I hope he stays for 20 years.

Aside from building depth with many no name players, the greatest thing Dorsey has done is let "so called" talent walk and I see no one really doing anything great on other teams that we let go.

Well, I'd lighten up on the praise. He deserves every bit of credit for being an effective QB this year especially given his weapons. But I hardly think reids system includes the defense basically scoring or gift wrapping scoring opportunities at least twice a game.

I hope like hell you're right. But I'm very cautious in my praise for now.

Milkman made a post about this earlier.

"CP is stupid" is a popular thing to say around here because a few folks were in favor of certain moves that turned out to be bad.

Even if the percentage of people who believe that is only 10%... if they're vocal enough, all of a sudden "CP wanted ______" is the truth.

I'm not shy about this one. I get called stupid a lot around here. To the annoying point where I don't even enjoy posting here anymore.

You can feel free to look up each of those topics and where I stood on these things. Not only am I criticized, I'm flat out gang tackled on those topics above with a rape stick. I enjoy arguing with people here and appreciate people who don't agree with me. At least, I used to. But lately it's gotten personal and I get called out for shit I said three years ago by people who don't own up to their own shit. See above. So yeah, I'm going to gloat about this one. I could just bump all these threads but I'm not gonna go there.

Pretty easy to call people stupid when you don't have an opinion yourself. Not talking about one specific person. Just the group of people who bash people for their opinions on players when they sit there with the opinion of "whatever *insert GM* does is fine with me".

Definitely a quick way for people to act like they were the only ones to see the light.

Everyone who sticks their neck out there will be wrong on occasion. Even if it's something horrendously off the mark- who cares?

One time, during the beginning of the 2013 season, I complained that Jamaal didn't run hard enough. In retrospect it was probably offensive line issues but whatever. I felt what I felt and made the comment.

You know how many ****s I give about being wrong? Not a single one.

Don't be a little bitch, bro. It's just words on a screen.

I enjoy reading your posts and appreciate the fact that you never get personal. So keep posting.

good thing.

Amirite:D

Dorsey knows his shit more than any Chief GM that I can think of.

Yep, it's a good point. Unless there's a poll that at least quantifies it, it's impossible to know what "CP wanted."

This

I listed the topics above. On at least half of them, cp took a clear side and then destroyed me for taking a different side. Anyone is free to take a look. So yeah, sorry not sorry. If I'm going to take an extraordinary amount of shit for being stupid, I deserve to gloat every once in a while. I take a strong enough position on most things that it's no secret what side of the fence I'm on

I don't doubt that you took (take?) a lot of shit, but on any given issue, my guess is that the true MAJORITY of people just don't give enough shits about the issue to debate it.

Whole lotta menstruation in this thread...
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I stick my neck out probably farther than anybody on this board, and I learned years ago to just roll with it. In the last three years, I supported taking Geno Smith #1 overall and Cameron Erving last year.

It's a hobby, and I never claimed to be a pro, just an enthusiastic amateur who enjoys predicting and watching what the pros do.

And for the record, despite my preferences, I ****ing nailed what the Chiefs were going to do in 2015's draft.

geno smith #1 overall? GTFOH with that shit!! LMAO

and yet you are a good fan with extensive knowledge and enthusiasm...

the rest of us somewhat more casual fans enjoy your takes and insights very much...

and merry christmas to you and yours! :toast:

Run stopping extraordinaire ROFL

People laughing about the Tyson Jackson thing weren't watching him the last couple years he played here.

Dude was a stone wall against the run.

Suuuuure

Jaye Howard made me forget about Tyson Jackson rather quickly.

Cp would fire everyone every year, but time has shown that Dorsey is doing a pretty good job.

I'm anxiously awaiting vindication

Allen Bailey made me forget about Tyson Jackson almost immediately.

You spent 2 days arguing with me that Squirimin Herman mother****ing sack of **** Edwards didn't wreck the ****ing franchise, despite franchise record losses and fewer guys that played 3 years than Vermiel who sold out to win.

I wouldn't throw stones at other people's opinions.

I'm not going to thread swerve.

If anyone wants to address this, feel free to bump up the Herm thread and post there. I stand behind my comment that Herm inherited a sinking Titanic and didn't do bad with personnel considering the situation he inherited. We made more than enough posts in those 2 days for people to read and respond.

Herm was a shit coach who was given a shell of a team that needed a major youth overhaul.

His major success was getting Peterson on board with that overhaul. The 2008 season was one of those necessary seasons needed for such a transformation.

Too bad he legitimately couldn't coach for shit.

But your solution to a bad cap and aging stars is 2-14. Why don't you endorse that with the 2014 season?

To be fair, he endorsed the plan for 2014 without any certainty of how that season turned out.

He would still be backing that plan even if it had turned out 2-14.

I am one of those that he gets a ton of shit from, but he deserves credit when he gets it right.

Only two CP members seem to know me that well, luv and DMAC (possibly Flop as well), and I think they'd both say I'm relatively sweet.

This

But he spent day upon days telling me that draft position is important (it's not. Good teams don't draft high). Why isn't he raging about all the "meaningless wins" 2014 brought along?

I'm just flipping him shit for throwing stones while just getting done telling me Herm didn't wreck the franchise. I didn't pay a damn bit of attention to what zilla in 2014. Our only 2 hired guys quit and I was killing myself with hours. It sucked.

Sweet? There is an adjective I don't use often describing grown ass men. But if you can get sweet done, kudos.

They would probably describe me as sweet.

Let's be clear about this.

I have never promoted tanking for draft position. But I did say that when you rebuild, yeah, I'd rather lose 14 games playing young prospects than lose 12 games with band-aid middling veterans. Yes, I view those as meaningless wins. The roster Herm inherited was geriatric and it not only took up the entire cap, it led to a multi-year cap mess.

Herm needed to sledgehammer the roster. If anything, he should have done it sooner. Dorsey was given plenty to build upon (7-8 pro bowlers, reasonable cap space). There was no need to sledgehammer that 2014 roster. Just wait it out for one year, wait for some shit to clean up, then make a move in 2015... which they did, and they did it effectively.

You obviously never took the time to read my assertions. I asserted that if Herm were worth half a **** at personnel he'd have found some depth for not a lot of money like Dorsey had. You turned that into high priced free agents for "meaningless wins." And you touted how Pioli was given the third overall pick as if it was something other than the team being a goddamned hot garbage ****ing cluster**** disaster.

This whole thread is about there was no cap space. The guys on the defense were old, save Poe Houston and Berry, who was not nearly as effective at the time as he is this season. The defense had just collapsed the whole season - capped off with the incredible playoff loss.

The offense was extremely limited. Smith was ineffective against better defenses and was over 30 (IIRC). And about 80% of the production came from 1 RB that was almost 30. The WR corps had ****all besides and old slow Bowe.

On the whole, most of the playmakers were old save a few young guys along with using a good chunk of the cap to get back to competitive. To top it all off we had just floundered on yet another playoff run.

The situation is not all that different from what Vermiel left. The cap in terms of being ****ed for the next year wasn't as bad, but Dorsey sold out to get the team not a total shit****, much like Vermiel sold out to win in the playoffs. And the offense wasn't as good as Vermeils and the defense wasn't as bad, but the defense couldn't hold a 28 point lead against a crap team. And all the offensive production came from a RB that is over the hill in RB standards.

Why no sledgehammer? Why is it perfectly acceptable for Herm to butt**** the franchise? Yet you aren't screaming for Dorsey to dump everybody worth a **** so we can "get young (shitty) guys snaps?

Why?

I think Direckshun is sweet. He's a sweet man. You hear that term when it's appropriate and I believe that it's appropriate here.

Perhaps we should start a poll?

He's Voyager

It's very clear who on here posts opinions because they NEED to be smarter than everyone else about the Chiefs. Their posts are all saturated with that agenda.

Being confident or even arrogant about a particular opinion is different. I don't see how people can see you as one trying to look down on others.

This offseason had a lot to do with that.

This year, instead of "projects" or "depth" we drafted two players who came in and started day 1.

Our 1st and 2nd round picks came in, played well, and erased big holes on this team.

THAT is getting value out of your draft. Just think how many games Peters has won for us. And Morse has been our most healthy lineman all year. Not only that but the rookie even played elsewhere on the line.

Unfortunately I'd say Reid has been our lost healthy lineman all year. Or Stephenson.

Funny how that works..

Dorsey had a team to build around. Despite your sob story about the roster he inherited, he had a decent amount of talent and most were young. He built the team through what he inherited (15 decent enough starters / 8 pro bowlers), several pricey free agents, a bold trade for a QB, lots of small but cap significant FA moves (e.g. Fasano, Mauga/Abdullah second contracts, etc...), and yes the draft/scrap haul. Herm/Kuharich could barely keep their own let alone sign FAs, so they had to rely only on draft/scrap pile. Dorsey/Reid is obviously better than Herm/Kuharich. That doesn't make Herm bad at personnel.

I never supported tanking. I support playing hard with the roster you have. But yeah, Getting 2-3 extra wins because of middling fixes that hurt your long-term cap, hurt your ability to see what you have in young players, and hurt your draft haul... those are meaningless wins. Band-aiding a roster that isn't competitive when you don't have a clean cap is your typical Carl Peterson "I'm going to put butts in seats move." I hated the idea in 2007. I hated it in 2014.

It's apples and oranges. Dorsey inherited a roster that could have been rebuilt while retooling. Herm inherited a roster that had to be sledgehammered. Period. He could have squeezed more out of the lemon in 2006. I don't agree. The Chiefs should have blown the team up sooner (in 2006).


Pioli didn't hand Dorsey a mess roster wise. Vermeil handed Herm an utter Titanic shipwreck disaster. There is no comparison. Not even close.
-2006 Chiefs team was $20M over the cap. 2013 Chiefs were $20M under the cap
-2006 Chiefs had less than 5 positional players under 30 good enough to make an NFL roster. Literally. 2013 Chiefs had about 15 solid enough starters already and 8 who made the 2014 pro bowl
-2006 Chiefs were the oldest roster in football by a mile. 2013 Chiefs were about average
-2006 Chiefs had a ton of money in terrible dead money contracts. Dorsey had little trouble purging most of the roster
-Dorsey was on the same page as Reid. Herm had to fight to take control out of Peterson, who was mucking everything up
And yes, the QB makes a huge difference regardless of your opinion on Alex Smith. Herm could have done the same thing and brought in Chad Pennington. He didn't. And I'm glad he didn't.

Direckshun is an idiot who shouldn't be allowed to start threads. Last year he wanted Dorsey fired:



http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=286391

you're welcome...

He starts the same threads on all the Chief boards it seems. Voyager 2.0

I'm good if he wants Dorsey fired or if he wants to praise him. But the dude does both. Too schizo