Posnanski:Croyle is too fragile to be the Chiefs’ answer at quarterback

[Tribal Warfare]

Croyle is too fragile to be the Chiefs’ answer at quarterback

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. | Football is, at heart, a cold-blooded game. It’s easy to forget that because in the NFL, vicious hits are set to music and shoulders ripped from sockets are merely “separated” (leaving open a possibility for a reconciliation), and pain is reduced to those harmless-sounding words, ”questionable,” “doubtful” and “probable.”

In this heartless game, you need a quarterback who can get back up. That’s just a fact. It isn’t fair to blame the quarterback for suffering nasty injuries. It isn’t politically correct. But football isn’t a PC game. Sunday afternoon, the Chiefs were at the New England 5-yard line at the end with a chance to score a touchdown and tie the game, a chance to shock everyone, a chance to stick it in the faces of all those critics who called them the pits, a chance to laugh at all those people who bet the unbeatable New England Patriots to win by more than 15 points.

And the Chiefs’ quarterback of the future, the guy they’re building this whole thing around, the man who needed to be on the field at that key moment — Brodie Croyle — was on the sideline because of a shoulder injury.

In the end, nobody outside Kansas City cared, of course. The Patriots held on, beat the Chiefs 17-10, and the Chiefs showed a few positive signs, the Patriots showed a few cracks, but the only story on anyone’s mind Sunday was that the Patriots’ (and America’s) quarterback Tom Brady hurt his knee.

Some thought it happened on a dirty play by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard, some thought it was just bad luck (that was the way I saw it), some suspected Brady would be out for the year, some thought he would be back next week, some figured the Patriots would collapse without him, some thought they would be just fine, back and forth, on and on, forever.

But, to be ruthless about it — football is a ruthless game — that’s the Patriots’ problem. To steal Mel Brooks’ line about the difference between tragedy and comedy: Tragedy is your quarterback getting hurt. Comedy is the other guy’s quarterback getting hurt.

The Chiefs’ quarterback, Brodie Croyle, got hurt. Again. This was the third time in seven starts that Croyle got hurt. Three for seven makes for a lousy injury average.

Thing is, Croyle has spent a lifetime getting hurt on football fields. He blew out his knee in high school. He separated his shoulder and got two ribs busted his sophomore year in college, then blew out his other knee his junior year. Last year, in his first home start, he hurt his back against Oakland and missed the next game. He hurt his hand at Detroit trying to make a tackle and couldn’t finish the game.

In the third quarter on Sunday, New England linebacker Adalius Thomas sacked Brodie and drove his right shoulder hard into the turf. Croyle grabbed for his shoulder immediately. He walked gingerly to the sideline, with his right arm dangling on the side. He threw one pass to test the shoulder and quickly shook his head no. He was done. Backup Damon Huard went into the game, threw a touchdown pass, led the Chiefs to the shadow of overtime and, well, you know the rest.

Now the Chiefs have to face up to something very real: The chosen quarterback, Brodie Croyle, cannot stay healthy. It isn’t his fault — this isn’t a toughness question. Everyone says the guy is as tough as a Ford truck. But the harsh reality is that his body, for whatever reason, cannot stand up to the NFL pounding. And you can’t build a football team around a quarterback who cannot stay on the field.

“Maybe he’s just unlucky,” one teammate says.

There’s no maybe about it. Croyle has talent. He has a good arm, and he has a pretty quick release, and he has a presence. That’s what everyone with the Chiefs wants to talk about when discussing Croyle. His abilities. The way he handles the huddle. The throws he can make. That’s great. But those are not the things that get you through in this violent game.

No, what made Brett Favre great wasn’t his arm or his gunslinger attitude, it was that he was able to be there every single week, no matter what kind of pounding he took, no matter how ferociously he was hit, no matter how many times he got blindsided. The same goes for John Elway and Dan Marino and Peyton Manning and, up to Sunday, Tom Brady. The one thing every great quarterback shared is that they started games. And they finished them.

That takes more than toughness, and it takes more than heart. You also need luck, a body that will not break, a mind that can ignore the obvious dangers that are all around.

Here’s a name for you: Greg Cook. Have you heard of him? Bill Walsh, the man who coached Joe Montana, said Greg Cook could have been the greatest quarterback who ever lived. As you know, that did not happen. Cook played one year in the NFL, was chosen Rookie of the Year, but badly hurt his shoulder. He threw only three more passes for the rest of his career. That’s the harshness of the game.

And right now, it looks more and more that Brodie Croyle simply cannot take the NFL pounding. The Chiefs’ young team did show promise Sunday. The defense played a high-energy game, and Turk McBride was often unblockable. The offense looked more organized than the last couple of years, and if Devard Darling could run a little faster or Dwayne Bowe could have made a catch, the game would have gone to overtime.

But in the end, plainly, you need a quarterback you can count on to go anywhere in this league. The Chiefs said they would test Croyle’s shoulder today, see the seriousness of the injury.

“He’s so tough, I’ll bet he will be back sooner than anyone thinks,” Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez says.

Maybe. Nobody questions Croyle’s heart. It’s his shoulder … and knees … and back. In the end, those things matter just as much as the heart.

[FAX]

I struggle to understand the Herm apologists' perspective on this game. This contest was not lost due to lack of talent. The mistakes notwithstanding, our guys could have (and probably should have) won this one. The outcome turned on a poor offensive performance that was primarily fueled by Solarideux playcalling. The R2P2 scheme does not compensate for lack of player ability and shouting does not make it so.

Adding insult to the injury are Herm's statements that we're going to do things on offense that take advantage of the talent on the field. Nothing ... nothing could be further from the truth.

I fear that Herm is taking us down a very, long road that will end nowhere.

FAX

[Chiefnj2]

Originally Posted by FAX

I struggle to understand the Herm apologists' perspective on this game. This contest was not lost due to lack of talent. The mistakes notwithstanding, our guys could have (and probably should have) won this one. The outcome turned on a poor offensive performance that was primarily fueled by Solarideux playcalling. The R2P2 scheme does not compensate for lack of player ability and shouting does not make it so.

Adding insult to the injury are Herm's statements that we're going to do things on offense that take advantage of the talent on the field. Nothing ... nothing could be further from the truth.

I fear that Herm is taking us down a very, long road that will end nowhere.

FAX

People don't want to hear it, but part of the problem is the drafting. You've got to to balance best player available with position of need. KC doesn't need to be 5 HB deep and someone like Morgan isn't doing much good on the bench. A few more picks mid draft on the OL would have helped a lot.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj2

People don't want to hear it, but part of the problem is the drafting. You've got to to balance best player available with position of need. KC doesn't need to be 5 HB deep and someone like Morgan isn't doing much good on the bench. A few more picks mid draft on the OL would have helped a lot.

You raise a very good point, Mr. Chiefnj2. Clearly, we're top heavy at RB (pretty deep there, as well). But, I think some of that is, frankly, accidental. I'm not sure Herm's staff knew how well some of these guys would ultimately perform. Now we have so many good ones, Herm can't leave them home.

When it comes to the draft, I'm more of a BPA person. I'm sure that Herm and his band of morons are making the best decisions they can in terms of personnel and, so far, I can't argue with Herm's drafts. The jury is well out on most of these guys. Still, the OL is a good example of the flaws in our current approach.

It's pretty logical. Without a good OL, you can't do much on offense. If you can't do much on offense, the young skill players will not progress (or as quickly). If the young skill players do not progress, we suck much longer than is necessary. Not only that, you can get your young skill players killed.

But, if you OL sucks and you're stuck with it, the last thing you want to do is tell the enemy defense what you're going to do before you do it. Or, simply run the same play over and over so the enemy can get plenty of practice banging your head into the turf.

I'm not convinced that Herm is "all that" when it comes to the draft and player development. He may be, and we'll all find out eventually. In the meantime, he isn't doing himself or his players any favors with his offensive philosophy.

It's puzzling, frankly. I've been doing some research on the T2 or C2 defense. It was originally designed to counter the West Coast offense and actually came from the old Steeler defensive scheme. The basic (and I emphasize for Mr. Zouk the term, "basic") idea is to keep the play in front of you, force the enemy offense to dink and dunk their way down field via long drives, and get them to either turn the ball over (the C2 is also about hard hitting CBs and lots of good QB pressure from the DL), or make a mistake and punt.

Interestingly, that is exactly Herm's proven, demonstrable, offensive philosophy. So, we have a guy who believes fully in the C2 defense, but plays offense in the exact, same way he thinks provides the defense with the overall advantage. Odd.

FAX

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj2

People don't want to hear it, but part of the problem is the drafting. You've got to to balance best player available with position of need. KC doesn't need to be 5 HB deep and someone like Morgan isn't doing much good on the bench. A few more picks mid draft on the OL would have helped a lot.

Really?

Like who?

Here's a list of guys drafted in Rounds 2-5 that were consistently mentioned around here:

Mike Pollack
Cody Wallace
Kory Lichtensteiger
Chilo Rachal
Jeremy Zuttah
Chad Rinehart
Oneil Cousins
Mike McGlynn
Roy Schuening
John Greco
Anthony Collins
Tony Hills
Carl Nicks


Not ONE of them is starting for their respective teams. And if you go look at each team's depth chart, you'll be amazed what kind of "talent" they are sitting behind.

None of them would have helped THIS year.

[ChiefsCountry]

RB was pure luck from UDFA.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj2

People don't want to hear it, but part of the problem is the drafting. You've got to to balance best player available with position of need. KC doesn't need to be 5 HB deep and someone like Morgan isn't doing much good on the bench. A few more picks mid draft on the OL would have helped a lot.

In a lot of cases that's true, but I don't think it is the case, especially at RT. Given the performance of Herb on the left side and Richardson in preseason, with the amount of suck McIntosh has laid out there, its amazing to me that they don't give either one of those two at least a shot and put McIntosh as a backup on the left where he wants to be.

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