Pioli offers an excuse

[DaWolf]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

You can sit here and preach "patience" as much as you want. But OTHER teams find impact players in the first year of a new regime. OTHER teams find rookies that contribute in some way in their first year.

That's a blanket statement that didn't really play out for "regime change" teams in 2009:

2008 Lions: 0-16
2009 Lions: 2-14

2008 Bucs: 9-7
2009 Bucs: 3-13

2008 Seahawks: 4-12
2009 Seahawks: 5-11

2008 Rams: 2-14
2009 Rams: 1-15

2008 Browns: 4-12
2009 Browns: 5-11

2008 Donx: 8-8
2009 Donx: 8-8

2008 Chiefs: 2-14
2009 Chiefs: 4-12

Sometimes teams catch lightning in a bottle and turn around quickly like the Falcons and Dolphins in '08, but it doesn't always happen so quickly, and due to many factors, be it the availability (or lack of) of impact talent in '09, the financial state of the game, personnel miscalculations, whatever it was, bad teams who went out and changed the guys running the team didn't really improve very much. The only two "bad" teams that really turned it around were Cincinnati and Green Bay, and both of those teams maintained stability in leadership...