Chiefs are NFL's most disappointing team

[oaklandhater]

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...ontana-royals/


joe Montana is 59 years old, not far from Social Security.

The notion of Joe taking another NFL snap is, of course, ludicrous, but when he talks about the pass-happy NFL of today and how The League caters to quarterbacks and receivers, Montana has joked that he wouldn’t mind getting back behind center.

He sees wide receivers running free, unafraid.

He sees a vast land of opportunity, where only narrow swaths existed in his day.

Reporters ask Joe to compare, then and now. He obliges them.

Asked about the passing parties the NFL stages every Sunday, in particular, the shallow crossing routes that the Patriots and Packers and Chargers are using to great effect, Joe Cool all but said these kids need to get off his yard.

“If we’d tried that, the receiver wouldn’t have played another game for a month,” Montana told the Boston Herald's Ron Borges.

Every generation has its own challenges. Back when Montana last played, in the mid-1990s, his challenge was his own team. The Kansas City Chiefs. They almost never get it right at quarterback.

Sure, Len Dawson was a Hall of Famer. He helped them win a Super Bowl in 1970. An exception. The Chiefs surrounded Dawson with other Hall of Famers and Pro Bowlers. Many were defenders. Back then, the NFL was legal mayhem. Teams mugged each other. The quarterback was fair game. Last man standing wins.

The Chiefs have never made it back to the Super Bowl. There are many reasons for it. Near the top of the list is the quarterback problem. And as quarterbacks have become even more outsized in their impact on the games, the Chiefs have never really got it right.

This year, they’re in a familiar spot. Quarterback jail.

Good-guy Alex Smith, God bless him, is not getting it done though he is, or was, until of late, a cut above what the Chiefs typically have trotted out behind center. The San Diegan looks spooked. He’s taken more sacks than any other AFC quarterback. Defenses are again daring him to beat them downfield, and he’s not making them back off.

A new receiver who cost the Chiefs a lot of money, Jeremy Maclin, has helped. He has dropped only one pass in 40 chances. A young tight end, Travis Kelse, is a playmaker from the Gronk Lite mold.

But the offense was built around the running back, Jamaal Charles, and that usually doesn’t work so great in this era. When Charles was lost for the season two games ago, the Chiefs went on to blow a game, at home to the Bears. Charles was having his struggles. He fumbled twice against the Broncos, in another game the Chiefs tossed in the trash can at Arrowhead Stadium.

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The Chiefs are 1-5. Kansas Citians have another team to cheer, the Royals, who are on the verge of making it two World Series trips in two years. Missouri has gone from red state to blue state.

So, even with a talented defense, it looks like the Chiefs’ streak of playoff futility will stretch for another year.

The Chiefs last won a playoff game after the 1993 season.

Montana was their quarterback. He led them past the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston, then known as the Oilers.

Then came the AFC Championhip Game in frigid Buffalo. Twelve degrees, wind chill. Montana looked older than his 37 years and the Bills pasted him and the Chiefs, 30-13.

The Chiefs haven’t gone back to the AFC title game. They’ve not won any playoff games. It can be done, but probably won’t until they get a snappier quarterback who can pile up all those yards and points that are there to be got every Sunday.