Star rips Carl and Herm over Sims

[Hammock Parties]

Rippin' Carl! Rippin' Herm!

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/chi...ry/590987.html

He dropped himself onto a chair in a crowded sports bar in Atlanta. He was surrounded by the hopeful, mostly family and friends. His father sat to his right, his agent to his left. A cell phone was on the table in front of him.

Ryan Sims wore a black suit with pinstripes on that April morning, when the group gathered to watch the 2002 NFL draft. Sims was a defensive tackle from the University of North Carolina. He was confident that morning he would be a top-10 draft pick. But Sims’ father, Ronnie, had heard bad things about some teams. There were a handful of franchises Ronnie Sims would just as soon pass on his son — even if they had a high pick.


“There are certain teams that you’re hoping don’t draft your kid,” Ronnie Sims says now. “And Kansas City was one of them.”


Ryan Sims’ phone rang. He flipped it open and pressed it to his right ear. One of the teams Ronnie Sims had heard about was on the other line.


Ryan Sims slid on a Chiefs hat and smiled anyway.


•••

The Chiefs need a sure thing. Six years have passed since the Chiefs traded up to grab Sims with the No. 6 overall pick, a mistake that cost the franchise and Sims for years. It is a mistake the Chiefs cannot afford to repeat when this year’s draft starts Saturday.


Whether they like it or not, reminders of Sims — and the pitfalls of repeating such a mistake — will be all around them.


They have the No. 5 overall pick, their highest since taking Sims. But now, the stakes are higher. They have two first-round picks and 13 choices overall. Coach Herm Edwards wants at least five starters out of this year’s crop, and he implied this week that some coaches and executives might not be around to patch the holes if they don’t get it right this time.


The Chiefs drafted Sims in 2002 because they thought he would be a starter for five, maybe 10 years. Instead, the player they thought was the sure thing wound up taking up space on the roster for five seasons. The Chiefs dumped him last year, trading Sims for a seventh-round pick.


“We thought we solved the problems for many years ahead,” says Dick Vermeil, the Chiefs coach in 2002.


The decision produced a residual effect that still reverberates at Arrowhead Stadium and beyond. The Chiefs still have questions at defensive tackle. The selection elicited criticism of Chiefs president/general manager Carl Peterson’s player evaluation skills. After Sims was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year, the Chiefs were responsible for $1 million of Sims’ signing bonus, money spent paying for nothing but a mistake.


Vermeil thought Sims was a “can’t miss.” Now he’s a 27-year-old backup lineman who might have already peaked. He hasn’t started a game since 2005 and has missed 28 games in six seasons because of injuries. It started that day in April 2002, when the wrong team drafted the wrong player.

“It stunted his growth tremendously,” says Ronnie Sims, himself a former pro athlete. “Ryan was glad to be up out of there. He was like, ‘I don’t care what they give me; they can give me a jersey.’ He was just glad he got out of Kansas City.”


•••

A year after they selected Sims, the Chiefs drafted another defensive tackle. A year later, they chose another one. And another in 2007.
In three of five drafts since 2002, the Chiefs have spent at least one selection trying to make up for the Ryan Sims mistake. Peterson says the financial burdens are stiff for a draft-day bust, but the worst residual effect of drafting Sims was that the Chiefs paid him $9.75 million in guarantees and received no certainty or longevity at defensive tackle.


“If I could have gone back and taken that pick back and done someone else, I’ve got to say, ‘Absolutely, yes,’ ” Peterson says. “You’ve got to be able to live with that decision for some time.”


Drafting Sims came down to hearsay and a scouting breakdown. Sims played alongside Julius Peppers at North Carolina and was strong and quick — with 11 sacks his final two years. John Bunting, Sims’ college coach, sold Vermeil that Sims, not Peppers, was the star of the Tar Heels’ line. Some said Sims would be the next Warren Sapp.


“I don’t think there’s any flaws,” Vermeil said of Sims at the time.
The Chiefs had the No. 8 overall pick in 2002. It wasn’t high enough to get their man. Kansas City traded two draft picks to the Dallas Cowboys to move up two spots after Chiefs executives heard the Minnesota Vikings, sitting at No. 7, were going to draft Sims.


By picking Sims, the Chiefs passed on tackles John Henderson (No. 9 overall) and Albert Haynesworth (No. 15), who have combined to play in three Pro Bowls.


Peterson admits it was a mistake to draft Sims — “It was probably a reach,” he says — but says he does not regret passing on Henderson and Haynesworth, who carried character concerns before the 2002 draft.


But Vermeil says it might have been worth taking a chance on one of them. How could it have turned out worse for the Chiefs?


“If there was a mistake made,” Vermeil says, “we’re the ones who made it.”


•••

Two weeks before the 2002 draft, Ronnie Sims began hearing whispers. Agents were calling to warn Ryan Sims that three teams had reputations. The Cincinnati Bengals were cheap, Ronnie Sims was told. The Seattle Seahawks would be a bad fit. The warnings about the Chiefs were simple, Ronnie Sims says: Kansas City’s general manager was Carl Peterson.

Ronnie Sims says he heard Peterson was an unfair negotiator and that he tried to sign high draft picks for less than their value.


But then Ryan Sims’ cell phone rang, and he sat in that sports bar and smiled wide because he was going to play for the Chiefs.


“At the time,” Ronnie Sims says, “the kid was just happy to be drafted.”


Months later, though, the sides reached a financial impasse. Training camp began, and Ryan Sims wasn’t there. Then the preseason games started, and Sims still wasn’t there. More than a month after the preseason began, Sims signed a five-year contract with the Chiefs. What happened between draft day and signing day remains up for debate, and some hard feelings remain.


Peterson says Sims’ agent, Hadley Engelhard, made unrealistic contract demands and was “foolish” to hold Sims out of camp. Peterson says he reminded Engelhard that the longer a player holds out, the more likely he is to be injured when the regular season begins.


“Without question,” Peterson says, “his agent was extremely difficult.”


Ronnie Sims says Peterson was unreasonable and refused to discuss what the Sims side thought was an appropriate deal.

“He was trying to offer No. 8 or 9 pick money,” Ronnie Sims says. “If I’ve got stock worth $20, you’re not going to give me $10 for it.”


Sims signed on Aug. 28, 2002, more than five months after the Chiefs made him their top pick. Sims was overweight, and Vermeil told reporters Sims was unfit to play because he was “fat and out of shape.”

Sims started two games before he dislocated an elbow and missed the rest of the season. Six months after they drafted Sims, the Chiefs already had regrets.

“It’s just like buying a Mercedes with a bad rear end; it doesn’t run real good,” Vermeil says now. “But you’ve spent a lot of money on it.”


The elbow was the first of many injuries to Sims, who Peterson maintains might have avoided such a fate if he had reported to training camp on time. Regardless, Sims’ elbow injury started a chain reaction that led to more injuries, which led to a label that he was unsuited to playing regularly in the NFL.


When Vermeil left the Chiefs after the 2005 season, Herm Edwards took over. Ronnie Sims says Edwards misled Ryan Sims and lied to him about his future in Kansas City. When the topic of Sims was brought up to Edwards last week, the Chiefs coach rolled his eyes and said he would not comment on the former first-round pick.

“I’ll leave that one alone,” Edwards says.


But Ronnie Sims is outspoken about his son’s time here. He says Ryan Sims received substandard coaching, and executives blamed Sims for not being the team’s salvation. Once Ryan Sims was traded, his father says, his play and attitude improved. It took five years, Ronnie Sims says, for his son to settle in at a place and feel wanted — and that place was not Kansas City.

“They would tell you one thing, and then they would go behind your back and tell you something else,” Ronnie Sims says. “I don’t operate like that.

“Trust me, there’s a reason why people want out of Kansas City. It’s got to be Carl, I guess. It’s got to be something. Every guy I know who left Kansas City and was on another team, they’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m glad I got out of Kansas City.’ ”


•••

Peterson sits behind his desk at Arrowhead Stadium and stares at a paper that contains some of Ryan Sims’ statistics.


Peterson leans back and reads aloud the number of starts Sims made for the Chiefs.


“Thirty-six of fifty-nine games,” Peterson says, dropping the paper back on his desk.


He shakes his head and doesn’t say anything for a long time. Then he looks up.


“I can blame it on player personnel,” he says. “I can blame it on coaches. I can blame it on myself.”


Six years after one of the worst draft picks in Chiefs history, there remain as many questions toward future drafts as there is blame for the 2002 draft. As a result of what happened the last time the Chiefs had a top-10 pick, some fans distrust Peterson and the Chiefs’ scouting department.


Peterson hasn’t forgotten what missing on Sims did to the franchise. Few will let him forget it. So all he can do now is sit behind a desk and shake his head at a decision Peterson admits was far from a one-year mistake.

Ronnie Sims says he had his concerns the Chiefs were a bad fit. Looking back, he says, both sides would have been wise to avoid each other.

“What Ryan knows now,” Ronnie Sims says, “he wishes Kansas City hadn’t drafted him. And I’m sure they wish they hadn’t drafted him, too.”

[vailpass]

There are going to be some nervous top draft picks when it comes time for the the KC pick.

Long: "God please don't let my phone ring"
Gholston: "Please, please don't pick me"
Ryan: "If I don't answer the phone will they pick someone else?"

[siberian khatru]

Originally Posted by PastorMikH

FWIW, Carl has had 3 top 10 picks, and though he may have stunk on the last one, the first two were great picks. Also, I tend to think part of the problem with Sims was DV and his staff. They couldn't pick a D-player for squat. If Allen hadn't been a long-snapper prospect they probably would have blown that one too.

Maybe I'm zoning out, but who was the third top-10 pick beyond DT and Sims?

[brent102fire]

If Ryan Sims is so good, he should have broken into the starting lineup in TB last year...

[cdcox]

I thought is was a good article. Plenty of blame to go around with both the Chiefs and Sims.

If you put all the responsibility on the player, then why do you even need coaches? The job of the Chiefs was to get the best play possible out of Sims. That entails recognizing his strengths and weaknesses, his personality quirks, etc., and then doing what ever necessary to maximize his potential. The Chiefs failed as an organization in that regard.

[StcChief]

Originally Posted by vailpass

There are going to be some nervous top draft picks when it comes time for the the KC pick.

Long: "God please don't let my phone ring"
Gholston: "Please, please don't pick me"
Ryan: "If I don't answer the phone will they pick someone else?"

yeah as if Dungver is in great shape

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by StcChief

yeah as if Dungver is in great shape

In a recent poll 100 out of 100 NFL players stated they would rather play for Denver than KC under Carl Peterson.

In what was perhaps an even more telling result, in the same survey a control group of NFL players unanimously stated they would rather have a rusty nail driven through the tip of their cock than play for Carl Peterson.

[stlchiefs]

Originally Posted by cdcox

I thought is was a good article. Plenty of blame to go around with both the Chiefs and Sims.

If you put all the responsibility on the player, then why do you even need coaches? The job of the Chiefs was to get the best play possible out of Sims. That entails recognizing his strengths and weaknesses, his personality quirks, etc., and then doing what ever necessary to maximize his potential. The Chiefs failed as an organization in that regard.

So it doesn't matter that another team hasn't been able to get anything out of the guy either?

Here's a Good breakdown of Sim's for you, I'm sure it's similar to what KC came up with:
Strengths: double fisting bearclaws, slurping twinkie filling like a Hoover
Weaknesses: sweets, working out, running, effort
Personality Quirks: has a sweet tooth, loves to eat, hates to work, blames others for his failures, vagina toe

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by vailpass

In a recent poll 100 out of 100 NFL players stated they would rather play for Denver than KC under Carl Peterson.

In what was perhaps an even more telling result, in the same survey a control group of NFL players unanimously stated they would rather have a rusty nail driven through the tip of their cock than play for Carl Peterson.

QFT....

VP nails it on the head...

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by stlchiefs

So it doesn't matter that another team hasn't been able to get anything out of the guy either?

Here's a Good breakdown of Sim's for you, I'm sure it's similar to what KC came up with:
Strengths: double fisting bearclaws, slurping twinkie filling like a Hoover
Weaknesses: sweets, working out, running, effort
Personality Quirks: has a sweet tooth, loves to eat, hates to work, blames others for his failures, vagina toe

So your saying that it was all Ryan Sims....

Nothing to do with our Coaching staffs? GM? etc?

Homer glasses removed, There is plenty of blame for both sides. Our organization cant develop talent, and the talent they chose, cant be developed...

Cant fault Sims for everything...

[Frazod]

Carl v. Sims is sort of like the Battle of Stalingrad - there are no good guys.

One gone.

Hopefully the other one will be gone this time next year.

And perhaps they'll slowly roast on the same spit in hell together.

[Rain Man]

I wonder if our pick will just let the call go into voice mail.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by siberian khatru

Maybe I'm zoning out, but who was the third top-10 pick beyond DT and Sims?

Closest would be Gonzo [and Percy Snow] at 13. Then there was Tait at 14. Carl wasn't here for Neil Smith at 2.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

Closest would be Gonzo at 13. Carl wasn't here for Neil Smith.

We got Morris at 12, IIRC. Another massive bust.

[BigChiefFan]

I undertsand the hate on Peterson-he's a butthole, but Ronnie Sims sounds like sour grapes-I'm sure Carl did low-ball them, but Sims did get paid and then he still stunk. Mr. Twinkies needs to -he's a BUST.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by frazod

We got Morris at 12, IIRC. Another massive bust.

Close, Mr. Dyslexia - it was 21.