Why people are disappointed: Exhibit A - Talent Evaluation

[OnTheWarpath15]

Since there seems to be several myths, excuses and some flat-out lies about why some folks are pissed off about this team right now, I thought I'd put together a few threads explaining, as clearly as I can, where people are coming from.

One of the bigger excuses is the infamous, "Pioli inherited a shitty team."

Let me make this clear: I do not disagree.

However, that doesn't excuse the Executive of the Decade for the team being no better now than it was this time last year - and you could make an argument that it is worse.

And one of the reasons why this team still sucks is simple:

The Executive of the Decade missed BADLY on talent evaluation.



I just spent a few minutes researching the transactions Pioli has made since taking the job, and it's even worse than I originally thought.

Counting draft picks, trades and signings, Pioli is responsible for FORTY FIVE new players to this organization.

And of these 45, it's fair to say that only Succop and Chambers are clear upgrades to their predecessors.

Two. Out of forty-five.

That's a whopping 4% success rate.



I'm sorry, but blaming Herm here is ridiculous. The best players on this team are Herm's players.

Looking at the current roster - including the active roster, PS and IR - 54% of the players currently in this organization are Pioli's.

Exactly half of the current starting 22 are Pioli's.

And this team is ONE win better than a 2008 squad that featured Tyler ****ing Thigpen at QB, and employed Gunther Cunningham as the DC.

With the majority being Pioli's hand-picked players.



Let the excuses flow like fine wine.

Discus.

This ought to be fun - let's hit that Millionth post.

[SDChiefs]

Originally Posted by BossChief

ummmmm what?

Im saying you build to your strengths. Period.

They could make plays to suit the strengths of both. Just because a guy is fast doesn't mean Cassel can't hit him on a crossing route. Then if a big arm QB comes in they could be a deep threat. I don't believe you take the slower guy just because Cassel can't throw downfield.

[Mecca]

Anyone who thinks this is going well and fully supports it answer this question...

Why do you hire a head coach who employs a downfield passing attack and then trade for a QB who's worst attribute is throwing downfield?

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Positivity does not exist in this dojo, does it?

If thats the case this dojo would not be in balance, is that not true?

[Chiefnj2]

I'm sure people in Dallas didn't see much, if any, improvement after Jimmy Johnson's first year, or when Parcells finished his first season with a worse record than Perkins, or when Noll finished with a worse record than Austen.

If you think Pioli sucks and you don't have any hope for the future, why waste the next 4 years of your life involved in something that infuriates and angers you so much?

[Mecca]

Seriously someone answer my question, I'd love to see the rationale for it because frankly it doesn't make any sense.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Seriously someone answer my question, I'd love to see the rationale for it because frankly it doesn't make any sense.

Talk about a strawman... geez, even the heartiest of homers would never say that things 'are going well', 'full support', 'every decision a diamond!'.

You want a black/white answer... Worst Regime Ever/Best Regime Ever.

[BossChief]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

Uh, you might have mis-remembered, there.

Just because the media was determined to make him the greatest thing ever, doesn't mean he was.

The defense that year was responsible for a ridiculous number of points, and we're reason 1 why that team made the playoffs.

I vague remember a game where VY had thrown for under 100 yards, and a few INT's - and Tennessee won the game because they had 2-3 defensive TD's and/or a ST touchdown.

So, Vince never won games in the final minute or two? His ability to run didnt deter teams from running too much man coverage or else risk getting burned by him? Cmon man, give the kid his props. The Titans were 0-6 and are undefeated since he was inserted into the lineup and are in the ****ing playoff picture! At the end of the day, its about winning games right? He does that and makes the games fun to watch...I think he will get things tightened up and become a guy in consideration for league mvp a couple times in his career, Im sure people will discount that too. Well see. I see a better version of Dante Cullpepper in the kid.

Originally Posted by SDChiefs

They could make plays to suit the strengths of both. Just because a guy is fast doesn't mean Cassel can't hit him on a crossing route. Then if a big arm QB comes in they could be a deep threat. I don't believe you take the slower guy just because Cassel can't throw downfield.

You dont pass on a elite talent like Crabtree because he doesnt have great speed either. A lot of/Most of the great receivers in history haven't had great speed.

I think Crabtree has enough speed to make himself a effective deep threat, but will live off the crossing routes and possession situations...and the end zone.

[bigbucks24]

OK. So I've been trying to build this house for years. I hired a contractor and he build part of the house but it looked like shit and was ready to fall down. He told me he would have to tear it down and start again. So I let him and a year later, he had built nothing. So I fired him and brought in a new contractor. He was a pretty famous carpenter and had won some Carpenter of the Year awards so I figured he'd be a good contractor. Afterall, he knows what the heck he's doing. He told me it would be a long process to build a great house and that I should be patient. I was excited as hell. Award winning, great contractor was going to build me an awesome house. 11 months later, I look at my lot and nothign is build. No foundation, no studs, nothing. In fact, most of the crap from the last contractor was still there, lying around. He had hauled a couple of piles of trash away, but he had also throw away some stuff that I thought he could have used. I asked him what was going on. He told me, "It takes awhile to get the lay of the land. Afterall, I wasn't here last year. All I had was pictures of the lot and blueprints from the last contractor." "Besides" he tells me, "I had to move my family and set up a new company, find an office, hire a secretary, buy a computer and more stuff." I guess the first year was just about getting things going and getting a feel for my land. Should I have expected more out of my amazing contractor?

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

Really? Look around, man.

I have looked around. It reminds me of when you called me out for saying that Sanchez supporters were starting shit. You were absolutely right--it was the anti-Sanchez guys usually starting the shit. And I didn't realize it until you told me that. In the same way, if you look around this thread, there's maybe 1 or 2 people who are throwing outright support for Pioli. For the majority of people, they're disappointed, but willing to wait one offseason before they make a final judgment.

I think if you looked around, you'd be pleasantly surprised that that level of homerism isnt nearly as rampant here as you might think.

Who's saying he WILL NOT get better?

There's a big difference between saying that his actions (or lack thereof) in 2009 wouldn't lead one to believe in a huge turnaround in 2010 - and flat-out saying, "NO WAY this guy get this thing on track."

I see a lot of people saying he BETTER get his head out of his ass, not that his head is absolutely going to stay firmly planted there.

I made some comments that with better staff, he might do a better job in 2010 and got railed for it. There are a few people who believe his head is firmly in his ass. I'm probably guilty of overgeneralizing on this one too.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by bigbucks24

OK. So I've been trying to build this house for years. I hired a contractor and he build part of the house but it looked like shit and was ready to fall down. He told me he would have to tear it down and start again. So I let him and a year later, he had built nothing. So I fired him and brought in a new contractor. He was a pretty famous carpenter and had won some Carpenter of the Year awards so I figured he'd be a good contractor. Afterall, he knows what the heck he's doing. He told me it would be a long process to build a great house and that I should be patient. I was excited as hell. Award winning, great contractor was going to build me an awesome house. 11 months later, I look at my lot and nothign is build. No foundation, no studs, nothing. In fact, most of the crap from the last contractor was still there, lying around. He had hauled a couple of piles of trash away, but he had also throw away some stuff that I thought he could have used. I asked him what was going on. He told me, "It takes awhile to get the lay of the land. Afterall, I wasn't here last year. All I had was pictures of the lot and blueprints from the last contractor." "Besides" he tells me, "I had to move my family and set up a new company, find an office, hire a secretary, buy a computer and more stuff." I guess the first year was just about getting things going and getting a feel for my land. Should I have expected more out of my amazing contractor?

I love analogies. Let me play around. What if the contractor you hired had several electricians on that staff who were known for sloppy work? Or carpenters who were known to be so sloppy that they spent more time correcting mistakes rather than building things. My response would be: "get those guys the **** away from my foundation." The secretaries, staff, etc... are one thing. But your specialists like carpenters? I want the right guys for the job. Otherwise I'll spend way more time fixing their mistakes. But the analogy is also flawed. I would never hire the guy in the first place until he had a staff in place and if I did, shame on me. The NFL and corporate America doesn't have that luxury.

The more appropriate analogy is a company like GM. Let's assume it's 2008. Before they declared bankruptcy. There are two approaches to fixing GM. You can take a shotgun approach, immediately act on pressing issues, and adjust later if you make mistakes. Or... you can take it slow, think through the problem, prioritize your strategies, and get the right people in place before you roll in fast forward. In most of corporate America, they use the latter approach. At GM, do you want the same idiots who screwed the company up to be the ones who are also helping you dig the company out of the grave? And given the bureaucracy of the company, don't you want the entire company working under the same vision as opposed to your operations guys focusing on cutting costs, your finance guys focusing on growing the company, and your marketing guys focusing on more expensive customer service? There are lots of great ways to immediately bump up the stock price, but the only way to get the company moving is to get the entire organization to move in one specific vision and to have the foundation and structure to make things happen.

And if you're an accountability guy like Pioli, do you want a bunch of scouts on your staff who don't care about deadlines, were never really pushed hard to have relentless work ethics, and maybe aren't the most talented guys you would hire for yourself?

I really don't care that we didn't make a big splash in the free agency market last year. I don't mind taking it slow. But that being said, he has to earn our trust that he knows what he's doing and it has to happen this offseason.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

In the same way, if you look around this thread, there's maybe 1 or 2 people who are throwing outright support for Pioli. For the majority of people, they're disappointed, but willing to wait one offseason before they make a final judgment.

What I find most annoying are claims to the effect of, "Pioli is building this thing the right way."

When pressed as to why and what he's building, there are no specific answers given, just a return to cliches or to personal jabs about message board GMs.

I'm sincerely interested in how we're supposed to have anything more than blind faith in this guy based on the level of stupidity we've seen out of him thus far in KC.

People have alluded to other rebuilding processes, like Dallas in '89, but the foundation that was set there is nothing like what's happened here.

[bigbucks24]

Good point, Zilla. All analogies are flawed, but it was fun. I don't want my GM coming in making stupid decisions without a thought. But I also don't want my GM to have paralysis by analysis. I want my GM to plan and organize and make good decisions quickly. You might actually turn GM around, but unless you make some good decisions soon, you may go bankrupt before you get a chance for the process to work. And no, I am not a Gen X, Gen Y or Milleniumer. I am a Baby Boomer. I understand patience.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

What I find most annoying are claims to the effect of, "Pioli is building this thing the right way."

When pressed as to why and what he's building, there are no specific answers given, just a return to cliches or to personal jabs about message board GMs.

I'm sincerely interested in how we're supposed to have anything more than blind faith in this guy based on the level of stupidity we've seen out of him thus far in KC.

People have alluded to other rebuilding processes, like Dallas in '89, but the foundation that was set there is nothing like what's happened here.

I don't think anyone's saying he's building it the right way. I've seen no proof to suggest that he is so far.

But on the same token, it's way too soon to say he's building it the wrong way. And I think a lot of people are on that road right now.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I have looked around. It reminds me of when you called me out for saying that Sanchez supporters were starting shit. You were absolutely right--it was the anti-Sanchez guys usually starting the shit. And I didn't realize it until you told me that. In the same way, if you look around this thread, there's maybe 1 or 2 people who are throwing outright support for Pioli. For the majority of people, they're disappointed, but willing to wait one offseason before they make a final judgment.

I think if you looked around, you'd be pleasantly surprised that that level of homerism isnt nearly as rampant here as you might think.


I made some comments that with better staff, he might do a better job in 2010 and got railed for it. There are a few people who believe his head is firmly in his ass. I'm probably guilty of overgeneralizing on this one too.

That is where I am coming from. Pioli has made some mistakes no doubt about it but IMHO he has earned the right to have a honeymoon to turn this organization around. But at the same time every year that we don't get back to the playoffs the smaller the benefit of the doubt he gets but this year he gets a Free Pass card.

I understand others don't feel the same way but that doesn't mean they are wrong or I am wrong we just disagree.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I don't think anyone's saying he's building it the right way. I've seen no proof to suggest that he is so far.

But on the same token, it's way too soon to say he's building it the wrong way. And I think a lot of people are on that road right now.

I don't necessarily think people are saying he's building it the wrong way - more along the lines of not building at all.

45 players in and out of here, and not one core player that can be built upon - no pass rusher, no playmaking WR's, no game changing LB's, no franchise QB - nothing.

Unless you want to argue that Tyson Jackson is going to be an impact player, a true gamechanger for years to come - in which case I'm going to go grab a bottle of Makers Mark.