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M-I-Z S-E-C
Join Date: Apr 2009
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Chiefs will go 5-11 this season...
...according to WalterFootball.com. I like the guy, but his Chiefs hate is ridiculous.
http://walterfootball.com/offseason2011kc.php Kansas City Chiefs (Last Year: 10-6) 2011 NFL Season Preview: Veteran Additions: WR Steve Breaston, ILB Brandon Siler, NT Kelly Gregg. Early Draft Picks: WR Jonathan Baldwin, C Rodney Hudson, DE/OLB Justin Houston, CB Jalil Brown, NT Jerrell Powe. Offseason Losses: OC Charlie Weis, WR Chris Chambers, G Brian Waters, DE/DT Shaun Smith, NT Ron Edwards, DE/OLB Mike Vrabel, CB Maurice Leggett. 2011 Kansas City Chiefs Offense: What the Chiefs were able to accomplish in 2010 was a testament to the impact great offensive and defensive coordinators can have in the NFL. Matt Cassel was lost in 2009, completing 55 percent of his passes as he threw for 2,924 yards, 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions with a dreadful 5.9 YPA. With Charlie Weis, Cassel's numbers improved to 3,116 yards, 27 touchdowns, seven picks, with a 6.9 YPA and a 58.2 completion percentage. Unfortunately for Cassel, Weis is gone. Weis and Todd Haley were at odds with each other, as Haley reportedly stripped Weis of his play-calling duties in the second half of the team's playoff loss to Baltimore. Cassel will undoubtedly struggle with first-year coordinator Bill Muir; the former Patriot quarterback was already showing signs of regression at the end of last season. In his final two games, including the playoff contest, Cassel was a combined 20-of-48 for 185 yards, no touchdowns and five interceptions. That's a completion percentage of 41.7 and a YPA of 3.9. Cassel's just not very good. He has accuracy issues and struggles to make all of the throws because of a lacking arm. Cassel completed just 14-of-57 attempts longer than 20 yards in 2010, bad enough for last place in that category in the NFL. Cassel has two very talented players around him to prevent a complete collapse. Those would be obviously be Jamaal Charles and Dwayne Bowe. Charles is one of the better running backs in the NFL, capable of going the distance on any play. What's frustrating, however, is that Haley refuses to utilize Charles as much as he should, perhaps believing that Charles is too small and brittle (5-11, 199) to carry the load. Charles received only one touch after the first drive in the second half of that Baltimore loss. That's inexcusable. Bowe impressively snagged 15 touchdowns last year. It's unreasonable to expect him to duplicate that feat - especially with the departure of Weis - but Bowe remains a legitimate No. 1 receiver. He'll be joined by two new acquisitions in the receiving corps: rookie Jonathan Baldwin and former Cardinal Steve Breaston. Baldwin is a physical freak at 6-4, 228, but like most rookies, he's going to struggle this year because of the shortened offseason. Breaston, meanwhile, was probably a waste of a signing. Arizona put forth no effort to retain him because his knees are shot. Luckily for Cassel, he'll have a secondary reliable weapon in tight end Tony Moeaki, who hauled in 47 receptions for 556 yards and three touchdowns as a rookie in 2010. Moeaki was constantly injured at Iowa, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him stay healthy in his first NFL season. Kansas City's offensive line remains a concern. The good news is that the team was happy to get back center Casey Wiegmann for one more year. Wiegmann is a declining player at 38, but he's reliable and will provide some continuity up front as rookie Rodney Hudson is groomed to replace him. The bad news is two-fold. First, the Chiefs still have gaping holes at the tackle positions. Left tackle Branden Albert surrendered 11 sacks (including one in the playoff loss) and was penalized nine times last year. On the other side, Kansas City will feature a platoon of Ryan O'Callaghan and Barry Richardson. The former is the better of the two, but he can't stay healthy. Richardson, meanwhile, is brutal in pass protection. Second, the Chiefs parted ways with their best offensive lineman this offseason, Brian Waters. Second-year Jon Asamoah will step into the left guard slot. Asamoah has just one career start. He played well in that game, but the Bills didn't exactly offer much of a challenge. With Waters gone, Kansas City's new top lineman is right guard Ryan Lilja, who gave up just one sack. 2011 Kansas City Chiefs Defense: Just as Charlie Weis worked miracles with the offense, Romeo Crennel upgraded a Kansas City defense that overachieved past its talent level in 2010. Though unlike Weis, Crennel will remain with the team for a second year. One area in which the Chiefs struggled despite Crennel's best efforts was run defense. They ranked 20th in the NFL, allowing 4.4 yards per carry to the opposition. That figure will improve in 2011, thanks to the addition of nose tackle Kelly Gregg. Gregg is old (35), but still proved to be a sound, two-down run-stuffer with the Ravens last year. He'll probably wear down as the season goes on, so Kansas City fans will be hoping that sixth-round rookie Jerrell Powe can step in if needed in late November or December. A pair of former top-five draft picks join Gregg up front. After two disappointing seasons, Glenn Dorsey played very well in 2010. He didn't offer much of a pass rush (two sacks), but was very stout against the run. Tyson Jackson, on the other hand, struggled once again. He gave way to Wallace Gilberry on third down. The 6-2, 270-pound Gilberry was second on the team with seven sacks. He'll be back in 2011 after getting a second-round tender this offseason. Gilberry trailed only Tamba Hali in sacks. Hali had a magnificent 2010 campaign, recording 16.5 sacks if you count the pair he registered in the playoffs. Hali was franchised, and figures to be even more dangerous once the Chiefs can develop rookie Justin Houston at the other rush linebacker position. Houston was a first-round talent who slipped to the third round this past April due to character concerns. He probably won't contribute much this year because of the shortened offseason, so it'll be up to Andy Studebaker to replace the retired Mike Vrabel; Studebaker had 2.5 sacks in limited playing time in 2010. The rest of Kansas City's linebacking corps is comprised of Derrick Johnson, a Pro Bowler, and Jovan Belcher. Belcher is relatively unknown, but played well at times last season. The 24-year-old Maine product stood out in the playoff loss to the Ravens, notching five tackles and two sacks. He'll face training camp competition from former Charger Brandon Siler. The strength of the Chiefs' defense is in the secondary. Kansas City boasts one of the top cornerback tandems in the entire league. Brandon Flowers and Brandon Carr were largely responsible for the team ranking fifth in the NFL in terms of YPA allowed (6.6). Kansas City's safety play wasn't bad either. Eric Berry, chosen No. 5 overall in the 2010 NFL Draft, really struggled early on, but settled in as the season went along. He was great in the team's loss to Baltimore. Kendrick Lewis, manning the free safety slot, was solid, but unspectacular. 2011 Kansas City Chiefs Schedule and Intangibles: As stated earlier, the loss of Charlie Weis will be huge. New offensive coordinator Bill Muir never developed a quarterback when he held that job in Tampa Bay from 2002 to 2008, so it's likely that Matt Cassel, and consequently the offense as a whole, will regress this season. The Chiefs brought back the Arrowhead magic that was missing between the 2007 and 2009 seasons. In that span, Kansas City was 4-20 as a host. In 2010, that record was 7-2, though one of the two losses was to Baltimore in the playoffs. Here's a dubious Todd Haley stat: In his two years with the Chiefs, he is 3-7 after Dec. 5. That obviously has to improve. The Chiefs had that Dexter McCluster punt return for a touchdown in the opener against San Diego, but didn't score again on special teams after that. Javier Arenas' 8.3 punt return average was disappointing. Kicker Ryan Succop drilled 25-of-29 attempts as a rookie in 2009, but was just 20-of-26 last year. He was just 1-of-3 from 50-plus. Meanwhile, punter Dustin Colquitt was solid, maintaining a 44.4 average with 33-of-88 attempts inside the 20. Kansas City feasted on a ridiculously easy schedule last season; excluding Seattle for obvious reasons, the team didn't beat a single playoff squad in 2010. In fact, the Chiefs battled just three teams that reached the postseason last year: aforementioned Seattle, Indianapolis (19-9 loss) and Baltimore (30-7 loss). It gets much more difficult this year. Six of this season's opponents reached the playoffs: Indianapolis, New England, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Green Bay and the New York Jets. 2011 Kansas City Chiefs Analysis: Kansas City overachieved last year, thanks to great coaching and an easy schedule. The team won't be as lucky in 2011. Charlie Weis is gone, while the schedule is more taxing. I expect the opposite to occur this year. Instead of being worse than their record indicated in 2010, they'll be better than their record indicates this season. Their brutal, late stretch of consecutive games against the Patriots, Steelers, Bears, Jets and Packers will knock them out of AFC West contention. Projection: 5-11 (TBA in AFC West) |
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#16 |
11-5, baby
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Livin the dream
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Lilja's a LG. No platoon at RT. Anything else factually wrong?
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#17 |
Sauntering Vaguely Downwards
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Columbia, Mo
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Lilja was the RG last season and hasn't been announced as the LG yet, has he? As for the platoon - I don't think Richardson's a surefire starter by any means. Those 2 absolutely shuffled in and out last season. I could see that being dictated by matchups and/or hot streaks as well.
__________________
"If there's a god, he's laughing at us.....and our football team..." "When you look at something through rose colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags." |
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#18 |
MVP
Join Date: Feb 2010
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"As stated earlier, the loss of Charlie Weis will be huge. New offensive coordinator Bill Muir never developed a quarterback when he held that job in Tampa Bay from 2002 to 2008, so it's likely that Matt Cassel, and consequently the offense as a whole, will regress this season."
This guy really needs to do his research to find out a simple counter to half his argument would be: That's why the Chiefs went out and hired a QUARTERBACKS COACH (I believe for the first time under Haley's reign as coach?) this year in Jim Zorn, to counter the lack of skill in that field that Muir has. Zorn does QBs, Muir does O-Line, Haley does WRs, Mo does RBs. This is very ****ing simple Walter Football you damn idiot. Stats wise for QBs under Zorn, he has given them their best years to date (Campbell, Flacco) So 85% of the article about the impact of not having Weiss, is void on this simple fact that he could have researched just by going to the Chiefs homepage or looking at camp photos/reports |
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#19 | |
M-I-Z S-E-C
Join Date: Apr 2009
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Quote:
He must not know that Muir has no hand in the development of Cassel, but Zorn does. |
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#20 |
The Insider
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Lake of the Ozarks
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#21 |
Special Teams ACE!!!
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Where the hell is SNR
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The dude is clearly gay for Charlie Weis. I don't get that, but whatever.
If he feels that way about him, he should just go to a bread factory and stick his weiner in a vat of bread dough |
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#22 |
True Chiefs Fan
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Bull Bay
Casino cash: $6605791
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His player analysis was off more than just a bit. Who from the Chiefs broke one off in the writers ass?
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#23 | |||||
Banded
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Oz
Casino cash: $-619308
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__________________
Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know. |
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#24 |
oxymoron
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: OP/KC/Whatever
Casino cash: $9556299
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I don't know if anything's ever officially announced at this point in camp (and this is a year where none of the free agent signings are even participating yet...) but Lilja started camp at left guard, and Asamoah at right guard. I'm not saying this as a criticism of you in any way, but anybody who so much as glanced at a camp report before writing/publishing an article about the team would/should have known that.
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#25 |
Better than Nelson
Join Date: Mar 2003
Casino cash: $10000400
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lol at the 3-7 after December 5th stat when this team was so clearly awful 2 years ago. Atleast we're 4-7 after December 4th
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#26 |
Happy, Happy, Happy!!!
Join Date: Jan 2009
Casino cash: $10004935
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Does he realize that actually our #1 rated rushing attack last year was CALLED by Muir. Yup, Muir called 100% of our run plays last season and Weis was in charge of the passing calls (I'm sure Haley had input.
So we enter this year with Muir once again in charge of the run game, Zorn coaching the QB's and possibly the passing game. If Zorn doesn't control the passing game then Haley will. Where in this mixture does it sound like a bad situation. Dude needs to get up off of Weis's nuts. Sure we could end up at 5-11, but the way he wrote it, you would think we were a 8-8 team. But as we know, he hates Pioli. |
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#27 |
Are you ready to Rumble?
Join Date: Apr 2006
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I actually agree with him about Charlie Weis. I think our offense, most specifically our passing game will struggle even with all the weapons we have. Charlie Weis is a fantastic O-Coordinator. I just think it was a battle of ego's with Haley and Weis.
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#28 |
Happy, Happy, Happy!!!
Join Date: Jan 2009
Casino cash: $10004935
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Wasn't Haley considered a fantastic OC before coming to KC?
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#29 |
MVP
Join Date: Sep 2004
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#30 |
oxymoron
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: OP/KC/Whatever
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For a fairly limited time. If I remember correctly he had the job throughout 2007 but didn't call plays for most of the season. The Superbowl year was completely his baby, though.
Probably not a popular opinion, but I tend to think coordinators are generally as good as the players they have to work with. That's not to say that a bad one can't drag a unit down, but it's hard to look like a genious if you don't have any talent to work with. There's only so much scheming you can do to hide deficiencies. And they do have talent now, if they can get some blocking. And if they haven't missed on their chosen QB. |
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