JoePo: There’s no hiding the Chiefs’ rebuilding mode now - Page 2

**DaKCMan AP** · 11-26-2007, 07:16 AM

There’s no hiding the Chiefs’ rebuilding mode now
By JOE POSNANSKI

There are two dirty little secrets that the Kansas City Chiefs have been trying (and, more or less, failing) to keep away from fans and potential ticket buyers all season long.

Secret No. 1: The Chiefs are not contenders. They are in full-fledged, all-out, no-joke, batten-down-the-hatches, release-the-hounds, all-capital-letter REBUILDING MODE.

Secret No. 2: It stinks to be in full-fledged, all-out, no-joke, batten-down-the-hatches, release-the-hounds, all-capital-letter REBUILDING MODE.

Yes, the Chiefs have tried to fool people all around into believing they are actually a reasonably good team. It isn’t remotely true, but that’s not the real problem. The real problem is that the Chiefs have tried to fool themselves into believing that same lie.

There’s no believing that after Sunday, not after the Chiefs lost to the Oakland Scallywags 20-17 at home in front of a lot of empty seats and even more seats filled with people wondering what the heck they were doing there. What a snoozer. There should be a label on Chiefs tickets warning people not to operate heavy machinery while watching this team. The team should have the wonderful Tony DiPardo play reveille at the end of games to wake up the few remaining fans and alert them to go home.

The plot of Sunday’s game — at least, for most of the game — was familiar if you have watched Chiefs-Raiders games lately. It involved Oakland players doing comical things in their patented effort to lose. Turnovers. Stupid penalties. Dropped passes. Oh yeah, I checked with the U.S. Patent Office, the Raiders have registered trademarks on these.

On Sunday, though, the Chiefs matched banana peel for banana peel. The Raiders fumbled deep in their own territory? The Chiefs committed a holding penalty and fell out of field-goal range. The Raiders dropped a couple of key first-down passes? The Chiefs completed three passes in the first half. The Raiders grabbed a facemask for a timely 15-yard-penalty? The Chiefs’ Dave Rayner flubbed a 33-yard field goal.

The Raiders defense caved in the fourth quarter? Chiefs coach Herm Edwards ended the drive by calling one timeout, blowing another with a hopeless challenge. The Chiefs then passed on a field-goal attempt and got stuffed on fourth and 1.

No, you can never feel too good about losing to Oakland because the Raiders played smarter than you did.

But if you spend too much time focusing on Edwards’ timeout polka or the mind-numbing play-calling or the way the Chiefs’ origami defense folded in the last minutes again or the team’s muddled identity (the Chiefs are a field goal-oriented team that can’t make field goals), you might miss the bigger story: The Chiefs, plainly, are starting over.

This is new. The Chiefs have been treading the waters of NFL mediocrity for TEN STINKING YEARS now, and finally they have run out of free-agent life preservers and stopgap players. Finally, they are going with young players and trying to build a team rather than patch together a playoff pretender with duct tape, shoe polish, a couple of big contracts and somebody else’s backup quarterback.

Starting over involves pain. That’s why the Chiefs have refused to even say the word “rebuilding.” Chiefs president Carl Peterson and the marketing wizards have not filled stadiums in small-market Kansas City for 15 years by using slogans like, “Hey, we’ll be really good in a couple of years.”

Well, now, like it or not, it’s happening. The Chiefs are rebuilding now. And I think Edwards is just the right coach to build from scratch. He may drive people nuts with his defensive mindset and game planning, but the guy has a special talent for finding good young players and developing them, which is more important. All year, Edwards kept telling us that rookie running back Kolby Smith —— a fifth-round pick who did not even start at Louisville — was a special young player. Many of us didn’t see it.

So what happened Sunday? Kolby Smith got his chance. And he was fabulous. He juked. He cut back. He drove his legs. He never gave up on the plays. He gained 150 yards and scored two touchdowns — this behind an offensive line that all year made Larry Johnson look like Larry, Curly and Moe.

It looks as if Edwards was right. And it’s no fluke — he has generally been right about young talent. The last two Chiefs drafts have been the team’s best in years — eight players from those two drafts started or played key roles on Sunday.

Say what you want about Edwards: He’s unafraid of youth and the inevitable mistakes. As good as Smith was, it appeared that he hesitated and cut back on the key fourth-and-1 play, costing the Chiefs a chance for a first down and a big play. That will happen.

Brodie Croyle, making his second start at quarterback, was erratic — he mixed good passes with some wild misfires all game long. Defensive end Tamba Hali, so good as a rookie last year, had a sack, but he also appeared to get manhandled on some running plays. Receiver Dwayne Bowe caught four passes and has had a terrific year, but he also seemed to have a tough time getting open much of the game.

And so on. This is the ballad of youth in pro football — high notes, low notes, flat notes. Nobody in Kansas City wants to go through rebuilding now; it has been more than 35 years since the Chiefs were in the Super Bowl. But there’s no choice. This season is gone. The Chiefs are a bad team. They have to develop Croyle and young players and get what they can out of the rest of this season. Then, in the offseason, there will be all sorts of work to do. The Chiefs will have to clean house — players, coaches, you name it — change the offense entirely, have a spectacular draft, you know, all those things that rebuilding teams have to do. Is Carl Peterson right for that job? That’s a topic for another column coming up.

It has been a long time since the Chiefs have gone through this process. The last time was in 1989, when Peterson and Marty Schottenheimer took over a team with nothing, changed the mindset, drafted some defensive monsters, put together a fierce offensive line and built a winning team that gave Kansas City thrills and heartbreaks. The Chiefs held on to that team too long. They flopped on some big-time draft picks. They gambled on some veterans. They let the team rot and decay. That’s where we are now.

And now, they have to start over again. Yes, this year has been miserable. If my guess is right, it will get more miserable before the season is out. Sunday’s loss was part of the misery, but maybe finally everyone can say the truth out loud: It’s time to build the Chiefs again. It’s way past time.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/v-p...ry/376799.html

**the Talking Can** · 11-26-2007, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rausch

Croyle should have been in there much earlier, that's clear, but honestly expecting the team to bench LJ in favor of Smith? No. Not only did no one expect this performance out of him but it's also only ONE game. The Raiders aren't very good at stopping the run and this is Smith's first game.

No, the big mistake was putting the emphasis on the running game and defense when your line is falling apart.

where did I mention LJ?

I clearly identified Holmes as the person taking Smith's playing time.

Huard over Croyle
Priest over Smith
Retread kicker over Medlock

I am glad that we are NOW finally, truly, rebuilding...but that doesn't mean we get to rewrite history and pretend that Herm made tough choices...he didn't...he simply moved down the depth chart due to injuries

Molitoth · 11-26-2007, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Retread kicker over Medlock

Both sucked total ass, what's it matter?

We need to cycle through kickers until one actually decides to show up.

**the Talking Can** · 11-26-2007, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Molitoth

Both sucked total ass, what's it matter?

We need to cycle through kickers until one actually decides to show up.

throwing away draft picks after 1 game isn't rebuilding, it's trying to "win now"....there is no need to rewrite history....

el borracho · 11-26-2007, 11:26 AM

Why do people think Herm is such a great talent evaluator? If Herm is so great, why aren't the Jets stocked with talent?

Chiefs_5627 · 11-26-2007, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by el borracho

Why do people think Herm is such a great talent evaluator? If Herm is so great, why aren't the Jets stocked with talent?

Are you serious?

el borracho · 11-26-2007, 11:34 AM

Yes, I am serious. If Herm's drafts are so great, why aren't the Jets world-beaters?

Zouk · 11-26-2007, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by el borracho

Yes, I am serious. If Herm's drafts are so great, why aren't the Jets world-beaters?

Mostly because their current 3-4 scheme makes their 2 best defensive players - Dewayne Robertson and Jon Vilma - irrelevant.

LaMont Jordan was very effective until back problems hurt his career. Santana Moss is an explosive touchdown maker. Kareem McKenzie is a very good right tackle for the Giants. Kerry Rhodes is an elite safety hidden on a bad team. Chris Baker is a nice tight end.

There were misses in there too, but the track record was much better than Vermeil-Peterson-Stiles.

Messier · 11-26-2007, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by el borracho

Yes, I am serious. If Herm's drafts are so great, why aren't the Jets world-beaters?

Well so far so good for his drafts with the Chiefs wouldn't you say? I think these last two are the best in quite a while, and I don't think it's a coincidence.

Chiefs_5627 · 11-26-2007, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by el borracho

Yes, I am serious. If Herm's drafts are so great, why aren't the Jets world-beaters?

Please review the drafts he had.

**jjchieffan** · 11-26-2007, 11:49 AM

This is a rebuilding time for one reason. Because Vermeil and Carl totally screwed up the drafts the last few years with bust after bust instead of drafting quality offensive linemen. If we had addressed the OL 5 years ago, we would be very competitive right now.

PunkinDrublic · 11-26-2007, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by el borracho

Yes, I am serious. If Herm's drafts are so great, why aren't the Jets world-beaters?

Herms teams at least won in the playoffs. Herm has his faults but I believe he has us drafting more effectively.

el borracho · 11-26-2007, 11:51 AM

"Better than bad does not equal good." Vermeil's drafts for the Chiefs grade out to an "F" so it isn't really an accomplishment to do better than Vermeil. Realistically, I would give Herm's drafts here a C+ or maybe (maybe) a B-. Not great, not bad- perhaps a little better than average. It isn't like we have gotten multiple probowlers in the last two years.

Chiefs_5627 · 11-26-2007, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by el borracho

"Better than bad does not equal good." Vermeil's drafts for the Chiefs grade out to an "F" so it isn't really an accomplishment to do better than Vermeil. Realistically, I would give Herm's drafts here a C+ or maybe (maybe) a B-. Not great, not bad- perhaps a little better than average. It isn't like we have gotten multiple probowlers in the last two years.

Maybe not probowlers but not alot of 1st n 2nd year players are but we did get starters, productive starters at that plus key role players. Not every draft pick has to be a probowler to be successfull to be a good pick, just productive which 90% of Vermeils weren't.

PunkinDrublic · 11-26-2007, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chiefs_5627

Maybe not probowlers but not alot of 1st n 2nd year players are but we did get starters, productive starters at that plus key role players. Not every draft pick has to be a probowler to be successfull to be a good pick, just productive which 90% of Vermeils weren't.

Exactly just think if we had spent our picks on guys who could play on the D-line effectively the first time, we could have focused on rebuilding the O-line in the next draft. Maybe I'm a homer but I a see less of a gap talent wise then there was. I think we're a lot closer to being a complete team. A good offseason will get us back up to where we need to be. Of course then you have to account for the putrid coaching.

el borracho · 11-26-2007, 12:05 PM

Yes, Herm's drafts have been better than Vermeil's. No sane person would say differently but Vermeil's drafts were terrible. Again, "better than bad does not equal good." You cannot just grade Herm's drafts against Vermeil's drafts- you have to grade them against the other 31 teams, as well.

11-26-2007, 07:16 AM
DaKCMan AP Beloved & Awesome CP Celebrity Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Florida Casino cash: $6714952	JoePo: There’s no hiding the Chiefs’ rebuilding mode now There’s no hiding the Chiefs’ rebuilding mode now By JOE POSNANSKI There are two dirty little secrets that the Kansas City Chiefs have been trying (and, more or less, failing) to keep away from fans and potential ticket buyers all season long. Secret No. 1: The Chiefs are not contenders. They are in full-fledged, all-out, no-joke, batten-down-the-hatches, release-the-hounds, all-capital-letter REBUILDING MODE. Secret No. 2: It stinks to be in full-fledged, all-out, no-joke, batten-down-the-hatches, release-the-hounds, all-capital-letter REBUILDING MODE. Yes, the Chiefs have tried to fool people all around into believing they are actually a reasonably good team. It isn’t remotely true, but that’s not the real problem. The real problem is that the Chiefs have tried to fool themselves into believing that same lie. There’s no believing that after Sunday, not after the Chiefs lost to the Oakland Scallywags 20-17 at home in front of a lot of empty seats and even more seats filled with people wondering what the heck they were doing there. What a snoozer. There should be a label on Chiefs tickets warning people not to operate heavy machinery while watching this team. The team should have the wonderful Tony DiPardo play reveille at the end of games to wake up the few remaining fans and alert them to go home. The plot of Sunday’s game — at least, for most of the game — was familiar if you have watched Chiefs-Raiders games lately. It involved Oakland players doing comical things in their patented effort to lose. Turnovers. Stupid penalties. Dropped passes. Oh yeah, I checked with the U.S. Patent Office, the Raiders have registered trademarks on these. On Sunday, though, the Chiefs matched banana peel for banana peel. The Raiders fumbled deep in their own territory? The Chiefs committed a holding penalty and fell out of field-goal range. The Raiders dropped a couple of key first-down passes? The Chiefs completed three passes in the first half. The Raiders grabbed a facemask for a timely 15-yard-penalty? The Chiefs’ Dave Rayner flubbed a 33-yard field goal. The Raiders defense caved in the fourth quarter? Chiefs coach Herm Edwards ended the drive by calling one timeout, blowing another with a hopeless challenge. The Chiefs then passed on a field-goal attempt and got stuffed on fourth and 1. No, you can never feel too good about losing to Oakland because the Raiders played smarter than you did. But if you spend too much time focusing on Edwards’ timeout polka or the mind-numbing play-calling or the way the Chiefs’ origami defense folded in the last minutes again or the team’s muddled identity (the Chiefs are a field goal-oriented team that can’t make field goals), you might miss the bigger story: The Chiefs, plainly, are starting over. This is new. The Chiefs have been treading the waters of NFL mediocrity for TEN STINKING YEARS now, and finally they have run out of free-agent life preservers and stopgap players. Finally, they are going with young players and trying to build a team rather than patch together a playoff pretender with duct tape, shoe polish, a couple of big contracts and somebody else’s backup quarterback. Starting over involves pain. That’s why the Chiefs have refused to even say the word “rebuilding.” Chiefs president Carl Peterson and the marketing wizards have not filled stadiums in small-market Kansas City for 15 years by using slogans like, “Hey, we’ll be really good in a couple of years.” Well, now, like it or not, it’s happening. The Chiefs are rebuilding now. And I think Edwards is just the right coach to build from scratch. He may drive people nuts with his defensive mindset and game planning, but the guy has a special talent for finding good young players and developing them, which is more important. All year, Edwards kept telling us that rookie running back Kolby Smith —— a fifth-round pick who did not even start at Louisville — was a special young player. Many of us didn’t see it. So what happened Sunday? Kolby Smith got his chance. And he was fabulous. He juked. He cut back. He drove his legs. He never gave up on the plays. He gained 150 yards and scored two touchdowns — this behind an offensive line that all year made Larry Johnson look like Larry, Curly and Moe. It looks as if Edwards was right. And it’s no fluke — he has generally been right about young talent. The last two Chiefs drafts have been the team’s best in years — eight players from those two drafts started or played key roles on Sunday. Say what you want about Edwards: He’s unafraid of youth and the inevitable mistakes. As good as Smith was, it appeared that he hesitated and cut back on the key fourth-and-1 play, costing the Chiefs a chance for a first down and a big play. That will happen. Brodie Croyle, making his second start at quarterback, was erratic — he mixed good passes with some wild misfires all game long. Defensive end Tamba Hali, so good as a rookie last year, had a sack, but he also appeared to get manhandled on some running plays. Receiver Dwayne Bowe caught four passes and has had a terrific year, but he also seemed to have a tough time getting open much of the game. And so on. This is the ballad of youth in pro football — high notes, low notes, flat notes. Nobody in Kansas City wants to go through rebuilding now; it has been more than 35 years since the Chiefs were in the Super Bowl. But there’s no choice. This season is gone. The Chiefs are a bad team. They have to develop Croyle and young players and get what they can out of the rest of this season. Then, in the offseason, there will be all sorts of work to do. The Chiefs will have to clean house — players, coaches, you name it — change the offense entirely, have a spectacular draft, you know, all those things that rebuilding teams have to do. Is Carl Peterson right for that job? That’s a topic for another column coming up. It has been a long time since the Chiefs have gone through this process. The last time was in 1989, when Peterson and Marty Schottenheimer took over a team with nothing, changed the mindset, drafted some defensive monsters, put together a fierce offensive line and built a winning team that gave Kansas City thrills and heartbreaks. The Chiefs held on to that team too long. They flopped on some big-time draft picks. They gambled on some veterans. They let the team rot and decay. That’s where we are now. And now, they have to start over again. Yes, this year has been miserable. If my guess is right, it will get more miserable before the season is out. Sunday’s loss was part of the misery, but maybe finally everyone can say the truth out loud: It’s time to build the Chiefs again. It’s way past time. http://www.kansascity.com/sports/v-p...ry/376799.html
Posts: 35,696

11-26-2007, 11:26 AM	#19
el borracho In Pat We Trust Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Albuquerque, NM Casino cash: $5859148	Why do people think Herm is such a great talent evaluator? If Herm is so great, why aren't the Jets stocked with talent?
Posts: 11,860

11-26-2007, 11:34 AM	#21
el borracho In Pat We Trust Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Albuquerque, NM Casino cash: $5859148	Yes, I am serious. If Herm's drafts are so great, why aren't the Jets world-beaters?
Posts: 11,860

11-26-2007, 11:49 AM	#25
jjchieffan Supporter Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Highlandville, MO Casino cash: $2982247	This is a rebuilding time for one reason. Because Vermeil and Carl totally screwed up the drafts the last few years with bust after bust instead of drafting quality offensive linemen. If we had addressed the OL 5 years ago, we would be very competitive right now. __________________ Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. Following the historical accounts and the genealogy from that point on, the age of the Earth is approximately 6000-7000 years old. The Big Bullshit Theory is a lie. It and the evolution theory go against real science. Satan has used our public school system to brainwash everyone into believing these lies. Be not decieved.
Posts: 12,636

11-26-2007, 11:51 AM	#27
el borracho In Pat We Trust Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Albuquerque, NM Casino cash: $5859148	"Better than bad does not equal good." Vermeil's drafts for the Chiefs grade out to an "F" so it isn't really an accomplishment to do better than Vermeil. Realistically, I would give Herm's drafts here a C+ or maybe (maybe) a B-. Not great, not bad- perhaps a little better than average. It isn't like we have gotten multiple probowlers in the last two years.
Posts: 11,860

11-26-2007, 12:05 PM	#30
el borracho In Pat We Trust Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Albuquerque, NM Casino cash: $5859148	Yes, Herm's drafts have been better than Vermeil's. No sane person would say differently but Vermeil's drafts were terrible. Again, "better than bad does not equal good." You cannot just grade Herm's drafts against Vermeil's drafts- you have to grade them against the other 31 teams, as well.
Posts: 11,860