Dean: Chiefs due for changes.

[Coogs]

Published Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Chiefs due for changes

By Rick Dean
The Capital-Journal
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Despite another miserable day at the office Sunday, Willie Roaf -- a guy who could walk away from his job at any time knowing that he's financially set for life -- reported back to work Monday with the vigor of a kid just starting out.

"He's one of our older guys, yet our people in the weight room this morning told me he was moving iron around like a rookie, even after taking a lot of snaps yesterday," said Dick Vermeil, Roaf's immediate supervisor with the Kansas City Chiefs. "He's still got a lot of pride left."

Roaf's current position, mind you, is considerably more secure than a lot of his teammates on the Chiefs, a 3-8 team due for some restructuring after an entire season of underperformance.

Easily one of the best left tackles ever to play in the NFL, the 34-year-old Roaf has a job with the Chiefs for as long as he wants it. The only question on the mind of his employers: How long does he want to work?

Tackle Willie Road (77) is one of few Kansas City Chiefs players with job security.
Click here to check for reprint availability.Roaf will get back to them sometime after this current season ends. He worries, though, that some of his co-workers likely won't get the chance to go out on their own terms. He worries more that some of them act like they don't understand that.
"Guys have to understand that we're playing for our jobs now and the coaches are coaching for their jobs," the future Hall of Fame player said Sunday after the Chiefs' 34-31 home loss to San Diego. "You've got to feed your family. When it goes down like this you have to keep fighting through it because you know there's going to be some changes.

"They'll understand that at the end of the season if they don't know it now."

Indeed, changes seem inevitable around Arrowhead in the next couple of months, though Vermeil said he plans on being around to make them. Nothing has happened yet, he said Monday, to make him abandon his plan to fulfill the final year of his contract next season.

While not yet ready to talk about the changes that are almost mandatory when a 13-3 team becomes a 3-8 one in less than a year, Vermeil understands the public demand for personnel upgrades -- especially on a 30th-ranked defense that has been one of the NFL's worst for three consecutive seasons.

"I don't necessarily see it that way," he said when asked if there were players who should worry about remaining employed. "But these guys know there's no job security in this league. Some are more secure than others, but overall, everyone is trying out for next year."

Vermeil only wishes that restructuring a football team was as easy as Joe in Raytown thinks it is as he vents his rage on talk radio. Adding new talent while retaining proven people who can still play -- like Roaf -- is a delicate balance difficult to achieve under NFL salary cap limitations.

"There's no easy way to rebuild," he countered. "There aren't 15 All-Pros willing to come to Kansas City and fit under our salary cap, or anyone else's cap. There are teams now who've got $98 left (under the cap) who will have to get rid of players.

"Personally, I don't think we're that far away from being better on defense," Vermeil added. "We'd have been better yesterday if not for some technical mistakes we made."

[Deberg_1990]

This is what we need. I read this a few weeks ago. Its a good read:

From ESPN's The Morning After

In the mind of Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and former head coach Tony Dungy -- and that means, in the mind of Rich McKay, too, we're guessing -- you've got to have three positions which feature superior performers. The weak-side linebacker. Strong safety. And, yep, "under" tackle, an interior force who aligns in the gap, who can penetrate, who gets into the backfield and wreaks all sorts of havoc and disruption.


From our notes, and McKay's quotes of this summer: "The nose tackle-type guys, the guys who just plug the middle, you can find them. But 'under' tackles, those are hard to come by, and it's tough to play without them." Talk about a self-fulfilling prophesy. Atlanta found a superior "under' tackle this spring, when it added former Oakland Raiders standout Rod Coleman as an unrestricted free agent.


And now, nine games into the year, the Falcons know precisely what it means to play with Coleman and to play without him in the lineup. Coleman returned on Sunday, in the Falcons' victory over Tampa Bay, after missing three games with shoulder and knee injuries he sustained in the Oct. 16 one-vehicle accident. And we're thinking it wasn't just coincidence that, with Coleman on the field again, Atlanta registered a season-high seven sacks. Despite being triple-teamed at times, Coleman had two sacks, giving him six in six appearances this year.


Left end Patrick Kerney, who had seven sacks in his first four games but had gone four games without a sack (including all three contests in which Coleman was sidelined), got back in the sack column again.


Want some number-crunching? In the six games Coleman played, the Falcons have allowed an average of 276.5 yards and 13.3 points, totaled 25 sacks and registered 12 takeaways. Four times in those games, the defense held opponents to less than 300 yards, and three times the Falcons unit permitted fewer than 250 yards. Atlanta didn't permit more than 20 points in any of those contests.


In the three games Coleman missed, the defense surrendered an average of 475 yards and 34.7 points, recorded one measly sack and five takeaways. Opponents scored 20 or more points in all three of those outings and that included 84 points the past two weeks.


Not that we didn't buy into Rich McKay's sermon this summer about the significance of the "under' tackle spot. But if anyone needed graphic evidence -- and McKay, by trade, is an attorney -- it was more than sufficiently provided with Coleman as Exhibit A.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/column...morning/week10

[KevB]

Originally Posted by patteeu

True enough, but interestingly, the things you mention are as much (or more) the fault of the offense as they are the defense.

True, but those numbers are only part of the story. The other, and more obvious part?

The numbers 30 and 29. That's the Chiefs total defense ranking and scoring defense ranking.

[2bikemike]

Originally Posted by Vlad Logicslav

As long as those 8 are starters, I suppose you have a point.

Well I did mean it as starters. What would be the point of having 8 more losers.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by tk13

Just to look at it from a different perspective because I'm an asshole like that, that above statement is the truth is it not? This organization is cursed, we're what, probably 5 plays away from being 8-3 instead of 3-8. That's a fact.

I agree to an extent, but I agree with KevB, too. The reason we're always one play or score away from winning the game at the end is because we were one play or score away from losing it in the 4th quarter. That is about all the missed opportunities through the first 3 quarters... all the times we've given up a first down on 3rd & 7+, not getting that crucial turnover, giving up that crucial turnover, settling for 3, etc. It's the same problem even when we were winning last year.... not putting teams away. I was one of those people wondering why others were complaining about only beating Oakland by 7, or only beating San Diego by 3, etc... Well, this year I know. It's not about luck.... we're just not the team that's scoring last this year.

[ck_IN]

Unfortunately of the two biggest changes needed, one has already said he'll be back. This means the other change needed will be back as well.

More crappy drafts, more crappy play, more PR spin, and more whining. As long as butts fill the seats.