There are systems that are often synonymous with the great franchises in NFL history. The San Francisco 49ers won Super Bowls with great players, but in my mind great system/coaching as well. I want to have the consistency other dynasties maintained in their dominance. Many players changed, but the system remains...the system that comprises of scheme/organization philosophy/coaches.
When the Chiefs opened the season 1-4 that wasn't something I wanted. The response to the start has by some circled around the idea of firing Romeo and Pioli. In the big scheme of things I could care less to the start in 2012. To me...this has and should never be made about winning or losing 5 games in 2012.
With or without a QB this team is not in the position to be a consistent playoff calibre team. That's what I want from them, and I think we are getting there. Getting there takes Houston/Poe/Powe/Berry etc...to get us there. This team isn't going to get there by spending money on every free agent with a pulse. This team will get there with the play/development of the young guys.
As I watched this team start 1-4 to open the year, I begin looking at the future...over a dozen players in key spots in their first 3 years. Hali in his 3rd year registered 3 sacks on the year...if 3 years was too early on him, I believe it to be too early for the rest of the players. If I looked out there and didn't see the youth improving, then I would want Pioli fired. But I do not see that, I see a rapidly developing roster...an improved roster.
The worst thing Hunt could do is get in the way of that development. Changing coaches only gives us more of what we've had in the recent history of the Chiefs...a history I no longer want. To me it's a history that is changing with Pioli at the helm. The frustration is real and justified...but I think the general idea of a firing as something positive is off based.
I always watch a game live now with twitter. Watching it live I always miss the things I want to see with this team. A defender collapsing a side vs. the run excites me as much as a WR catching a 20 yard pass. Asomoah's ability to reach 2nd level is something I rewind time after time. By the 5th game of the year everything besides QB play and secondary play has been the best I've seen in KC in years.
The elephant in the room is we are loosing games because of the Quarterback. A Quarterback in Matt Cassel that has played his worst football of his career this year. At this point he's a failure that is costing us games in year 4. But we can't confuse business with belief in a guy. Cassel was a bad business transaction, a transaction that partly ended one coaches career...but a transaction Pioli should survive.
Not absolving Pioli's mistakes...but my perspective in general...give me the guy who has gone through some things. No man alive can ignore the mistake that was Matt Cassel. Sounds funny, but there is no man alive that I feel is in a better position to draft the next QB. For Pioli it's his job...it's could wind up being his legacy. No person has more riding on this pick...no person has more at stake.
Personally I feel Pioli has been a good talent evaluator...I question his priorities, but I rarely question the talent. I will never be a fan of drafting two specialist in the 2nd round when position players are needed. But I like Arenas/McCluster as talents coming out. I still remain in the same boat on Baldwin...ridiculous talent but no real fit. The knock for me isn't with his ability to pick talent, it's in his priorities in acquiring talent.
As a fan I don't want what we have had recently...from Marty, to Gun, to Dick, to Herm, to Haley. I want something similar to Pittsburgh...from Knoll, to Cowher, to Tomlin. I don't want this to be a mediocre team that catches lightning in the bottle every 3-4 years. I want consistency and believe Pioli/Crennel is building sustainable, something that will make us consistent threats. That type of team takes time...it takes draft classes, those classes developing under a system. Pulling the plug on Pioli only gives this franchise what it always had.
It sounds bad right now, but Pioli gives us the best chance to build a winner. To build something we haven't been accustomed to in this city for years. Sadly for us, it takes time to build it like that...but it is building. The term progress was used by this organization, and there is progress. So many areas on this team is better than it has been for years. Unfortunately we're 1-4, but in my eyes...it won't be if we stick with the script.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Daboll...we are getting good at something
My biggest criticism of Todd Haley was that the Chiefs had no offensive identity. From game to game...half to half...I never knew what I was going to see from the Chiefs offense. One game it would be power running, the next would be screen passes and draws. The thing I like about Daboll is this team is getting good at something offensively.
Through 5 games one of my biggest concerns was the development of the offensive line. Part of that anxiety was relieved in the Arizona preseason game, only to return in the following weeks. But as week 5 has past, this offensive line unit has gelled. Personally the best unit the Chiefs have fielded in years...both in talent and execution as of late.
Subtle things like that is important when building a team, and make no mistake...this team is still building. With Daboll although not pretty but it's consistent. That consistency in my opinion held this offense back with Todd Haley. Sure Charles made plays...Cassel and Bowe connected for big numbers...but in my eyes it was random. To me it never appeared to compliment, never was very consistent.
What's happening now is ugly offensively, but there are positives within the mayhem. In the past players have excelled with this team offensively. For the first time in a long time I see a unit excelling together. Unfortunately the Quarterback is and should be the story, but a largely unspoken one is the development of every facet of the run game.
As a fan I take pride in the fact that the Chiefs offense lined up toe to toe with the Ravens and punched them in the mouth. That doesn't happen a year ago. For that I give credit to Daboll. I may not agree with the game plan all the time but he's building something that is sustainable.
Cassel is temporary while I believe that Daboll and Crennel are going to be around a lot longer. Personally I rather Daboll develop the line play, no need to fix a Quarterback on his last legs. Improve the pieces that the next Quarterback is going to come to rely on. Cassel is all but gone, this running game is going to be around for a long time.
When I see this team a part of me gets it. Daboll doesn't do it in the prettiest form, but the ground work he's laying is something that will benefit this team no matter the signal caller. Obviously this isn't the only perspective to look at him with. But it's a positive one with not that many positives on a bleak year.
Through 5 games one of my biggest concerns was the development of the offensive line. Part of that anxiety was relieved in the Arizona preseason game, only to return in the following weeks. But as week 5 has past, this offensive line unit has gelled. Personally the best unit the Chiefs have fielded in years...both in talent and execution as of late.
Subtle things like that is important when building a team, and make no mistake...this team is still building. With Daboll although not pretty but it's consistent. That consistency in my opinion held this offense back with Todd Haley. Sure Charles made plays...Cassel and Bowe connected for big numbers...but in my eyes it was random. To me it never appeared to compliment, never was very consistent.
What's happening now is ugly offensively, but there are positives within the mayhem. In the past players have excelled with this team offensively. For the first time in a long time I see a unit excelling together. Unfortunately the Quarterback is and should be the story, but a largely unspoken one is the development of every facet of the run game.
As a fan I take pride in the fact that the Chiefs offense lined up toe to toe with the Ravens and punched them in the mouth. That doesn't happen a year ago. For that I give credit to Daboll. I may not agree with the game plan all the time but he's building something that is sustainable.
Cassel is temporary while I believe that Daboll and Crennel are going to be around a lot longer. Personally I rather Daboll develop the line play, no need to fix a Quarterback on his last legs. Improve the pieces that the next Quarterback is going to come to rely on. Cassel is all but gone, this running game is going to be around for a long time.
When I see this team a part of me gets it. Daboll doesn't do it in the prettiest form, but the ground work he's laying is something that will benefit this team no matter the signal caller. Obviously this isn't the only perspective to look at him with. But it's a positive one with not that many positives on a bleak year.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Opinion: Cheers were never for Cassel
Eric Winston laid into Chiefs fans in regards to cheering for a Matt Cassel injury. On twitter I wanted to defend it, and in parts defend myself. I hate injuries...I went through surgeries and rehabilitations. I know the damage and time it takes to come back from an injury, wouldn't want that for anyone.
The emotion that I felt when the injury occurred was feeling bad that I was feeling good about a new Quarterback. Yeah I feel bad for anyone that gets hurt, but for me that moment was nothing about Cassel. Any bad feelings for Cassel was trumped with the idea of a new QB. After I didn't see anything brutal on the hit, Cassel was not part of my thoughts.
I think the disconnect with many conversations on Twitter I'm having is what was booed. I'm pretty sure only a few of us know what the injury is. No fan booed Matt Cassel laid out on a stretcher. We watched a hit we seen Matt Cassel get up from routinely. We saw him walk off of the field. Unfortunate but until we know...I don't even know what I'm supposed to feel bad about yet.
I say the Chiefs fans cheered change. In that game it was Matt Cassel as the reason for much of our issues. Overall it's been a 4 year mistake that hasn't been corrected. For football reasons fans had evidence to be unsatisfied with the results at the Quarterback position. That reaction was due to the fact a change was made. That isn't on the fans, or on Winston...Pioli should have never made this situation possible.
Matt Cassel costing us games in his 4th year is no longer Matt Cassel's fault. It's pretty pronounced who Cassel is as a Quarterback. Yet he continues to be the unchallenged starter. Fans every offseason have talked about replacements, hell the organization has. We can pretend but few want this Quarterback, and to no fault of his own he's trotted out there as our signal caller.
This moment was more than just cheering an injury. For a few perhaps they go to games to watch injuries happen. But I can't follow that logic. This fan base has never cheered injury, and if that's your take I have to call it short-sighted. This was about change, change this organization won't pull the trigger on.
It's unfortunate that the change most wanted came because of an injury. Make no mistake, that change could have happened at a water cooler on Monday and there would be excitement. Go to the comments prior to this on twitter, and a lot of people have talked about change for a very long time. Every day people want to fire someone in this organization, few were tweeting for bad health.
To me the Cassel injury was a perfect storm at a bad time. The Fans, Winston, Cassel should have never been in position for that moment. That moment should have happened in the offseason or during the week. The staffs inability to pull the trigger in a way made this moment happen.
For me the timing was terrible, but that emotion was connected and pointed at something entirely different. This fan base has seen a lot of bad Quarterbacks get injured, but never reacted like this. This uncommon reaction was led by the uncommon events unique to us. Our QB history, our inability to identify a signal caller, our faith in Cassel as an organization, our inability to change. In that moment the Chiefs hand was forced, and the injury was a wrong place wrong time. This fan base doesn't do that.
That was a fan base that was sending a message, and it wasn't to Cassel. That message was one of the few ways the Chiefs can communicate and be heard. To me that message was directed at Hunt, at Pioli, at Crennel, at the players. That was one of the few times the fan base could be heard on what they thought of Pioli's "Decision" on Cassel, rather than what they thought of Cassel.
The emotion that I felt when the injury occurred was feeling bad that I was feeling good about a new Quarterback. Yeah I feel bad for anyone that gets hurt, but for me that moment was nothing about Cassel. Any bad feelings for Cassel was trumped with the idea of a new QB. After I didn't see anything brutal on the hit, Cassel was not part of my thoughts.
I think the disconnect with many conversations on Twitter I'm having is what was booed. I'm pretty sure only a few of us know what the injury is. No fan booed Matt Cassel laid out on a stretcher. We watched a hit we seen Matt Cassel get up from routinely. We saw him walk off of the field. Unfortunate but until we know...I don't even know what I'm supposed to feel bad about yet.
I say the Chiefs fans cheered change. In that game it was Matt Cassel as the reason for much of our issues. Overall it's been a 4 year mistake that hasn't been corrected. For football reasons fans had evidence to be unsatisfied with the results at the Quarterback position. That reaction was due to the fact a change was made. That isn't on the fans, or on Winston...Pioli should have never made this situation possible.
Matt Cassel costing us games in his 4th year is no longer Matt Cassel's fault. It's pretty pronounced who Cassel is as a Quarterback. Yet he continues to be the unchallenged starter. Fans every offseason have talked about replacements, hell the organization has. We can pretend but few want this Quarterback, and to no fault of his own he's trotted out there as our signal caller.
This moment was more than just cheering an injury. For a few perhaps they go to games to watch injuries happen. But I can't follow that logic. This fan base has never cheered injury, and if that's your take I have to call it short-sighted. This was about change, change this organization won't pull the trigger on.
It's unfortunate that the change most wanted came because of an injury. Make no mistake, that change could have happened at a water cooler on Monday and there would be excitement. Go to the comments prior to this on twitter, and a lot of people have talked about change for a very long time. Every day people want to fire someone in this organization, few were tweeting for bad health.
To me the Cassel injury was a perfect storm at a bad time. The Fans, Winston, Cassel should have never been in position for that moment. That moment should have happened in the offseason or during the week. The staffs inability to pull the trigger in a way made this moment happen.
For me the timing was terrible, but that emotion was connected and pointed at something entirely different. This fan base has seen a lot of bad Quarterbacks get injured, but never reacted like this. This uncommon reaction was led by the uncommon events unique to us. Our QB history, our inability to identify a signal caller, our faith in Cassel as an organization, our inability to change. In that moment the Chiefs hand was forced, and the injury was a wrong place wrong time. This fan base doesn't do that.
That was a fan base that was sending a message, and it wasn't to Cassel. That message was one of the few ways the Chiefs can communicate and be heard. To me that message was directed at Hunt, at Pioli, at Crennel, at the players. That was one of the few times the fan base could be heard on what they thought of Pioli's "Decision" on Cassel, rather than what they thought of Cassel.
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