Tim Tebow.

One of the most divisive athletes of recent memory.

On the one hand, you have the fans who love the outspoken Christian, "goody two shoes" personality.  They claim he is perhaps the best Quarterback ever to play college football, pointing to numerous awards including being the first Sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.  They point to the records he's broken, such as being the first player in college football to pass and run for 20 TDs in a season.  They point to the University of Florida's record under Tebow, including a national title in 2008.

Then there are those who say Tebow's public persona is fake, nobody can be THAT perfect. They point to the pictures taken with large breasted women and insinuate that what could be happening when the camera isn't on might not be consistent with the morals he espouses.  They say that while Tebow was a great college player, he is more fullback than quarterback.  Most of his records have to do with his running ability rather than passing.  They talk about his poor throwing mechanics and the system he played in at Florida as reasons he will be a failure in the NFL.

We hear the scouts and draftniks talk over and over about how, even though he has "1st pick overall intangibles" as Mel Kiper said, Tebow simply does not have what it takes to be an NFL QB.  As many of us are planning to watch the Senior Bowl this afternoon, let's get prepared to look at why the scouts say  he won't make it, but also see how Tebow has responded to a meer week of NFL coaching.

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When Larry Johnson was suspended and later released for comments he made on Twitter in late October, there was a lot of talk here at Arrowhead Pride about it being a case of addition by subtraction.  It had been clear for a long time that Larry Johnson was either washed up or cashing it in (likely both).

What we may have become numbed to after the last couple years of watching LJ run up the back of his offensive linemen and falling down as soon as a defender breathed on him, is how much having a legitimate running threat can improve the entire offense.

Consider these offensive stats with Larry Johnson vs. Jamaal Charles as the featured back:

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Save for Mr. Irrelevent, Ryan Succop, Scott Pioli's first draft for the Kansas City Chiefs has had almost no impact on improving the team.  The draft is supposed to be an infusion of talent onto NFL teams and the Chiefs certainly needed more talent.  Yet look at how little 2009s draft picks have contributed in their first year:

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The more patient amongst the Kansas City Chiefs faithful will tell you that we are overreacting to the teams performance under Todd Haley.  After all, he is in just his first year as head coach of the Chiefs.  He did inherit a roster full of holes from the previous regime.  He did take over a team that only won two games last year and only four the year before.

However, none of those excuses are going to save Todd Haley's job if the poor performances of this team continue, and don't fool yourself, Scott Pioli IS going to be holding Haley's feet to the fire.  Pioli has built up a fantastic reputation for himself in New England and he is not going to blow that on a rookie head coach.  The tree that both Pioli and Haley come from is results oriented and if you are not producing results, you aren't going to be a round long.

So Todd, here is some friendly advice on what you need to do if you want to keep your new job as head coach of the Chiefs and fulfill the sincere hopes of every Chiefs fan that you can turn this team into a winner:

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- Why did Haley give up on the running game before the game even started?  Larry Johnson gets 20 carries a game to run up Niswangers butt for 2.7 yds a carry, but he only gives Jamaal Charles 6 carries (for 6 yds a carry), Kolby Smith 4 carries (for 4.3 yds a carry).  Maybe if he had committed to the run with RBs who actually gained yardage we could have stayed on the field for more than 3 downs at a time.

- Chiefs offense only converted 31% of their 3rd downs.  The defense allowed Jacksonville to convert 56% of theirs.

- Anyone else noticed how much Cassel double clutches the ball before he passes?

- Tyson Jackson had 2 solo tackles and 3 assists going into todays game.  Today he had 7 solo tackles.

- Mike Brown had 3 tackles today and blew coverage on a Jaguars TD.  Bernard Pollard had 12 combined Tackles (9 solo), 2 interceptions and 3 passes defended for the Texans against the Colts.

- Maurice Jones-Drew was held to 2.7 yds per carry.  The other two Jaguars RBs had a combined 23 yds per carry.

- The Jaguars defense had 5 sacks in seven games.  Today the Chiefs gave up 3 (plus 8 QB hurries).

- Haley decided to try to kick a 56 yard field goal into winds gusting up to 30 mph at the end of the half that would have been returned for a TD if the holder (Dustin Colquitt) had not tripped the returner up out of bounds.

Lots of head coaches in the NFL have talked tough over the years.  You frequently hear new coaches talk about how they are going to have tough, disciplined teams. 

How they are going to have open competitions and that the best performer, not the biggest contract, will be playing on Sundays.  How they want the "right 53" players who will work with the coaches and do what it takes to make the team better.

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The Chiefs didn't have much of a chance to win this game to begin with. They didn't need their Head Coach sabotaging them on top of that.  Todd Haley chose to decide the winner of this game in the 1st quarter.

Going for it on 4th and 1 IN THE FIRST QUARTER on their own 40 yard line was absolutely asinine.  There is a difference between being aggressive and making absolutely careless and idiotic decisions.  The Chiefs are one of the worst rushing teams in the NFL.  They can't make yardage on 1st, 2nd or 3rd downs, what made Haley think he could make it on 4th down?  I'm all for giving your players a chance to build their confidence, but this was not the time or place. 

He does not have the personnel to be making those kinds of moves.  He needs to put his ego aside and admit that he does not have the players to do things like that.  He needs to learn to work with what he's got.

Lets look at some other WTF moves Haley made.

• Niswanger gets hurt, so do they put in Alleman, a former 3rd round pick that the Chiefs traded needed draft picks for?  Hell no.  They move Wade Smith, who had practiced all week at Left Tackle back to Center and put Richardson, whose weakness is pass blocking (so naturally they put him at Left Tackle) in.
• Boy I'm sure glad they benched Maurice Leggett for being too aggressive on making plays and put Mike Richardson, who got torched all day long in instead.  At least he was a former Patriot...
• I'm not a big Derrick Johnson fan, but the little he's in the game he is making plays.  Its time for Haley to get over himself and see if DJ can make it happen over the course of an entire game.
  

Source

From the FanPosts. Bumped it up to now from last night. Thanks DJ. -Chris

JJ Cooper at AOL Fanhouse has a very nice complilation of sacks allowed for NFL Tackles through Week 5. 

I think it will be pretty eye opening for those under the mistaken impression that Brandon Albert is not suited as an NFL Left Tackle.

Through four games this year, Albert is credited with only 2.5 sacks.  All five of the Chiefs opponents this year rank in the top 10 for sacks this year. 

For context, Jordan Gross, who was a free agent last offseason and was a player many Chiefs fans were hoping Pioli would pick up, has surrendered 5 sacks.  Jake Long, the #1 overall pick in the same draft Albert was selected, has given up 3.  Ryan Clady, Jeff Otah and Joe Thomas have given up 2, only half a sack less than Albert.  Though Cooper apparently forgot about Jacksonville's Eugene Monroe, this article indicates that Monroe had given up 6 sacks through three games (written before Week 5 vs. the Rams).

For those wondering, Ryan O'Callaghan is credited with giving up 1 sack in his short time at Right Tackle.

I thought this particular piece of info regarding TE Sean Ryan was particularly damning:

The Kansas City Chiefs may need to rethink some of their blocking schemes. Tight end Sean Ryan gave up his fifth sack of the season on Sunday against the Redskins. No other tight end in the league has given up more than two sacks this year.

Ryan bounced round to three different teams last year, so he's fortunate to have a starting job, but the Chiefs are asking him to do things that he's not really capable of doing when they ask him to handle defensive ends one-on-one.

This confirms what has frequently been discussed here at AP about the weakness of our tight ends in pass protection.  But even more so maybe its an indication that Haley still has not dumbed down his play calling enough for the talent he has.  Haley has some very nicely drawn up plays, but if the players he has on the roster are not talented enough to execute it, maybe its time to simplify things a bit.

How desperate are you to be a winner?

The range of sports fan philosophies can range anywhere between "It doesn't matter if you go 16-0, if you don't win the Super Bowl you are a failure" to "I don't really care if they win as long as the game is entertaining".

Right now Chiefs fans are seeing a huge transition in how the organization deals with its players and fans. 

The previous regime under Carl Peterson, who combined the football operations with marketing and sales, spent a lot of time trying to make the team attractive to the fans, even if that didn't always lead to the ultimate success on the field.  

The "Arrowhead Experience" as we know it today was cultivated and promoted during that time.  The players were held up as idols to the fans to the point that many went to the games just to watch Derrick Thomas, Tony Gonzalez and Priest Holmes, and if the Chiefs won, well that was a bonus.  Players that had been loyal to the organization were rewarded, often to the detriment of the team as a whole, but this too was part of the entertainment value to the fans.  Fans don't like to see their favorite players mistreated.  It was required by the organization that the players must give back to the community and you could see the evidence of their charity hanging on banners from the walls of the stadium.

No matter how many people expressed their dislike for Petersons way of business and the lack of playoff victories in recent years, Arrowhead was always full of people enjoying their Sundays watching their favorite players, even when the results were mediocre.

The new regime under Scott Pioli, however, is shaping up to be very very different.

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Five seconds into the game and I was already cursing.

For the first time in several years I seriously considered not watching a Chiefs game after Jamaal Charles fumbled the opening kickoff that quickly put the Chiefs in a 7-0 hole.

It wasn't the play itself.  It was the culmination of a sense of hopelessness that had been building since preseason.  The feeling that despite the front office change, despite the coaching changes, despite the scheme changes, despite the personnel changes, despite the braggadocio of building a winner and changing the culture and winning now; that the Chiefs really hadn't improved much from last year or even last week.

I quickly shook it off and reminded myself that I loved the Chiefs no matter what.  Like a man that keeps buying Kentucky Fried Chicken even though its always greasy and nasty because fifteen years ago it was delicious.  "Maybe this time it will be good" he always says...

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When you get right down to it, business in the NFL is very much like any other kind of business.  Often times its not so much what you know as who you know. 

A well connected head coach will have access to high quality assistant candidates available that can make a big difference in the success of their team.  Look at the type of assistants a guy like Tony Dungy had throughout his career and the impact they had on his team. 

On the flip side, a coach with few connections can have a very difficult time finding quality assistants which in turn can lead to poor team performance.  Herm Edwards is a good example.

So when Scott Pioli, with his decades long association with Bill Belichick and in-law status with Bill Parcells, was interested in coming to Kansas City there was real cause for excitement.  Unlike Carl Peterson's network based on his time with the Philadelphia Eagles and USFL days, Pioli's is based on confirmed winners and franchise builders.

There is no question that those relationships have provided some advantages to this point.  Matt Cassel + Matt Vrabel for a second round pick was an absolute steal no matter how you look at it.  Getting a 2010 second round pick for Tony Gonzalez who only has another year or two left in him from his old associate Thomas Dmitroff in Atlanta was a good move as well. 

But as time has progressed, the question must be asked: Has Scott Pioli relied TOO heavily on his known network and failed to take advantage of opportunities outside of it?

Let's look at the additions Pioli has made to the Chiefs roster:

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Throughout the NFL the third game of the season is known as "Truth Week".  This is because typically by the third game of the season, teams have for the most part worked the kinks out of their schemes and have become the team they are going to be the rest of the season.  It is also when teams begin to have enough game film on their opponenents to really begin breaking down their weaknesses and tendancies.

I think its quite clear that the Eagles were all over the weaknesses and tendancies of the Chiefs and equally clear that the Chiefs are nowhere near having the kinks worked out.

This week we will also move beyond tracking problem areas from last year as some of these have been addressed satisfactorally at this point (such as Ryan Succop appearing to be the answer to our kicking woes) and be looking at lingering problems from the 2009 season.

Before I get to the problem areas, I would like to address something that has been discussed throughout the Chiefs Kingdom:

Did Todd Haley give up trying to win this game at halftime?

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During my daily perusals of high quality content here at Arrowhead Pride over the last week, I have noticed a fascinating trend regarding the fanbase's transition from the previous head coach to the new one.

As often happens when there is change, the fanbase is polarized between those who are mired in the past and those who are interested in the present and future of our team.

Some of us are having a hard time letting Herm go, and for the most part, its not those who were once his supporters...

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It is an enigma of sorts that a team that has had as much change as the Kansas City Chiefs have over the last offseason - A new General Manager, new Head Coach, new offensive and defensive schemes, a huge overhaul of the roster - and come out with nearly identical results that we so often saw last season.

The new Chiefs are still beating themselves with penalties, questionable judgment by the QB and 4th quarter defensive collapses.

Unlike last weeks game versus the playoff contending Ravens, there were some bright spots in this game.  At least, we think they're bright.  After all we WERE playing one of the worst teams over the last six years...

Just as last week, let's look at how the Chiefs improved (or didn't) in comparison to our problems at the end of the season last year.

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Anytime you have coaching changes (much less GM changes) there is going to be a period of adjustment, but damn, the 2009 Kansas City Chiefs under Todd Haley today sure looked a lot like the 2008 Chiefs under Herm Edwards.

The Chiefs offense was 2-10 (20%) on third downs while the defense was 10-17 (59%) in failing to prevent the Baltimore Ravens from converting.

The Chiefs offense gained only 188 yards in total offense while the Ravens had over 501.

However, we know this team is thin in talent.  It has been for years now, ever since Dick Vermeil's veterans began retiring (voluntarily or otherwise).  There were no quality players waiting in the wings to step in.  Peterson had bet the future of the franchise and lost.

Scott Pioli recently said that there are 28 players that were on the Chiefs roster at various points last season that are no longer on an NFL team.  That really shouldn't surprise us since many of those players were "on the street" when they were brought to the Chiefs in the first place.

That speaks volumes of the state this franchise was left in, and is a reason for the continuing struggles despite the change in coaching and management.

However, rather than every week hashing and rehashing just how terrible this team is, let's line out the problem areas and track them and their improvement (or lack thereof) as the Pioli / Haley team work on turning this franchise around after each game.

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