Yes this is a Matt Cassel/Scott Pioli post. Yes I will attempt to use logic. Yes I make up some of my own words.

So this started off as a response in this morning's Arrowheadlines. And of course, it grew. It grew in response to a lot of the Pioli hate I've been reading. And because I, surprisingly, like well thought out, logical responses as opposed to irrational-jump-off-the-cliff-the-sky-is-falling and it's all Pioli's fault-isms (made up word 1).

There seems to be one major flaw and historical forgetting-a-tude (made up word 2) that happens when people tend to bash on Pioli and say something along the lines of,

"he's tied to Cassel, will never get us a real QB, will do anything to keep MC, didn't offer Orton a real contract and didn't actually try to get Manning - because Pioli is really the source of all Evil and why the world wide economy is in the tank because I need someone to blame... " Oh wait, ignore that last one.

And they tend to forget the State of the Team (SotT) before he arrived.

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From the FanPosts. Great topic. -Joel

I figured I'd throw this up as a little bit of fun distraction for us from all the back and forth on who the Kansas City Chiefs new head coach should/will be.

Who would you want as the future head coach of the Chiefs, if you could pull them out of a movie?

Of course we might as well add quarterback to that list too. To be honest, I remembered the coaches way more than most of the quarterbacks, which says something about these movies.

Here's who I came up with:

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It's been a LOOONG time since I have written a fan post of any kind. Heck in three years I haven't posted a tonne of responses either (although I can reference Guppy without looking it up and wonder what happened to Anne Retart? :-} ). Ok credential's aside, (if those count as any, which in reality they don't) I've been thinking a lot about the HC situation and discussion that has been happening here on AP. And I keep getting hung up on Elite. As it seems that word gets bandied around like a ping pong ball, quite a bit these days.

A lot of AP'ers have been saying they want an Elite HC. And Romeo isn't it. But what does that mean? And more importantly who does that refer to? Read on after the Jump and lets figure it out (if we can) together, and if we can't well, lets have a good discussion anyway.

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We all know how bad we've gotten.  We've read the Historical posts here, or here, We've analyzed, bemoaned, condemned, heed, hawed, decried, and sobbed.  We've thrown things at the TV, and swore up and down as we realized that was actually the family heirloom statuette that Aunt Millie just gave to us, and now not only is it busted but so is the TV.  Which means we have to jump online, and hope beyond hope that we can find some (ahem) less than legal site streaming the game.   Only to watch out beloved Chiefs screw the pooch again.  We have condoled one another, and drank our Kool Aid (and if you have somehow been in a cave, look up my man Porkchop and you'll figure it out, or search out my other main man Krayfish, and get your reality check).   

But what I haven't seen a lot of (asides from in the comments), is what we really need to fix up our pathetic Defense.  And I'm not talking about a play maker - that one mythical being that will right the sinking ship.  No I'm talking numbers.  I'm talking about what our D needs to do, to become, in order to get our Team back to their rightful position; on top of the AFC West and the Division. 

So with that in mind, fearless readers, jump with me to check out how our teams D has done under three different coaches, and what we need to do to get back where we belong.

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Above and beyond everything else a win is what we needed.  However there is still work to be done, something I am sure nobody will disagree on.  And if it comes down to two things, that we could build on from yesterday's win, it would be giving up the big play and the run game.

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Thinking about some of Haley's great quotes lately, re: "sacred cows" and "not wearing me out...unless you kill me" to name the newest few, I got to thinking about what that man must drink to loosen up. " Loosen up you say?  He doesn't loosen up. He just gets meaner."  Maybe.  I mean I'm beginning to think that he and Gruden must have gone to the same school of Facial=ology.  So maybe it's not a drink to loosen up but one that gets his guts roiling and his embers glowing so he can really spit fire.  In any event, just for fun AP what do you think Haley's bevvie of choice is?

I've been outta touch.  And when I say outta touch, I mean leading kids in the back country on multi-stage backpacking trips.  Climbing peaks - like Mt. Shasta, rafting the American River, the Klammath, camping, getting up to 11,000 ft. passes, living it up, like a turtle; with my life on my back, and hopefully imparting some love for the great outdoors to teens.  I've been hiking, and climbing and being dirty all summer long.  And I love it.  All of which means though, there has been zero opportunity to touch base, make a remark, jump online to this amazing community of like minded, fans from all over the globe - hell even catch up on any KC news.... and until they  make an internet connection that gets a signal from the woods, that will continue to be the case.  To be honest, even if they did I'd probably not want to take that with me, cuz there's something completely liberating about being 'out there' away from all the day to day shenanigans.

So since I have been back in Berkeley I've been doing some serious reading up on my beloved Chiefs and there's a tonne that has been going on, coming to a head it seems, between this weekend's event, and today's.  And yet...

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Since it's  a quiet day and we've been discussing ad nauseum some of the top Draft Pics, Trade possibilities and Rule Changes - and since I became the Unsung GM, I figured I would put together my ultimate Defense from the last 20 or so years - as that has been how long I have been a KC fan.  Holy run-on sentences Batman.  So I did a little research (I went here and here) and this is what I came  up with. I realize I am gonna get some flack for throwing Dorsey in there. To be honest I wanted to try to mix it up some with current years and some from the 90's, but Pollard or Page vs.Lewis, Cherry, Carter or Ross?  No competition. Jared Allen made it.  Tamba did not.  It's not that I don't think that our D has a lot of potential, cuz I do.  But this is all time here, well all time since 1990.  

So then the question goes, why in the hell did I throw Dorsey into that mix?  It's a gut feeling I guess.  Partially I want the guy to become a monster.  Partly b/c I had trouble filling that position.  Partly b/c I figured I needed some way to stir up a little fun controversy.

It was tougher to project how well players were going to do - in other words current players vs career stats.  I am sure some of you can make some solid arguments for other players and substitutions and I look forwards to hearing them.

Albert Lewis LCB (555 Career Tackles, 38 Intercpetions, 7 FF, 12 FR)
Kevin Ross SS (827 Career Tackles, 30 Interceptions, 4 Sacks, 12 FR's, 2 FF)
Scott Fujita LILB (474 Career Tackles, 18 Sacks, 5 Interceptions)
Donnie Edwards RILB (1133 Career Tackles, 14 FF, 28 Interceptions)
Neil Smith LDE (85.5 Career Sacks, 503 Tackles, 28 FF's, 12 FR)
Dan Saleaumua NT (477 Career Tackles, 28 Sacks, 17 FR's)
Jared Allen - RDE (281 Career Tackles, 57.5 Sacks, I Int)
Derrick Thomas - LOLB (642 Career Tackles, 126.5 Sacks, 45 Forced Fumbles, I Int.)
Glen Dorsey ROLB (32 Tackles, 1 Sack).
Deron Cherry FS - (50 Career Interceptions, 1 Touchdown, 14 FR's)
Dale Carter - RCB (24 Interceptions, 1 TD, 9 Fumble Recoveries, 95+ Career Tackles - not recorded officially prior to 2000 ).

In any event, have at it. and enjoy.

I've said it before here at AP, and I'll do so again.  We've had 8 years (between Vermeil and Herm) of that "feel good" "crying" "Player's coach" coaching - and remember Herm was in the Top 5 list of coaches most NFL players wanted to coach them.  So it's going to be a culture shock for our Veterans, the way business is now conducted.  Both TG and BW have played for 3 coaches (with Haley being the 4th) and with 5 QB's (Cassel being the 6th; Grbac, Green, Huard, Croyle, Thigpen) and weathered a lot of change.  Yet the style of coaching has been similar in how they approached the team (well maybe Gunther's was different - but that was a long  time ago).  So I think it's fair if you've been used to a certain style and access, and uhm 'appreciation' from your coach - if that's what you have known and expect, and then all of a sudden someone new comes in, and all that interaction and access to the brass is all of a sudden gone, you're gonna be thrown for a loop.  Woah, long sentence.

I'm not saying that BW was right, and has been noted here on AP, we don't have both sides of the story.  But I am sure it felt like he was bitch slapped and was fully unprepared for that.  And being slapped one often reacts emotionally.  On the order of, "Who the hell does that sum'bitch think he is?  I've been here 8 years, and this new bozo just walks in and thinks he can talk to me like that?!" 

That being said, BW needs to get over it (and I think he will).  There is a new face and style of doing business here at Arrowhead and with that new style there is going to be a learning curve to get used to it.  That's a good thing. 

I'm not defending what happened, I'm not pointing any fingers, I'm just saying, it's understandable that he reacted poorly.  I mean I remember Vermeil inviting players to his house to have dinner with him and his wife when he first got here.  I think that practice continued throughout his tenure.  Herm was the consummate player's coach.  Haley is cut from different stuff.  So in comes BW and expects (cuz that is all he has known here) a certain camaraderie and appreciation, a certain open dialog, and instead gets shown the door. So I'm not gonna dog BW all of a sudden.  It happened. It probably got blown outta proportion by Whitlock and the media.

I'd probably react poorly too.  But I'd hope to get over it as well. I think BW will.

So here's an interesting discussion piece.  Well I hope it will be as i have been thinking about it this past weekend with all trade frenzy that has gripped the league.  In the past years (well I'm going to look back on about the last ten or so), there have been players that we lost through FA which I believe we never should have let go.  I'm only going to look at a few of them, but which ones do you think were just a bad call and never should have happened?  For the sake of length here I am going to keep it to around five or six.  I am sure there are more but these are the ones that just seemed egregiously wrong to me. 

John Tait: FA Loss 2004.  He was a solid Tackle and was replaced the following season by John Welborne...

Kawika Mitchell: FA loss 2006 to the Giants.  We know how that one ended up for him.  Replace by Napoleon Harris

Rich Gannon: FA loss in 1999 to Raiders, we kept Grbac.  Gannon goes on to play in Superbowl in 2002.

Jared Allen:  FA loss to Minn in 2008.  And our D went where last year?

Donnie Edwards: the first time; FA loss to SD 2001.  Replace by Mike Maslowski

Tony Richardson: FA loss to Minn in 2006.  Replaced by Kris Wilson if you can call that a replacement.  And our running game hasn't been the same since.

All this activity this last weekend, especially in terms of trading players, got me thinking.  From a NE perspective they may feel they lost some quality players (they did) and got undercompensated (they did not).  It's more than just looking at it from a trade/draft/value perspective.  One also has to realize that NE freed up nearly 20 mil in Cap space (roughly 5 mil for Vrabel, and nearly 15 mil for Cassel).  That in and of itself is huge.  Then throw in the 2nd rounder and it's a good spot for them to be in.  Arguably it is a better spot for the Chiefs.  That being said the trading got me thinking about our veterans and all the discussions prior to this weekend on who would stay and who would go.  So I'm curious what you all think.

First up, Brian Waters;

Personally I like Waters and think he has done a helluva job for the Chiefs over the past nine years.  Yes whatever occurred this past week between him and Pioli/Haley probably could've been done better.  But the thing that comes to mind here is that over those past nine season with the Chiefs, Waters has had coaches that were all very approachable, friendly and player oriented (even counting Gunther here and all his yelling, there was an underside of trying to get the best out of people and his last year was Water's first.)  So Waters has had three coaches (prior to Haley) in KC of which the two longest have been emmotional - remember Vermeil liked to cry, compassionate and player oriented men.  Remember there was a poll not too long ago amongst current NFL players that put Herm in the top five for coaches players wanted to play for. 

Heres the link;

Now in comes the drill sargeant mentality of Haley who isn't all that impressed with our 2 and 14 season.  That has to be a sharp culture clash for Waters.  That being said, I think we have so many issues at hand, we need Waters, his professionalism,  leadership and skills so trading him, is out of the question.

LJ;

This has gone round and round here on AP.  To be honest I would love to see him go.  However, where are we going to pick up a suitable replacement?  This is a need, and his attitude sucks, but I think we are going to milk his disenchated holiness for all we can get out of him and fill in a new RB situation in the next few years.  I just don't see it as a high priority and am not sure if we could fill that through FA, maybe in the draft, but again we have other pressing needs.  So I see us with another season or two of production out of him and maybe Haley's style will straighten him out.  Hmmmm.

Gonzo;

TG wants to win.  He's been here a long time and has done a lot for us.  I want to see him retire a chief.  And we need all the offensive weapons possible for our new QBOTF whether that is Cassel or Thigy.  That being said if we are going to get any value out of trading him now is the time.  I am on the fence here.  I do not want to see TG go to another team, but for the right compensation?..... So the question here is what would that be?

I really only have  a few other veteran players (if you can call them that) that I wonder about. Specifically in our secondary with Page and Pollard - I say they are veterans b/c they have played with us for more than one season (ha!) and with our currently young team that says something.

There has been some debate about keeping them and their success with us;  More around Pollard than Page.  There's a link to  a discussion here as we have already kept Rudy (that's one I would have let go).

Personally I like them both.  They have things to learn still and have to work on some of their coverages, but given the lack of any passrush we had last season I feel our secondary did fairly well considering.  There is only so long you can shut down the safety zone when opposing QB's have all day.  So I say we keep em and improve our d-line. 

So then I end with a mish mash of players who have multiple years in the league currently call the Chiefs home and maybe (maybe) have some trade value. 

Boone, McIntosh, Demarrio Williams, McGraw, Pat Thomas, Rocky Boiman, Ron Edwards and Tamba Hali.  With this bunch?  I'm really curious what you all think about keeping them, letting them go, or trading.  Trading being the better of letting them go.  Sacintosh I am pretty sure we wouldn't get much of anything for, but I guess he's worth keeping for depth.  McGraw I say keep (aside from bagging groceries :) he does a fairly good job on special teams), Edwards, Boone and Williams I have been uninpressed with, but again what value do they have?  Tamba has been a huge dissapointment but I give him one more year to turn it around before I call him a bust.  Maybe if we end up with Romeo (Romeo where fore art thou?) and angle him in a better position more suited for his skills?....

Anyway this is what I have been mulling over.  Your thoughts?  And be easy on me, it's my first Post here and I wouldn't want Lanier calling me a Troll anymore :)