It is a well established fact, that everybody in the civilized world comes to AP first for Chief's information.  Obviously that means the Chief's coaching staff is using this web site for their "go to" source for all things Chief.  With that, I give you the top 3 reasons for the Chiefs 2010 turn around.

1.  Kalopheonix:  Kalo is the guy that took all of the front seven defensive guys, and reduced them down to nothing more than a numerical indices.  The KPM has taken all of the guess work out of analyzing the performance of the front seven.  I can see Romeo throwing these stats up on his overhead projector every week.  It is the equivalent of posting report cards up in a class room.  There is no mistaking who the brainiacs are and who are the retarts.  I can also see, at the conclusion of these meetings, Romeo saying " Uh mister 0.015 KPM per snap, I need to see you in my office".   In the office you would hear the conversation go something like this: 

Underachieving player- "But coach, I'm really not as bad as this number suggests.  It's the other six guys.  They are really bringing down my stats with their lackluster performance." 

Romeo- "No son.  You are what your KPM per snap says you are.  You need to step it up.

Underachieving player- "Don't worry coach.  You won't see less than 0.375 KPM per snap out of my position the rest of the year.

Romeo- "I know son, your being replaced by a Canadian."

It has been Kalo's work that has been most responsible for the turn around of this defense.  Each week the front seven are striving for personnel bests in KPM's and it has shown dramatic defensive results.

2.  Bewsaf:  I will never forget Bewsaf's first post.  Damn, I still get the creeps thinking about it.  Bewsaf has effectively eliminated about a dozen jobs on the Chiefs staff.  Since he started posting, Pioli has fired the offensive line quality control coach, 4 opponent scouts, 6 statisticians, and a computer graphics engineer.  Pioli can now use all of that money saved on support staff to upgrade the offensive line.  Turns out he really hasn't had to.  No longer can a lineman's performance get lost in the dust and flying bodies as ones attention is diverted to the location of the football.  If you under perform on the offensive line, expect to graphically standout like the proverbial turd in a punchbowl.

   I can see it now.  All 53 players in the meeting room.  The lights dim.  Haley reaches for his power point projector remote.  A hush comes over the room. Then Bam!  The Bewsaf's full color digital gas gauge looking graphic of offensive lineman performance, casts a glow over the room.  A  muffled "doh" is heard.  There is no need to ask, who said that.  It is the guy whose name is next to the half full digital gas gauge looking graphic.  At first the lineman is humiliated.  He then turns that humiliation into conviction so that he will never ever be caught with tank less than 80% full.

Bewsaf's contribution to the overall improvement of the organization is undeniable.  However, Bewsaf's contribution to improved line play is outright remarkable.

3.  KCporkchop:  Porkchop was the guy that kept the demons of doom at bay.  A lot of people felt that Porkchop was just blowing sunshine up their butts.  Looking back now, Porkchop could almost be viewed as a prophet.  Porkchop kept the downtrodden masses from losing the faith.  He gave them reason to believe that good times were coming, and they did.  I have no doubt that the porkchop effect extended beyond the AP faithful to Chief's locker room. 

I'm no conspiracy theorist, but then again maybe I am, but isn't it an unimaginable coincidence that Porkchop left AP shortly after the Chief's first loss.  What isn't unimaginable is that Haley recognized that his motivational tactics were beginning to lose their shine.  He needed help and he needed it fast.  Who could mix up a batch a of Koolaide strong enough to restore the Chief's winning mojo.   With a palm strike to the forehead and an audible "duh", Haley realized that KCporkchop was the man for the job.   Within an hour Porkchop was in Pioli's personal limo learning of his new assignment.  He would masquerade as a blogger on an up and coming Chief's blog by day.  He would instruct Haley in his methods of concocting Koolaide by night.  The rest is all history.

And that my friends are the top 3 reasons for the Chief's 2010 turnaround.

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The off season boredom has reached critical mass.  The flow of Chief's news has been reduced to an annoying drip.  While the team is off working on their golf games, I thought now would be a time to compile some messages for the team.  The secretary can put these messages on sticky notes and have them hanging on the player's lockers, waiting for them when they arrive at training camp.  Here are a couple of examples.

To: Jamaal Charles-  Keep doing what you are doing.  Tighten your grip on the football and carry on.  Everyone is counting on you big time and we know you won't disappoint.

To:  Andy Studebaker- Whatever it is that you are doing in practice that is limiting your playing time, quit doing it.  When you get in the games I have been pleasantly surprised with your performance.  That leads me to believe that you must be screwing up in practice.  Stop that. 

To:  Corey Mays- You remind me of an unguided torpedo.  Once you launch, I can only keep my fingers crossed.  If your target lies on your line of fire, the results can be spectaular, if not, you just sink to the bottom of the sea of missed tackles.  Loosen up those hips and save a little for some lateral adjustment.

Help me out here AP.  Pick someone on the roster and leave them a sticky note.

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The end of the collective bargaining agreement is here.  Owners want more.  Players want more.  Fans want it to be resolved and now.  Greed is an ugly thing.  Owners and players need to step back, and take a look at what they stand to lose, rather than what they might potentially gain from this negotiation.

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A case for a mid to late round "Barnes" burner:

You may be familiar with the name of Freddie Barnes since he set the NCAA single season record for receptions with 155 catches.  I sat up and took notice of Freddie in the Humanitarian bowl, as he caught 17 passes for 219 yards and 3 TD's.  Being an Idaho Vandal alum and fan, I found Freddie's performance that day to be rather disturbing.  After the Vandals squeaked out a victory that day, I became intrigued with this Barnes Fellow.  How was it possible for this guy to snag every ball that  was thrown to his side of the field?  There was only one plausible explanation for this.  Freddie must have a genetic condition that causes him to secrete a natural adhesive from his finger tips. 

Freddie Barnes was a multi-sport athlete in high school.  He played basketball and was the QB of the football team.  At Bowling Green, he saw action in all four seasons of his collegiate football career primarily as a wide reciever.  During this time Freddie caught 298 passes for 3299 yards and 30 touchdowns.  If that doesn't impress you, maybe throwing in an additional 11 rushing TD's will.  All of this is fine and fluffy, however this is not what sets Freddie apart from others.  I have already discussed the stickiness of Freddie's fingers.  Some of you may be wondering just how sticky Freddie's fingers really are.  Freddie's fingers are so sticky,  while handling the ball 444 times receiving and rushing,  he fumbled a grand total of zero times.  Try calculating the touches per fumble ratio using those stats!  Don't bother, it will boggle your calculator's processor.

You are probably wondering, if Freddie Barnes is so freaking awesome, how come he is a late round projection.  The answer to that is because he's slow.  Damn Slow!  Not mentally, but physically.  Don't forget Jerry Rice was a 4.71 forty guy.  I believe he put up some respectable numbers in the NFL.  So there you have it.  That is why I think the KC chiefs should take a chance on Sticky Fingers Freddie Barnes.

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I have to claim ignorance.  I was hoping some of you guys could set me strait.  I keep reading this reoccurring comment that firing our then OC Gailey set the team back for most of the season.  It seems that by doing this the team had to learn an entirely different playbook.  Was Gailey's playbook written in Japanese and Haley wrote plays in Navajo?  It seems to me that a run up the middle is a run up the middle and a pass to the flats is a pass to the flats.  I don't see why the terminology would have changed. 

I understand the argument that Gailey was more inclined to tailor the play selection to the strengths of the personnel.  That actually makes a lot of sense.  However by doing that I can see that it would be easier to defense against because it takes potential plays off of the table.  Thats why we saw Bradley throwing TD passes to bones.  We were so predictable that the defense was caught flat footed.  I have my doubts that Haley spent the whole off season looking at the playbook that Chan wrote, scratching his head, and thinking to himself, what the hell is he doing.  I do believe that as they ran situational practice drills, that when he turned the play selection over to Chan, he thought to himself, what the hell are you doing. 

The point being that I don't see where removing Gailey from his position set the team back at all.  They are handicapped by their available talent and the development (immaturity) of that talent.  That results in poor execution of plays and consequently the execution of the philosophy.  If you are less talented than the other team, pandering to your own weaknesses only makes the other team's job easier.  The only way that I see firing Chan set the team back was by giving Haley more than he could effectively chew.  Any thoughts?

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I have been thinking about it all week.  I tell myself that losing one game is not enough justification to ask for Haley's head.  Then I realize that it isn't just one game, it is the raiders.  I hate the raiders.  There is nothing in this world that I hate more than the raiders.  Well I might hate the broncos just as much but after that, there is nothing.  It was just a few days ago that I came to grips with losing to the raiders the last time.   If Haley really is head coach material for the Chiefs, he will win this game and humiliate the raiders in the process.   If that cadaver al davis and his band of merry men hand us another defeat, that will be the last straw.  Understand this Todd Haley, this isn't a Herm Edwards "well it's just another game fellas".  It's the loathsome raiders.  They must go down, and they must go down in a flame of shame.    This game is the world series, U.S. open and world war III rapped in a super bowl for the Chiefs.  Failure is not an option.    I won't listen to explanations or excuses.   I was able to handle going 2-14 last year because we beat the raiders.  I can handle it again this year if we beat the raiders.  I will stand up to this oncoming bandwagon, tiananmen square style, with confidence of victory.  In short, I'm in.

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I don't understand what canadian foot ball is all about.  I have been searching their rosters for some potential lineman and only find more questions.  They describe their players status as imports or non imports.  So here in the US we are either aliens, illegal aliens, or non-aliens?  Why does their season overlap with our season?  Is that so their good players don't de-import to the NFL?  We lost the NFL Europe and I believe that hurt the development of some promising players.  Canada needs to step up to the plate and reschedule their season so we can loan them some players for their season, in preparation for the NFL.  It's all about being a part of the selfless global community.  Come on Canada, quit being third stringer hogs and reschedule your football season accordingly.  We promise to keep your imports stocked in the off season.

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 Lets face it, no one team can have the most capable person filling every position in an organization.  We all want the league leading offense’s OC.  We all want the league leading defense’s DC.  We want the league leading passer’s QB coach, etc. etc.  Those guys are not available so you have to look else where.  What better strategy than to look to those coaches and coordinators that have fallen victim to the “Peter Principle”.  Most coaches in the NFL are promoted to higher positions because of the excellence they have demonstrated at lower positions.  Problem is that they were promoted out of their element and became under achieving  in their new position.  They didn’t just all of a sudden become incapable at any capacity. 

People wonder why Pioli hires all these new people and won’t even clue us in to which position they were hired to fill.  Many of these guys have suffered through the humiliation of having their termination announced on ESPN.  Why add insult to injury by letting the media announce their perceived demotion as well.  Hell he may never identify coaches by anything other than being part of the chief’s staff.  Pioli is trying to assemble a coaching staff that is a team.  One that operates under state of synergy rather than discrete divisions of duty that some how needs to mesh together seamlessly when brought together.  I like what Pioli is doing and I believe it is the right thing to do.  I also believe that Pioli’s ability to shrewdly evaluate talent goes beyond the players and extends to the sidelines and practice facility.  It also won’t surprise me to see him make changes to this coaching team at any time during the season or off season if he feels that he has made an error in judgment.      

I believe the three wise men Clark, Scott, and Todd are going to revolutionize the game of football. Their first order of business should be to eliminate punting and place kicking specialist from the team. There are many pros to this strategy and you can fill the comments with the cons. First off, NFL teams punt way too much. They say football is a game of field position yet they use points scored to determine the winner. Punting on 4th and short in the opponents territory not only gives up possession but in concedes momentum. If you have ever read Gregg Easterbrooks TMQ, you have seen his numerous examples of how this only leads to defeat. Example: Team A leads Team B by 4 points with 5 minutes remaining in the game. Team B has 4th and 2 on Team A’s 42 yard line. Instead of exerting their Y chromosomes, Team B unwedges their panties and punts. Two plays later Team A has advanced the ball to their own 42 yard line, which is about where they would have taken over on downs if Team B had gone for it on 4th down. The only thing different is that 1 minute is missing from the clock. The moral of the story is punting in the opponents territory on 4th and short is one of the surest paths to defeat.

I know you are thinking, even if this were true, there are still situations where punting the ball is by far the prudent course of action. I agree with this. I also propose that there are 45 capable athletes on that team, and I have a hard time believing that not one of them is capable of kicking a football 40 yards. Who would you rather have as your last line of defense against Devon Hester? Dustin Colquit after punting a 50 yarder or Derrick Johnson after booting 40 yarder. Can you imagine the possibilities of having Jamal Charles taking a snap for a punt? He could evaluate the opportunity to take the edge, and if he doesn’t see it, would still be able to get off a 30 yard punt. An opposing special teams coach’s worst nightmare.

Look at kicking PAT’s. Two point conversion attempts successful 51% of the time are still better than 100% successful extra points. Instead of occupying a roster spot with place kicker, use that spot for a 289 pound hammer head fullback that can get you 2 yards 51% of the time or more. Would you feel more confident charging a heavyweight into the line of scrimmage for 2 yards, or have your sissy kicker attempt a pass on a fake kick to convert a critical fourth and short?

The point here is that when the game is managed aggressively to win, the kicking aspect is much less a critical factor. I feel that the kicking game as it relates to the actual person doing the kicking does not warrant 2 roster spots. The way to deal with this is to add a kicking incentive to every players contract. Let the players compete for game time kicking opportunities and compensate them accordingly. Tony Gonzales kicks a 44 yard field goal in overtime for the win and pockets $44,000 in the process. Who doesn’t like the sound of that?

It is interesting to listen to the interviews of Scott and Clark.  No specifics to be had, yet some intriguing generalities.  I believe many teams in the NFL are mired down in traditional managment, and wallow in mediocrity as a result.  The Chiefs were one of those teams until the exit of Peterson.  The manifesto of sucessful organization building provided by Big Blue Shoes rings true.  It carries the credibility of person familiar with a very successful organization.  

People worry about who the next coach will be especially in light of the diminishing pool of recognizable prospects.  They worry about "lame duck" syndrome.  I think that stems from observations of traditionally built NFL franchises.  Pioli isn't going to structure the Chiefs in a traditional manner.  He wants complete control of the football side because he feels that is necessary to assemble a team that all pulls togeather in the right direction.  He won't do that by hiring a coach that expects to assemble his own coaching regime.  He will hire someone capable of excelling within the confines of a cooperative leadership group.  Egos will have to be checked at the door.

It is because of this that I beleive he will be successful.  He is intent on building a perrenial contending football machine, with each person being a high performance cog in that machine.  Parts that don't function will be replaced.  Don't be surprised when he starts hiring people you have never heard of before.  Those people will be the right people