I'm not saying that we could have filled all of our needs in the past two offseasons. I agree with you entirely. After Herm decimated the team, the cupboard was that bare.
But if you asked the random fan going into the 2009 offseason (after the Cassel trade) what the biggest needs for the Chiefs were (knowing we were going 3-4), they probably would have said OL and defensive front seven. What are our biggest needs two offseasons later? OL and defensive front seven.
I think Eric Berry will be a terrific player for us. I think guys like McCluster, Arenas, Washington, Lawrence, etc. will be between serviceable and great as well. But it's been two offseasons, and we haven't fixed our biggest problems. Worse, it looks like we have no interest in fixing them.
I know some people here are enamored with Ryan Lilja, Casey Wiegmann, and Shaun Smith. But I'd bet even money that these three aren't even starting for us on opening say (Asamoah, Niswanger, and Edwards instead). I liked the picks of Jackson and Magee, but they're never going to be effective do long as Ron Edwards/Shaun Smith are starting at NT. We have one good LB in Tamba Hali, and a bunch of guys who should either be in 4-3 defenses or who should be reserves. I loved the Asamoah pick, but it's beyond belief that we're going to be starting Albert and O'Callaghan at OT and Niswanger (probably) at C still. After Waters retires in a year or two (and he's declining now), we're in even bigger trouble.
Look, I'm not trying to pi$$ on anyone's cornflakes here. I understand that having an OC and DC with six rings between them gives a lot of hope. And I could be wrong. Albert, Cassel, Dorsey, etc. could have just needed one more year of seasoning before they started playing well. But I've watched a lot of football over a lot of years. And I've never seen a team make that sort of jump.
Our guys weren't half-assing it last year. Ron Edwards played as hard as he possible could. So did Niswanger, O'Callaghan, Mays, Williams, Vrabel, Page, and every other guy who just wasn't good enough. A new coordinator, no matter how good, is probably not going to make them good enough.