Week 2 Front Office Moratorium
In a continuing theme since the last week of the 2010 season, the Kansas City Chiefs continue to get blown out of games. In week 1 of the 2011 football season, the Chiefs played the Buffalo Bills. The Bills were a MUCH weaker team taken over by former Chiefs offensive coordinator, Chan Gailey who was fired by "offensive minded" coach Todd Haley before the final preseason game of 2009. 2009 was a season that saw a horrific Chiefs offense.
Gailey took a Buffalo team with less than half of the talent accumulated on the Chiefs team and built that team up enough to walk into Kansas City on opening day of 2011 and promptly hand the Chiefs and their "offensive minded" head coach their own asses on a silver platter with a score of 41-7.
The Kansas City Chiefs, determined to shake 7 straight regular and preseason losses, head over to Detroit to take on a Lions team that has been consistently as bad or worse than the Chiefs over the past 7 seasons. The Detroit staff, coincidentally, went through their own front office and coaching staff overhaul the same year Scott Pioli and Todd Haley were hired in Kansas City.
In 2008, the Chiefs selected #s 5 and 15 overall in the draft while the Lions picked #17. In 2009, the Lions took Stafford #1 overall while the Chiefs took Tyson Jackson #3 and passed on Mark Sanchez and B.J. Raji... OBVIOUS needs on offense and defense respectively. In 2010, the Lions had another high pick at #2 while the Chiefs weren't far behind at #5. In 2011, the Lions picked at #13 while the Chiefs selected at #26. So, if one were to look at the past 4 offseasons, you would see that the Chiefs had just as much of an opportunity, if not more of one to build a team capable of playing at the same level as the Lions.
However, as we witnessed on September, 18 20011, the Kansas City Chiefs have by FAR been outclassed by the front office and coaching staff of the Detroit Lions over the past 4 offseasons to this point in time. EVERY team in the league has to deal with injuries. Injuries don't account for 6 turnovers, 9 penalties for more than 100 yards, or a complete lack competitiveness for four straight in-season games. A system and organizational failure has occurred in Kansas City.
I am not in favor of another complete organizational overhaul like we saw in 2008. This failure, as Haley himself said after the week one blowout loss to Buffalo, lays squarely on the head coach and his staff. As a head coach, you can't expect to compete in the NFL when you can't get your team prepared week-in and week-out. Excluding preseason, the Kansas City Chiefs have been out-coached for four straight weeks going back to the final two games of 2010.
A new coach and perhaps, a new system need to be implemented in Kansas City... and it needs to happen as soon as possible. The Chiefs have one of, if not THE most difficult schedule in the NFL and the rest of this season can be used to install the new coach and system in order to have it up and running smoothly by the start of next season.
I've sat by quietly for nearly two seasons as fans clamor over the fool's gold that is Todd Haley and his winning season of 2010 with one of the easiest schedules in the league. Todd Haley was a horrible hire as head coach and it was only a matter of time until this kind of thing happened. He's too volatile, micro manages the offense WAY too much, and takes unnecessary risks during games. His players showed throughout the offseason that they didn't have any leadership and weren't ready for the season to begin and they showed today that they are no longer interested in competing for him.
This season started out with BLOWOUT LOSSES to the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions... the schedule isn't going to get any easier. The time to make a change is now... not as a rescue measure to save the season, but as a preemptive jump on system implementation and player evaluation for 2012.
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Originally Posted by Coach
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