It's the coaching stupid...

[texaschief]

Haley is a failed experiment and it needs to stop asap. How many times do we need to see this team show up COMPLETELY unprepared before people begin to realize it's not ALL on the players? I see so much complaining about Cassel and NOTHING about Haley... it's baffling to me. The guy starts out 0-2 in BLOWOUTS to coaches who use to be with the organization and ultimately goes 0-3. Then, he wins a couple games against 2 of the worst teams in the league and pulls one off against a Raiders team who didn't have a QB and suddenly he's getting a pass!

Losses AT HOME to an 0-7 Miami team and a Denver team with possibly the worst QB in the league who only completed 2 passes is inexcusable. This team is NEVER prepared. It showed in preseason and the first 3 games of the season and has now reared its head again these past 2 weeks.

I saw nothing but excuses for this team for the Miami loss. Almost EVERY team has to play on Monday night!! That's no excuse for getting blown the #uck out by an 0-7 team at home. Guess what, it's about to happen again against a better Pittsburgh team after the monday night game at New England.

What kills me is that now with Cassel having surgery on his hand, there's going to be all this BS defense of Haley that he's lost so many of his starters to injury. It doesn't matter who he's lost. The fact that the Chiefs can't be competitive has nothing to do with losing starters. Yeah, you may lose games because of that, but not being at least competitive and prepared week in and week out lays squarely on the head coach. If you can't figure out that Denver is going to run the ball and do something to prevent it, THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG!!

It's painfully obvious that the Chiefs can't circle any one game on their remaining schedule and say, "we have a GOOD chance to win this game." In fact, you probably saw the Chiefs last win 2 weeks ago against San Diego.

Todd Haley is 3 years into his tenure here in Kansas City... he owns this. There's no more passing the buck off onto the previous regime. It's YOUR fault this team isn't prepared to compete. It's YOUR fault the offense isn't performing under your leadership. No magical beard is going to hide the fact that you are NOT a head coach. When your QB is yelling at you on the sideline that, "you don't know what the #uck you're talking about," it's probably not a good sign.

The failure isn't all on Haley. It lies on Pioli that he can't recognize how epically Haley has failed at his job. Again, this isn't about losing... this is about the manner in which this team is losing. There's no excuse for the way this team has performed since preseason and I hope that while getting completely disemboweled over the next 5 weeks, Todd Haley gets exposed for the fraud of a head coach that he truly is.

Go back to coaching golf. I hear Tiger needs some help.

[texaschief]

Read the whole thing and it seemed like a very well thought out and written post. I have to waver on a few of the QB's once you throw in this years draft but your point overall still remains extremely valid.

To me Arenas wasn't a bad pick, he hasn't excelled but he hasn't caused a lot of pain. The Moeaki pick again, didn't hate it, didn't love it. To me if we get 3 or 4 more seasons out of Moeaki it was a good pick. Especially since most NFL players only play 3 years.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't 2012 one of the years that teams have to spend in the high 90% range of their caps? If so we have a lot of room to bring people in.

As for Haley I haven't seen him blowing up on guys the way he did the first year. Yeah he got after Cassel the one game but nothing remotely close to his first year. He seems very resigned to the point of it almost being like he knows he's done after this year. I don't like the thought of blowing things up again but if it needs to happen to be great instead of mediocre then so be it.

The Arenas and Moeaki picks aren't poor picks because of who the athlete is. They are poor picks because of the value they bring to the team at that particular pick. If Arenas had been taken in the 4th round or later, I would have loved the pick. Same with Moeaki if he had been taken later. I just believe there were much more valuable players available to the Chiefs when they decided to select their nickel CB. I would've liked to see some OL help before a NCB.
I don't believe things need to be blown up. I think Pioli should be given at least 7 more seasons before completely blowing things up again. Todd Haley can go NOW.

[OPLookn]

The Arenas and Moeaki picks aren't poor picks because of who the athlete is. They are poor picks because of the value they bring to the team at that particular pick. If Arenas had been taken in the 4th round or later, I would have loved the pick. Same with Moeaki if he had been taken later. I just believe there were much more valuable players available to the Chiefs when they decided to select their nickel CB. I would've liked to see some OL help before a NCB.
I don't believe things need to be blown up. I think Pioli should be given at least 7 more seasons before completely blowing things up again. Todd Haley can go NOW.

I'm not ready to get rid of Pioli yet. I think he needs to realize that the Cassel/Haley experiment is over and move on.

Got a scenario based on where you had us picking in the draft. What do you think of doing what needs to be done to get Kalil (left OT) from USC and putting Albert in at the RT. Then this year we put Hudson in at C to give us Gaither, Lilja, Hudson, Asamoah, Albert. This'll give them some time to gel and then next year when Kalil comes in we have Kalil, Lilja, Hudson, Asamoah and Albert for our line. Moeaki is back and we have Bowe, Baldwin and Breaston for our receivers. Charles is back with Battle to back him up and McClain to step in when both are tired. QB...that's where I find myself failing to answer the question. Do we keep Cassel, throw Stanzi in? That's the only part that I question.

Defensive side, Berry is back, Siler is back, and we can draft a few more D-Line guys for depth.

My main question is which is the most important? QB, NT or LOT?

[matthewschiefs]

No I'm focusing on Cassel because he's the most visible player in the organization and he's on an offense that isn't doing a good job right now. So yeah, I complain about him the most when short of a wild cat or some other gimmick play he touches the ball every single time.

There wasn't a spin to the issue, I told the truth and there's really not a way to spin a fact. If you give Cassel a pass you have to give Haley a pass too. You wanna stand up for Cassel because he's the savior of the team just as soon as we get the other best 10 players in the NFL around him, I get it. On another note love the passive aggressive on how you try to belittle my football IQ as if my opinion means less than yours.

With the way this team has looked I think we need to put more of the heat on Haley then any one player. This team should not have been blown out at home to the WINLESS at the time Dolphins. DO you really think the Dolphins are 31-3 better then the Chiefs? Do you really think that a 3rd string player from Denver is good enough to run all over our Defense? Or that Tim Tebow is?

The Job of the head coach is to have his team ready to play make adjustments as the game goes along and put his players in a spot where they will have the best chance to win. Buffalo they clearly were not ready to play. Detroit the same Miami the same. Theres really no shame in losing one At the chargers in a hard fault game. That one can slide. Miami Team was clearly not ready to play. Denver the team let a 3rd string guy run all over us when they CLEARLY could not throw the football. That's something that while it does fall some on the players it's also falls on the coaching staff for not being able adjustments to stop them. Can I say that Cassel is doing his job no I can't But I also can't say that Haley is doing his job to allow Cassel to play at his best. Would I mind seeing Palko in there if he plays well when Cassel is healthy No. But IMO Haley should get more heat then any player on this team. If the Head coach is not doing his job witch right now I don't think he is it's hard for the players to be at there best.

[texaschief]

I'm not ready to get rid of Pioli yet. I think he needs to realize that the Cassel/Haley experiment is over and move on.

Got a scenario based on where you had us picking in the draft. What do you think of doing what needs to be done to get Kalil (left OT) from USC and putting Albert in at the RT. Then this year we put Hudson in at C to give us Gaither, Lilja, Hudson, Asamoah, Albert. This'll give them some time to gel and then next year when Kalil comes in we have Kalil, Lilja, Hudson, Asamoah and Albert for our line. Moeaki is back and we have Bowe, Baldwin and Breaston for our receivers. Charles is back with Battle to back him up and McClain to step in when both are tired. QB...that's where I find myself failing to answer the question. Do we keep Cassel, throw Stanzi in? That's the only part that I question.

Defensive side, Berry is back, Siler is back, and we can draft a few more D-Line guys for depth.

My main question is which is the most important? QB, NT or LOT?

The problem with going after Kalil is that he's probably going to be taken by the Rams. Assuming my predictions end up exactly how I said (small chance lol), you're going to have to trade ahead of them to grab him. Which means, you're going to have to hope Cleveland doesn't want one of the top 3 QBs because I've got Indy taking Luck, Sea taking Barkley, and Cleveland ready to take Jones. IF they don't want Jones, the deal could be done. But if they have to fall behind Washington, who also has their eye on a new QB, the deal probably can't be done. Jonathan Martin of Stanford would probably be the next best LT in the draft but I'm not sure he's an obvious upgrade over Albert with 4 years of NFL experience.

The obvious answer would then be the RT Reiff out of Iowa where Pioli's buddy and future head coach candidate Kirk Ferentz now coaches. But, that's assuming you want to spend a high first round pick on a RT. I think the better bet would be to find one in free agency.

BUT!!!! Let's take your scenario and run with it. Let's say the Chiefs see a chance to land Kalil in the draft. If they decide they want to go all out and land him no matter what the cost, then a commitment to O-line is needed. If the idea is to have a new LT next season NO MATTER WHAT, then yes. I'd move Branden Albert to RT immediately. Because you would basically be starting over with your O-line, I'd leave Palko in at QB for the rest of the season. Albert, your best OLineman, would once again be protecting your QB's blind side because Palko is a left-handed QB. This takes the pressure off Gaither on the left side.

But, if you take this approach, you won't be able to draft a new franchise QB because you have spent the pick on a LT. But now, with a left-handed QB, spending a top 3 pick on a left tackle is a little redundant because all that talent won't be protecting the blind-side anymore and you've put Albert in an unfamiliar position with the same responsibilities. To me, it's the chicken or the egg. Personally, I'm not one that thinks Albert is a below average LT. I think he's a top 10 LT, actually. This whole "move Albert to OG/RT" B.S. is just that... B.S.

I think the best utilization of a top 5/6 pick would be to draft one of the top 3 QBs if they're available. Otherwise, trade down and address other needs like your O-line, NT, or ILB. Personally, I've been screaming for a NT since Pioli was hired and he hasn't done much to address the position. Alameda Ta'amu from Washington is the only NT in the draft worth taking in the first round... and he's a late first rounder at that. So, I'd try and see if I could trade up from my second round position to get him instead of trading all the way down from the 6th spot.

I would like a scenario in which we traded down to the 12th or 13th pick to get Birfect and then used the compensation we got for #6 to trade back into the first to pick up Ta'amu. Then, pick up a RT in the late 2nd or 3rd if you can't get one in free agency first.

In this scenario, you commit to Stanzi after he starts against the Jets and see where the 6'4, 230lb QB can take you. You've shored up your LB corp, you've upgraded your Dline, and begun a total youth movement on your Oline that will be together for a long while to come with Albert, Asomoah, Hudson, Lilja, and FA/3 rd. Add to that Charles, Moeaki, and Berry coming back from injury and you've got a decent team to put around your rookie QB... not to mention any other free agents that may be signed.

That's my initial thoughts on the '12 season. Things will probably change drastically by the time we get to the draft next April... but I doubt it. lol

[Canada]

I agree Tex. U could blame losses on injuries, but we have not even been in games. Blowouts are getting ridiculous. Something needs to change!!

[Three7s]

I'd take Matt Cassel over these guys:

4. Ryan
5. Stafford
6. Flacco
7. Roethlisberger
8. Manning
9. Manning
10. Shaub
11. Rivers
12. Newton
13. Romo
14. Vick
15. Freeman
16. Bradford
17. Dalton

Then you're blind.

Also, the Colts have a pretty similar roster this year as they did last year. So, what's the problem there?

[azchiefsfan]

If this is true, this post should be an indictment on your credibility on any further discussions you weigh in on. Your bias is obviously clouding your judgement or haven't truly watched any other team/QB outside of those playing for the Chiefs.

To judge yourself fairly, find a neutral observer. Someone who isn't a fan of either team and ask whether they would have Cassel or ANY of those QBs you mentioned, head to head. See what your results come back like.

When we were fairly healthy last year, even though we were a run-first offense, Cassel was rated higher than all but 4 of those guys on that list. Your judgement sucks and needs questioned. The facts certainly don't support your uninformed opinion.

[azchiefsfan]

You could put any one of those guys on this team and they wouldn't do any better, maybe Rodgers and Brady, but otherwise no.

[azchiefsfan]

I went and checked, Cassel was rated higher than all but 5 of those guys on my list.

[chief31]

Go back to coaching golf. I hear Tiger needs some help.

While I am not Haley's biggest supporter, and do place a whole lot of the blame for the four horrible outings this team has managed this season, Haley has done so much more with this team than Herm ever did, and I really am not too terribly dissapointed in the season, at this point.

I expected little, and am getting it. Actually gotten more than I expected, so far.

No I'm focusing on Cassel because he's the most visible player in the organization and he's on an offense that isn't doing a good job right now. So yeah, I complain about him the most when short of a wild cat or some other gimmick play he touches the ball every single time.

There wasn't a spin to the issue, I told the truth and there's really not a way to spin a fact. If you give Cassel a pass you have to give Haley a pass too. You wanna stand up for Cassel because he's the savior of the team just as soon as we get the other best 10 players in the NFL around him, I get it. On another note love the passive aggressive on how you try to belittle my football IQ as if my opinion means less than yours.

Well, you have singled yourself out as being hypocritical, haven't you?

I mean "If you give Cassel a pass you have to give Haley a pass too." yet you offer a pass for Haley, and not for Cassel.

And it isn't that Cassel needs to have the ten best players around him, nor that he is"the savior".

It's that he needs better than the absolute garbage that he has had to deal with of late.

And I know that you have seen how terrible the players around him have been. Dropping countless third down passes, penalties forcing 2nd and 20, only to see two running plays called from there, and pass protection that would make The Chicago Bears' O-line feel like starting their lobbying for The HoF.

I hope Palko does better. I have liked what I have seen of him during the past two preseasons. But I don't see how he can do any better, unless the rest of the offense does so.

You focus on the QB because he is the most visible player on the offense.... Unfortunately, that has a tendency to leave you blind to the offense, just like ff fans.

And, when you acknowledge that, your opinion really is less valuable than someone who specifically looks at the whole offense.

That's not to be insulting. It's just a reality that, if you focus on the QB, thus paying less attention to the other eleven guys on the field, you have to understand that your opinion is jaded.