Article on Croyle

**rbedgood** · 05-30-2008, 01:06 PM

The biggest point in the whole article is probably the endorsement from new OC Chan Gailey...

http://www.kansascity.com:80/sports/chiefs/story/641996.html

Croyle knows he still needs to win over Chiefs

By RANDY COVITZ

The Kansas City Star

All it takes is a simple word for Chiefs quarterback Brodie Croyle to spring into action.
Colt. Pony. Dragon.
Any of those words describe a play, the protection and the formation in the Chiefs’ new offense. Having to say just one word in the huddle has lifted a burden in Croyle’s bid to establish himself as the team’s starting quarterback.
He’s not bogged down by the wordiness and complicated terminology that often leads to mistakes and interceptions.
“I really like the offense,” Croyle said Thursday after the Chiefs completed their second week of the on-field portion of their offseason program. “I’m very comfortable, surprisingly. The reads are pretty clear right now for us.
“It’s a pretty simple offense. It’s giving guys the chance to go out and play, not a whole lot of thinking about it, just go out and line up and go.”
Croyle, a third-round draft pick in 2006, was given every chance to win the starting job last year. The club cleared the way by trading veteran Trent Green and gave Croyle an inside track during the preseason.
But he performed poorly in the preseason, allowing veteran backup Damon Huard to open the season and start the first eight of nine games. Once the season was out of hand, Croyle started six of the final seven games — all losses in a 4-12 season — though in fairness he was handicapped by a dilapidated offensive line and absence of running back Larry Johnson.
This year, the job is again Croyle’s to lose. And he’s not about to let another opportunity slip through his fingers.
“I didn’t win the job last year when I wanted to,” Croyle said. “It obviously was not the right time. We got some games under our belt last year, and we’re ready to go.
“This offense gives me a chance to be patient and more consistent … make the right reads and don’t try and force things. Everybody when they get in there, they want to make big plays and win a bunch of games. Usually when you do that, you get yourself in trouble and throw interceptions and bad things happen.”
The Chiefs gave Croyle an enormous vote of confidence when they did not take a quarterback with any of their 12 draft picks. Head coach Herm Edwards senses a different demeanor in Croyle, 25.
“He’s been pretty consistent in throwing the football … a lot more confident than he’s ever been around here,” Edwards said. “He’s feeling he’s the quarterback and that’s a good thing.
“The offense is very similar to what he’s run before. He likes the names of how we (call plays). It gives him an opportunity to do some things at the line of scrimmage where he can get out of the play. He can handle all that.”
Durability has been another issue that has dogged Croyle throughout his career, including high school and college. He missed one start because of a back injury and left another game because of a hand injury. Edwards is convinced a better supporting cast will keep Croyle in one piece.
And new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey is confident a healthy Croyle can be a franchise-type quarterback.
“There’s no question in my mind he can be that guy,” Gailey said emphatically. “There’s no question.”
While Croyle would have to play absolutely dreadfully in training camp to lose the starting job to Huard or second-year man Tyler Thigpen, he realizes this won’t be his team until he leads the Chiefs to some victories.
Croyle has played in just one victory in a Chiefs uniform, when he mopped up the last two possessions of a 41-0 rout of San Francisco in the third week of his rookie season. Since then, he’s appeared in 10 games, all losses.
“When we go out and start winning football games, that’s the first time people will start believing,” he said when asked whether he feels this is his team.
“As good of (practices) and minicamps as I can possibly have, and even a great training camp and even a great preseason, it doesn’t really mean much until you win some football games.
“You don’t call it your team or huddle until you win.”

**chief31** · 06-03-2008, 07:07 PM

I think that Croyles future depends primarily on Branden Albert.

**Coach** · 06-03-2008, 07:35 PM

Do or die time for Croyle. The OL changes will either make or break him in my opinion. If the OL can protect the pass and run block, then he will get a fair shot. Otherwise, he'll be a scapegoat.

**Chiefster** · 06-03-2008, 07:38 PM

Originally Posted by Coach

Do or die time for Croyle. The OL changes will either make or break him in my opinion. If the OL can protect the pass and run block, then he will get a fair shot. Otherwise, he'll be a scapegoat.

Yup! ...Couldn't have said it better, not that - that is saying anything.

**Pro_Angler** · 06-03-2008, 08:57 PM

I've said it all along brodie wasn't the problem!!!!!

**CHIEFCANNON** · 06-04-2008, 08:24 AM

IF.. Brodie has a brain... this is his water shed year. Even without experience of the past, this years line is better without one snap. That adds the pressure to perform and become the leader of the Beatles I ... mean Chiefs... loose that fricken hair cut.

**chief31** · 06-04-2008, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by CHIEFCANNON

IF.. Brodie has a brain... this is his water shed year. Even without experience of the past, this years line is better without one snap. That adds the pressure to perform and become the leader of the Beatles I ... mean Chiefs... loose that fricken hair cut.

I think the o-line is about the same. (Without a snap.)

We lost three staters, and added one rookie and some more leftovers. But the offensive numbers can't get much worse, so it is almost guaranteed that those numbers will imrove, and make the unit look improved.

Unless I see some of the young guys that we already had on the team starting soon, (Svtek, Taylor, Stallings) then it is still just another band of wash-outs and a rookie, playing out of position.

AKA <Herm Edwards Special>

**tornadospotter** · 06-04-2008, 11:16 AM

Six Games In

Jun 04, 2008, 9:23:46 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

A milepost for evaluating NFL quarterbacks does not usually include a stop at the six-start marker.
But that’s where Brodie Croyle sits as he prepares for the 2008 season. So that’s where we will frame our epistle for today.
What can we tell after six starts? Not much really, especially when those starts come on a team playing as poorly as the Chiefs were in the second half of the 2007 season. But football presents us with plenty of numbers. And, where there are statistics, there are comparisons.
Let’s start with Croyle’s numbers for his first six NFL starts:

The most glaring number in Croyle’s resume right now is the team’s 0-6 record. It’s unfair that the starting quarterback bears the burden for a team’s record, but that’s the facts of life in pro football. Croyle’s five touchdown passes to five interceptions is a pretty good ratio for a young quarterback making his first starts. Overall, Croyle’s numbers are not the kind of statistics that impress fans and pundits.
But would those fans and pundits feel differently after looking at the statistics for the first six starts of Eli Manning’s career with the New York Giants? Here they are.

Three seasons before he became the quarterback of the Super Bowl champion Giants, three years before he was acclaimed around the country for his remarkable direction of the New York offense to the winning score in the final quarter in Arizona, Manning was in a similar spot as Croyle. All through that 2004 season, then 2005, 2006 and even into the 2007 season, fans and pundits were convinced Manning was a bust. Against Minnesota in late November last year, Manning hit just 21 of 49 passes with four interceptions in a 24-point loss to the Vikings. The boo birds and second-guessers were all over him and the Giants.
Two months later, he was taking the G-Men to a title.
Would the doubters feel differently about Croyle after seeing the stats for the first six starts of Peyton Manning’s career with Indianapolis? Here they are:

Peyton Manning was the No. 1 player taken in the 1998 NFL Draft. He came off a record setting career at the University of Tennessee and was generally considered a can’t miss pro quarterback prospect. That didn’t make his transition any easier. Just look at those 14 interceptions in his first six starts. Manning threw 14 interceptions in 16 games last season; his career average over 10 years has been 15.3 interceptions per season.
And would it matter in the evaluation of Croyle after seeing the numbers thrown up by Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger in his first half-dozen NFL starts? Here are those statistics:

Roethlisberger was a first-round selection in the 2004 NFL Draft and quickly became the Steelers starting quarterback in that rookie season, replacing Tommy Maddox after two games. The Steelers finished the season 15-1, the best record in the NFL that year, although they lost the AFC Championship Game to New England.
Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning were the starting quarterbacks for the last three Super Bowl championship teams. Like Croyle, the Mannings first starts came with a rebuilding team. Roethlisberger was luckier in his NFL lottery, landing with a veteran team, one that was especially strong on defense.
Let’s visit more distant NFL history. Here are Troy Aikman’s numbers for his first six starts with the Dallas Cowboys:

Aikman was the quarterback on three Super Bowl teams with the Cowboys and joined the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.
How about the old Chiefs killer, Denver’s John Elway. Here are his first six NFL starts:

Elway was the quarterback on a pair of Super Bowl championship teams and joined the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
Is Croyle in the same class as Aikman and Elway, or the Manning Brothers? Of course not. Croyle has started just six games in his NFL career. Comparisons at this time are essentially silly.
But these numbers indicate what the Chiefs quarterback has experienced in his first starts is not unusual or out of the ordinary. It’s part of the growth process for nearly all quarterbacks. Many more statistics are needed before we’ll know where Croyle’s career will take him and the Chiefs.
Keep that in mind the next time somebody wants to cast Croyle as a bust. Less than a year ago, the same thing was being said of Eli Manning.

Thought that this was interesting.

**hermhater** · 06-04-2008, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by m0ef0e

I think Herm secretly hates QB's because he used to be a D-back.

I don't think it's a secret dude...

**hermhater** · 06-04-2008, 01:14 PM

HE: It is amazing too because like you said they stocked up on some positions where they felt they got hurt last year and lo and behold they get hurt again. It is like us. I never imagined in my career, and I have been in the league 26 years playing and coaching, that I would have the fifth quarterback playing in the game. I have seen it all now. I thought I had seen it all, but I have seen it all now.

http://www.patriots.com/mediacenter/...=14203&pcid=85