The blame for the untimely demise of the Chiefs can be attributed to many factors such as poor tackling on defense, the lack of a big time playmaker at wide receiver, or possibly the infusion of a new right tackle to replace the since departed John Tait to Chicago. A concerned and supportive fan could probably come up with several more reasons from their own personal viewpoint. I however, place the blame solely and squarely at the feet of President and General Manager Carl Peterson.
When Carl Peterson was brought in along with Marty Schottenheimer he indicated that he had a five year plan to get the Chiefs to the Super Bowl, well, it’s ten years after the conclusion of those first five years and still the Red and Gold have not been to the Super Bowl. Clearly, he has had some successes, such as the teams that went 13-3 during the ’95 and ’97 seasons, as well as last years’ dominating team. But the goal is not impressive regular season records but rather to of course win the Championship!
Mr. Peterson has in my opinion too much influence in the day to day actions and decisions of his coaching staff and other personnel involved with the Chiefs. The team has salary cap issues to be sure, however not doing ANYTHING other than bringing back Gunther Cunningham to fix the atrocious defense is inexcusable. And any person with a reasonable amount of knowledge in the sport, would know that other teams would find creative ways to stop the Chiefs explosive offense, which they clearly did this offseason. It should have been as obvious as the nose on his face that adding another veteran wide receiver would have been mandatory!
A team that remains status quo when they haven’t won the Super Bowl is asking for trouble and a big fall, and that is what is occurring! The defense which was the most glaring area of need, added only a project interior defensive tackle and other role players who may or may not work out in the long run. Mr. Peterson’s insistence on trading down in the draft a season ago and selecting Penn State running back Larry Johnson is now coming back to haunt him as he is attempting to ship him to another team to cover one other area of need that he did not address previously. The Chiefs drafts the past few seasons have been a DISASTER, and Mr. Peterson is the one driving this bus and he needs to be held accountable!
This 0-3 hole that the Chiefs have dug for themselves will be a difficult one for them to crawl out of, however, it’s not too late to make some changes and right the ship. But the only way for Carl Peterson to save this team and his job is to own up to his mistakes and make every effort not to repeat them. Changes must now occur, and if they don’t and the season continues on it’s downward spiral, then Chiefs Founder and Owner Lamar Hunt must do what I’m sure he’d least like to do and that is make sure that after this season Carl Peterson is no longer in charge in Kansas City!
