I just couldn’t write about the Chiefs last week. It was just too difficult. Every time I started to think about Herm, my right hand started punching me in the face. Now why would I be punching myself in the face? I don’t know… why does Herm Edwards still have a head coaching job? Those are equally mind-boggling and eye gouging questions in my mind.
I really can’t comprehend why people continue to make excuses for this guy. He’s a terrible head coach, plain and simple. It doesn’t make him a bad human being. In fact, by most accounts he’s a very good human being and I wish him well in his post-Chiefs career. Admitting he’s a bad head coach doesn’t mean I’m condemning him to the death sentence. I’m pretty sure Mother Theresa would make a bad head coach too. I shouldn’t be worried about hurting anyone’s feelings by admitting this obvious fact.
Ouch! I just tried to figure out why Carl Peterson is still supporting this guy. Darn right hand. If Peterson is going to keep a guy as head coach JUST because they’re friends, then Peterson has to go. NFL teams mean too much to their fans (and their wallets) to treat this process so frivolously and selfishly. This whole thing really hurts my head, both inside and out. If he’s such a good evaluator of young talent (the only defense people seem to be claiming for Herm lately), then hire him to the personnel and player development departments, not head coach! At this point, keeping Herm as head coach would be no more surprising to me than hiring Mike Tyson as the next head coach because he knows how to hit people.
Joe Posnanski of the KC Star is apparently one of these people who fail to realize that a head coach needs more than scouting ability. Recently he wrote:
“Well, now, like it or not, it’s happening. The Chiefs are rebuilding now. And I think Edwards is just the right coach to build from scratch. He may drive people nuts with his defensive mindset and game planning, but the guy has a special talent for finding good young players and developing them, which is more important. All year, Edwards kept telling us that rookie running back Kolby Smith —— a fifth-round pick who did not even start at Louisville — was a special young player. Many of us didn’t see it.”
Oh, that’s why the Jets are so good right now? Because he developed a lot of young talent for them over the years before he left? Yeah, right. Sure, maybe the Chiefs have had a few seemingly nice hits with the last two drafts, but lets remember that we haven’t even seen two full seasons of any of his draft picks.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty happy with our draft picks lately, but I need to see a lot more before they are bonafide success stories. Just because they’ve been inserted into the starting lineup does not make them great successes… yet. After all, I could be named a starter, but that doesn’t make me any good. I realize everyone likes to get excited about prospects, but we should keep our enthusiasm realistic. Let me remind you of the following Dick Vermeil Era picks that cracked the starting lineup at one time (if I remember correctly) but didn’t turn out to be real “draft hits” in the long run:
Eric Downing
Marvin Minnis
Monte Beisel
Derrick Blaylock
Ryan Sims
Eddie Freeman
Omar Easy
Scott Fujita
Julian Battle
Jordan Black
Junior Siavii (?)
Kevin Sampson
Speaking of the Dick Vermeil Era, his draft classes take a lot of flak. Sure there were some big time misses (e.g. Ryan Sims, Junior Siavii), but remember a lot of this falls on Peterson, the same man making a lot of the calls in the last two drafts that people seem to like. Also, I’d argue that the Vermeil draft classes weren’t as bad as people like to claim. Don’t forget that we traded a lot of our best picks away for proven talent. Here’s a list of the best that the Vermeil drafts (2001-2005) brought us:
Trent Green
Dick Vermeil (yes we gave up picks for him)
Larry Johnson
Jared Allen
Patrick Surtain
Derrick Johnson
Dustin Colquitt
Kawika Mitchell
Jimmy Wilkerson (valuable backup)
Kris Wilson
Keyaron Fox (valuable backup)
Samie Parker
Boomer Grigsby
Will Svitek
That’s a list that has produced and continues to produce. It includes both Jared Allen and Derrick Johnson, who are the top two reasons why the Chiefs defense has improved. It includes Dustin Colquitt, who could be the best punter in football. It includes Larry Johnson, who, until opponents caught on to Herm’s predictable offense, was considered the second best running back in the NFL. It includes Trent Green who ran our #1 offense for five years and had three straight 4000+ yard seasons. It also netted us top talents Partrick Surtain and Dick Vermeil. That’s a lot of top end talent from so-called “horrible” drafts.
So I urge you to have a little patience before declaring Herm Edwards the ultimate drafter. Yes we have a couple young promising safeties, but they’re not yet out-producing the people they replaced (have you seen what Knight is doing in Jacksonville?). Tamba Hali had some good first year stats, but have you seen how out of position he is sometimes this year and how much the opponents are running at him? Nobody knows what Brodie Croyle will be yet. Turk McBride and DeMarcus Tyler are complete unknowns at this point. Kolby has been impressive, especially when considering this play-calling and the offensive line, but that’s only two games. In fact, the only Herm Era pick really solidifying himself as the real deal already is DBowe. But then again, Sylvester Morris had a promising rookie year… not that I’m equating the two.
