Herm Edwards’ theory/excuse the last couple years has been that playing rookies now will pay dividends later. In effect, he believes that forcing them into the starting lineup will help speed up their development. Despite it’s inherent risk, there is some logic to that line of thought. But there are also some possibly devastating side effects to this logic, with the most prominent being:
a) If you treat the season as the 4th pre-season game and your opponent doesn’t, you’re guaranteed to stink.
b) You could actually stunt a young player’s development by giving him a job he hasn’t earned. Some players in that position may assume that they’ve “made it” and no longer do whatever it takes to improve and truly “earn” that starting position. In short, they may not be as ‘hungry’.
I much prefer Dick Vermeil’s “renting your job” philosophy. Whether young or old, you only had a starting spot if you earned it. Jared Allen played right away because he earned it. The one time Vermeil didn’t follow his own philosophy, it had disastrous results: Ryan Sims.
Starting quarterback Tyler Thigpen before he earned it was a mistake. He may have promise, but he obviously isn’t ready for this yet. By putting him in a failing situation, he may have set his career back by years. Herm said last week that one of the things this team really needs is consistent quarterback play. What is Damon Huard if not “consistent”? Obviously Huard should have started if we wanted the best chance to win against Atlanta. Herm can’t keep his “logic” straight. Even the announcers couldn’t understand why Thigpen started over Huard and just assumed Huard was hurt and couldn’t play, which even Herm admits wasn’t true.
Speaking of Herm logic, if we’re in a complete youth movement and winning now comes second to player development, why is B. J. Sams the starting returner (or even on the team) over Dantrell Savage and Jamaal Charles? Why is Damion McIntosh starting at right tackle instead of Herb Taylor? If you’re going to urinate on us and tell us it’s raining, at least keep your story straight.
Flushing the season before it starts to POSSIBLY help the future is a risk. However, maybe this isn’t a risk for Herm. Maybe he thought it was the best chance to save his job. If you admit you’ll stink before the season starts, everyone has lower expectations. But no one had them this low. If we’re going to flush, let’s do it right and replace Herm, too. Get out the plunger if necessary. Three years of Herm and we’re still heading downward.
Grades & Comments:
QB: F
- Thigpen didn’t earn this and wasn’t ready. 21 months ago he was playing for Coastal Carolina. Hopefully Herm isn’t destroying Thigpen’s chance at a career.
RB: B
- Larry ran well despite the lack of a downfield passing game. Of course, it all came after Atlanta had a comfortable lead.
- Herm still leaving Larry shaking his head on the sidelines in important situations. Who puts in Charles at the goal line? Crazy stupid.
- If Charles can’t catch or cover his blocking assignments, why is he the 3rd down back?
- Charles is a promising runner, but he is going down too easily .
WR/TE: D+
- A few drops exacerbated Thigpen’s inaccuracy.
- Had trouble getting open.
OL: D
- Poor protection.
- Get some credit for opening up running lanes in the 2nd half .
- McIntosh is not working out at RT.
- Albert obviously still has things to learn, but development is on schedule.
- Waters gets honorable mention for making a tackle using another human as a weapon.
DL: F
- Gashed again by the run.
- Absolutely no pass rush against a rookie. Shame, shame.
- Lost the battle at the line-of-scrimmage repeatedly.
- Again, no sacks. Oh Jared, where art thou?
- Good first few series performance wiped out by rest of game.
LB: F
- Another horrible performance by Pat Thomas. Who is this guy and how is he our starting MLB? By his performance so far, I don’t see how he possibly earned the distinction of a starter. Harris was much better last year.
- D. Johnson was very disappointing today.
DB: D
- Flowers/Carr looked ok… of course Matt Ryan proved we have no 3rd CB without Surtain.
- Better day for Page. Pollard looking somewhat improved at safety this year.
Coaching: F
- Did you watch the game? Nothing but bad decisions and failed action.
Kicking: F
- Novak’s short kickoffs just don’t cut it and he doesn’t make it up with exceptional FG ability. We need another option.
Punting: A
- Herm misunderstands the saying, “get the ball in the hands of your best player”.
Last Week
My apologies for not providing an article to any potential loyal readers last week. My satellite/DVR malfunctioned and spared me the devastation (and possibly saved me a TV). Without seeing the game, there was little to write about and little analysis to be made for such a debacle. Let’s just give everybody an F. Reading comments, it sounds like that game was the last straw for a few Herm supporters.
Even though JD has already covered many of last weeks Hermisms, I think last week’s press conference was so full of “doozies” that some need to be emphasized:
Herm: “We played decent up in New England and loss, and we played this game and it’s 6-0 at half, no different than the New England game.” … “We played this game and in the first half it was really the same score as in New England, in my opinion, where we were trailing 7-3.”
VLTC: Yes, they’re similar in that they were both catastrophic offensive failures. But of course that’s not what he meant when repeatedly saying the games were ‘similar’ in the first half. He was conveying that he thinks we did equally ‘well’ and ‘kept it close’ in both games. Of course, there is one big difference in the two games’ first halves: It is possible, although unlikely, to win with three points. There is absolutely no way to win with ZERO. Herm really doesn’t seem to understand this.
Herm: “In both games, we get behind, if we can’t throw the football and make plays down the field, they stack the box and it’s difficult to run.”
VLTC: You have to try to find out!
Herm: “We are putting in our game plan now, but we are sort of thinking about being more decisive on quarterback, letting the guy who plays quarterback, play quarterback and just play with that guy. What we are thinking about now is letting just one guy play.”
VLTC: After just one week, Herm completely changes his philosophy. From rotating QBs to needing “one guy”. He has no idea what he’s doing and is absolutely desperate.
Herm: “In the first half of the game they had 34 yards rushing, so it’s not like we had bogged down completely”
VLTC: From the box score I count 67 net rushing yards by Oakland in first half. What game tape was Herm watching?
Herm: “We played New England pretty good, pretty good, and then at the end they ran the ball and gapped us.”
VLTC: Can our next coach use English a little “gooder”? You play WELL, not good. Actually, no, you didn’t play well or “pretty good”, you lost.
Q: Which quarterback gives you the best chance to win?
Herm: “I think both of them. I think it’s just how you want to orchestrate it this week. We’re going to determine who the starter will be but both will be available to play along with Martin, who will play too. That’s how we’ll look at it.”
VLTC: Why can’t you just answer the question? Just tell the truth, Huard gives the best chance to win THIS game, but you think playing Thigpen now may pay dividends in the future. It’s a risk, but a risk you’re willing to take. We can understand that; don’t treat us like babies who can’t handle the truth.
Q: On Thigpen not knowing Huard was injured:
Herm: “In that situation you never want to tell a kid, ‘by the way, the next series the other guy is coming in.’ You don’t want the guy thinking about that. You want him to just go play, don’t think about it. That’s all you can control.”
VLTC: Wait, wasn’t that your game plan? To have them split the series approximately 2-to-1? And by not telling him Huard was hurt, doesn’t that make him look over his shoulder MORE? You make no sense, Herm.
Does Clark Hunt know you get what you pay for this is a cheap football team lowest payroll in the NFL by a lot Clark needs to start answering some questions about the future of this shi**y team.All of the fans should where paper bags over our heads on Sunday when we lose again and for the 13th straight time.(FIRE CARL AND HERM).
Comment by chris — September 22, 2008 @ 8:26 am
It is time for the Hunt family to get rid of Herm and Carl. The fans are tired of losing he had his chance now lets move on with some real players. Or the fans are gone and they will try to find how to pay their salaries a different way. Please realize Clark Hunt that it is the fans that pay good money to watch our team play and we won’t watch a losing team so now is the time to save fate with the fan. Fired them
Comment by Robert — September 22, 2008 @ 9:44 am
rebuilding year wrong we are getting worse as the season is going on. this is the worse i have ever seen the cheifs play sense i have been a fan. we need a quarterback quick maybe brady quinn somebody besides pigpen.
Comment by kill me — September 22, 2008 @ 9:48 am
It might be a good year to change coaches this offseason. Maybe Cowher will get the itch back, and down in Dallas Jason Garrett is getting so ripe that I doubt Jones will be able to shield him from the rest of the league anymore.
Of course, we might be competing with St. Louis, Detroit, etc for coaching services. Think anybody is as gullible as “us” and willing to give up a draft pick for Herm? Heheh
Comment by VLTC — September 22, 2008 @ 10:18 am
Not a chance the Jets are just sitting back and laughing right now.
Comment by Dave S — September 22, 2008 @ 11:21 am
Seriously that had to be the worst trade in the history of the NFL. NO team is going to hire Herm after this. He is ruining his own career.
Comment by Jones — September 22, 2008 @ 2:04 pm
Check this out
Sep 22, 2008, 8:26:12 AM
Q: On the whole your thoughts on the team’s performance?
EDWARDS: “I don’t know. I think we went in phases. We battled back in the second half. We made it kind of interesting but they drove right down the field after a long kickoff return and that got us out of the game. We came back twice but we couldn’t put any points on the board.â€
Are you kidding me? You don’t know? What kind of reply is that? Battled back my ass, You got burnt and your copping out on the answer!
–
Q: Are you inclined to use him next week?
EDWARDS: “We’ll see. We haven’t made a decision on what we’re going to do yet. He did some good things, but he just can’t throw that many interceptions. All of them were points: 13 points on two of them and one touchdown for seven points.â€
You mean you really have to think about it? let’s look at the stats shall we?
–
Q: Your defense should be ahead of your offense at this point. Is this disappointing after having spent a lot of resources trying to fix that. Is that more disappointing?
EDWARDS: “Yeah. We’ve drafted most of the players over there. We’ve got to play better on defense. There is no doubt about it. We haven’t the last two weeks – we haven’t played very good at all.â€
Uh, Did he just admitt to something that he did? Did he just say he failed? Ofcourse he has a We in there!
Comment by BadBones — September 22, 2008 @ 3:49 pm
Actually the worst thing the Chiefs ever did was draft that no good stiff running back Larry Johnson! If all we were going to do was let Kwika Mitchell do was walk anyway, then with the with the 47th over all pick and the 27th overall pick which we used for LJ, if we traded both of these to Pittsburgh at 16 we probably could have had Troy Polamalu!
Now we’d be lucky if we could get a third rounder for LJ…
Comment by Mike N — September 22, 2008 @ 4:30 pm
i want to know why perm was smiling after the ints. what the hell is he smiling about?
Comment by JC — September 22, 2008 @ 5:46 pm
ughhhh……
Comment by KC Wolf — September 22, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
I agree with a majority of your observations. I disagree with some of your gradings however. Overall, the defense was horrid. Apparently, Michael Turner has some sort of force field surrounding him; tackling was ridiculous. The lack of pressure from the Dline did not help the secondary, which is the only defensive area that is showing progress.
The offensive line was horrible. Too bad for Thigpen. It is very hard to judge his performance under those circumstances. It is obvious that he is as athletic as Croyle with an arm just as lively. The speed of the game really affected Thigpen. I do understand looking at him in the game because he is talented, and practice does not allow you to accurately evaluate a player.
Larry Johnson ran awesome, finally. You can see the difference in him. He ran angry with that old chip on his shoulder. It is frustrating to see him go down easily at times. As for Charles, he did drop a couple balls early, but continues to play well. I disagree with the statement that he goes down easy. It may appear that way, but he also gains positive yards when most other backs would take a loss. He will eventually be our starting RB.
As hard as it is to swallow, we have to start enjoying the postive steps are team is making, regardless of how small. We are currently one of THE worst teams in the league. The only way we can survive as fans is to find those positives and look forward to the day we have a coach and GM that will can build around them.
The thing that hurts the most is knowing what a proud franchise Lamar Hunt created. The Chiefs have a history of having solid players that respected the Chiefs tradition as well as the game. The Chiefs that we fell in love with loved the game and played with passion……and were never this bad.
Comment by Travis — September 22, 2008 @ 9:35 pm
Hey, I love the discussion on grading. After all, mine are with only one viewing of the game (who could stomach more), so obviously there are things I miss and subjective things I catch.
I didn’t mean to come down harshly on Charles, he looks quite promising. There were a couple plays where he went down without much of a fight, though.
I agree that the secondary deserved better than a D, which you can see by the generally positive remarks in that section. The main detractions were no turnovers (but there was no pressure) and the high percentage Ryan was able to complete at. Like you point out, a lot of this falls on the lack of a pass rush.
Comment by VLTC — September 23, 2008 @ 12:59 am
From the start of the season I know I am not the only one that was thinking this. We pushed out the veteran players to bring in the rookies. I asked myself “Why” Keep the veterans and let them be the mentors to the rookies. Show them the NFL in there eyes. The NFL is different then College, Just ask Ryan Leaf. better yet don’t ask him. I have been furious when they added players that could not even make the roster spots on practice squads. I knew then that Herm knew nothing of what he is doing. Maybe he is better suited for college and not the NFL. The NFL stands for Not For Long Herm. You know that. I expect you to be the first person canned this year. I went to the game against the raiders, and never ever in my whole life have I seen such a demorialized, dejected and most of all beaten before the first down was called. Herman has destroyed this franchise and I not only blame him I blame Carl Peterson for being so stupid to bring him on after what he has shown with the Jets. The team that made it to the playoffs last year was a fluke. es as the Chiefs nation are in a uprising to get rid of Herm and Carl. Why do we have to pay for the mistakes that CEO’s make? Why? We should not have to. Let them wahler in there own mistakes and let we the people reap the benefits. The benefits of a prestigious franchise. I wish that the Kansas City franchise would just hold open practices and let some of the people that never had a chance to play. Wait a second what am I saying here, we are doing that. Except they are players who never could make it on other teams practice squads.
Anyway back to my rant. When has this team ever shown any consistant playcalling? as far as I can tell it happens when Herm and the staff decide on what QB to start for the next game. A bit of advice here Herm, There is a Quarterback that knows this franchise on the team his name is Damon Huard.
For grading purposes I could not even grade this team. This team is beyond hope. They fit in the same catagory as the Lions, and Rams. No reason to grade cause there coaching staff all (censored). I do like Gunny though. Guns knows defense like bo knew football. As for Herm the destroyer of franchise Edwards. I would like another towel please. For those who do not understand this. It means the best place for him is as a restroom attendant.
I would love to know where I could apply for Carl Petersons job. Because it seems I know more then him and make alot less money.
This proves the world wide point of “The lless you know the More you make”
P.S.
I have 7 tickets for sale and a ton of memorbilia also. Herm you just plain (Censored)
http://www.firehermedwards.com
Comment by kcchiefs19692003 — September 23, 2008 @ 7:09 am
I am not in KC and don’t have a clue what the local media is doing, but I find it funny that this streak and Herm are not on the national news more.
Comment by Jeff in VA — September 23, 2008 @ 9:32 am
i think we should trade our first round draft for brady quinn or brian brohm let them play the rest of the season so they can grow and jel with the rest of the team if we wait to draft another next year we will have to endure this again next year because we will have to wait for the qb to play catch up we can always trade lj for a no. 1 mlb you can tell lj does not want to be in kc anyway let him move on so he can grow elsewhere.
Comment by dale nipper — September 23, 2008 @ 9:56 am
I think one of the things we all should start to take a look at is the owner of this team. I look at other teams and what their owners do like Dallas for instance, I hate the team have since I was a kid and I live in Oklahoma so I have to hear all the time about them Cowboys. I don’t like Jerry Jones but he repeatedly builds championship teams I wouldn’t be surprised to see them win it all this year, and how many SB’s do they have 5 or 6! We have stuck with Carl Peterson too long he should have been fired if not sooner, when we were 13-3 and lost to Indy, he should have been gone before that. Herm should be fired now, if not now then at the end of the year. It wont surprise me if we are doing this again next year. This guy knows nothing about this game or whats going on on the field or off. Why is it other owners will fire guys when they are obviously doing a bad job but or owner wont? Don’t get me wrong I love Lamar and the Hunt family, but everybody including myself has wanted Peterson gone for awhile now, and he is still there because our owners have failed to get rid of the biggest problem this franchise has, and now he’s brought in Herm the destroyer!!! Who is destroying the team even further. Their both making an embarrasment of this team.
Comment by Michael Raite — September 23, 2008 @ 12:08 pm
Lamar Hunt has to be rolling over in his grave. Two words for Clark, Carl and Herm.
PATHETIC
SHAMEFUL
Comment by CCason — September 23, 2008 @ 1:17 pm
I have tried for the last couple of years to be understanding of the whole rebuilding process, and I’ve tried to be supportive of our coach & gm. We have seen great championship teams that rebuilt and in the process struggled for a season or two. Those teams however seemed to show improvement as they rebuilt.
When I see a Chiefs team that plays with NO Passion at home against the Raiders, a coach that is still trying out players in the regular season(as if it’s still pre-season)Who dosen’t play a veteran quarterback who gives you the best chance to win. I have to say I’m no longer supporting our leadership. I will always be a chiefs fan but I’m so disappointed in my team it ruins the season for me.
Comment by Terry — September 23, 2008 @ 2:21 pm
What Herm seem to not understand is that you cannot build a long-term winning team solely through the draft. By the time you get a team that’s starting to gel, the earliest drafts are reaching free agency. Replacing those lost as free agents with draft picks only makes your team a development organization. You must keep and sign veterans as the “corporate knowledge” of the team.
It’s not the same league as it was before free agency. If you don’t have your team turned around in a couple of years and hitting their peak within 5, you’re spinning your wheels.
Look at the guys we’ve drafted since Herm came to town. Excluding this year’s class as it’s too early to tell, only Bernard Pollard and Kolby Smith are performing at top level (and Smith is debatable). Jarrad Page is getting close, as is Tamba Hali. Jeff Webb, Brodie Croyle, Dwayne Bowe (even though he had the most receptions of any rookie last year), Turk and Tank all show promise but still are squarely in the developmental stage.
Go back a year further and we find Derrick Johnson, again a promising player but still needing further development. Dustin Colquitt doesn’t really count – punters either have it or not. Thankfully he does!
So signing lots of young players and expecting them to take you to the playoffs within two or three years is not realistic unless you either keep a core of talented veterans to provide leadership or bring in those veterans via free agency.
Comment by KC-Dave — September 23, 2008 @ 4:21 pm