Is Herm Upset With Other Teams?
It looks like there is a little more to the Jeff Faine and Josh Brown deals. Herm Edwards hinted that some teams might have contacted agents before they were allowed.
“There were probably some deals done before (the start of the league year),” Edwards said when asked why the Chiefs didn’t get in the game with either player. “We didn’t cheat. We abided by the rules. That’s how you’re supposed to do it, and that’s what we did.”
Faine signed with Tampa Bay in the hours after free-agency began. Brown immediately visited with the Rams and signed with them before the Chiefs could get him to visit.
“You’d have to ask Tampa,” Edwards said when asked whether the Bucs were in early on Faine. “I don’t know what Tampa did.”
I think Herm feels that the Bucs were more likely to have broken the rules, with the Rams not quite as likely. I am glad to hear that we wanted to go after Faine, but the hard fact to swallow is he is not a Kansas City Chief. I wonder if we would have had a chance? I think Brown, however, probably headed to St. Louis because of the dome and the money.
- Chiefs notebook: Herm mad at Bucs, Rams – Kansas City Star
I’m not so sure we would have wanted Faine at the salary that he was asking. He was young and talented, sure, but $6 million per with that much guaranteed money seems rather exorbitant. As for Brown, we definitely didn’t want him at the salary he was asking. You pay top dollar for a premium kicker (and I’m not sure Brown was even that) when you’re competing for the Super Bowl…not when you’re in the middle of rebuilding. We’ve got time to develop one now.
Although I stand by my belief that Justin Medlock was never going to develop. When he can’t even hit his field goals in practice you know the kid sucks. The Rams had him on their roster when they signed Josh Brown, so I get the idea that’s not only my perception.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:00 amThe biggest thing that I got from the Kansas City Star article is the A list, B list, C list.
Up till now everyone has been saying “stay true to the Herm Philosophy of the younger no names type players.”
Right there in the article Herm is admiting that he had an “A list” (Faneca/Faine) – then when we let them all go to other teams he had a “B list” (Hackett/Johnson)- again we let them go to other teams leaving us we the “C list” (Darling/Williams)
There is no excuse now as far as I am concerned – they knew there were some good players out there – they alwo knew they had plenty of money and yet we got none of them!
Getting C rate players before and soon to be after the Draft does not inspire me!
March 25th, 2008 at 9:34 amI’ve harped on this point elsewhere, but I don’t get the complete lack of interest in pursuing Max Starks. He’s young, a good athlete, and he fits a critical need. He’s a transition player, but Pittsburgh’s up hard against the salary cap with Roethlisberger’s new deal so it looks like a reasonable offer could get him for us. Yet we haven’t heard Starks mentioned at all. I guess they figure they can do better with whoever the other teams get rid of on roster cutdowns…and considering the large number of talented young o-linemen in the draft there might be a free agent or two worth picking up who shake loose in the roster cuts. The question is, if a decent player becomes available would they actually be willing to sign with the Chiefs, or even consider it?
March 25th, 2008 at 1:36 pmDave I think you are totally misunderstanding the quote.
The A-list was not necessarily the big name guys, with B-list being lesser, etc.
A were the guys they wanted most. B were the guys you went after if the A guys were gone, etc.
For all we know Williams could have been on the A-list. They signed him pretty quick. Darling could have been on the B-list and Hackett and Johnson may not have been on the list at all.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:16 pmNobody is cheatin with Shane O-livea! I also remember a Justin Hartwig comin in too, any one cheat with him?
March 25th, 2008 at 7:46 pmIf Max Starks has a transition tag, that means he’s going to be grossly overpaid. I still don’t understand why everyone is obsessed with this guy. He had lots of opportunities to win the starting job in Pittsburgh and he lost it, because he’s just not that good. Yet another clear example of a great athlete who has “upside” not because of what he’s done on the field, but because of how fast and strong he is.
As for the comment on the A, B, and C list, I think that’s highly inaccurate. It shows that the Chiefs had an A list (and I think it’s inaccurate to say that these players “slipped away,” given Herm’s complaints which I believe are legit given that Faine was signed hours after free agency started even despite expressing an interest in visiting KC). And Darling and Demorrio Williams represent a bit of a C list. See, Faine and Brown are very good players who deserve to be paid a lot of money. I would argue that the B list consists of average players that are grossly overpaid with A money because the A List was so small this year. The C list includes B list players who are making B list money. And then the D list are all the retreads who have no potential, no upside, and won’t be paid anything. The Chiefs seem pretty intent on targeting a very select few people from the A list and trying to find as many people from the C list as they can find. Given the craziness of free agency, I think there are more people in the B list, so we’ll just have to wait. I strongly disagree that the Chiefs “let B list people slip away.” The Chiefs never showed even a slight interest in Johnson/Hackett, therefore, they never got away.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:13 amJon Y,
All a transition tag does is give the other team the right of first refusal on any contract offered by another team and accepted by the player. We don’t have to offer a compensatory draft pick for him if we sign him. Considering that Pittsburgh reportedly had little cap room left (even before the draft) I don’t think it would be a problem to snag him relatively cheap (two or three million).
He’s not a great tackle, true…but he’s young, so there’s still room to develop, and moving him to guard is not out of the question either (and, last I checked, we still needed guards…and $2-3 million is not too much to pay for that position). Given that most of our draft picks are going to be in the rounds where you’re lucky to find players who aren’t immediate roster cuts, we could do a lot worse than adding Starks as a starter somewhere until either a) he pans out or b) we find somebody capable of replacing him. Frankly, I don’t look forward to the prospect of having any of the line spots manned by a seventh-round draft pick who’s not a legitimate starter just to save a few bucks and so that Herm and Carl can claim that they’re great at finding good football players in the late rounds. Whether you like the guy or not, that’ll insure that Croyle never has a chance to become the QB of the future because he’ll get killed…and then we’re back to square one on drafting and developing a QB.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:49 amJon/Dave, all valid points there for sure. I do disagree, however, with Demorrio Williams being on our “C” list. He was at least on our “B” list, because we brought in and signed him during the opening weekend of free agency. I think he might have actually been one of the guys on our “A” list, along with Brown and Faine. Demorrio is no Tickle Me Delmo.
Of course I agree that we’ve otherwise totally blown free agency, though. Olive Hoyte is a Delmo, while Devard Darling is a good signing, but not a revelation by any means.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:22 amSo, Herm is upset that the naughty Bucs and Rams signed a couple of payers. Ahem………..If I may be so bold as to paraphrase Coach Edwards, “This is the NFL. That kind of thing happens all the time. Get over it.” For someone who is so big into “toughness” griping about the Bucs and Rams sounds suspiciously “wimpy” to me.
March 26th, 2008 at 10:58 amBy the way, that should read “players” in the above post.
March 26th, 2008 at 10:59 am