A coach that has already built a team and has an established track record of success is probably better off not worrying about wins in the preseason so much as “warming up” his veterans and making decisions about depth and long term development.

Players, on the other hand, typically want to come away with a win any time they set foot on a field because they are competitors and during the preseason, for many players, the stakes can be even higher because they are out there competing for NFL jobs.

For a team that’s in the process of rebuilding, like this year’s Chiefs, I believe this preseason can/should also be considered very important in terms of preparation, player evaluation/development, practicing (Chan’s) new plays in actual game settings and perhaps above all, how that final 53 man roster feels about their accomplishments and failures. I say one critical thing that absolutely needs to happen immediately, if not sooner, especially for Herm, Chan, Brodie and the offense, is learning how to win. After last season, even the veterans need swagger and the more they have of it going into the regular season, the better.

I also agree somewhat with SeanB’s point about it not necessarily being a bad thing if they lose. With a young squad like this, the last thing I want to see on Sept 7 is an overconfident Chiefs team going up to Foxborough. I would prefer however that they lose no more than 1 game for a couple of reasons: 1) I see no reason why they can’t beat at least 3 of the teams they’re facing (Arizona, Miami, St. Louis) and 2) swag-itude.

Just a thought.

There is no excuse for not having all of your offense installed or playing straight vanilla defense in the regular season, and that’s what’s been going on since Herm came to KC. As important as evaluating and developing the young talent is, you need to be doing that in the light of real league circumstances – otherwise the youngsters don’t really know what the job they’re expected to do ACTUALLY is.

This means your all your offense and defensive sets need to be installed by the end of the 2nd preseason game, and your starters need to be in place early enough to get 7-9 quarters playing time together in the preseason. I think Herm is going this direction this year based on his comments about starters during the OTA’s. But more than wins and losses, I want to see our guys play like they belong on the field during the first four games – and I want to see it in game ONE. These slow starts are my only serious criticism of Herm’s coaching since he came to KC.

53 teams had winning preseason records during that period. Of those 53 teams:

Winner in preseason and made postseason: 19
Winner in preseason and missed preseason: 34

So a winner in the preseason made the postseason 36% of the time during that time.

65 teams had losing preseason records during that period. Of those 65 teams:

Loser in preseason and made postseason: 12
Loser in preseason and missed postseason: 43

So a loser in the preseason made the postseason 18% of the time during that period.

So what can we conclude on actual facts. A winner is twice as likely to make the postseason. However, the chances of a winning record meaning regular season success only happen a little better than 33% of the time.

Now that your all bored with a ton of numbers, I’m done, and if you don’t believe me, go and crunch the numbers yourself.