A.A.D.Q.: Biggest Mistake?
I just looked at the NFL news. Two of the headlines were: A.) Orton starting for Bears; and B.) Bengals close to bringing back Henry. Talk about Dumb and Dumber. But it got me thinking about the Chiefs’ biggest personnel mistakes. For me, there’s a lot of them, but almost nothing is worse than us trading back from a first-round pick to select Junior Siavii early in the second. At least Ryan Sims was highly touted. Even though I was only five, the drafting of Todd Blackledge over Dan Marino, Jim Kelly and John Elway, narrowly edges those gaffes out to take the cake. Starting Kris Wilson and Samie Parker for seasons–yes, plural, with an “S” at the end–also have to be up there. Kendrell Bell? Another owie that still burns bad.
Addicts, what do you think is the worst Chiefs’ personnel decision of all time?
Letting Roaf and Shields go without bringing in new talent right away. That one’s still hurting us.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:28 amAgreed. Especially Willie Roaf.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:31 amAs I have mentioned previously… I think Todd Blackledge by far, just about any other pick would have landed a Hall of Fame QB.. @*(($# Elway lol, but Marino in a Chiefs uniform? Closest we have came is Steve Deberg if you exclude Montana gracing us with his presence!
Do you know what Todd Blackledge and Larry Bird have in common? They both throw one hell of a bounce pass!
August 19th, 2008 at 1:58 amOmg. I swear I couldn’t type for about three minutes straight I laughed so hard. Ahahaha. Nice one, byaz, rofl.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:59 amActually thinking about this one a little more, I have to say Rich Gannon not starting (and letting him go to the Raiders no less) over Bono/Grbac back in the day. It still chaps my ass that in ‘97 Marty started Grbac coming back from injury in the Divisional playoffs against the Broncos and we lose 14-10, after Gannon had been rippin it up… of course the Donkeys went on to win it all.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:07 amYou can bet your ass if Marty had ONE decision in his career that he could change, that one between Gannon and Grbac would definately be the one.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:22 amI agree with Sean in that our biggest mistake would be not focusing more on the draft in recent history…I think that encompasses the Roaf/Shields neglect…but also with other positions as well. If we had drafted every year like we did this year we’d be a hell of a team still…
That probly just seems bigger cuz it was more recent, though. The biggest is probly Blackledge, passing up so many HOF QBs for that…
August 19th, 2008 at 2:39 amWell, hindsight is 20/20.
I can’t rank draft busts ahead of downright neglect.
August 19th, 2008 at 3:34 amOne of the biggest mistakes in recent memory is not recognizing the horrible state the 2007 offensive line was in.
How you screw up that bad is beyond me. It’s like the Chiefs front office just closed their eyes and hoped things would work out.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:47 amJohn Elway was taken by the Colts before we picked. The QB’s we passed on in the first round of the 1983 draft included hits (Jim Kelly and Dan Marino) as well as misses (Tony Eason and Ken O’Brien). Marino fell all the way to #27 based on bad knees and rumors of pot use.
I can appreciate folks here wanted to expand the personell view and look at longer term decisions such as draft neglect. I love that point of view. Keep in that spirit, I think the biggest ’strategic’ mistake we made in our history is keeping Jack Steadman as the GM for so very long. He presided over the rise of the Chiefs in the 60’s to the fall of the Chiefs all the way until one King Carl took over. The Chiefs from the mid-70’s until CP took over were a generally poor team. It’s hard to match that record of ‘achievment’
August 19th, 2008 at 7:50 amHow about #1 bringing in Drummond as a kick returner and #2 letting him keep that position all damn season!
August 19th, 2008 at 9:29 am[...] Worst move ever? [...]
August 19th, 2008 at 10:36 amevery draft in the vermil era was absolutely horrible were still tryin to recover…and draftin medlock over crosby…and the whole ryan sims deal
August 19th, 2008 at 10:54 am1)Taking Blackledge, hands down is #1.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:15 am2)Trading up for Ryan Sims strictly because one of DV’s eagle boys coached him and reccommended him to DV, when there were 3 equally rated DT’s available. 3)Drafting a 3rd string TE in round 2 in Kris Wilson when there wre tons of other needs, and we were heavily stocked at TE.
Taking Ryan Sims over John Henderson.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:40 amhey guys i just heard anquon bolden wants to be traded out of arizona wat are the chances herm and company makin a deal for him god bowe, and bolden god that would be an amazing duo!! wat do yall think??
GO CHIEFS!!
August 19th, 2008 at 11:44 amIt may not be the worst move of all time, but every time I think about it I want to vomit…Letting Donnie Edwards go to San Diego, then watching the Chiefs spend 5 years trying to replace him…
kcchiefsfan56:
I would love to have Boldin if they can sign him to a long term deal. He fits the profile of Herm’s signings…young and hungry…
August 19th, 2008 at 12:21 pmI don’t think there’s any chance we trade for Boldin. He plays a lot like Bowe, and his price tag is outrageous. He’s a great, great player, but he’s also had some injury issues. It just doesn’t seem like a move we would do at this point in the rebuilding phase. Next year? Possibly. Two years from now? Maybe. Three years from now? Sure. But not now.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:34 pmman that would be a hell of a combination though!!
August 19th, 2008 at 12:36 pmlittle to no chance…I would much rather see a trade for Brady Quinn personally…
Great point on the 83 draft, merlin…good call…so…Vermeil era drafting it is!
August 19th, 2008 at 12:43 pmBrady Quinn’s availability depends on Derek Anderson. There are some, myself included, that think much of the league has figured him out. He struggled mightily at the end of last season.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:50 pmAh, so many to choose from . . .
August 19th, 2008 at 1:13 pmMy short list
1. Not going with Rich Gannon’s hot hand and then letting him go to Oakland
2. Neil Smith to Denver
3. Donnie Edwards to San Diego
I don’t fault the Chiefs for taking Blackledge; I fault them for ruining him as an NFL QB.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:16 pmWe can’t really predict draft classes, as it is. It’s an imperfect science. Ryan Leaf ring a bell? Look at what he did, and look at what Peyton has done. Comparable, eh? Methinks not. Some guys just don’t have what it takes to cut it in the NFL. Some guys are lazy, some guys have drug problems, some guys ‘roid up, and some are just money hungry bastards who want to cash in, and then move along. No one knows for sure who will be a good to great player in each draft. If we did, Tom Brady would have been THE number 1 overall pick, instead of a 7th rounder. So I don’t think you can count those as bad decisions from the staff.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:32 pmThanks for that newsflash xxlp… (?)
I’d vote:
1. Gannon
2. Sims
3. Blackledge but in a tie with taking Medlock.
-I’d love to get high with Dan Marino…listen to him regale me with stories of almost winning the SuperBowl…then as his voice trails off and he gave that 1000 yard stare into nothingness…I’d burst out laughing.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:08 pmHis point, Crane, is that it’s hard to honestly rank draft busts as the worst personnel decisions. Every organization has draft busts, and most of the time it’s impossible to predict. Ryan Leaf wasn’t necessarily a bad personnel decision, it was just bad luck on the Chargers’ part. Ryan Sims was highly ranked, and expected to be good. It wasn’t our front office’s fault that he was completely useless.
I’ll quote myself here:
“Well, hindsight is 20/20.
I can’t rank draft busts ahead of downright neglect.”
Neglect being things like what we did to our offensive line a couple years back. That was just a plain old bad move.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:02 pmI’m having trouble agreeing with you guys about Todd Blackledge. Maybe I’m too young to remember. I would have been the ripe old age of -5 when this happened, but it was to my understanding that Todd Blackledge was a good player coming out of college, was very eloquent and a good leader, and was a good candidate for a franchise quarterback. So I can’t see how it was the biggest mistake.
On the other hand, Dick Vermeil being the Dick he was, played favorites to one of his good friends and drafted Junior Siavii WAY ahead of where he should be. From what I remember, The Chiefs were interested in Siavii’s college teammate Igor Olshansky who was picked one spot ahead of Junior; possibly creating panic within the organization and selecting a poor choice.
But the worst pick ever for the Chiefs… Trezelle Jenkins. He couldn’t even make an XFL team, but word is that he does make some good chicken.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:20 pmThat’s a good point DoubleD about Blackledge and Donovan hit on it again…he had all the measurables and perhaps more…but we might be more at fault for not developing him effectively…
The Brady Quinn thing was kind of a fantasy, it is made much more difficult by Anderson’s decline and even more by his injuries last night.
Does Colin Cowherd drive anyone else crazy?
August 19th, 2008 at 4:46 pmYes, Colin Cowherd drives me crazy. Definitely!
August 19th, 2008 at 4:53 pmJust listening to him as little as I did today…he was talking about the Browns awful game last night and said something about how they may have to turn to Quinn now and said somethin about how after last night that didnt look promising either. Quinn led em to like 21 unanswered points before he was pulled…not defending him or the Browns but it was just an irresponsible comment by him…
that and his voice induces vomiting…luckily I get 610 all the way down here in some spots!
August 19th, 2008 at 5:00 pmShrutebag!
August 19th, 2008 at 5:04 pmThanks for clarifying that Sean…. but maybe I should have wrote “no shit” instead of a ?
Obviously draft hindsight is 20/20.
Don’t hijack the thread and start dictating the original question. The thing asked what we think was a bad personnel decision…so drafts or no draft….we’ve had “a lot of bad luck” in the draft dept. At least a few of those guys should have hit…besides LJ and Jared Allen.
Also, Colin isn’t on 610… 610 is FoxSports so you must be confusing that with soemone else. 610 is local til 10 am then its Rome then local again.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:26 pmI’m not hijacking the thread, I’m defending the point being made by myself and several other people.
“At least a few of those guys should have hit…besides LJ and Jared Allen.”
And Tony Gonzalez and Derrick Johnson and Dwayne Bowe and Derrick Thomas and Tamba Hali and Bernard Pollard Will Shields and Bria Waters, etc., etc. etc.
It’s a hit and miss process. Shit happens.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:57 pmI know he isn’t on 610, that was my point…at least I have relief from him and can get good local Chiefs news…
August 19th, 2008 at 11:42 pmBad personnel decisions: hrmmm…
1. Starting Grbac over Gannon in the playoffs.
(I cant really blame the team for Gannon going to Oakland. He left at the end of his contract because he was pissed about the playoff start – and we all acknowledge now he had every right to be pissed. Some of us are STILL pissed about it… but it’s no wonder to me that he left over that.)
2. Starting Bono over Deberg. The team really screwed the pooch on this one using the logic of ‘we should start the younger guy even though he SUCKS. Deberg went on to win games for five or six other teams over the next six or seven years… so he probably would have been young enough to win for us too. He was most certainly the better fundamental player, and Bono never got any better.
3. Willie Roaf’s retirement – I suspect there’s a very large gap in the general public knowledge of what went on behind the scenes when Roaf pulled the plug. All I know for sure is he talked Shields into coming back, and as Roaf was always a consummate gentleman and honorable dude off the field… I find it interesting he would leave Shields holding the bag without serious motivation. Did King Carl poop in his cheerios in some unknown way? Highly possible. I’d sure like to know ‘the rest of the story’.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:46 pm1. Blackledge
August 19th, 2008 at 11:59 pm2. Starting & keeping Grbac over Gannon, it was clear as day to anyone with eyes who was better and they started the weaker man because he was younger or the anticipated qb of the future, only to let Gannon go to division rival Raiders where he becomes the fucking nfl mvp.
3. Letting Neil Smith go to the Bronco’s. You don’t let that happen, ever.
4. Drafting Joe Horn and letting him go after 4 mediocre seasons, where upon which he becomes one of the very best WR’s for about 5 years straight.
Does anybody else remember Grbac’s last pass (I think it was, anyway)? There was time for one play and we needed a TD and he didn’t even throw the ball near the endzone. That guy…living high off the hog and could give two shits about the Chiefs. Meanwhile, we all suffer. I was so happy when Elvis career croaked quicker than his namesake eatin’ a sub on the John.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:13 amJesus Crane, did we sleep walk and poop in your cheerios? (As CMF would say.) We are just making the point that even though a guy can be highly touted, a la Ryan Sims, Robert Gallery, Tony Mandarich and Ryan life, it doesn’t make them ’safe’ picks. You can’t MAKE someone become great, even if they have all the talent in the world. They have to want it, and clearly, not every guy that’s drafted wants it. Get off your high horse and come talk with the rest of us, my neck is going to get sore from looking up, so I can speak to Your Royal Highness.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:34 amYou can’t just completely pardon Julius Chiefs-Czar for his draft eff ups, though. I can see both angles.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:11 amI doo my best xxxlp to bring a bit of literary depth to the AddictAsylum…
August 20th, 2008 at 2:33 amIf someone ever pooped in my cereal I would have a really hard time being their friend anymore.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:42 pmI agree Adam, he shouldn’t be fully pardoned, it DOES take talent to effectively find, procure, and mould talent from the draft. He’s obviously not the best at this aspect of the game. However, as many monumentally bad decisions have gone down, I don’t think we’re close to the bottom of the league in that category. Watch NFL Network’s Top Ten Draft Busts of All Time, or take a gander at a Top 10 list somewhere. We aren’t on any of those lists. Not great, but good enough for me, as long as we also keep getting hits in these drafts.
And Sean, you’d have a hard time being their friend? I’d have a hard time not punching them in the face.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:44 pmagree with byazell!
its the first thing i thought of when i saw this blog.
That marty’s decision to start grbac over gannon against denver in 97-98 season.
Had we started gannon im sure we wouldnt have let him to go the raiders, who later made it to the super bowl and got manhandled by the bucs. Couldve been us!
gee, thanks marty.
brodie croyle’s only hope is the number that he wears, since gannon used to wear it! 12!
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:06 amalso blackenridge was a really good quarterback in college he just stunk it up once he got to the nfl
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:07 am