Leadership? Not Here.
The transition from veteran leadership to youth is a difficult road to travel for any team. It takes patience, talent, and motivation on a level not usually seen among most teams. Not many teams are capable of handling that task, which is why you see franchises like Detroit, Houston, and Arizona suffer through years and years of miserable play, without ever tasting the sweet success of a Super Bowl appearance.
The main difference between those teams and those that have made the transition from also-ran to perennial Super Bowl contender (ie: New England, Indianapolis, San Diego, etc.) is in their leadership. The teams that end years of frustration by winning the Super Bowl have some of the best minds in the game plying their trade, both on the field as coaches and in the front office as talent evaluators.
The Chiefs would love to tell you that they’re in that category, with Herm Edwards and Carl Peterson providing the direction for the franchise. They have assembled a fair amount of talent on both sides of the ball, most evident by the haul they netted last spring in the draft, headlined by the dual 1st round picks in Glenn Dorsey and Branden Albert. Given time and the proper leadership from veteran players and coaches alike, the Chiefs young players should thrive very shortly.
Unfortunately the reality of the Chiefs current situation indicates a potential fatal flaw in the strategy I presented earlier. Despite having enough talent to compete on most days, the Chiefs have not displayed any of the requisite leadership capabilities needed to guide this team to a Super Bowl appearance in the near future.
Saying that is very difficult, as I truly like Herm Edwards as an individual and respect his ability to assess talent, especially on the defensive side of the ball. But his continued inability to properly prepare his teams to play after winning a big game troubles me immensely, as that tells me that he is not the kind of head coach this team needs right now.
Never has this been more evident then in the Chiefs dismal showing last Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. The Chiefs were woefully inept in every respect defensively, giving up 148 total yards, and three touchdowns to Panthers RB DeAngelo Williams. And offensively things were even worse, as the Chiefs managed just 127 total yards and laid an egg on the scoreboard.
After the game, the look on the Chiefs’ faces told the story, as they just quietly gathered their belongings and hustled out of the locker room without saying much. They had blank looks on their faces and gave generic responses as to why the Chiefs were once again embarrassed on the road. To me and many other faithful fans in Chiefs Nation, the Chiefs are a team that has the look of one that has given up completely on their coaches.
They have absolutely zero confidence in Edwards’ ability to correctly game plan for a superior opponent on the road, as he, along with the rest of his coaching staff, have looked completely lost when teams line up and play smash mouth football. There are no adjustments to be found; no creativity in the play-calling offensively. The Chiefs’ coaching staff seemed to be content with just staying injury free against Carolina, and instead of taking their shots when presented with an opportunity to do so, they continued to run the bread and butter of Herm’s offensive gameplan – the 32 Crash Bash Smash right into the teeth of the Panthers defensive front.
All of this tells me that the Chiefs are a team that is headed in the wrong direction, despite having a superior philosophy in place to rebuild this club. I liken it to building an awesome ship, outfitting it with the best technology available, and then hiring your plumber to be the captain. Obviously your plumber is a nice guy and all, but is he really qualified to sail your brand new ship? I don’t think so.
An organization is only as good as the leadership in place allows it to be, and if you have a talented team with poor coaching, you’ll never win when it matters most. The Chiefs are unfortunately falling right into that trap by continuing to allow Herm Edwards (who I respect and like quite a bit – just like the plumber) to call the shots.
No one likes to make a move mid-season to fire a coach or a GM and replace him on an interim basis with someone from their staff, but the Chiefs are going to have to look at making that decision very soon if they continue to play the way they did last Sunday in Carolina. If they don’t, they will risk losing the players’ drive and determination in the process, which could set this franchise back even further into the dark ages, and place us on the same pedestal of zero success that the Cardinals, Lions, and Texans currently share.
The Chiefs need to do something to right this ship during the next two weeks. At this point, I’m not sure what exactly it will take to shake this team up and get them ready to play each week, but to do nothing is to invite disaster. And as the failed franchises in Detroit and Arizona have shown us year in and year out, there’s no coming back once that occurs.
Let’s hope for their sake and ours that Clark Hunt has the guts to make the right call in the near future. If not, the Chiefs will lose their most valuable asset overnight – the fans.
Chris Kolb is the owner and lead writer for KCChiefsFanatic.com
Sooooo, I gather you don’t like watching the Chiefs lose?
Sorry, this looks to me like another bash Herm piece.
When I saw the title of your post, I thought it might about the lack of leadership among our veteran players. When veteran players fail to step/show up, it seems a little riduculous to think that your youngs will do so. Seriously, can you name one veteran player on this team that you would consider to be a leader? Playoff caliber teams have that. We don’t and frankly it’s not really something that can be coached.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:45 amIt’s not necessarily a bash Herm piece DD. I was trying to illustrate the fact that Herm is a likable guy and a nice talent evaluator, but not the kind of head coach we need right now to lead this team.
And I agree that we have no leadership on the field. I could have written about that as well, but I think it would have ended up being way to big of an article. I do think that leadership can be taught and developed by proper coaching though. But Gun is obviously not very good at doing that, so that’s part of the reason why we’re lacking in that area IMO.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:23 am“All of this tells me that the Chiefs are a team that is headed in the wrong direction, despite having a superior philosophy in place to rebuild this club.”
Amen, could not have said it better myself.
DD:
Herm stinks with game plans and execution. sorry but he does. I sure hope this is his last year. You are allowed certain leeway when rebuilding, but this is ridiculous.
Herm would run, the colts, patriots and Dallas into the ground, like he has our chiefs.
He was brought in here to win and rebuild a defense. he has done neither and it looks like it is going to get worse.
I am all for rebuilding, but this man cannot drive the car he is trying to rebuild.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:26 amGun also coached DT and Neil Smith. Point is, I don’t think leadership is something that can be easily coached, it’s something you have to find within you.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:27 amFrom where I sit, the Colts and Pats seem to be doing an okay job of running themselves into the ground this year without any help from Herm. Regardless of whether you believe Herm can win ultimately bring us a championship, do you have any notion of how far it would set this team back to replace Herm now? Or even next year? We’ve committed to a rebuild and I highly doubt there is any coach out there that could do any better.
Do the coaches own a big part of the blame for what happened last Sunday? Sure. However, the biggest share of the blame is on the players themselves – they didn’t even show up.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:35 amHow many Herm haters out there are just mad because a black guy is coaching the Chiefs?
Raise your hands
October 7th, 2008 at 12:37 pmWhatever.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:41 pmWhy aren’t B. Waters and Tony G more vocal leaders? Waters should at least get into Sackintosh’s and Jones’ faces and fire them up a little bit. Because right now they both suck. I mean we know LJ is going to pout… but that doesn’t mean some of our other vetrans can’t be vocal.
I remember when I was watching the Denver game I was thinking, these guys actually look excited to play today. I hadn’t seen that in a while. That never really happened against Carolina. They all looked like they knew they were beat after the first quarter. There was no spark the entire game.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:16 pmAre you a racist?
October 7th, 2008 at 1:23 pmWWAJD?
October 7th, 2008 at 1:27 pmdoc – Exactly.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:28 pmWhat does any of this have to do with racism? No matter what color the guy is he isn’t getting the job done. We have young guys who could come in and fill those spots on the right side of the line better than the ones we have in there and they refuse to give them a chance. I have a problem with them not doing anything about our QB situation. None of that has to do with race. These are things I’m sure every person here are thinking about. Does that make us Racist AngryJesus?
October 7th, 2008 at 2:14 pmHonestly, this has gone into nutcase land. This thread, or any of the uncountable others has absolutly nothing to do with skin color. I am shocked it was even brought up.
I understand the thoughts and premise behind the post and regretfully can agree to a limit. Granted, Herm is the HC and has ultimate responsibility. I do believe that lack of leadership will bring any team down. I have great respect for Herm, but think that there are holes in his staff, just as there are in the team. I do think he is stubborn about some of his coaching as seen in players out of the best position for them. I also see problems with his game plan direction. I think that has hurt our team’s chances to win. We consistently show things to the other teams to telegraph what we are doing. Our own coaches should see that at practice, not the opposing team.
I also envy teams that had a Strahan, or a Lewis, or a Favre that sparked and motivivated the team on the field of play. We need that player to come from somewhere.
The desire for success of this team has nothing to do with race, but it has everything to do with the heart of those who lead it.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:19 pmI already said I eat asbestos
October 7th, 2008 at 8:25 pm