Brains. Brains are what I’m talking about. In his latest on FOX Sports, Super Bowl-winning coach Jimmy Johnson discusses the turnaround seasons of the Dolphins and Falcons. For our purposes, here is the money quote:
This kind of first-year success makes total sense to me. Ever since free agency has come into play, we have seen teams win four games one year and then pretty soon they are going to the Super Bowl. Consequently, turning it around in one year is not impossible. And turning it around in two years is very doable. But again, it doesn’t mean just getting one or two players. And it doesn’t mean simply getting that new head coach. If you are at the bottom it means changing the entire attitude of the entire organization and bringing in the right people in administration and the coaching roles and adding some talent.
Do the Chiefs want to be that next surprise team, or do they intend to continue making excuses, further enabling them to be the Cheaps under the guises of “the youth movement” and “stadium renovation?”
Anybody else sick of hearing, “Herm Edwards is cleaning up Dick Vermiel’s mess,” heading into a possible fourth year of his coaching tenure? Or “Carl Peterson only has one-year left on his contract,” like he’s gotten a raw deal? Or “But Herm can draft,” when he’s had three drafts and we are the second-worst team in the league?
No more excuses. Maybe the Snickers commercial was right calling us the Chefs. Hell, we cook up more excuses than any other team in the league. From us fans to the front office it’s got to stop. There’s no spinning a 2-11 record, especially in the worst division in the National Football League hands down.
We all have reread the Clark Hunt quote that wholesale changes would be coming if we had another “failure” of a 4-12 season. Put your money where your mouth is, Junior — keep your word and take Jimmy’s advice. What once was warpaint is now clown make-up, and things will remain the same if you fail to act.
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For the sake of brevity, I’m just going to copy over to here the points I made in a prior post about the validity of Miami’s so-called turnaround.
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Lastly, if we’re going to start comparing ourselves to Miami, I think it’s only fair to consider a few important factors that distinguish the two teams and perhaps explain the discrepancy in records.
Miami has had, in Pennington, a veteran QB under Center, along the number 1 pick at LT to protect his blind side, since week 1. The Chiefs QB situation began with injury in week 1 behind a faulty OL and it did not start to get turned around until Tyler Thigpen became the regular starter.
Miami’s wins include St. Louis, Buffalo (twice), San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Oakland, Denver, and New England. Not exactly a murderer’s row there. What’s more, the Chiefs have in fact beaten 2 of the teams on Miami’s list and also come within one score of beating San Diego (on both occasions), Denver, New England, and the Jets. Miami’s only standout win came against the Brady-less Patriots in week 3.
Miami’s losses include the Jets, Arizona, New England, Houston, and Baltimore. Miami’s biggest embarrassment came against the resurgent Patriots in week 12. Our biggest embarrassment came against Buffalo in week 12. To make things even, we give both the Chiefs and the Dolphins a mulligan for their respective performances in week 12.
Based on those set of facts, what we’ve had to deal with both in terms of who we’ve faced and what we’ve had to deal with at QB, nobody is going to convince me that Miami has made some kind of miracle turn-around and that, by comparison, we are crumbling. To claim so is pure bullshit.
As fate would have it, this Sunday we will be presented with the perfect piece of evidence to resolve the question of which team has come the farthest this season. To that opportunity, I say “may the better, more improved team win.”
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Similarly, Atlanta’s situation is totally different than either the Chiefs or the Dolphins because of the whole Vick debacle and what the Falcons needed to do to pick up the pieces in the aftermath. Clearly, the Falcons were and are a more veteran team that only lacked a few key pieces to be once again competitive which they able to address through both free agency and the draft.
Apples and Oranges.
Apologizing is only gonna lead to agonizing — trust me.
When a Super Bowl-winning coach says this is how you rebuild and win and cites to examples from this season, there’s really not much to debate.
Apples and oranges? No, how about excuses and assholes.
Well since the turnaround that Miami has experienced has only happened two other times since 1970 I dont think it is a realistic thing to look forward to…Miami is an exceptional situation…there is stuff to learn from it but to expect similar results is foolish…
But again, there are two examples of teams that have gone from bottom five to playoff contenders. Dismissing that fact is letting the Chiefs off the hook. Hell, even the Jets drafted sixth last year.
A big point I will be making is that this is what completely ignoring free agency does to a franchise. Atlanta, Miami and New York (Jets) spent some dough. We didn’t.
I agree on that completely…This year we have to make some moves…that is fine lol
I also agree on the point about free agency. Unlike Atlanta, Miami, and the Jets, we wasted an opportunity.
Too much commitment to the youth crap…let it blind them…