I seem to remember him saying Robert Gallery was the second coming and that he actually wanted to BE Robert Gallery.

That would be the sound of Schottenheimer trying to recreate his San Diego crew. As I recall, Jimmy Raye has been a long-time associate of Marty, and not one I was terribly impressed by in their earlier KC days (I think he had a long run as running backs coach). Cam Cameron’s certainly got a lot of experience as an offensive coordinatory, but wasn’t a great success at his most recent head coaching gig (especially in light of how well they did the next year!).

Michael Smith is reporting that he is hearing that our beloved Chiefs still have a good shot at getting Marty in a Parcells role. Marty then will bring in Jimmy Raye (?) from San Diego to be a GM and Cam Cameron (fucking Cam Cameron) to be the head coach.

Are you kidding me!

You’re welcome for the feedback. Here’s another round for your rebuttal (isn’t vacation great for long posts?):

– Please, let’s be less of a ‘homer’ and maybe have a deeper appreciation for what’s going on with our football team, and the problems that it’s management team & ownership have to solve. For example, you wrote in your wish list that KC has the NFL’s best fan base—you didn’t write that they are in the top five. It’s great that the local fans love their team and always sell out the stadium, but any prospective GM is going to look at the overall potential revenue stream that will feed his franchise. I pointed out that Dallas is building a much bigger stadium than Arrowhead and will certainly have annual revenues higher than KC for now and the foreseeable future. In sales of player jerseys and ancillary team-branded merchandise, the Cowboys (as well as several other franchises) usually outsell the Chiefs. The point is that KC does not have anywhere near the league’s largest fan base in either numbers or revenue, and for the business side of the equation that will matter quite a bit now, and likely a whole lot in the near future, to anyone who wishes to be successful as the Chief’s GM, compared to another franchise. If the salary cap goes out, how long will KC be competitive for blue-chip FA’s compared to Dallas, the New York teams, New England? And I see no evidence that Clark Hunt intends to inject at least $30 million of his own capital into this franchise every year.

– Sure, “someone” will jump at the job offer for Chief’s GM, but you wrote that Scott Pioli would jump at that offer, even implied that it was inconceivable that he wouldn’t make it his top choice (“… how could he possibly turn down the job”?). I merely pointed out that a prospective GM would likely prefer a franchise where he already has better QB prospects on board. If you want to argue that Thigpen and Croyle are better prospects than Quinn and Anderson, be my guest, but I think you’re dead wrong. Given the importance of a QB, why wouldn’t he choose Cleveland over KC? If you want other reasons, I’m sure you read Don Banks posting re Pioli and Cleveland. And re a related question: Tom Brady being picked by New England in the late rounds is a huge anomaly and irrelevant to the argument about Pioli, or any other prospective GM, making an evaluation of the situation in KC—the success of picking franchise QB’s in late rounds is somewhere in the low single %’s historically. If Pioli et al ‘knew’ that Brady would be a consistent all-star, he would have never risked waiting that long to draft him. No one knew Brady would be that successful, not even Pioli, despite his manifest talent for player evaluation.

– Yes, there are many nice things about living in the KC metro area. I’ve lived in Kansas and Missouri for many years, seen the sports teams, visited the Nelson-Adkins, dropped plenty of $$ at the Plaza, etc. etc. But more people want to live in California, Florida, the Northeast—it’s just a fact. Athletes and sports management exec’s aren’t that different from other people. Sure, it’s going to vary from person to person, but overall, teams in the Midwest have a competitive disadvantage, that’s just the way it is.

– I think all things being equal, it’s better to get someone with more experience and credibility with players to be a head coach. Sure, Mike Smith’s team did great this year, but he started off with a more talented team than the Chiefs, and I believe that he’s had quite a bit more overall coaching experience than McDaniels. The point is that young coordinators do not have a sterling reputation for making quick turn-arounds when they are promoted to head coach in a new organization, and for every success you might cite, I can come up with a failure (e.g., Scott Linehan was a coordinator before he ran the Rams into the ground; in spite of his Parcells pedigree, Sean Payton seems to be going backwards in New Orleans). It’s OK to take a shot at a coordinator—the choices are fairly limited, after all—but you made no attempt to assess McDaniels’ ability and experience, relative to other potential candidates (I heard that Cleveland’s interviewing Mangini, which could be a smart move in terms of recruiting Pioli.) You just assume he’s the best because he comes from a successful organization & everyone seems to think he’s a package deal with Pioli, so you like the idea. I think you need a better reason than that if you aren’t even going to consider listing anyone else.

– Why do you think that Romeo Crennel, who left New England and assembled his own defensive staff, and after several years of calling the shots, had a generally poor defense compared to the rest of the league, why do you think that he will build a better defense with KC than with Cleveland? If he couldn’t do it when he was the final arbiter and made the hires, why do you think he’s going to improve after he’s demoted? When he possibly won’t have final say about who coaches DB’s, linebackers, etc.? Why do you think that? Do you really think the Browns had a playoff-quality defense?

– You think Johnson “won’t be hard to move.” Hmmmmm…. then why wasn’t he moved to Philadelphia earlier this year? The uncertainty of a pending suspension, or the possibility of a longer suspension later? That just makes my point. What’s your definition of ‘hard to move’? I guess if he’s easy to move, you expect the Chief’s to get a 2nd or ‘3rd round & change’ draft choice for him? That would make him easier to move than, say, Randy Moss, future HOF wide-out and holder of NFL receiving records, who went from Oakland to NE for a 4th. Cap ramifications aside—none for the accepting team in the case of LJ– I think that Johnson has more baggage and less talent than Moss, so like I said, I don’t think the Chiefs will get anywhere near a 2nd for him, more likely a 4th at best, and maybe less given his age of 29. (As an aside, how does adding LJ to Westbrook and Buckhalter make the Eagles’ so much better? They pass the ball more than anyone else anyway, and LJ already says he needs lots of touches to be effective. You want to take the ball out of Westbrook’s hands? I say he’s more likely to garner interest from Arizona or Seattle).

– Re tight ends and Matt Cassel and prospect of having a robust, Patriots-level passing attack by signing Cassel, I stand by my assertions. The fact is the Patriots have won several Super Bowls with Watson et al at tight end, and have gone 27 & 6 in two years with Moss, Welker and Watson. KC is 6 & 26 over the past two years with TG. My conclusion is that you need much more than a HOF tight end for a successful aerial game, and TG + Bowe + whomever won’t make Cassel nearly as successful as Moss and Welker et al did. Together with those two, the Patriots’ advantages in the O-line and the receiving skills of their RB’s far outweigh the superiority of TG as a receiver, and provide Cassel much more support than would be available from the Chief’s starting eleven.

– OK, so you want to sign Sproles—how much will you pay? For how many touches a game? I think his agent would expect at least 4 years, 20 million total with at least 6-8 million guaranteed, perhaps much more? For what, ten to twelve touches a game max? In other words, quite a few less than Priest Holmes in his prime? In a spread offense? Sure, he would be great to have, but I doubt that the price/production works out for KC, or that he won’t choose an offer elsewhere with a team that has a better QB and O-line (Also, I think with his new contract, Sproles can move his whole friggin’ extended family to California if he wants—he doesn’t have to come back to KC.)

– Your claim that wide receivers lifting Arizona into the playoffs proves the wisdom of drafting lots of wide-outs #1 is way off base. First, those guys have played several years for AZ before the Cardinals made it to 9-7 in an extremely weak division, and Boldin missed significant playing time this year; I think changes in other areas of the team (D-line, LB’s and pass rush) are what has allowed their improvement. And I don’t expect them to last long in the playoffs this year, or continue to win the division consistently once Seattle and St. Louis get a chance to rebuild with new management. A more instructive example re wide receivers and playoff success is in fact St. Louis, where the Rams had great receivers for nearly a decade, but only won one Super Bowl, and that happened when their defense was great and their O-line was good. With the same outstanding wide-outs in their peak years, they never won the Super Bowl again, because their defense fell apart and their O-line got old and their QB play deteriorated. Or consider Dallas—Roy Williams made a really big difference this year for them, didn’t he?

– Finally, I’ll leave it up to you to determine when Gonzalez is telling the truth about how he feels and when he’s being deceptive, or “emotional” or “posturing,” as you write. I don’t know the guy personally, maybe you do, but TG doesn’t strike me as an emotionally immature man in the occasions I’ve seen him on tape or heard him on the radio. And how he could possibly gain by tying himself to Thigpen and Edwards if he really doesn’t want to work with them….well, that seems to me more of a vote to stand pat than to blow up the front office and coaching staff.

As for contracts, with so many teams with so much cap space, I’d expect Suggs and Peppers to get HUGE paydays. My opinion on this issue was in response to the suggestion that the Chiefs get both, which I think is both unfeasible and ill-advised. If they’re going to sign two big FAs, they should sign Peppers OR Suggs, and someone like Jordan Gross who would be a terrific bookend with Albert. You do that, and maybe draft Crabtree and Unger (or Mack), you have a high-octane offense no matter who is under center or carrying the rock, along with a much improved defense. Plus you have a nice blend of proven veterans and promising youth.

We need to sign Scott Pioli, a new GM with a winning background could go a long way.

We need to find another QB/competition for Thigpen because although I have belief in him we need insurance. I don’t like the idea of throwing money at Cassel to fix our QB situation, he’s not a proven QB yet either.

Getting Suggs or Peppers is going to be hard but we NEED to get one of them. Our defense suffered horribly after trading away Jared Allen.

-Interesting note, BOTH Miami and Atlanta had a player finish in the top 5 in SACKS this season. Joey Porter 2nd (17.5) and John Abraham 3rd (16.5)

*When I look at both those franchises who had turn around seasons (Miami and Atlanta), the key differences when compared to the Chiefs are a consistent QB and a pass rusher on defense.

As far as Larry Johnson goes, we HAVE to keep him. I say “have” instead of “need” because he’s got too big of a contract for other teams to want to take. Plus there is no way we are going to get enough in return for a trade to be worth it.

2009 Draft, I think we should trade down and get a middle linebacker. Crabtree would be an offensive stud but we have other needs to fill. Trade down and get either Aaron Curry or Rey Maualuga.

Although Herm gave us the worst record in history, at least he’s leaving the next guy a young, talented group of players to work with.

Just read an interesting article on Chris Polian, young at 36, talented: supposedly, and Jim Irsay (colts owner)has thwarted past attempts to lure him away….

Has the pedigree, can always lean on pops for info. what do you think, Chris Polian?

I am dying to get our new GM quick!!!!!

Jeremy, if Herm isn’t gone then this site is going to wage war on the Chiefs. That is a promise.