Merlin’s Magic: Socrates Edition
OK Addicts, the Bengals game was a stink bomb for the ages. Now, on to the fun part. We have a golden opportunity in front of us. It is not often that there is a chance to put a stamp on an organization. Clark Hunt has that chance. This is his defining moment. The GM he hires is going to be the tone setter for the entire organization. This is an opportunity that should come up every ten plus years or so. So, let’s make the most of it. I am going to step into Clark’s shoes and outline how I would go about things, without naming candidates.
It all starts with philosophy. What is the philosophy of the Chiefs? How do you build a consistent winner under a system designed to prevent that? How do teams like the Steelers, Titans, Ravens, Patriots, Giants, Colts, and Eagles enjoy fairly consistent success. They may not be in the playoffs every year, but their drought periods don’t last long. One aspect is that they have a consistent philosophy guiding them. Usually, it is a good defense, but not always. What these teams really do a good job with is finding young, cheap players. Yes, the draft is key, but even more so in the salary cap era. Specifically, it’s second day drafting.
So, one philosophical criteria is a huge commitment to drafting and developing young players. My GM and his right hand man should be steeped in talent evaluation, with an emphasis on evaluating college players. Thankfully, Clark Hunt has already mentioned this as his primary criteria and I am in complete agreement on that point.
Second criteria is team, team team. The team comes first, not one player. So, any player, coach or GM that thinks he is above the team, leave now. I don’t want any Kings or coaches who think they reinvented the game.
Third, you win with defense and offensive line play. I want a defense that brings the pain, stuffs the run and makes the QB run for his life. Other teams should get aches just looking at our team on the schedule. The offensive line should open nice lanes for our running backs and allow our QB to hang out in a easy chair, looking for open receivers. That is a design that keeps you in the hunt most every year.
Fourth, get rid of aging players who are not earning their salary. This, frankly, is a very difficult part of the job. Many coaches fail, including Hank Stram, when they hold onto aging players because they produced in the past. The salary cap makes that even harder. As fans, we have to learn to accept that some players we came to love just can’t do it anymore. Knowing when that player is about to hit the wall is one of the toughest parts of this business.
So, my ideal GM candidate is someone young (I want them for ten plus years) who is rooted in current player evaluation from a defensive, team first culture. I would expect that GM to bring in a director of college scouting type plus a head coach. All of these people have to buy into the philosophy outlined above.
OK, Addicts, it’s your turn. What would your guiding philosophy be?
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December 30th, 2008 at 5:12 pmThe single most important characteristic is an ability to judge college talent. As a team through the last 20 years, we have been lackluster at best with our early picks - (Sims, Freeman, Greg Hill, etc), but have made up for it somewhat with some good mid to late picks (Page, J.Allen, D.Edwards, etc.). The problem is you need the first and 2nd rdrs to be the backbone of your team. You’re paying them a lot and if they don’t produce its wasted cap space. So we need a guy who has a proven track record of evaluating draft talent.
December 30th, 2008 at 7:22 pmThe same philosophy does not necessarily work year in and year out. This year’s philosophy, tear it down and a build a new foundation through the draft was essentially a good one in principle. I still believe we miscued by not focussing on OL & WR help through free agency but other than that we had the right idea and made smart choices on draft day. This year, we especially need fill at least one or two gaping holes in free agency. The major free agency considerations should include LB, RDE, OL, WR, and QB. Without knowing who/what we’re going to pick up through free agency, it is a little difficult to say who/what we should go after in the draft.
There should be at least 2 major free agent acquisitions and one of them needs to be linebacker. The other area that most needs addressing is the right side of the OL - probably RG - but I’m not sure if there is going to be any high-caliber / high-upside guys available. Beyond that, landing an elite WR like TJ Housh and/or a potential starter/backup veteran QB a la JP Losman would just about make for a perfect 10 in free agency.
In the draft, we should not waste our first round pick on a QB unless it’s Bradford. I’ve seen enough of Matt Stafford to believe he would be huge bust as our first pick. Thus, depending on what we do in free agency, I say our first pick of the draft should probably be either WR (Crabtree), OT (Smith), or CB (Malcoom Jenkins - because he’s awesome and we need to replace Surtain). In the second round, we should probably get the best available rushing DE/OLB (Selvie would be my choice if he’s there) or C (Mack, if he’s there, would be a steal). 3rd round I’d go QB. Beyond that, I’d pretty try to bring additional talent and depth to OL, LB, and S positions.
Here is what I think the coaching situation should look like:
Edwards, HC - finish his contract (one more year) and then re-evaluate after the second year of this bottom-up rebuild. On probation.
Smith, Strength and Conditioning - gone. I have to believe a big part of the reason why we’ve had so many injuries and why never seemed capable of playing a full 4 quarters of football comes down to this issue.
Prieffer, Special Teams - sucks horribly, gone.
Gailey, OC - keeper.
Embree, Tight Ends - keeper.
Gibbs, Dbacks - keeper.
Kumrie, DL - spotty DL performance this year was more a function of youth and lack of LB support than anything else. I still like his knowledge and intensity. Hang on to him.
Cunningham, DC - I’m really on the fence about this one. My gut tells me he’s past his prime but I also have to look at the injury issues and level of talent he had to deal with and ask myself whether anyone could have done better. I’m thinking not and sort of believe that if Gun had the right personnel and a little extra time to teach these kids a few more tricks, that this defense might start to look a lot different. On probation
Curl, QB/Asst HC - I think we can and should do better.
Bicknell, OL - See my comments about Gunther. Same applies here. On probation.
Price, WR - On probation.
This summarizes my philosophy going into the 2009 offseason.
December 31st, 2008 at 2:21 pm