Thoughts On Thoughts From The Field
Any responsible fan of the Kansas City Chiefs needs to have a series of the absolute best Chiefs websites on the internet in their “favorites” folder. You should have what’s affectionately referred to as the mothership, Arrowhead Pride, KC Chiefs Blog, the KC Star’s Red Zone, Bob Gretz, the Chiefs hashtag on Twitter, and our very own Arrowhead Addict.
If you haven’t decorated your favorites sidebar with those websites yet, do so now. I’ll wait.
While you’re at it, be sure to add the newest (and arguably best) new Chiefs-centric blog Thoughts From The Field, by former Chiefs coaching assistant Field Yates. He started this sucker up very recently and it’s a magnetic read. The man’s name is Field, for god’s sakes! He’sgottabe good! Rarely do you get this kind of football IQ rolling your way on a regular basis.
Our very own blogmaster Paddy “The Padster” Paddy-opolis just interviewed Field for our reading pleasure, and this was no fluff piece. Field was critical where he felt he needed to be, positive when it was warranted, and honest the whole time.
Some thoughts on Field’s comments, after the jump. Kudos to Paddy for such a great piece.
Yates’ Thoughts on Haley/Zorn/Muir
During a discussion on how the team started off so horribly, Yates says that it can be attributed to the post-lockout confusion stemming from the offensive coordinator position. This year, Bill Muir has been brought on to be Haley’s puppet as a play caller, and Jim Zorn’s on board to right the ship with Matt Cassel.
The end result, to hear Yates tell it, was a disaster in the first few games as much of the preseason and September was spent figuring how who was going to be calling play calls in what circumstances, who the call had to go through, and what role Haley and Zorn would play in the whole matter. They seem to have found a good balance the past couple games, but this seems to further suggest that Haley might be in over his head.
If Haley cannot bring himself to share power on the offensive side of the ball, this team may be doomed. When an offensive coordinator who is calling plays in the National Football League and got to that point by working diligently for several decades is being told that Haley could strip him of his duties at any moment during any game if the gameplan isn’t going the way he wants… a decorated professional will have an extraordinarily difficult time adjusting to that.
Thus, during the Haley tenure, we’ve had four offensive coordinators: two who could not fit inside Todd Haley’s short-leash worldview (Chan Gailey and Charlie Weis), one whose role is still being sorted out (Muir) and Haley himself, which drove him to the brink of insanity.
We don’t want this Chiefs team to be good. We want them to become a dynasty, and you can’t establish a dynasty without championship-caliber continuity. The defensive side of the ball is finally getting some of that with the genius work of Romeo Crennel. But the offense, which is supposedly Haley’s strength, desperately needs to be saved from him.
Yates’ Thoughts on Jon Baldwin
How exciting is Jon Baldwin? Rookie mistakes and all, he looked very good against the Raiders. It will take him a few weeks to get on the same page with Matt Cassel, much like it took Steve Breaston. But he has run good routes so far and is getting open. It’s only a matter of time.
I really enjoyed Yates’ comments on Baldwin’s speed. Baldwin has ridiculous Randy Moss-like legs that make him look about five inches taller than he actually is. That means he can take gazelle-like steps that deceive a viewer as to his real speed, which is blazing. I desperately want to see some deep routes from this guy against a San Diego secondary whose safeties really need to be kept honest if Cassel is going to have a big game.
Yates’ Thoughts on Matt Cassel
Matt Cassel has turned out to be the subject of the year for Chiefs fans, for a third year running. And it hits a Chiefs fan in the gut about as violently as you can to hear a cool-headed, learned football mind like Field Yates say the following:
"Matt isn’t the kind of guy that is going to take a team on his back and win a championship."
Now, Yates mellows that comment a little later by saying that Cassel can win a championship if surrounded by elite talent, but he took a 16-0 New England Patriots team to a 11-5 record and missed the playoffs then, too. And it doesn’t get much more elite than them.
I agree with Yates that Matt Cassel is a brilliant teammate, worker, and competitor, and that championship teams need guys like him. But I don’t think they can afford to have him under center. And Yates made my argument for me.
Let us now reiterate what we’ve been saying for a couple weeks now:
To win my support for him keeping his job after 2011, Matt Cassel needs to perform for the rest of 2011 at a Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees level of performance. Because if your quarterback does not have the ability to put up great games with an occasionally faltering run game and against any and all opponents, then we’re not in the Super Bowl hunt, and there’s no point to continuing the unsatisfying destination of a first round blowout. Super Bowl QB, or bust. No excuses, ever.