It’s time to spin a Chiefs simile grade card
By Laddie Morse
Let’s play a simile game Chiefs fans!
Choose any sports simile to help you get to the facts — actually it’s your opinions, because opinions is what we mostly do around here — about where the organization has been headed in the past three years since John Dorsey and Andy Reid have taken over (and yes, I know, it’s only actually been two and a half years).
There have been some swings-and-misses for sure but general manager John Dorsey and head coach Andy Reid have also made their fair share of slam dunks. So, take any move the Chiefs have made since January of 2013 and then let us know what you think about that move by giving us a sports simile.
It’s batter up time for you Chiefs fans. A fun way to hand out a 2013-2015 Chiefs grade card.
We’ll use these sites:
plus Examples of Similes
… and more to reach our conclusions about the Chiefs recent progress or regress. I’ll give you a few of my analogies about where the Kansas City Chiefs are at with some of their decisions of the past three years… and then it’s your turn.
Our first test case will serve as an example.
Drafting Nico Johnson with the 99th pick: A Strikeout with runners in scoring position
When the Chiefs used their 4th round pick, selection #99, in the 2013 NFL draft on Inside Linebacker Nico Johnson, they really struck out.
The significance of missing on Nico Johnson is now crystal clear. He was never meant to replace Derrick Johnson but he was supposed to be the thumper — block eater — like Jovan Belcher was so that DJ could flow to the ball and make stops. Nico lasted a year and a half with the Chiefs before being demoted to the practice squad in favor of James Michael-Johnson who was claimed off of waivers from the Cleveland Browns at the beginning of the 2013 season. Nico had 5 tackles for the Chiefs and had 8 tackles for the Bengals last year following his being taken from the Chiefs practice squad on October 15, 2014.
General Manager John Dorsey and his team of talent evaluators can’t afford to consistently miss on a top 100 pick without it having deleterious effects to the organization moving forward.
This was not the bottom of the ninth inning with the bases loaded strikeout, but it was definitely a strikeout for sure.
Trading two second round picks for Alex Smith: A man-down goal in soccer
While I happen to be an Alex Smith fan and would actually rank him higher than many Chiefs fans I am willing to admit that too many see him as a hindrance than a help to the team so I’ll go as far as saying Alex Smith is like scoring a goal in soccer while being one man-down (or two) because when you give up two successive second round picks you’ll never know who you could have gotten with either of those picks (hmm… maybe Russell Wilson?).
Is Alex Smith capable of bicycle-kicking a goal? I’d say yes but there’s no consensus on that yet because his performances reflect solid short passing skills (soccer terms) for now… in fairness to the 0-0 tie that much of the masses (public opinion) are booing about thus far.
I don’t see any way to say this move by John Dorsey and Andy Reid was a bad one because Alex Smith, to me, is light years better than any quarterback that was on the Chiefs roster previously.
I haven’t seen Alex Smith kick any Lionel Messi (and if you don’t know who he is you should be ashamed of yourself) quality kicks yet but… he seems capable. However, he’s clearly not kicking the long passes (remember this is all wrapped up in soccer metaphors) everyone is expecting during the last two minutes with the clock winding down.
Drafting Safety Sanders Commings: Losing the first two sets in tennis, he’s one set away from game over
Some players have no game tape to evaluate. I can completely understand why Bill Parcells would always say, “I’m only going to talk about the players who are on the field.” Otherwise, there’s nothing to talk about. I have all these hopes for Commings but it means nothing until we actually do have something to talk about. Tennis great Jimmy Connors once said, “Experience is a great advantage. The problem is that when you get the experience, you’re too damned old to do anything about it.” Let’s hope Sanders Commings gets to have some… and use it.
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