Romeo’s Last Stand
First off, welcome to “Armchair Week” here at Arrowhead Addict. Our beloved head man Patrick Allen is taking some time off this week after getting hitched this last weekend and although he has some pre-written posts scheduled and our regular writers will be putting up their regular excellent content, the bottom line is that you’re going to be getting a whole lot of yours truly this week. (And you thought this season couldn’t get any worse, didn’t you?) Anyway, I’ll try my best to hold down the fort in Paddy’s absence. Also, a preemptive thanks to Chris Nance who will be helping out with breaking Chiefs news since during the day I have this thing called work that tends to get in the way of my Chiefs blogging (I know, priorities right?).
Enough about that though. Now back to your regularly scheduled Chiefs coverage…
When the Kansas City Chiefs got their hats handed to them by a bad Oakland Raiders team coming off their bye week I lost what little faith I had left in head coach Romeo Crennel. My thinking was that if you couldn’t get a team ready to play (both emotionally and schematically) against a division rival, at home, with an extra week to prepare, you have no chance to get them ready for any team, ever. I knew Romeo wouldn’t get fired after that game though since they had to turn around and play San Diego on a short week. However, I truly believed that after the SD loss (in prime time no less) that the Chiefs would put Romeo out of his misery.
That didn’t happen.
Instead, Romeo fired himself, just not as head coach. He removed himself as the team’s defensive coordinator and promoted LB coach Gary Gibbs to DC. That wasn’t the only move that was made to shake things up. As most of you already know, starting CB Stanford Routt was released and DL Shaun Smith was added to the roster. My initial thought was that the Chiefs were insane. They no longer had any clue what they were doing. The only positive that I could come up with was that the Chiefs had been SO bad that any change was worth a shot. Maybe the Chiefs will win the lottery and one of these moves will actually spark something. Probably not, but hey, we’re desperate here!
Then I heard an interesting theory from 610 Sports’ Danny Parkins. His thought was that these moves were a sign that Clark Hunt had essentially taken away Scott Pioli’s control and was allowing Crennel a chance to make some moves as he saw fit. The idea being that Pioli is for sure gone but Hunt is waiting to make it official until he has a replacement ready to take over (enter rumors that Marty Schottenheimer met with Clark last week?). With the decision on Pioli made, Clark decided to give Romeo one last chance to prove to whomever the new GM is going to be that he should be allowed to keep his job. So Romeo brings in Smith who he has wanted all along but Pioli didn’t think fit the “Right 53.” He also cuts the Pioli-signed Routt that many are now reporting didn’t buy into Romeo’s system and was taking a lot of Crennel’s time in practice. Think about it: has Pioli ever shown himself to be quick to admit a mistake? Of course not, and cutting Routt after 8 games of a 3 year contract when he was suppose to be the reason it was okay that he let Brandon Carr walk doesn’t seem like a Pioli move at all. This theory feels right to me, but maybe I’m just so desperate to see Pioli gone that I’m willing to buy into any logical theory that comes to that end.
Regardless, the Chiefs now enter tonight’s nationally televised game with both Romeo and Pioli still in place (for now). If Romeo’s latest changes have no effect on this game and the Chiefs get dominated once again, then I see no hope that Romeo can get this team to play good football, EVER. He had all offseason and they started the year flat. He had the bye week and they looked terrible and unmotivated. He changed silly locker room signs from “Eliminate Bad Football” to “Play Good Football” and the team still stinks. If this latest round of changes is equally ineffective then it’s officially over. They can leave him in place for the rest of the season, but it will just be as a placeholder. These latest moves already scream of desperation and if they don’t work then the team has 100% lost all faith in him. I don’t see how any other changes could be made as the season continues that the players could take as serious improvements and not just the desperate acts of a clueless coach that is throwing 30+ years of NFL experience out the window and just throwing “stuff” against the wall to see if anything sticks.
The good news for those of you that are hoping the Chiefs land the first overall draft pick is that I think you may very well get your way. If I had to bet money on it, I’d say that we see the same pathetic Chiefs tonight as former head coach Todd Haley gets his revenge on Pioli and the Chiefs. However, there is still a very, very, VERY small part of me that remembers how this team played for Crennel at the end of last season. I wouldn’t fall out of my armchair tonight if the Chiefs come out and show some fight for their coach. That probably still won’t be enough to beat Big Ben on his home field, but maybe, just MAYBE, it will be enough for us KC fans to not be completely embarrassed by the product we see from our team on the field.
Let’s just say that I won’t be holding my breath though.
As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!