Kansas City Chiefs: An airing of grievances

Feb 19, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Kansas City Chiefs general manager John Dorsey speaks to the media at the 2015 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Mr. Dorsey, before I get to my one major grievance I have with you I want to say that I’m actually a fan of the overall job you have done. The overall roster depth is much improved compared to the team you inherited and while you haven’t been perfect in the draft you have hit on enough players that I’m not here to call into question your job as the general manager as a whole.

That having been said John, it is becoming crystal clear what your achilles heel is. Most people aren’t good at everything and the highly successful people are the ones that recognize their limitations and surround themselves with the people necessary to support them in their areas of need.

For you John, that area is the offensive line.

While I trust you to run my favorite team it’s pretty obvious that you don’t have a clue on how to build an offensive line. You’ve had three full offseasons and the offensive line you currently have is noticeably worse than the one from the 2-14 team you inherited. That’s not just a “whoopsie, my bad,” that’s a huge shortcoming that is holding back the entire offense at this point.

What really frustrates me about this John is that it was pretty easy to see coming. I’m a stinking band teacher for crying out loud and I’ve been writing blog post after blog post for months about how the offensive line was the most likely thing to hold this team back. So if a band teacher could see this coming from a mile away how come a NFL GM couldn’t? It really is inexcusable.

And don’t even try to act like you wanted to do more but there just weren’t any more players available. Evan Mathis was just sitting out there without a job and you have his former head coach running your team! Then there’s La’el Collins in the NFL draft. I know the stories circulating around draft time were scary but he was a top fifteen player in this draft class and you could have had him in the 6th or 7th round! Now maybe Rakeem Nunez-Roches or Da’Ron Brown will eventually develop into solid players but Collins is starting for arguably the best offensive line in the NFL. How is a guy like that not worth a flier in the 7th round John?!?!

What makes this EVEN WORSE is that you’ve paired a bad offensive line with a limited quarterback. I won’t knock you for giving Alex Smith a new deal (although many others will) but I will knock you for giving Alex Smith a new deal but not providing him with the offensive line a quarterback of his skill set needs in order to win. Smith isn’t carrying a team on his back. He needs his team to have HIS back and that has to start with the offensive line. To take a quarterback with those limitations to begin with and then make him the most sacked quarterback in the NFL is asking to lose and that is exactly what your team has done for three weeks in a row.

Offensive line play around the league is down in general, but that makes it all the more irresponsible to try and patchwork the problem with Jah Reid and a Canadian medical student. I’m not sure there is anything that can be done this season. It’s up to the coaching staff to try and make chicken salad out of chicken $@#& at this point. Hopefully enough of those guys will step up to the challenge, but looking forward to next year you need to find someone that you trust to be your “offensive line guy”. It’s clearly your weak spot as a GM and the true greats aren’t afraid to address those weaknesses.

Finally, I can’t end the airing of grievances without talking about the Chiefs quarterback.

Next: My Alex Smith Grievances