Opponents traveling to Arrowhead Stadium will be greeted with a dead, still-smoking crater where once a football team was said to play. Men in red jerseys will be there, though whether colored red by design or by the blood of the fallen we cannot say. There’s an undeniable stench in the air, of a team’s hopes gone up in flames.
To the Chiefs’ opponents, it smells like Victory.
Yes, injuries happen in the NFL, and by rule no one gets to cry about them. But no other team in the league even has right to complain, if they stop and compare themselves to the M.A.S.H. ward in Kansas City.
In a span of the last twenty days, the Chiefs have lost three of their most talented young players for the season, all with ACL injuries. TE Tony Moeaki and S Eric Berry were both rookie of the year candidates last season. RB Jamaal Charles was arguably the team’s MVP. If I’m Tamba Hali, Derrick Johnson or Dwayne Bowe, I’m watching my back. There’s some bad voodoo on this team, and the star players are falling victim.
Troubled since day 1
Even with a full complement of healthy players, even going back to the preseason, the Chiefs have not looked good for even a quarter of football in 2011. Now, they look truly wretched. They have been outscored 89-10. Their offense has gained fewer yards in two weeks than Cam Newton did alone in week 1. Their defense is forced to stay on the field for far too long, and are getting gashed for points.
Todd Haley proved he knew a thing or two about offense when he was helping Kurt Warner and the Cardinals to a surprise Super Bowl appearance. But without offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, his team looks lost. And the blowback is coming back on Haley, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Mike Silver.
While Haley on the hot seat will strike most fans as odd – he was a legitimate coach of the year candidate in 2010, his second season in K.C. – people who know what’s going on inside the organization are nodding their heads unremarkably…. There is a lot of tension between Haley and his boss, general manager Scott Pioli.
The fallout may extend further than Haley, though, remarks NBC Sports’ Mike Florio.
G.M. Scott Pioli hired the coach who suddenly can’t, and to the extent that the acrid smoke of dysfunction currently is billowing from the team’s headquarters, Pioli is the chef who put in ingredients in the vat and began to stir.
Florio also castigates Pioli and Clark Hunt, the Chiefs’ owner, for an apparent willingness to pocket huge chunks of cash out of the salary cap, instead of spending in free agency to build depth.
The fallout extends across the border.
Because nature abhors a vaccuum, the incredible suck in Kansas City can’t help but affect other franchises around the league. Directly in their path? The St Louis Rams.
Silver suggests that if Pioli fires Haley and keeps his own job, both highly plausible events, Pioli will reach across the state to pluck Josh McDaniels from the Rams. To fans in Denver, their team ruined by McDaniels and GM Brian Xanders’ disastrous personnel decisions, this is ludicrous. To fans in St Louis, this could be a nightmare.
If McDaniels leaves the Rams after this season, then Sam Bradford would be entering his third season with a third new offensive coordinator and a third very different playbook. Suddenly, with a lack of weapons and three sets of Xs and Os swimming around in his head, Bradford would be on the Alex Smith career path. The promise of the 2010 #1 pick could be stuck in a morass of mediocrity.
As football fans, you can’t help but feel for the Chiefs. As a Rams fan, I can’t help but pray they get better. Somehow. Anyhow.
