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The Word of the Season
Aug 23, 2006, 8:57:01 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ
Search the pages of any dictionary and one word best describes the current state of affairs around the Chiefs: transition.
This group is a team in transition. Call it an excuse if you like, but it’s a fact of life around Arrowhead Stadium. It doesn’t fully explain the way the Chiefs have played in their first two pre-season games. But it’s an underlying cause and it will continue to show itself throughout the season.
There are plenty of pundits that have looked at the 10 coaching changes in the NFL this year and determined that Herm Edwards had the easiest situation to step into with the Chiefs. Only one of the other nine clubs finished the season with a winning record (Minnesota), while the Chiefs were 10-6 and just missed the post-season.
That created the belief that all Edwards had to do in Kansas City was turn around the fortunes of the defense and all would be well for the red and gold. There are people around Arrowhead who believe that. There are players in the Chiefs locker room who subscribe to that belief.
Well folks, I’m here to tell you it ain’t that easy. We are seeing the first evidence of that by the way the Chiefs have stumbled through the first half of the pre-season. There’s more to come.
Edwards would have had an easier task taking over a rebuilding job, much like he did in New York five years ago with the Jets. A coach who comes into a situation with a losing team can just push the plunger and blow everything up. He can start from scratch.
Not so in a transition. A coach in that situation has to blend old and new, not only in strategy but in a coaching staff and on the roster. That’s does not happen overnight, let alone in one off-season, one training camp and a pair of pre-season games.
Here’s the most current example: under Dick Vermeil, the Chiefs paid no attention to pre-season games in the last few seasons. They were unimportant to Vermeil and his coaching staff because they felt they had the basics of their team in place, their approach was set, and the only major change in the coaching staff was the addition in 2004 of Gunther Cunningham as defensive coordinator.
Thus, the Chiefs in the last two seasons went 1-7 in the pre-season.
Edwards has a different approach. He wants to win these games. He’s not going to put his starters at physical risk and he’s not going to allow his offense and defense to empty the playbook, but he wants victories and he especially wants his first teamers to approach their limited playing time like it’s important.
Thus, we have a transitional moment. The Chiefs found that out after their sleepwalking loss to the Giants last Thursday. Edwards unloaded on them in the locker room after the game. This was not nice Herm. This was a ticked off Herm.
A football team is an organism, made up of many molecules. Put a successful team under a microscope and those molecules are all intertwined. Put the Chiefs of the last five seasons under the microscope and there are two big clumps of molecules set off from each other: the offense and defense. And for the better part of the last five years, the molecules of this organism changed very little.
Now with Herm Edwards in charge, the DNA is being altered. There are changes at head coach, offensive coordinator, the defensive coaching staff and the defensive scheme has been modified. The defense doesn’t just have to improve to change things with this team. The defense and offense must become intertwined.
The Chiefs are a team in transition.
The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.
http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2006/08/23/gretz_the_word_of_the_season/
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Aug 23, 2006, 8:57:01 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ
Search the pages of any dictionary and one word best describes the current state of affairs around the Chiefs: transition.
This group is a team in transition. Call it an excuse if you like, but it’s a fact of life around Arrowhead Stadium. It doesn’t fully explain the way the Chiefs have played in their first two pre-season games. But it’s an underlying cause and it will continue to show itself throughout the season.
There are plenty of pundits that have looked at the 10 coaching changes in the NFL this year and determined that Herm Edwards had the easiest situation to step into with the Chiefs. Only one of the other nine clubs finished the season with a winning record (Minnesota), while the Chiefs were 10-6 and just missed the post-season.
That created the belief that all Edwards had to do in Kansas City was turn around the fortunes of the defense and all would be well for the red and gold. There are people around Arrowhead who believe that. There are players in the Chiefs locker room who subscribe to that belief.
Well folks, I’m here to tell you it ain’t that easy. We are seeing the first evidence of that by the way the Chiefs have stumbled through the first half of the pre-season. There’s more to come.
Edwards would have had an easier task taking over a rebuilding job, much like he did in New York five years ago with the Jets. A coach who comes into a situation with a losing team can just push the plunger and blow everything up. He can start from scratch.
Not so in a transition. A coach in that situation has to blend old and new, not only in strategy but in a coaching staff and on the roster. That’s does not happen overnight, let alone in one off-season, one training camp and a pair of pre-season games.
Here’s the most current example: under Dick Vermeil, the Chiefs paid no attention to pre-season games in the last few seasons. They were unimportant to Vermeil and his coaching staff because they felt they had the basics of their team in place, their approach was set, and the only major change in the coaching staff was the addition in 2004 of Gunther Cunningham as defensive coordinator.
Thus, the Chiefs in the last two seasons went 1-7 in the pre-season.
Edwards has a different approach. He wants to win these games. He’s not going to put his starters at physical risk and he’s not going to allow his offense and defense to empty the playbook, but he wants victories and he especially wants his first teamers to approach their limited playing time like it’s important.
Thus, we have a transitional moment. The Chiefs found that out after their sleepwalking loss to the Giants last Thursday. Edwards unloaded on them in the locker room after the game. This was not nice Herm. This was a ticked off Herm.
A football team is an organism, made up of many molecules. Put a successful team under a microscope and those molecules are all intertwined. Put the Chiefs of the last five seasons under the microscope and there are two big clumps of molecules set off from each other: the offense and defense. And for the better part of the last five years, the molecules of this organism changed very little.
Now with Herm Edwards in charge, the DNA is being altered. There are changes at head coach, offensive coordinator, the defensive coaching staff and the defensive scheme has been modified. The defense doesn’t just have to improve to change things with this team. The defense and offense must become intertwined.
The Chiefs are a team in transition.
The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.
http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2006/08/23/gretz_the_word_of_the_season/
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