Watching Todd Haley's press conference yesterday after the 41-34 loss to the Cleveland Browns, my overwhelming feeling was that I was seeing a first-year head coach completely overwhelmed with the debacle he's got on his hands.
(If you want to watch a few minutes of the press conference, view it on the Chiefs web site here.)
But in the wake of a historically bad performance against Cleveland, and the fact that this team is probably not going to win either of its last two games, many fans are crying for Haley's head after the first year. Even our rotund columnist for the Kansas City Star wrote as much in the most thinly-veiled call for a coach's head on Monday.
I'm not saying that I don't have concerns over Haley's ability to be a winning head coach, ability to judge talent, ability to manage a game, or ability to not explode at every single player that walks off the field after a mistake. Honestly, he hasn't proven that he can do any of that yet.
But there's no way Scott Pioli is going to fire Haley after one year as a head coach unless Haley pulls a Tiger Woods, gets caught selling drugs to school kids, or is outed as a member of Al-Qaeda.
For one thing, anyone who has watched the Chiefs over the last three years realizes that they just don't have the talent to truly compete in the NFL. They need another season to bring in talent that fits the systems they're trying to run.
Secondly, Haley must bring in two coordinators with SUCCESSFUL NFL experience to run the offense and defense. I don't care what his reasons were, but firing offensive coordinator Chan Gailey a week before the season started was a boneheaded move. It's the one thing that Pioli may wish he had stepped in and prevented. That one decision set this team back a year.
On defense, I cringed when Romeo Crennel didn't come to KC in the off-season and Haley went with someone he knew well from his days in Arizona, Clancy Pendergast. I can see the reasoning behind the move as Haley probably felt very comfortable with Pendergast, but when Chiefs fans look back lovingly on the Greg Robinson days of defense, you know something isn't right.
The Chiefs on defense just aren't worse than the other players; they're always, always, always out of position now. That's not talent, that's coaching.
Bringing in successful coordinators (Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel anyone???) would take a mountain of responsibility off of Haley's shoulders and let him concentrate on getting better as a head coach.
(On a personal note, as someone who has watched NFL games literally his entire life, I humbly volunteer to sit up in the coach's booth with a headset on and tell Haley when NOT to use timeouts, when NOT to go for it on fourth down, when NOT to throw umpteen wide receiver screens that don't work, when NOT to kick a ball within 20 yards of the NFL's all-time kickoff return touchdown champion, yadda, yadda, yadda. Just in case he's too overwhelmed during the game. Heck, I, along with 20,000 other Chiefs fans, would do it for free if we could get some complimentary nachos.)
Finally, the reason Pioli won't fire Haley is the threat of a lock-out with the players in 2011. The labor relations apparently aren't going well between the NFL and the Players Association. It looks like a sure thing that 2010 will be an uncapped year for salaries.
And unbelievably, league observers are already saying that if nothing gets done on a new collective bargaining agreement between management and labor, the owners will lock-out the players the following year.
Now it's hard to believe that a bunch of smart businessmen with a room full of Ivy League lawyers who run a multi-billion dollar business would take the sport away from the fans, but owners have done stupid things before and could do it again.
So Pioli will give Haley another year to make marked improvements in the team. If, at the end of 2010, things are still bad, Pioli could make a move then because he should know by then if he'll need a coach at all in 2011.
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