Monday Mourning: Bring Out Your Dead

Week three of the 2008 NFL season won't be complete until the San Diego Chargers host the New York Jets this evening, but it may as well be. The only reason to mention that is because it's possible that the Kansas City Chiefs could have more company by night's end. I doubt they will, but as it stands, their (winless) peers are the likes of the Houston Texans (who are clearly better and have had a bye), the Cincinnati Bengals, the Cleveland Browns, the St. Louis Rams, and the Detroit Lions. Think about that: the Browns, Bengals, Rams and Lions are the clubs with whom we lump the Chiefs. There are reasons cited to prop up any argument, or debate. There are statistics that can be listed. There are defenses to counter each angle. The truth of the matter is, however, that the Kansas City Chiefs are a really bad team.

Now the Lone Reader has asked for some sort of defense of Head Coach Herm Edwards' "handling of the QB situation in the past 12 months."

I don't even have the slightest clue what that means. I don't think that I've ever defended Edwards on any ground whatsoever. In fact, when it comes to TLR's Chiefs rants, I spent considerable time defending (former Offensive Coordinator) Mike Solari under two premises: a) give him a chance, and b) his boss is Herm Edwards/what do you expect? I will say this for starters: Read this Bob Gretz article.

From it, we learn that Herm Edwards has made 15 starting quarterback changes in 51 NFL games.

Do the math: that’s a change at quarterback every 3.5 games. We aren’t talking about sending a guy in to mop up at the end of a bad loss or big victory. No, it’s 15 times since the opening day of the 2005 season that because of injury or performance, Edwards has scratched out one quarterback’s name and written in another...Is it the types of quarterbacks Edwards has on his roster? Is it something in the team’s training methods? Is it the water? A simple answer to his quarterback woes evades detection by the head coach.

And that piece was written before Damon Huard got "hurt" against the Oakland Raiders, so make it 16 in 53, or whatever. It's pretty cut and dry in my eyes: Herm Edwards doesn't know what he's doing. His mantra is to build a strong, defensive-minded team that's young, and control the ball and the game clock with that corps. At this point, he couldn't possibly have failed more miserably.

I spent the weekend with Old No. 7, and in his estimation, "the Chiefs don't have a quarterback on the roster that is capable of winning a football game." He has a point, and it's a damn good one. I still think Brodie Croyle is capable of winning a football game. Probably more than one. His fragility, though, is far from a secret, and Damon Huard is 35 years old. I don't care if Tyler Thigpen, at some point in his future career, wins a Super Bowl. Right now he is awful. Pitifully pathetic.

To TLR's point, Edwards had last season, the off-season, and pre-season to figure out what to do with the quarterback position. Given his history, and the stats in Gretz's article, one would think that he would've considered the possibility of injuries, and better stacked the roster with actual NFL-caliber quarterbacks. He didn't, and the Chiefs are atrocious for that very reason. They put 14 points on the board in Atlanta yesterday, which almost matches their offensive output from the first two games. In doing so, Thigpen also threw three picks, and a lot of really, really bad other passes. He. Sucks.

Steve Tasker and Gus Johnson made an interesting point about Thigpen during yesterday's broadcast, and that's this: Thigpen set a bunch of passing records at Coastal Carolina, but that's pretty damn easy to do when you're a starting quarterback in a program that didn't freaking exist before you got there. I initially predicted the Chiefs to win six games this year, and two of those were against the Raiders and the Falcons.

Oops. My bad. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they lost all 16.

Herm Edwards' Chiefs can't control the game clock. They can't stop the run, and they most certainly can't generate any offense, and I'd argue that no team could put points on the board with Thigpen at the helm. Old No. 7 was right when he said that building a winning football team starts at the position of quarterback. This, as history has proven, is Edwards' Achilles. He isn't geared for assessing talent at the position, or estimating who (on the roster) gives the team the best chance to win.

Clark Hunt said in the off-season that renewing Carl Peterson's contract at the end of '08 would hinge highly on whether or not this club is a playoff contender. Clark -- they're 0-3, which translates to not even a regular-season contender. The Chiefs are awful. Peterson put Edwards in charge, and he's not accomplishing anything other than misery for the entire fan base, and every player on the roster. He must be removed. There is no time for ultimatums or hot seats. That time came an went somewhere in the thick of this 12-game losing streak.