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WEIS SPEAKS
January 8th – 1:26 PM

The Chiefs will not hold an introductory press conference for new offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, but head coach Todd Haley did join Weis on a conference call with members of the media. Have a listen to what Haley and Weis had to say right here.

SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED
January 8th – 10:53 AM

Charlie Weis has been signed, sealed and delivered…he’s yours.

Cross the “T’s” and dot the “I’s,” there is a new offensive mind in town. This change at the top of the Chiefs offense is nothing like the first that fans experienced in what was just five short (but long) months ago.

There won’t be any wholesale changes to the Chiefs offense. Everything that was implemented from August-thru-January under Todd Haley will remain at its core under Weis.

“He’s a coach that system-wise I feel we’re as close as we can be,” Haley said. “It is the same system [that we run here now].“

Exactly why Haley dismissed former offensive coordinator Chan Gailey just two-weeks prior to the start of 2009 season remains a mystery. All we know is that Haley did what he believed was in the best interest of the Kansas City Chiefs at the time. Did the plan backfire? One could argue yes, but that may not be completely fair or even true, for that matter.

Throughout this past season, Haley acknowledged that having an offensive coordinator in place would be the most efficient way to coach this football team. There were no arguments from Haley that the difficulty of an already difficult job grew considerably when he took over the offense so late in the game.

“I made some difficult decisions back on offense that probably it would have been easier for me to just stay status quo,” Haley said. “But for the team and the overall development and foundation, I felt it was necessary to make those changes.”

If it’s not apparent by now, Haley and the rest of the Chiefs administration are thinking about the big picture when they build this roster and coaching staff for the future. Haley chose to begin at ground zero at the beginning of 2009, rather than at the beginning of the 2010 offseason. Scraping the entire offense today and bringing in Weis wouldn’t do the Chiefs any favors.

Sixteen regular season games were played under the offensive system that the Chiefs will continue to implement heading into a critical 2010 offseason. The core players that build this team’s nucleus are comfortable with the system, and Kansas City can add to that base. It’s something that carries no mystery. Players know what to expect as the team move forward offensively.

Hypothetically, maybe someone other than Jamaal Charles would have thrived under Gailey’s scheme and the Chiefs wouldn’t know what they have with Charles. Instead, both the players running the system and the coaches coaching the system can progress this offseason rather than rebuild. Between scraping it all back then and scraping it all right now, I choose back then.

Kansas City’s offense began last season incredibly slow, churning out numbers that ranked at the bottom of the league in nearly every major statistical category. Many of the players pointed to a late change in offensive philosophies as the culprit. An entire offseason of offensive planning was thrown out the window just before the start of the regular season.

If you look at the Chiefs offensive numbers over the final eight games, in relation to the first eight, the players’ theory looks like it holds some truth.

As the Chiefs adjusted to the new offense, with time, the offensive production improved dramatically. The offense churned out nearly 100 more yards per game, allowed half as many sacks, improved the running game by nearly two yards per carry and increased rushing TDs by 800%. Those are just some of the examples. Go right down the line and nearly every imaginable offensive statistic improved week’s 9-16 compared with week’s 1-8.

Now, the Chiefs are able to build off of that progress by becoming more efficient.

Yes, Charlie Weis is a big name.

Yes, Charlie Weis knows Matt Cassel.

Yes, Charlie Weis has an offensive resume laced with Super Bowl victories and offensive milestones.

Yes, Weis climbed the coaching latter in an impressive way and worked for some of the most respected football minds along the way.

All those things are great, but each of those aspects about Weis are supplementary assets. What’s important is that Charlie Weis is the right fit for Kansas City.

He’s the right fit for this organization to progress…right now.

CASE FOR CROYLE
January 8th – 6:30 AM

Brodie Croyle is likely on cloud nine this morning after ‘Bama’s 37-21 thrashing of Texas in last night’s national title game. As sweet as that win was for Croyle, his NFL future has to make him feel pretty good as well.

Don’t misconstrue the title of this blog. Matt Cassel is, without a doubt, the quarterback for 2010 and is very much a part of the Chiefs nucleus of talent going forward. Offensive success in the years ahead will likely come and go with Cassel’s performance. The Chiefs need Matt Cassel to be “the man.”

With that said, Cassel’s backup made quite a name for himself with the new coaching staff this season and he fought improbable odds to do so.

“Brodie Croyle you can’t overlook,” Chiefs head coach Todd Haley said. “I perceive him playing a critical role for us as we go forward.”

What a wild ride it’s been in Kansas City the man from Rainbow City, Alabama. Drafted in 2006 as the Chiefs “quarterback of the future,” Croyle’s career with the Chiefs has resembled a blueprint for The Mamba at World’s of Fun or the stock chart for Bank of America more than anything else.

In 2007, Kansas City traded away its franchise leader in virtually every passing category to make room for Croyle to guide the offensive reigns. Trent Green was at the twilight of his career and the Chiefs had a 24-year old with a rifle-arm ready to take his place, or so it was thought.

The job was essentially Croyle’s to lose as training camp began in 2007. Sure enough, he lost it. A 42.5% completion percentage, three INTs and a 34.5 quarterback rating wasn’t going to get it done. Veteran Damon Huard, who sparked the Chiefs playoff run in 2006 when Green was out with a major head injury, would be the starter over the youngster from ‘Bama.

Take it up one more year and Croyle found himself in a nearly identical situation. He did start six games instead of the anticipated 16 the year before, but he still had some work to do in order to quiet the doubters and officially earn the starting role. He did. Then he fell again.

Not 20 pass attempts into the 2008 season Huard was back in as the Chiefs primary signal caller. Croyle had suffered a right shoulder injury when he was sacked by Patriots LB Adalius Thomas in the third quarter of the season opener. He’d miss the next five games.

Croyle returned to the field vs. Tennessee, and we all know what happened from there. Croyle started out his return by completing nine of his first 10 passes before DT Albert Haynesworth broke through the line and sent his 350-pound frame (that’s roughly 7/40 of a ton if my math skills are up to par) directly into Croyle’s lower-half. Another setback, Croyle’s left knee was shredded.

So there Croyle was, sitting on the sidelines, rehabbing a knee injury while his teammates worked to impress their new head coach during a demanding 2009 offseason. A head coach with an emphasis on accountability and players being available walked into a program to see a player who had been touted by the previous administration as the up-and-coming quarterback of the future. When that up-and-comer carries a lengthy report of injury history on his resume and spends the entire offseason off the field, it’s not exactly an ideal first impression.

The scenario that evolved created a seemingly impossible situation for Croyle in Kansas City, but Croyle found a way to make the impossible possible.

The chance that Brodie Croyle would be released before the season probably outweighed the chance that he would start the season opener at Baltimore. His first day of workouts came on the first day of training camp. The Chiefs other three QBs competing with Croyle – Matt Cassel, Tyler Thigpen and Ingle Martin – all had a couple-hundred-hours head start. The new administration had all but announced their “quarterback of the future” and Croyle was left on the outside looking in.

Slowly, snap-by-snap, Croyle began to win over his new head coach. He’d get ridden hard at camp for an error, only to take the next snap and deliver a perfectly thrown football. Croyle was starting to show some mental fortitude. Mental fortitude is something that Haley likes. Slowly, that non-existent start Croyle produced during Haley’s first few months on the job became an afterthought.

Croyle kept going and going. His camp grew more impressive by the day and word of mouth was beginning to spread. Those that covered the team began to write about Croyle’s performance and those that visited River Falls went home to tell about it to their friends.

“Brodie Croyle looks good. I mean, Brodie Croyle looks really good.”

Croyle’s critics in the media and fan base began to turn into supporters, at least in Croyle serving as the primary backup to Cassel. That’s exactly what Croyle did. His camp earned him the job ahead of Tyler Thigpen, the player who ignited a lot of exciting plays for the Chiefs a year before and who had Haley talking positively throughout the spring.

Croyle simply beat him out.

When Croyle spot-started the season opener for an injured Cassel, and turned in the team’s first 100+ QB rating (over 20 attempts) since 2006, he cemented himself as the primary backup for 2009. He did everything Haley had asked and more. Thigpen then became dispensable and was traded to Miami for a draft pick.

Over a period of just six weeks in 2009, Croyle’s career had taken yet another turn. He earned the respect of his new head coach and re-established himself as a leader among his teammates.

This week, Croyle’s career in Kansas City came back full-circle. Once again he’s been tabbed as an important part of the organization’s future; an improbable feat not six months ago.

“I’m trying to touch on guys that I see as core guys for us in one role or another,” Haley said earlier this week. “That’s a critical spot and he developed as the year went on and gained confidence in what we were doing.

“That role is pretty critical that there is cohesiveness in the [quarterback meeting] room and it’s not always the case,” Haley continued. “Everybody wants to play and everybody can’t play.”

Croyle has embraced his new role and Haley has embraced Croyle. There seems to be a mutual appreciation for each other based off nothing more than respect for one another and the things that each must do to be successful. By the end of the year, Haley’s confidence in Croyle had grown so much that his once overlooked QB was suggesting third-down play calls in the red zone (If you haven’t read ANATOMY OF A PLAY, go check it out).

Now, Croyle is part of the “core” that we’ve discussed and identified over the latter half of this week. His role my carry a heavy off-the-field impact, but his progress this offseason is just as important as any other player the Chiefs are planning to go forward with in 2010.

Not to say that Haley didn’t like Croyle six months ago, but it certainly doesn’t take a psychologist to see that Haley likes Croyle today. The two carry very different personas that feed off each other in a positive way.

Croyle signed a four-year contract as a rookie in 2006 and would have been in line to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. Instead, without a new collective bargaining deal in place, it looks like Croyle will become a restricted free agent instead. This means that the Chiefs have the right to match any offer and receive compensation via draft picks if they don’t.

More than likely, it looks like Croyle will be back in 2010. How can you not like this guy?