Does it get any better?

As you know, I’ve been critical at times of Scott Pioli’s first offseason with the Chiefs. I don’t think he’s taken full advantage of his first opportunity to improve this team. The fact that we’re still $12 million under the minimum salary cap level is proof of that. And what’s worse, to me anyway, is that it seems like he is so attached to his plan, his way of doing things, that he may be incapable of the flexibility needed to evolve with today’s NFL. He has basically tried to implement the exact same offseason strategy here that he used in New England. That strategy has been successful, but Pioli has failed to adjust it to our current situation. The Chiefs have more money and less talent than New England ever had. It would seem only natural to spend some of that surplus cash on a couple legit free agents to level the playing field. After that, Pioli could have played it just like he did in NE, knowing that he also did everything in his power to make this team better in the short run. Instead he stuck to his NE routine, left all that extra money on the table, and traded away our best player. Not exactly a recipe for immediate success.

Of course, Pioli has done some good things too. Firing Herm Edwards alone earns his offseason a passing grade. The Cassell trade was a masterful move. And really, even though his actions in the draft and free agency were very boring, we can’t say they were entirely bad. The question is, has Pioli improved our team? Or, more precisely, has he put together a team that has any quantifiable strengths? I’ve been waiting a while to weigh in on this, but since it looks like the talent acquisition phase is just about done, now seems like the right time to evaluate this roster. We’ll start with the offense.

One strength that jumps out right away, and its a good one to have, is quarterback. Whether or not you buy Matt Cassel as a “franchise quarterback”, I think we can all agree he’s likely to make a pretty good starter. Top 5? Probably not, but a top 10 season could be in the cards. At the very least Cassel is likely to be in the top half of the league. I’ll take that.

And even if Cassel doesn’t pan out, or gets injured, Tyler Thigpen is as good a backup as can be hoped for. He’s ideal, actually. A plucky youngster with starting experience and the ability to move the chains is just what the doctor ordered for a number 2 QB. We can also use him in some gimmick formations like the wildcat. It’s always nice to have a few tricks up your sleeve. And although third stringer Brodie Croyle may be a total loser (all the tools!), when last year’s “best” QB is this year’s worst, you know you’ve improved.

So there we have it.  QB is a definite strength.  Unfortunately, I don’t really see any others.  Branden Albert and Dwayne Bowe are good young talents, but they’re surrounded by a bunch of guys who are, at best, question marks.  Matt Cassel is probably going to have a pretty rough go of it in his first year under center, and there are 3 main reasons why:

1) Pass protection- Outside of the aforementioned Albert (who was actually just average statistically last year), this group is far from impressive.  Brian Waters is a pro-bowl caliber player on the left side, but he has yet to show up to an offseason function and may still be traded before the start of the season.  Even if he stays he probably won’t be happy about it.  Mike Goff, the other guard, is known as a good run blocker, but he’s getting a little long in the tooth and at this point in his career we can’t really call him a great pass blocker.  One thing we probably don’t have to worry about with Goff, however, is durability; he started all 16 games for the Chargers the last six years.  Kind of makes me wonder why they let him go.  Hopefully their loss is our gain.

Our guards may be old, but at least they’re good.  Where things get a little dicey is at the center and right tackle position.  In keeping with Scott Pioli’s “plan”, we did nothing to upgrade either of those positions.  Boom Boom’s boi Traffik Kop is back for another year, and Matt Cassel is gonna pay the price (toll?).  McIntosh did get better in the running game as the year wore on, but he simply can’t pass block.  It got pretty ugly watching him and his runnin’ buddy A-Jo (Adrian Jones) direct opposing team’s defensive linemen to the QB last year.  Shades of Chris Terry and John Welbourn in 2007.  Hey, at least A-Jo is gone.  Gone, but not forgotten.

then there’s Rudy Niswanger. He sucks.  There’s really nothing else to say.  He should never have been handed a starting job, and he certainly shouldn’t keep it.  He can’t block and he gets called for penalties.  Meanwhile the guy we let go in favor of Niswanger (Casey Weigmann) was a pro-bowler last year.  Hey, he may have been a pro bowler, but did he fit the power running game?  I rest my case.

I don’t know anything about Eric Ghiaciuc, but people on Bengals message boards seemed pretty happy to see him go.  Matter of fact, a lot of them had some pretty choice parting words.  I place very little stock in that.  If Bengals fans are anything like Beast Nation we should basically disregard what they think.  I’ll be rooting for Ghiaciuc to win the starting job just out of disrespect for Niswanger.  It’s a shame though, I was hoping we’d take a center in the draft.  This draft class was full of great options.  Yet another reason I wasn’t happy with the Alex Magee pick.

Conclusion: With a motivated Waters this has a chance to be a decent unit, albeit one with a couple glaring weaknesses.  Without Waters, things get scary in a hurry.  Matt Cassel could be spending a lot of time on his ass in ‘09.

2) Weapons in the passing game- It’s starting to look like we really shouldn’t have traded Tony Gonzalez.  At the time we all assumed it was part of some much grander scheme (Scott Pioli said as much), but it turns out it was just a move thats going to make it much harder for Matt Cassel to succeed.  Tony would’ve been a great security blanket for an inexperienced QB looking to build confidence.  Who can play that role now?  Dwayne Bowe?  Not if he’s double-teamed every play.

I actually think Bowe will have a massive year.  He’s gonna have to, because we got nobody else for Matt Cassel to throw to.  I like Mark Bradley, but I liked him a lot better when he was our third option.  This guy has by no means proven he can be a productive player over the course of an entire season.  Maybe he can, but durability and work ethic issues have plagued him in the past, so this is a question mark.  Maybe that should be his nickname, The Question Mark.  Eh?

Pioli did bring in Bobby Engram, but after trading T-Gon and not bringing in anyone else even that is starting to seem like a slap in the face.  Something Teicher can mention in his boring articles* that doesn’t actually mean anything.  What can we really expect from Engram?  He’s a 36-year-old possession receiver, for crying out loud.  Even having him as our third receiver is a stretch at this point.  But thats what he has to be, because we don’t have anybody else worth a shit.  Jeff Webb?  Are you kidding me?

*I don’t even bother reading Teicher anymore.  I used to respect the shit out of him, but his articles are pretty much useless at this point.  Why bother with him when you can go to Arrowheadpride and get literally 50 times the info, complete with actual analysis instead of just bare-bones facts reporting, on a single page?  Teicher is a prime example of the continued obsolescence of sportswriters.

One player I actually am interested to watch is Brad Cottam.  Yeah, Cottam is our starting tight end now.  Is he a long-term answer, or Rudy Niswanger in tight end form?  Who knows.  He is an impressive physical specimen, so I suppose thats something.  But we can’t honestly expect this guy to be a weapon in the passing game.  In his entire college career he only caught 21 passes for 341 yards.  Those numbers are jaw-dropping, but not in the way you’d like them to be.  Cottam was a project pick, and my guess is he isn’t ready to be a starter yet.  Maybe he never will be.  We’re gonna find out, because guess what: we have no other options!

Conclusion: This is an uninspiring group of targets for Matt Cassel in his first year.  I’m a big believer in Dwayne Bowe, but outside of him all we have are question marks.  Actually, even that is generous.  We have two question marks (one of them being The Question Mark), a 36-year-old backup, and a bunch of junk.  The pressure is on Dwayne Bowe.  Let’s hope he gets rid of those dropsies.

3) Running game- Or, more accurately, lack thereof.  LJ is still our starter?  What?  Cutting his sorry ass seemed like a no-brainer.  The guy hasn’t been good since in three years and he’s a whiny bitch.  I guess our higher-ups figured he’s still better than Jamaal “playmaker who doesn’t actually make plays” Charles*.  These two combine to form the lamest thunder-and-lightning combo since Bam Morris and Rashaan Shehee.  You all know I’m not big on the running game anyway, but I just assumed Pioli and Haley would make some kind of adjustment to this part of our team.  Looks like I assumed wrong.  I don’t have a lot more to say about this, but our running backs are mediocre at best (including Mike Cox, sorry Piano Man).  If we want to move the chains it’s gonna have to be the passing game that does it.  That just adds more pressure to an already overburdened Matt Cassel.

*He’s just like Reggie Bush, except way, way worse!

I hate to say it, but all this adds up to a tough first season for Matt Cassel.  Whitlock wrote an interesting article on this situation a couple days back.  Among other things, he postulates that Cassel and his agent may have drastically upped their asking price when they saw just how little Scott Pioli was willing to do to improve this offense.  Whitlock’s theory is that there is no long-term deal on the way, and we essentially traded our second round pick for one year of Cassel with a ridiculous $14 million price tag.  I’m not willing to go that far, but it does make sense that Cassel and his agent would be leery of commiting to a team that didn’t even try to put the necessary pieces in place to help him succeed.  How would you feel if you were Matt Cassel and you had to watch your new team trade away your best weapon, bow out of free agency, and spend all its top draft picks on defensive linemen?  Would that be a team you’d want to spend the next 7 years with?  It’s like Cassel got engaged to a woman he hardly knew because he was friends with her dad, only to watch her gain 50 pounds, quit her job, and tell him she has syphillis.  Whitlock says he’s getting cold feet about Cassel, but I think the reality of the situation is that Cassel is getting cold feet about us.

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