We all know the Chiefs stink. Carl Peterson getting fired (or resigning or whatever) isn’t going to fix our problems. We still have a complete clown for a coach.

I had said to myself that I wasn’t going to blog about it anymore, but watching the hatchet job he does every Sunday, it’s difficult to keep quiet.

Now that Clark Hunt has done the right thing in getting rid of Carl, he should follow up by removing the coach who single-handedly has dealt this team loss after loss over the pass two years. Watching Miami’s Tony Sparano coach his team to a possible playoff berth one year after their abysmal Cam Cameron 1-15 season assures me that with the right leadership, ANY team can turn it around. There are folks who will say that Carl was the problem and that Herm should be given the chance to “get his guys”. Well, I think that Herm could fill every coaching slot with “his guys” and draft for another 2 years and we wouldn’t be much closer then than we are now. He’s just a bad coach.

He was a bad coach in New York. He lucked into the playoffs on the heels of Dick Vermeil’s guys his first year here and has since turned the Chiefs into the AFC’s version of the Detroit Lions. In fact, if the Lions didn’t exist, I doubt there’d be much discussion as to who the worst team in the NFL is.

Clark Hunt has shown that he’s got the stones to do the right thing. He should do it again and get rid of Herm, start anew and renew the loyal Chiefs fans’ faith in 1 Arrowhead Drive. I think that 2-14 is a good enough excuse to blow it up. Let’s now see if Clark Hunt will do it.

Let’s hope that next week’s second half meltdown to the Bengals is the final time we have to watch Herm stomp the sidelines of the field acting like he cares when he really has absolutely no clue how to coach an NFL team. For the sake of the organization, it’s time to let him go.

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Carl Peterson has resigned as General Manager/President/CEO of the Chiefs. A new era can begin. Hopefully the first thing the new coach will do is FIRE HERM EDWARDS.

I’ve only been saying this should happen since last season.

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In their last 20 games, the Herm Edwards-led Kansas City Chiefs have won once. That’s five percent.

What kind of league has the NFL become where not a single person is held responsible for this type of futility? I really wanted the Bills to score again, just to drive home the point that the Chiefs really are as bad as their 1-19 record reflects.

I don’t want to hear about “promise” and “potential”. Because promise and potential doesn’t get beaten 54-31 in Arrowhead Stadium. There are other words that describe teams that get beaten by that margin at home. But I won’t print those here.

Herm Edwards and Carl Peterson should both be fired. Peterson’s horrid decision-making is finally to the point where it is affecting ticket sales, which is the only reason that he’s been around so long. Clark Hunt can no longer ignore the awfulness of the Chiefs when 20,000+ fans walk out of the stadium halfway through the 3rd quarter (and those were the ones that actually showed up).

But I feel like I’m just repeating myself. It’s really getting old. Not that winning a game would change anything other than just extending the pain of the Herm Edwards era by giving us some smidgen of false hope in a coach who couldn’t effectively coach a Pop Warner team to a championship and a General Manager who should be arrested for theft, larceny and the robbery all the hopes and dreams of Chiefs fans in this city.

But I’ve said this before…it’s nothing new.

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No, I’m not talking about my creativity and lack of blogging.

I’m talking, of course, about the hapless Kansas City Chiefs, who have been held hostage by the almighty dollar and mediocrity, both by the hand of the devil himself, Carl Peterson. Peterson’s dismantling of Lamar Hunt’s prized franchise has been nothing short of criminal, comparable to the way that greedy investment bankers, useless politicians and shady lending practices have led to this horrible economic crisis that we’re in.

Just as with the economic crisis, there’s plenty of blame to go around. It certainly has to start at the top. One of the very first things that Clark Hunt should have done when he assumed the reins of the team after his father’s death is do the one thing his legendary dad couldn’t do - FIRE CARL PETERSON.

Peterson bears more of the blame than anyone. He’s a brilliant businessman, but he’s an absolutely horrible General Manager. Bad drafts, bad trades, mistreatment of players (anyone remember Pro Bowl LEFT TACKLE John Tait?) and just plain greed ($20+ for parking? Really?) are just some examples of Peterson’s abysmal record of management.

Peterson is also responsible for some of the worst coaching hires in the history of the NFL, including our current coach, who has one of the worst offensive minds in all of football. I’d put the coach at Gardner Edgerton High School (who won their game on last Friday night 69-0) in charge of the Chiefs before I’d let Edwards anywhere near a sideline. Edwards had a losing record when he came here and it’s even worse now.

Granted, the players stink. All of them. I feel bad for Tony Gonzalez…it must be impossible to get open with the garbage he has surrounding him (and throwing toward him either). I’d feel worse for him if he weren’t so darn rich. If Peterson had a shred of decency about him, he would have allowed Gonzalez to go seal his first-ballot Hall of Fame status with a team that had a chance to reach the playoffs in the next 5 years, because the Chiefs certainly don’t…not with Peterson and Edwards steering this rudderless ship.

I truly had hope (if not somewhat misguided) that we might see something new with Chan Gailey running the offense, but I’m convinced that even Al Saunders couldn’t make these fools look good.

And it stinks, because I was really hoping for an 0-16 season. 1-15 might be attainable, though. And that would certainly seal the deal for the #1 pick. It might even be enough to get both Peterson and Edwards out of town (and hopefully in the case of Edwards, out of the NFL forever…I wouldn’t wish that guy on any other team, except maybe the Raiders).

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So the coverage is probably better over at Arrowhead Pride, but I thought I’d give my thoughts. Earlier in the week, I predicted:

• Offensive line: 3-4 players
• Wide receiver: 2 players
• Corner/Safety: 2-3 players
• Running Backs: 2 players (1 fullback, 1 running back)
• Defensive line: 2-3 players
• Quarterback: 1 player (perhaps Michigan’s Chad Henne in a later round, if he falls)

The Chiefs ended up taking:

Offensive line: 3 players (counting the final TE as a lineman, since he looks to be the second coming of Jason Dunn)

Receivers: 3 players (2 receivers, 1 TE)

Corner/Safety: 3 players (2 corners, 1 safety)

Running Backs: 1 player

Defensive line: 2 players (although most significant was #5 overall Glenn Dorsey, who looks like a beast)

Quarterback: 0 players (not a massive surprise because all the good guys were gone and they have that Thigpen kid as well)

I didn’t expect the Chiefs to pick 2 tight ends. It seems that Carl Peterson can’t stay away from them. I’m assuming that they are a “best athlete at the pick” type of thing, but we’ll see.

When I saw the breakdown today (I didn’t watch all 8 hours of the draft today, what with church and all), I wasn’t all too thrilled, but as I look closer, it seems like Carl and Herm did the best they could - the best of the last several drafts for sure. Here are my quick-hit thoughts of all the picks.

Rd 1 / Pick 5 - Glenn Dorsey, DT, LSU

The belle of the ball. Beast. Will compliment Tank Tyler and free up Tamba Hali to run freely. I foresee the Chiefs moving Turk McBride to the edge for some games next season as a possible Jared Allen replacement.

1 / 15 - Branden Albert, OG, Virginia

I hope Albert turns out to be the stud tackle that everyone thinks he’s going to be. Even if he ends up being the next Will Shields, that’s a big win for us.

2 / 4 (35) - Brandon Flowers, CB, Virginia Tech

The best part of his ESPN.com overview: “he plays far bigger than his size indicates and faster than his 40 time suggest.” We need a stud corner to replace the crappy age we have out there now.

3 / 10 (73) - Jamaal Charles, RB, Texas

Backup plan in case Larry Johnson doesn’t recover from his foot thing? Maybe. Charles was a good player on a decent Texas team. He’s no Ricky Williams or Priest Holmes, but he could be decent enough to take more of the load off Larry.

3 / 13 (76) - Brad Cottam, TE, Tennessee

This guy is big. 6′ 7″ 270 lbs. He sounds better than Kris Wilson.

3 / 19 (82) - Dajuan Morgan, S, NC State

I suppose the Chiefs need some depth at safety, but this guy will sit behind Pollard and Page. Special teams, here he comes.

4 / 6 (105) - William Franklin, WR, Missouri

As much as I hate the Chiefs drafting players from Missouri, their receivers are good. And we need depth at receiver. I hoped that we would take one earlier.

5 / 5 (140) - Brandon Carr, CB, Grand Valley St.

A corner from a no-name school. This guy is going to be Carl’s gem of the draft.

6 / 4 (170) - Barry Richardson, OT, Clemson

I don’t like that the line on this guy was “not mean enough”, but tackles…hey, we need lots. Maybe Herm can put some mean into him.

6 / 16 (182) - Kevin Robinson, WR, Utah St.

Yay. Another receiver that won’t make the team.

7 / 3 (210) - Brian Johnson, DE, Gardner Webb

This guy gets props for going to “Gardner Webb”, which is just south of Olathe. No wait, that’s Gardner.

7 / 32 (239) - Mike Merritt, TE, Central Florida

He’s listed as a tight end, but they’re saying that he’s probably more of a guard or a 3rd tackle type guy. “Very slow and lacks athleticism.” Sounds like they drafted me.

There are too many guys on the second day that we’ll need to see in pre-season to properly evaluate. What should be noted is that KCChiefs.com is one of the worst team sites in the NFL. Stuff is hard to find, the user experience sucks, and it just looks like it came straight out of Penn Valley Community College Web Design 101…FROM 1995.

KC firm VML…you should be ASHAMED at the horror that is your nested tables and excessive use of…what is that? REALPLAYER? The Chiefs took a step backwards when they abandoned the Happy Cog design that Zeldman did for them. I suppose that’s par for the course and just another example of where the front office’s heads are at.

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So, the NFL Draft really snuck up on me this year. Now that the Jared Allen deal is done, we can take a look at where the Chiefs need help. The Chiefs own a league-high 13 picks in the draft this weekend, including 6 in the first 3 rounds (#5 and #17 in 1st round, a second round pick, and 3 3rd round picks).

For a team that is “going young” you have to see this as a good thing. Unfortunately for Kansas City fans, we’ve been burned by the Junior Siaviis and Sylvester Morrises of the past years and so every draft is approached with less than high hopes.

Let’s take a look at the Chiefs’ biggest needs:

Offensive line

This is a no-brainer. Our offensive line is abysmal. The hope is that Damion McIntosh will get healthy this year and resume his tackle position, but I get the feeling he’d rather be on the right side. As much as they’d like to though, the Chiefs can’t afford to have a guy like Will Svitek still manning Brodie Croyle’s weak side. I forsee the Chiefs going with a left tackle with their #5 pick, probably Ryan Clady of Boise State (even though he allegedly only got a 14 on the Wonderlic test). The #17 pick they acquired from Minnesota does give them some flexibility though. They could go with Matt Ryan, the QB from Boston College that everyone loves, and then hope one of the other projected 1st round offensive lineman falls into their laps at 17 (maybe Vanderbilt’s Chris Williams or Pitt’s Jeff Otah). I still think that they’ll go with either Clady or Virginia guard Branden Albert, whom many are saying is going to be a tackle in the NFL. I’d also see them picking up a couple more folks in later rounds, maybe

Cornerback

Face it - Ty Law and Patrick Surtain are bad. They used to be good, but they aren’t anymore. They are slow, they rarely make plays and they cannot compensate for the youth that the Chiefs have at safety. We need a shutdown corner to replace Ty Law so Bennie Sapp can finally enter the starting lineup in Surtain’s place, putting Surtain into the nickelback position. I’m starting to wonder whether Kansas’ Aqib Talib could fall to 17, since most have him as a top 3 corner in the draft. I imagine there are those that think his reefer tokeage might be a problem. Keeping him close to his dealer friends at KU might cause issues. But it would be fun to have a hometown guy to root for. There are several corners in the draft. I think that if the Chiefs don’t take Ryan in the first round, they’ll go lineman and corner with their #5 and #17.

Wide Receiver

Dwayne Bowe was a rousing success. The dude is amazing. With the departure of Eddie Kennison, it would be great to have another option besides Bowe and Tony Gonzalez. I’d love to see Bobby Sippio get more snaps, but a team that is in rebuilding mode is going to go young. Jeff Webb is a strong 3rd receiver, but I think that we need a viable #2 option, preferably someone with some serious wheels. The draft is pretty weak with star receivers this year (not like last year, which had Calvin Johnson and Dwayne Bowe), but it’s possible that the Chiefs could get someone like Eddie Royal from Virginia Tech to fill that slot.

Other positions

The Chiefs need depth at the above positions more than anything, but they also need a viable fullback. I loved Boomer Grigsby’s fire, but he’s gone. The Chiefs have 2 fullbacks on the roster that I’ve never heard of, so I look for them to try and get a mid-round blocking back, perhaps on day two. The Chiefs could also use some depth on the defensive line. Tank Tyler has been a good pick, but needs to keep his weight down. Turk McBride hasn’t been great, but I look for those two to have better seasons after being in the league for a year. Tamba Hali will have a breakout year and I think that (Chiefs Defensive Line Coach) Tim Krumrie may move him to the strong side where Allen was, although he probably is stronger at the weak side since he does not possess the physical strength that Allen did - he was more of a speed rusher. Past that, we’ll see.

Breakdown

Here’s how I see the Chiefs 13 picks breaking down:

• Offensive line: 3-4 players
• Wide receiver: 2 players
• Corner/Safety: 2-3 players
• Running Backs: 2 players (1 fullback, 1 running back)
• Defensive line: 2-3 players
• Quarterback: 1 player (perhaps Michigan’s Chad Henne in a later round, if he falls)

So there are my thoughts. What are yours? I love watching the draft. I’m signing up for text alerts today.

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The scuttlebutt around the media is that the Chiefs are considering trading away the NFL’s 2007 leader in sacks. To be honest, I’m surprised that it’s taken this long for the rumors to start. Allen has long been tired of the front office (as we all are) and wants to be paid what he is worth. He has well out-performed his initial draft position and contract and stands to make a chunk of change next year as the Chiefs franchise player.

Unfortunately, the Chiefs have about 15 players on their roster right now. After the off-season cuts and very little free agency action, the Chiefs are desperately short of players. Draft picks are at a premium for Herm and Carl and so you have to understand their logic in dangling a very attractive player who doesn’t really want to be in Kansas City anyway.

I really like Jared Allen. I like how hard he plays and I think that he has elevated the play of the defensive players around him. Keep in mind that he led the NFL in sacks last year while still missing the first two games. Now, granted, he deserved the suspension, but he proved that he’d cleaned up his act by performing at a very high level on a terrible, terrible team.

I guess I can see both sides of the argument here. Allen doesn’t like the front office and wants to get paid, so he wants out. The Chiefs have painted themselves into a corner where they need TONS of draft picks so they’re making the best out of a bad situation (which they put themselves in, but what else is new?). I don’t know if anything will happen before next weekend’s draft, but we’ll see. As much as I’d love to see Allen at Arrowhead again next year, this situation may be beyond repair.

Even for football geniuses like Carl Peterson and Herm Edwards. (*tongue inserted firmly in cheek*)

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Herm Edwards’ is not a good coach. I’ve said it since last December…he should not be the Chiefs coach. His theory on the game is antiquated and frankly, just doesn’t work.

His strategy is based upon having a good enough defense to keep the team in games, but the problem is that the way that he and Mike Solari call plays, the Chiefs have to have the league’s #1 defense, which at last check was 13.2 points allowed per game by the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s right…that’s the ONLY scenario that works for the Chiefs, who are averaging a 3rd-from-last in the league 14.9 points per game on offense.

Herm and Carl Peterson continue to find washed-up kickers to blame for the Chiefs’ problems, but they never look in a mirror and think to themselves, “Maybe I’m the one doing something wrong.” I’ll give props to Mike Solari who at least took some of the blame this week for the abysmal offensive performance. I’ve got good money that says that he was put up to that by Edwards and Peterson, who cannot take blame themselves.

Herm Edwards is a mediocre coach at best.  He has taken teams built by other coaches to the playoffs, but his regular season record speaks for itself - 52 wins, 55 losses. When you play to win games by 3 points, that’s what your record will be. And when you hire a coach that believes you can go to the playoffs winning games by 3 points, the General Manager should be held responsible for breaking the streak of home sellouts at 147 games, which probably will happen before the end of the season.

Clark Hunt needs to do what his dad couldn’t - fire Carl Peterson. Shake things up. If Chiefs ownership was really committed to winning instead of making money, they would have done it 10 years ago (3 years after his initial “5-year plan”). Loyalty is good to an extent, but when it loyalty is more important than on-the-field success, there’s a problem. Here’s hoping the Chiefs fix that problem. And soon.

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Perhaps that should be the 2007 slogan for the Kansas City Chiefs - Striving for Mediocrity.

Tonight the Chiefs announced that they were cutting their 5th-round-drafted kicker, Justin Medlock. While it is obvious that Medlock was a nightmare. He underperformed in the pre-season, missing kick after kick and missed his first field goal attempt - a short chip shot - in the Chiefs embarrassing 20-3 loss to Houston on Sunday.

As much as I want to win right now, this move brings to light some serious concerns that I’ve expressed since last year and before this season started. Herm Edwards is a bad coach. His clock-management at the end of the first half and the fact that Larry Johnson only had 10 carries in the game were only examples of his bad game planning and leadership.

Even more heinous than the shortcomings of our head coach, however, are the shortcomings of our general manager for the past 18 years, Carl Peterson. Peterson has continually disappointed the fans of Kansas City with his absolutely horrible draft choices and his constant price-gouging in one of the smallest, but most profitable markets in the NFL. Medlock is the latest in a series of bad decisions that have resulted in the travesty that is the 2007 Kansas City Chiefs.

Now, Peterson is trying to cover his backside by firing Medlock, the kicker he took from his alma mater instead of the kicker at the top of EVERYONE’S draft boards, Colorado Buffalo Mason Crosby, and replacing him with a guy named Dave Rayner. Rayner was last the kicker in Green Bay and was then cut this year when he was beat out for the Packers kicking job by none other than the aforementioned Crosby.

I don’t see how this is an upgrade. While there’s no doubt that Medlock’s been a nightmare up until now - Rayner doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. This is a guy who is 26-36 in his 2-year career. That’s almost 3 misses every 10 attempts. I just don’t see the point of abandoning a kicker after one game, especially a rookie. Peterson’s been wrong about a lot of stuff in his career and this is just one more thing in a long line. Maybe one time we’ll actually hear him say it.

Yeah right.

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