MORE THOUGHTS ON HALEY'S DISMISSAL
Remember when I told you yesterday that Todd Haley had told Kent Babb of the Kansas City Star he thought of resigning last Monday so that he could tell his side of the story? I didn't properly explain why this is permissable & speaking out after you've been fired is not. Most all NFL coaching contracts have a clause that prohibits any fired employees from discussing the internal workings of the franchise that cut them loose. Violate that clause & any money owed to you on your remaining contract just got flushed down the drain. If the employee resigned, they've already forfeited any remaining contract income, so they can speak out even tho doing so could jeopardize future employment around the league. With that in mind, it's possible Haley reconsidered, thinking he could reach the end of the season before resigning with one year remaining on his contract. It's also possible that Scott Pioli & or Clark Hunt got wind of Haley's intent & moved to terminate his employment. Another consideration is that Haley & his wife Chrissy have five children & throwing away $2+ million just isn't sound financial planning, so violating his contract by speaking out or by resigning wouldn't happen.
But it was Haley's statement that raised more than a few eyebrows. Thru words crafted by his agent, Haley thanked the Hunt family, Chiefs' players, assistant coaches & the Kansas City fans, no mention of the guy who hired him, Scott Pioli. The two have long had friction between them & if Haley even considered throwing away a couple of million dollars to give his side of the story, well I know I'd love to hear it. But we're not, so let's consider the source of their friction.
It has to begin with micro-managing. Pioli is without doubt a classic micro-manager. If you've never experienced this business phenomenon, let me assure you it is often times impossible to properly execute your job responsibilities if your supervisor is a micro-manager. Honestly, it's what drove me out of the casino industry. Everything you do on a daily basis is questioned, criticized or reviewed constantly regardless of your success. Making matters worse is often the micro-manager has never had to do your job. Things really go off the rails when they're unable to properly execute their own job description in a professional manner because they're too busy looking over everyone's shoulder. Do I sound bitter toward people like Scott Pioli? I can honestly say I was over that long ago, but I do understand what Haley might have experienced.
I doesn't take a genius to figure out Scott Pioli has failed so far as the head talent evaluator for the Kansas City Chiefs. Nor do you have to belong to Mensa to comprehend the financial component regarding the Chiefs' salary cap number. They have spent right at $57 million under the cap in 2010-11. In a league full of sharpies, you're going to get what you pay for most of the time. If you don't pay, the talent level of your roster will suffer. Any doubt the roster Todd Haley had to work with was sub-par? Haley had zero control over cap space & player contracts, as it should be. But when you send a coach into the season without the best possible talent, the resulting poor win-loss record is less about his abilities as a coach. Also, if the talent you select & sign isn't as good as your competitors, you put your coach at disadvantage.
The obvious next question would be is Chiefs' CEO Clark Hunt restricting Pioli's expenditures? Is he trying to recoup a good portion of stadium remodeling funds before the franchise is required to spend 95% of their salary cap on actual player salaries? This is the talent component we may never understand because these two will forever keep it a secret. If it is, the late Lamar Hunt must be spinning in his grave. Oh Lamar's Chiefs didn't win as much as they should have, but it wasn't for the lack of money spent on players. His problem was trust & loyalty, normally a good thing but not when the people you trust fail to get you the expected results & are allowed to remain in place out of loyalty. If you are old enough to remember Jack Steadman or Jim Schaaf, you know what I'm talking about. King Carl Peterson comes to mind as well. Three GM's in 48-years. That employment record is fine if you're getting the results you're paying for, but not when year after year your franchise comes up short.
In this past off-season there was plenty of available talent that could be had on a short time basis for reasonable money. The lockout effectively wrecked the normal free agent portion of the off-season. DL Aubrayo Franklin, DL Shaun Rodgers & RB/KR Darren Sproles are three prominent signings of the New Orleans Saints. Their total contracts were less than $5 million against the cap in 2011 & two of the three agreed to 1-year deals. All three are solid NFL performers with plenty left in the tank. Were any of them ever considered as possible free agent acquisitions? I'll give you the answer on Sproles. Signing the hometown kid from Olathe, Kansas would be admitting your 2nd round selection of Dexter McCluster a year prior was a mistake. They're supposed to be the same player, does anyone think they are? Sproles is far superior to anything McCluster will ever accomplish in this league. Bringing in Franklin & or Rogers only points to the mistake made with drafting Tyson Jackson third overall in 2009. I can cite numerous mistakes made by Scott Pioli since he became "Drafter-in-Chief" for Kansas City. Yes, hindsight is 20-20, but many of the mistakes were predicted before they were made by not only me, but many other NFL pundits. Of course none of us are paid $7-8 million per season to make these choices, maybe we'd overthink some of these decisions as well.
Now if you thought I was giving Todd Haley a pass from this dysfunctional trio, think again. Is it possible Haley thought Pioli's micro-managing would decrease after winning the AFC West last season? Wrong, success only breeds even more looking over your shoulder because in the GM's mind that's the reason the team succeeded was his nit-picking, not Haley's coaching. Haley did make numerous mistakes, he's obviously stubborn & it cost him some valuable talent. Players would could've been high quality depth on a roster with too many warm bodies. Bernard Pollard & Jared Gaither come to mind. Haley sent them packing & they are playing major roles for other teams, on rosters more talented than the Chiefs. Pollard is starting on arguably the best defense in the entire league, the Baltimore Ravens. He was the Texans 2nd leading tackler last season. Yes, Pollard has limitations, but he is infinitely better as a safety than either John McGraw or Sabby Piscatelli plus he's younger. I won't even get into any comparisons between Barry Richardson & Jared Gaither because....well you know why.
Todd Haley doesn't work well with others. Three offensive coordinators in less than 3 seasons has completely retarded any growth Matt Cassel was capable of, in fact it could be argued, he's gone backwards in his development. The quarterback position is another sticking point that caused Haley to be fired. Keeping Tyler Palko while drafting Ricky Stanzi, a QB Haley has no use for, has been disastrous this season. Claiming Kyle Orton was strictly a "cover your ass" move. The dysfunctional trio knew there was zero hope to reach the playoffs & Orton would never sign with the Chiefs long term. The franchise was seen as cheap, with a huge unused portion of salary cap money. So why not pluck Orton off waivers & make it appear we're trying desperately to keep the team in contention? Hogwash. I think Haley has potential as an NFL head coach & if he learns from his experience here, he could excel in his next position. Many great coaches failed before they found success & Haley could be one of those guys who didn't get it right initially but learned & was humble enough to realize he didn't do it right the first time.
Haley's bizarre & ill-fated training camp/preseason regimen was doomed to fail from the outset & it cost this team dearly. When you try to reinvent the wheel, it better work or you'll have to face dire consequences. Just how on-board Pioli was with this scheme I have no way of knowing but I suspect Pioli knew this was a huge risk & if it failed it would effectively hang the coach he couldn't get along with. That brings up another problem, is there a coach Scott Pioli can co-exist with? Established guys are likely to tell him to back off & non-established head coaches(Haley) are willing to try almost anything to get the position.
If Josh McDaniels is a serious candidate for this job, I hope you watched the game last night, because it was one of the worst job auditions I've ever seen. His playcalling & player sub-packages were horrendous, especially in the redzone. Why is one of the league's angriest, most physical downhill runners standing on the sideline when you have the ball inside the two-yardline? Not once, but six times Steven Jackson was replaced by Cadillac Williams. They threw the ball four of the six times. Twice, Sam Bradford, obviously suffering from a high ankle sprain, had to roll out to throw. With what I've seen in every Ram game(yes, I've seen them all), if Josh McDaniels is Kansas City's new head coach, we'll be suffering thru another coaching change in less than three years again.
One thing Scott Pioli has to realize, he's on the clock right now, his Mulligan on coaching hires is used up. One more Haley-type experience & the Chiefs will be able to fit their season ticket holders into the stadium at Center High School. If you continue to charge exorbitant prices for tickets & parking in a down economy, you better spend every dollar of your salary cap. It simply isn't fair to expect so much of the fans & then not put forth every effort to improve the team you're asking them to support. Regimes in the past could get by with more, that is not the case anymore, time to go big or go home.
But it was Haley's statement that raised more than a few eyebrows. Thru words crafted by his agent, Haley thanked the Hunt family, Chiefs' players, assistant coaches & the Kansas City fans, no mention of the guy who hired him, Scott Pioli. The two have long had friction between them & if Haley even considered throwing away a couple of million dollars to give his side of the story, well I know I'd love to hear it. But we're not, so let's consider the source of their friction.
It has to begin with micro-managing. Pioli is without doubt a classic micro-manager. If you've never experienced this business phenomenon, let me assure you it is often times impossible to properly execute your job responsibilities if your supervisor is a micro-manager. Honestly, it's what drove me out of the casino industry. Everything you do on a daily basis is questioned, criticized or reviewed constantly regardless of your success. Making matters worse is often the micro-manager has never had to do your job. Things really go off the rails when they're unable to properly execute their own job description in a professional manner because they're too busy looking over everyone's shoulder. Do I sound bitter toward people like Scott Pioli? I can honestly say I was over that long ago, but I do understand what Haley might have experienced.
I doesn't take a genius to figure out Scott Pioli has failed so far as the head talent evaluator for the Kansas City Chiefs. Nor do you have to belong to Mensa to comprehend the financial component regarding the Chiefs' salary cap number. They have spent right at $57 million under the cap in 2010-11. In a league full of sharpies, you're going to get what you pay for most of the time. If you don't pay, the talent level of your roster will suffer. Any doubt the roster Todd Haley had to work with was sub-par? Haley had zero control over cap space & player contracts, as it should be. But when you send a coach into the season without the best possible talent, the resulting poor win-loss record is less about his abilities as a coach. Also, if the talent you select & sign isn't as good as your competitors, you put your coach at disadvantage.
The obvious next question would be is Chiefs' CEO Clark Hunt restricting Pioli's expenditures? Is he trying to recoup a good portion of stadium remodeling funds before the franchise is required to spend 95% of their salary cap on actual player salaries? This is the talent component we may never understand because these two will forever keep it a secret. If it is, the late Lamar Hunt must be spinning in his grave. Oh Lamar's Chiefs didn't win as much as they should have, but it wasn't for the lack of money spent on players. His problem was trust & loyalty, normally a good thing but not when the people you trust fail to get you the expected results & are allowed to remain in place out of loyalty. If you are old enough to remember Jack Steadman or Jim Schaaf, you know what I'm talking about. King Carl Peterson comes to mind as well. Three GM's in 48-years. That employment record is fine if you're getting the results you're paying for, but not when year after year your franchise comes up short.
In this past off-season there was plenty of available talent that could be had on a short time basis for reasonable money. The lockout effectively wrecked the normal free agent portion of the off-season. DL Aubrayo Franklin, DL Shaun Rodgers & RB/KR Darren Sproles are three prominent signings of the New Orleans Saints. Their total contracts were less than $5 million against the cap in 2011 & two of the three agreed to 1-year deals. All three are solid NFL performers with plenty left in the tank. Were any of them ever considered as possible free agent acquisitions? I'll give you the answer on Sproles. Signing the hometown kid from Olathe, Kansas would be admitting your 2nd round selection of Dexter McCluster a year prior was a mistake. They're supposed to be the same player, does anyone think they are? Sproles is far superior to anything McCluster will ever accomplish in this league. Bringing in Franklin & or Rogers only points to the mistake made with drafting Tyson Jackson third overall in 2009. I can cite numerous mistakes made by Scott Pioli since he became "Drafter-in-Chief" for Kansas City. Yes, hindsight is 20-20, but many of the mistakes were predicted before they were made by not only me, but many other NFL pundits. Of course none of us are paid $7-8 million per season to make these choices, maybe we'd overthink some of these decisions as well.
Now if you thought I was giving Todd Haley a pass from this dysfunctional trio, think again. Is it possible Haley thought Pioli's micro-managing would decrease after winning the AFC West last season? Wrong, success only breeds even more looking over your shoulder because in the GM's mind that's the reason the team succeeded was his nit-picking, not Haley's coaching. Haley did make numerous mistakes, he's obviously stubborn & it cost him some valuable talent. Players would could've been high quality depth on a roster with too many warm bodies. Bernard Pollard & Jared Gaither come to mind. Haley sent them packing & they are playing major roles for other teams, on rosters more talented than the Chiefs. Pollard is starting on arguably the best defense in the entire league, the Baltimore Ravens. He was the Texans 2nd leading tackler last season. Yes, Pollard has limitations, but he is infinitely better as a safety than either John McGraw or Sabby Piscatelli plus he's younger. I won't even get into any comparisons between Barry Richardson & Jared Gaither because....well you know why.
Todd Haley doesn't work well with others. Three offensive coordinators in less than 3 seasons has completely retarded any growth Matt Cassel was capable of, in fact it could be argued, he's gone backwards in his development. The quarterback position is another sticking point that caused Haley to be fired. Keeping Tyler Palko while drafting Ricky Stanzi, a QB Haley has no use for, has been disastrous this season. Claiming Kyle Orton was strictly a "cover your ass" move. The dysfunctional trio knew there was zero hope to reach the playoffs & Orton would never sign with the Chiefs long term. The franchise was seen as cheap, with a huge unused portion of salary cap money. So why not pluck Orton off waivers & make it appear we're trying desperately to keep the team in contention? Hogwash. I think Haley has potential as an NFL head coach & if he learns from his experience here, he could excel in his next position. Many great coaches failed before they found success & Haley could be one of those guys who didn't get it right initially but learned & was humble enough to realize he didn't do it right the first time.
Haley's bizarre & ill-fated training camp/preseason regimen was doomed to fail from the outset & it cost this team dearly. When you try to reinvent the wheel, it better work or you'll have to face dire consequences. Just how on-board Pioli was with this scheme I have no way of knowing but I suspect Pioli knew this was a huge risk & if it failed it would effectively hang the coach he couldn't get along with. That brings up another problem, is there a coach Scott Pioli can co-exist with? Established guys are likely to tell him to back off & non-established head coaches(Haley) are willing to try almost anything to get the position.
If Josh McDaniels is a serious candidate for this job, I hope you watched the game last night, because it was one of the worst job auditions I've ever seen. His playcalling & player sub-packages were horrendous, especially in the redzone. Why is one of the league's angriest, most physical downhill runners standing on the sideline when you have the ball inside the two-yardline? Not once, but six times Steven Jackson was replaced by Cadillac Williams. They threw the ball four of the six times. Twice, Sam Bradford, obviously suffering from a high ankle sprain, had to roll out to throw. With what I've seen in every Ram game(yes, I've seen them all), if Josh McDaniels is Kansas City's new head coach, we'll be suffering thru another coaching change in less than three years again.
One thing Scott Pioli has to realize, he's on the clock right now, his Mulligan on coaching hires is used up. One more Haley-type experience & the Chiefs will be able to fit their season ticket holders into the stadium at Center High School. If you continue to charge exorbitant prices for tickets & parking in a down economy, you better spend every dollar of your salary cap. It simply isn't fair to expect so much of the fans & then not put forth every effort to improve the team you're asking them to support. Regimes in the past could get by with more, that is not the case anymore, time to go big or go home.
This might be the best analysis you've ever written since I've been reading this blog. You and Sam Mellinger are consistently right on the mark. Considering the difference in your ages, both of you come at the Chiefs problems from different histories but arrive with similar analysis.
There are so many things wrong with this franchise, but I feel like you drew attention to all of them.
I'm 9-months away from retirement and was poised to buy season tickets upon returning to Kansas City. Now I'm not so sure as I just don't see a bright future. If I'm right, good seats will be plentiful, if I'm wrong, it will be nose bleed seats for a while. Either way, I'm not committed to handing the Hunt family a large chunk of money to watch a below average football team.
Thanks for providing non-knee jerk reactions, pointing fingers and name-calling doesn't provide anything toward fixing the problem.
So glad I found this blog before the 2010 draft, thanks to Upon Further Review, tell all my family in KC, this is the guy you need to read.
Keep up the excellent work and Merry Christmas!
Juan Flores
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Rich, I went this way so others could see my compliments, but this comment deal is a hassle.
I won my weekly OPP and with three weeks remaining I have a 6-game lead in the season race. YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!
Just don't screw up my big lead O.K.? We need the money for Christmas. Thank you.
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Your own blog, your own radio show, fugheddaboudit you should have your own newspaper column, magazine contributor, and tv show. Good Heisman picks in 4 outta 5 order.
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