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For Chiefs’ Fans, “Rebuild” is a Four-Letter Word

It’s funny. Everybody in the media insists that the Chiefs are in a “rebuild” mode. Yet, no fan in Kansas City wants to acknowledge it. It seems that the fans have a different take on the situation. No fan wants to hear that their team is rebuilding. As far as every fan is concerned, the Chiefs are still undefeated. So when a media expert tells these fans that the Chiefs are mailing in the 2007 season, they panic. They treat the word “rebuild” like a four-letter word.

Why?

Oh, the Chiefs could be a playoff team in 2007, but when are we as fans going to settle for anything less than a Super Bowl? The Chiefs have the capability of being pretty good this season. More importantly, the Chiefs have a tremendous opportunity to be Super Bowl great as soon as 2008. If becoming Super Bowl great requires one under .500 season, then so be it. Rebuild away!

Let me illustrate a perfect example. The Chiefs can make the playoffs IF….

• Damon Huard is the starting quarterback
• Eddie Kennison and Samie Parker comprise two of the starting three receivers
• James Reed and Ron Edwards take the vast majority of reps at defensive tackle
• Greg Wesley is the starting safety

Get the picture? The Chiefs can be a playoff team this year only if they settle for playing marginal veterans, rather than testing out young players with considerably more upside. How good is Damon Huard? At best, I think he’s a 9-10 win wonder. I think he’s a borderline playoff starter with limited capability to take the team deep into the playoffs. I think Dwayne Bowe should earn himself considerable reps this season. But I think there is a lot of upside in Chris Hannon and especially Jeff Webb as well. We already know that Eddie Kennison doesn’t turn it up when the lights shine bright. Apart from the “walk-off” deep bomb he caught against Green Bay, how many games do Chiefs’ fans remember him actually making a significant late-game contribution? And, let’s not forget, that I still contend that Eddie was easily the team’s biggest goat in the playoffs. Two boneheaded drops in one half of play. C’mon, Eddie.
Is it really worth mliking yet another season from these veterans at the expense of developing players with considerable upside? To what end? Yet another underachieving team incapable of getting past the first round of the playoffs?

By definition, if the Chiefs choose Croyle over Huard, Webb over Kennison, Pollard over Wesley, that’s largely rebuilding. They are trusting young guys with virtually no NFL experience over dependable, contributing veterans. Folks, that’s a good thing. Wouldn’t you rather build this team to be great than try to milk out a few garbage wins (and yes, at this point in my life, I think any win that does not contribute to a Super Bowl berth is a garbage win)?

Here’s what I do know: the Chiefs will have about ten draft picks in 2008. They’ll have a ridiculous amount of cap space next season to plug holes in and maybe land one or two pro bowl calibre players. The team could be absolutely positively loaded in 2008. With that kind of potential, I don’t want to spend 2008 watching Webb run inefficient routes or watching Croyle make “rookie” mistakes. Rebuilding is technically the equivalent of “getting a lot younger.” I can live with that. I think, if the Chiefs choose this approach, many fans will not… but trust me, in two years, they will be happy the Chiefs did.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2007 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.