Home of the Chiefs

What if Herm Edwards left?

By Ryan Brown | December 13th, 2007

Yesterday, Bobby Petrino kicked the Atlanta Falcons right in the junk, putting a fitting end to what has to be one of the worst years a professional franchise has ever seen. Short of Warrick Dunn burning down the Georgia Dome, and then running over owner Arthur Blank’s dog, not much else can go wrong for the Falcons.

I’m not going to go into the obligatory “coach’s should honor their contract” rant that a lot of talking heads and writers are doing. Instead, think about this - what would you think if Herm Edwards suddenly left the Chiefs to join the college coaching ranks and man the sidelines at Michigan? Wouldn’t that pretty much put the capper on a stinker of a year by the Chiefs? Let’s compare:

The Falcons lost Michael Vick, the face of their franchise and premier player on their team, for his dog-fighting escapades. The Chiefs lost running back Larry Johnson, who surprised no one by failing to show up this year after getting the big money, long-term contract he desired. In fact, I would be more shocked if LJ was ready to play next year - he doesn’t seem too concerned with rehabbing his foot.

The Falcons played below expectations, and are in the running for a top-5 draft pick. Same goes for the Chiefs - and it’s especially disheartening, because for the first time in a decade, the AFC West is extremely weak (though the Chargers are finally showing signs of life).

The Falcons are fighting amongst themselves on and off the field, and as showcased on Monday night, have idiots on their team who are more concerned with making “Free Mike Vick” t-shirts than winning games. Benny Sapp was ready to fight the entire team during one point in the season (and frankly, I think Donnie Edwards would’ve killed him), and Damon Huard and LJ won’t be sending Mike Solari any Christmas cards this year. Players have been publicly calling out coaches and their playcalling all year for both teams - something you don’t hear much from New England or Green Bay.

So since both teams have striking parallels - except for our starting quarterback going to jail for two years, but don’t be surprised if Brodie gets thrown in the slammer for running moonshine back to Alabama - would it be too surprising if Herm Edwards finally decided “Ah, to hell with this!” and moved to another job? He has a history of baling out on teams (ask Jets’s fans what they think of our coach) - just like Petrino. If Herm left, wouldn’t that make this year one of the worst in franchise history?

Granted, Herm seems to have more of a track record of staying put, and viewing his progress through rose-colored glasses, it is evident that he has a plan for this team. His “get over it” press conference was a much-needed wakeup call for the fans of the Chiefs (more on this in a future post), and it shows me that he’s aware that this team is going to struggle, and struggle mightily, for the next couple of seasons. I don’t think he’s going anywhere, and honestly, I think it would be devastating if he did.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 10:59 am and is filed under herm edwards. 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.

5 Responses to “What if Herm Edwards left?”

Adrockcafe says:

December 13th, 2007 at 9:59 pm

I am incapable of reading the words “…kicked right in the junk…” without laughing, and may lightning strike me down if that ever changes.

I love Herm’s defense. I love Herm’s ability to “coach up” defensive players. I love Herm’s ability to evaluate and choose defensive players.

I hate Herm’s philosophy on offense. As another MVN poster named after a particularly annoying Hanson song would say, it’s a “quagmire” style of playing football.

Any coach that thinks it’s a good idea to only try to win games during half of the allotted minutes that represent a regulation NFL game (only when his defense is on the field) is putting himself behind the 8-ball from the start.

If I were Carl Peterson (often referred to as “King Carl”, but I find “Count Chocula” much, much more hilarious), I would keep paying Herm head coach money, name him Associate Head Coach, (as Al Saunders is in Washington), keep him in charge of defense, and bring in another head coach and offensive coord….aw screw it, I’ll just come out and say it, I’d bring in Schottenheimer.

It’s an uphill battle to argue against the facts that make Marty a SUPERB choice, which are well documented in my prior posts.

The only things I’ve heard from people that “poo-poo” Marty are things like “he didn’t draft LT” or “he didn’t beat New England in the playoffs”. Last time I checked, Mike Ditka didn’t draft Walter Payton, Phil Jackson didn’t draft Jordan, and Mike Holmgren didn’t draft Brett Favre…and does ANYONE beat New England in the playoffs?

I’m sorry but thats telling Aron Ralston “…yeah you cut off your own arm, but you had to or else you would have died…besides, you wouldn’t have done it if that boulder hadn’t fallen on you…”

Forgive me if those arguments against Marty ring a little hollow.

In short, I don’t want Herm to leave - I want him to continue coaching the Chiefs defense. If he does leave it would be an unfortunate loss for the Chiefs defense, but I would try to cheer myself up as best I could…maybe jam out to some MmmBOP by Hanson…

…maybe not…
JBOPP says:

December 14th, 2007 at 12:53 am

Wow that’s a really well thought-out and convincing rebuttal.
Arrowhead Addict | A Kansas City Chiefs Blog, No 12 Step Program Required says:

December 14th, 2007 at 1:33 pm

[…] Home of the Chiefs‘ Ryan Brown ask an interesting question:”What if Herm Edwards left?” Very interesting piece, but this upcoming caption is very troubling, because if you “struggle mightily” for numerous seasons in this age of parity, then you really, really aren’t doing things right. His “get over it” press conference was a much-needed wakeup call for the fans of the Chiefs (more on this in a future post), and it shows me that he’s aware that this team is going to struggle, and struggle mightily, for the next couple of seasons. […]
mooney says:

December 17th, 2007 at 1:03 pm

If Herm Edwards left the sun would come out and maybe we could get a real NFL Head Coach!!
reg522 says:

December 20th, 2007 at 12:47 am

I dont think you will ever see a good offense like you did when Al Sunders was the coordinator Mike Solari should be moved back to the offensive line Cam Cameron is about to loose his job at Miami get him as the coordinator. But what I say and what they do is too different things.

THE AUTHOR

Ryan Brown

Info | Friends

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Nov				Jan »
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31

MVN - Most Valuable Network

NFL Headlines