I am sure that we have all been reeling, celebrating, kissing babies, or perhaps even weeping about the resignation of Carl Peterson over the last few days. As I finish up my semester work and devote even more time to consuming the endless stream of material that is sports blogging, it occurred to me that Hunt is not covering for Carl; they have had this transition scheme in place for a long time, but the events of this year have pushed him to accelerate the timetable.

Peterson, for the last few years, has claimed that he was not interested in receiving a contract extension. His last major project has been the simultaneous rebuilding of the football team and the stadium. He is getting old, and I believe that even he knew that the Chiefs' business model was not going to work long-term. However, after the passing of Lamar Hunt, they were already into the current project and he needed to see through the commitments that he started.

As the facilities have been largely renovated, the team has taken a pretty severe nose dive. I believe that the original plan was to build a young team seemlessly, while replacing older players and adding a few veterans to fill holes until the entire roster could turn over. After last season's 4-12 record, the plan for seemless transition did not work. Old bodies populated the roster, and a huge chunk of them reached critical mass at the same time. Kennison, Shields, Welbourn, Wiegmann (who is not through, but no longer a dominant player), Law, Holmes, Surtain (to some extent), Wesley, Green, and the DE the name of whom I can longer remember. About 4-5 weeks into the season, Edwards and Peterson both knew that the season was unsustainable, that they would regress as other teams progressed. They dumped people that had some value, but no future with the football team (Green, Sims, and Bennett). They dumped some before the season that had no value and that had replacements (even if not ideal) like Knight and that unmemorable DE (went to the Jets for a bit). And they tried to get value out of anyone that was left on the roster (Parker, Kennison, Law, Welbourn, Wiegmann, Wesley, Huard). They signed some free agent tackles and linebackers to make it through the year or two, and did what they could. By the end of that year, it was clear that the veterans could not keep it together.

This year, it had to change. They blew the whole thing up, signed only free agents that did not come with large contracts (D. Williams, D. Darling, and W. Smith), that could be dumped in the next year or two without much in the way of cap ramifications, and that had some potential to be better. All in all, these did not work out this year, but they can stay as long as we have nobody to replace them. They traded their best player (Jared Allen) in a contract season for three young, new bodies, a reasonable trade for a team that needs numbers of decent prospects. They paid off nearly all the bad debt from previous years, making the 2009 salary cap even better than this year. They held tryouts for unsigned college free agents and claimed any street free agent that had some untapped talent (see: Babin and Boiman). They played rookies at a lot of positions, even ones that were not really ready to take on a starting job, unless the position already had a great player. They kept a few high priced veterans, a most of whom will likely be gone next year with upcoming replacements. Some rookies played well, some did not, and the same could be said of the veterans. The end result: 2-12 with two games left. Some good indications, but a lot of work to do yet.

This brings us to the present: why did Peterson agree to resign at the end of the year, rather than serving out his contract. Answer: look at the landscape. The team is in complete overhaul, and we need to have the next GM in before it is finished. Peterson will not be able to build another shot at a championship next year, and he is out after that. It is going to take a lot more rebuilding next year to make the team competitive, even though Edwards thinks the foundation is laid.I believe that before this season, Edwards was going to be the anchor that held everything together during the GM transition. Now, I think Clark Hunt wants to play both possibilities. Peterson was gone, but Edwards was set.

So, Clark Hunt went to Peterson, presented the facts, and then asked him to step aside this year, rather than next year. I think that had been decided at about the halfway point of this year. Peterson has been a little scarce. However, with the team doing so bad, Hunt wanted to put a little pressure on Edwards' last two games, to see what would happen. I think this had been in discussion a long time, but I am willing to bet the announcement was pushed up two weeks because of the team's second half collapses.

Here are some other interesting details. 1) Stepping up the announcement 2 weeks does little for interviewing candidates. Other than the few guys without jobs (Reese or Casserly), he cannot really get a jump on interviews. 2) I think Clark Hunt does want to do a lot of interviews; I do not get the sense that he has an inside guy to take the job. He may have an idea of who he wants, but I do not think he is committed at this point. 3) He really likes the general direction of the football team, and has said publicly that he can see good promise in some of the team play. 4) He does not like our record (or does anyone), and wants to create severe pressure on immediate improvement next year. I think he believes that judging on this yer is not fair, but stuff better change in a hurry.

Given this background observations/assumptions, here is what I think will happen:

*Hunt will spent a few weeks interviewing people, and by the bye week before the Super Bowl, we will have a new GM. That GM will start around the first of February.

*The football team, finishing its season on December 29th, will be in evaluation mode for over a month before the new GM is online. That means the talent work done before the new GM is in place will push them through free agency and the draft.

*By the time the new GM is in house, all the good coaching candidates will likely be taken, or close to taken. Therefore, I think our coaching staff is stable for next year. In an interview with Petro in 810, Hunt seemed to insinuate as much (so long as the new GM does not find the prospect absolutely revolting).

*The new GM will help in the decisions to retain free agent players, and will make their first major moves in free agency. Expect a few moves, but not a lot.

*The GM will make a major contribution to the Draft, but with the evaluation structure already in place.

*After the draft, if the GM wants to make changes in the college scouting and pro personnel departments, it will happen. The June 1st cuts and later pickups may occur with a new group of scouts and evaluators.

*Herman Edwards and the coaching staff have 2009 to prove their worth to the new GM. If it is not sasifatory, then Herm will not be given an extension, and the rest ofthe staff will likely be purged.

In my take of how this has to go down, 2009 witll be the testing ground. Good 2009 = more Herm. Bad 2009 = new coach. In either case, our last three drafts will be the foundation of the team. If we get a new coach, it will be someone that also can work with the young players we have (and will soon get).

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. What think you?