What Herm & Chan Are Telling Us

by Direckshun on May 27, 2008 7:36 PM CDT

Herm Edwards and new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey both spoke with the media Tuesday, as the Chiefs came off a four-day weekend to begin their second week of OTAs.

Herm's Q&A is here, and Chan's is here.

What are we beginning to learn about this new Chiefs team through these interviews?

Well besides awesome, information-bursting answers like these...

Q: What is it about Brodie that has you sold?

GAILEY: “He has ability. He works at it and he’s smart. And good.”

...very, very little. Few subjects were candidly discussed other than the basic difference between young guys and old guys in training camp.

So it's our obligation as the Red & Gold Die-Hards to read between these lines. I ask that you help me figure out what exactly Herm and Chan are implying.

Here's a few things I'm picking up on, add on if you can think of anything:

1. Nobody seems to agree what exactly happened to LJ's foot:

EDWARDS: When he got hurt he didn’t even get tackled really. He just twisted his foot.

GAILEY: We’re not pushing too much, too fast. Those toes are dangerous things so you have to be smart about that. We’re going to go slow with it. But he’s been great so far.

Q: What were your concerns with a guy coming off of a broken foot?

So we have a broken foot that's been twisted with a toe thing somewhere.

2. We should not expect this to be the Steelers' circus offense from the Gailey years.

Chan and Herm clearly believe the answer to fixing this offense lies not through the trickery that was a hallmark of Gailey's Steeler offense that won a Super Bowl, but through simply acquiring better players. Gailey used the word "magic" about forty-three times to underline the point that there's no wand to wave here... you just hope Croyle's the guy and surround him with the right pieces.

Even as Gailey tries to deny this offense a label, he and Herm both agree this is a smashmouth offense. They also seem to be indicating things will remain simple for the youngins. Be nervous if you were highly critical of Solari's two-page playbook. This offense will not be fixed overnight. It's probably not even going to be fixed in 2008. It will take some time -- much like it took Herm time to retool this defense.

3. This year's OTAs are incredibly boring so far.

We have a bunch of young guys in there, including 13 draft picks. That's going to make for one of the most captivating preseasons we've had in an incredibly long time, but it's apparently making for some horrendously dull OTAs.

First off, the Chiefs are running very basic drills, very basic offensive and defensive sets right now to teach the young guys the ABCs. Secondly, we have an entirely new OC this year, so the offense is spending the entire OTA period just picking up the different pieces of his playbook.

That's all I got for now. What're you guys sensing from these interviews?

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I am not so much worried about what is being said,

but, as you wrote, this pre-season will be the most intently scrutinized in my life. With a majority of our team being new, I will be over-analyzing these trial games. These pre-season games will have nearly the same importance as a regular season game, since they will actually determine the players in a regular season game.

And I will use a lot of hyphens.

by DThomasReigns on May 27, 2008 9:20 PM CDT 0 recs

Gailey's Offense isn't predictable

Direckshun, don’t make the mistake of confusing a run-heavy offense with a predictable one. Remember, Vermeil ran the ball as often if not more-so than Solari did. Also, don’t mistake trickery with deceptive playcalling. As long as you do a good job of mixing up your pass/runs, your blocking schemes, and the direction you target, you can definitely deceive defenses. It just so happens that Solari was predictable on 2 of those 3 dimensions: defenses knew exactly when we were going to run the ball and in which direction.

I’ve seen enough from Gailey’s offseason moves to believe he has some wrinkles up his sleeve. His stockpiling of fullbacks and tight ends indicates to me that he wants to keep extra blockers there, probably to assist with pass protection. More importantly, those are guys who are not liabilities in the passing game while serving as tremendous assets in the run game. Previously, when we put Jason Dunn in the lineup, you knew we were going to run the ball. Now, with Cottam, you don’t know if the Chiefs will run or pass. But when they run the ball… you now have a tight end, not a WR, doing the blocking for you.

So don’t be too concerned. I agree the playcalling might be slightly more conservative to begin the season, only to ease the transition into youth. But Gailey’s offense is certainly going to be 100 times more unpredictable than Solari’s, and that alone should boost our offensive ranking about 10 spots… at least.

by chiefzilla1501 on May 27, 2008 9:41 PM CDT 0 recs

I hope you’re right.

Ten spots in one season is a success, period.

by Direckshun on May 27, 2008 11:33 PM CDT up 0 recs

LJs injury

KC Star in a recent article had this bit:

All Johnson could do was watch while he rested and iced an injured foot that, for weeks, had no diagnosis. Johnson said he traveled to North Carolina to be examined by a specialist, who found that a toe bone in Johnson’s right foot was cracked. Even when it felt better and Johnson could walk on the foot without pain, running was a different challenge.
That’s what he learned Dec. 19, when he tried to return to practice. He could walk. He could even run — for two or three yards, before his foot started throbbing again. He had told teammates he would return before the end of the season. But on that Wednesday, six weeks after he hurt the foot in a loss against the Green Bay Packers, Johnson was helped to the locker room, and his season was finished.

by ChiefDJ on May 27, 2008 10:54 PM CDT 0 recs

I like Gailey's Style

You win in this league with a power running game, which sets up play action and opens up the passing game. And more importantly you have to have a pressure defense with a solid secondary. A kicker would be the icing on the cake. Offense has won one championship in the history of the NFL and that was the 99 Rams who won by a yard. I believe we are forming the perfect scheme in order to win especially in January.

by chiefsfan1384 on May 27, 2008 11:24 PM CDT 0 recs

My biggest gripe

I really like Herm as a coach. My biggest complaint about him was echoed by Gailey in the interview:

Gailey: We’re trying to score one more point than other guys each week.

What a horrible philosophy, imho. In this statistical/analytical world of sports, I know that it’s a mathematically correct statement. But the psychology is awful. If one-point wins were a simple, one-time statement—fine. But Herms keeps repeating it. And his staff. It becomes a mantra.

I believe we should attempt to win by at least 20 points each week. I realize 19 of those would be “wasted” because we only need to win by one. But when winning games by a field goal (a corollary of this philosophy) becomes the objective, a team ends up playing down to poorer teams and becoming desparate when falling behind better teams in the league.

The offense needs to score as many points as possible. The defense needs to shoot for a shut-out. I’m not asking the offense to simply throw three bombs every possession and try to score on every play. And there are a handful of times when deep in your territory that scoring becomes secondary. But the offense should have a scoring mentality on virtually every drive. Because without that mentality, then the next thing you know it becomes okay not to get a first down.

Gailey hit a hot button of mine when he said “score one more point” than the opponent. Dominance is the goal. Colts and Patriots mindsets. Yes, after the fact I’ll be happy with one-point victories, but I don’t want to hear it in the phrase, “What we’re trying to do…” And I believe it is a very big deal, not just a throw-away phrase. Thanks.

by sunny D on May 28, 2008 1:24 AM CDT up 0 recs

I think people misunderstand that statment

There have been teams in the past that would rack up 30 points a game part of the time, but when faced with a tough defense they couldn’t win the close games. The Chiefs were that team for a few years.

Herms philosophy is all about playing dominant defense and eating time off the clock. Of course Herm would love to score 30 points a game, whatever it takes to win. But you aren’t going to beat the likes of New England or Indianapolis by just having a so-so defense and its pretty sure you’re not going to outscore them (just look at the 2003 playoff game vs. Indianapolis for proof). The tried and true method for beating high scoring teams is to play the best defense possible and take time off the clock while you’re on offense.

All that matters is winning by one point. Would you love for your offense to score every time they have the ball? Of course, who wouldn’t? But its not required. If your defense can keep the opposing team to less than 10 points, do whatever it takes to score 11 and get off the field before something bad happens (aka Miracle at the Meadowlands)

by ChiefDJ on May 28, 2008 6:41 AM CDT up 0 recs

Importance of defense

You raise a good point regading the importance of defense. Remembering what Herm started with, I can somewhat understand the reason for taking the “win by one,” “win by a field goal,” “punting is not always a bad thing,” philosophy. After the virtually puntless Colts playoff game, I think the team and fans are thinking, “We know we can score 20-30 points. We just need a few more defensive stops.”

I understand the need and desire to focus on defense. A dominant defense. Hence the pen name “sunny D”—D as in defense. :) Better days for the defense. So coming in, Herm needs to establish a new mindset. One in which we routinely hold teams to 7-14 points per game. And I don’t mind winning a game 9-6.

But setting a goal to keep the offense on the field longer because you don’t want to score too fast is a dangerous, slippery slope. Isn’t one of the main principles of Herm’s cover 2 defense to bend and not break? Keep things in front of you and play the odds that a drive will eventually fail from lack of a first down? So then why would a team adopt an offensive philosophy that says, “Let’s take it slow and not score an arena league 30 points a game?”

Let’s just say we want a dominant, over-powering defense and an effective, productive, multi-weapon offense. I want to go into Sunday with the offensive expecting and planning to score 30 while the defense expects to hold the opponent to 10 or under. A win-by-one approach starts to seep into offensive game planning where the GOAL becomes to score 14 points and hope the defensive philosophy pans out “because defense wins games.”

Herm has successfully broken the high octane offense mindset in favor of the importance of defense. That’s good. To a point. Somehow the defensive-minded head coach also needs to develop a new search for excellence on the offensive side, as well as special teams. And it worries me greatly when the next best hope - the offensive coordinator - adopts a win-by-one mentality.

by sunny D on May 28, 2008 10:36 AM CDT up 0 recs

Wow

Good points, both of you.

I have to say that I laughed out loud when I read Gailey’s Q & A. I thought it was a Herm interview! I have to grin every time I read one. Herm plays things so close to the vest. He never reveals any juicy information and Gailey sounds exactly like him.

I think that’s actually a very smart thing. Yes, it frustrates us fans because we’re left in the dark, and you know it drives the media absolutely batty (which is why it’s so funny). But I’d much rather have a coach like that than one that just blabs about everything the team is doing. You know every other team is watching every other team’s moves. Why give our opponents any extra intel on us?

As far as the “one point” comment, I actually agree with both of you. It really annoyed me too when I first read it, but I’ve started to see it a little differently.

1. Yes, I think it’s very important to have the “always score” attitude. That’s what the 2003 Chiefs had. They knew they pretty much had to score on every possesion because the defense was so shitty and they delivered. I wish Gailey had a more aggressive outlook but…

2. I don’t really think that’s what he was getting at. I think he was stressing that the offense isn’t going to be flashy or particularly high scoring. I think he was trying to get the point across that the players are young, and that his offense is based more on skill and doing your job right, than by trickery or some crazy play calling. I think he wasn’t really using the term literally. Every offense wants to do it’s part for the team and give the defense some breathing room if possible.

Besides, I think last year was a real learning experience for Herm. He saw first hand that if the offense doesn’t play aggresively enough, they’ll fail and that you can’t rely on defense to do all the work. I think that he actually said in an interview shortly after the season ended (I’d have to do too much digging to find it and I’m feeling lazy) that he wanted the offense to be able to move the ball down field and score a significant amount of points.

I think he realizes that there’s a good middle ground for helping your defense win the game. You don’t want to score too fast (as crazy as that sounds) on every possesion because the defense needs a little rest. But you can’t play so conservatively that you don’t score any points (or take any time off the clock) at all.

I think Herm and Chan know what they’re doing and we’ll see a much more balanced team this year. Besides – you know how Herm is about throwing curve balls to the media. Maybe they’re actually planning on going all-out on offense and are just putting up a smoke screen with these statements (yeah right…).

TOUCHDOWN! KAN-SAH-CITY!!!

by TheScootness on May 29, 2008 5:26 PM CDT up 0 recs

Enjoy your comments, The

Especially the question about why THE SCOOTNESS would want to speak in third person caps. I didn’t take it to mean that PARADE should stop, just that you wondered why… PARADE’s a good analyst, too. But back to this thread…

1. Herm and Chan know 100 times more about football than me.
2. The offense didn’t score points last year mostly because the O line needed help.
3. I understand that throwing two incompletes and running out of bounds during a three and out is mentally discouraging and physicially exhausting for your team’s defense when less than 60 seconds go off the game clock on an offensive possession.

But, here’s the thing. Isn’t the approach that wants to score points generally the same one that will keep an offense on the field longer? I don’t believe a team can “slow down” on offense and not expect a drop in points. And the goal is to score more points than the opponent to win the game! Look how it rubs off on how people think and talk:

I think he was stressing that the offense isn’t going to be flashy or particularly high scoring.

Okay. I get the “not flashy” part. I understand the challenge that says, “I want an offense that can make a first down even when everyone in the stadium knows we’re going to run it off right tackle on this play.” Toughness. Beat people man on man. (As long as that philosophy doesn’t actually rub off into the play calling and macho Gailey decides to do exactly that to prove his point.) But I also hear Gailey talking about balance and keeping the opponent off balance. That’s a great sign to me.

But back to the other part of your statement… I WANT an offensive coordinator to create a high-scoring offense. That’s what offenses are supposed to do! Score!

The best way for a defense to get plenty of rest is to hold the opponent to a three and out and get off the field! The other way is for the offense to get a two-touchdown lead in order to take away some of the opponent’s offensive options! THAT makes the defense’s job easier, too.

It’s hard to score points in the NFL. It’s even harder if you’re only half-trying to score points while being asked to just play keep-away for as long as possible.

by sunny D on May 29, 2008 10:03 PM CDT up 0 recs

Good point

I’m really hoping for a high-scoring offense too. You would think that would be the biggest thing that they could do to help the defense.

I took Gailey’s comments almost as a warning: don’t expect too much just yet. With all the existing players learning a new offense and all the rookies adjusting to the NFL, it will definitely take time to click.

I imagine as everyone gets more comfortable with the schemes (later in the season, or into the next) the playcalling can start to become more aggressive.

TOUCHDOWN! KAN-SAH-CITY!!!

by TheScootness on May 30, 2008 12:13 PM CDT up 0 recs