A Patriots Fan Weighs In

It’s obvious that we have several schools-of-thought here at AP on what the Chiefs should do to fill our numerous gaping roster holes and we’ve seen all sorts of creative rationalizations to support those views.  Admittedly, I have mixed emotions about many of them.  One day I’ll feel strongly in favor of a certain argument and then the next day…  not so much.  

We should go with Michael Crabtree because he’s the best player available.  We should take Stafford because he’s the best draft prospect for a franchise QB.  Swing a deal with New England for Matt Cassel because we know what he can do.  The arguments go on and on.  I’m just as confused as anyone when it comes to what the Chiefs will do with any of these decisions, so I went outside of our community for some perspective that I’d like to share with all of you.

I have a guy working for me who grew up in Boston. He moved out here last year and we’ve had some pretty interesting conversations about the Chiefs.  He’s a complete Patriot’s fanatic and he stays up on all things as they relate to “his boys.” He’s a little bitter because we took out “Tommy Boy” in week 1 and then landed Scott Pioli as our GM.  

By no means am I siting him as any kind of an authoritative source, but he’s been living with the Belichick/Pioli regime since day one and he knows what it’s all about.  He has a perspective that might help us all deal with this new and uncomfortable silence emanating from One Arrowhead Drive.

This morning we got into a long, drawn out conversation about free agency and the upcoming draft and I started to tell him about some of the various things that folks here at AP think the Chiefs should do.  I got him interested enough to read through some of our posts to see what he thought.  Of course it should come as no surprise to any of us that he laughed his ass off.  His commentary went something like this; “Dude, you should tell everyone on this board that you have Scott Fucking Pioli. You will not draft a quarterback and you will not draft a wide receiver with the 3rd overall pick.  If there’s even a chance of trading that pick for more picks, you can bank on it.”  He sited the post about the trade scenario with the Eagles to move out of the #3 pick for additional picks as exactly the kind of thing we can expect.  He said that if there is even a small chance, then Pioli will do everything possible to find a way to make this sort of thing happen. 

What amused him the most was how so many of us spend so much effort lobbying for our for our favorite draft pick, free agent or head coaching candidate.  He admitted that we have a great community, but at least a half dozen times he shouted “forget about it!”   as he picked through our meanderings.  He promised that this time next year, none of us would be wasting so much energy on speculation because we’ll understand exactly how futile it is.  He guaranteed that more often than not, Pioli will do something that nobody expects.  His advice to all of us is “Get used to it!” with a parting shot of “Welcome to my world.”

I’m not saying he’s right or wrong, but I see little evidence so far that would cause me to disregard what he’s saying.  One player does not equal another and choosing one because another had similar stats isn’t going to get us any closer to getting inside of Pioli’s head.  I say we take our friend’s advice patiently expect a deliberate evolution toward an overall team concept rather than getting ourselves emotionally hung up on our favorite prospects.  “Pioli,” he says, “will not reach for the stars on any player.   Get used to it.”

I posted most of this in a few places earlier today because I felt it was relevant, so if you’ve already read it, sorry for the redundancy.   Hat’s off to Chiefs_swagger for suggesting that I make a FanPost out of it so more people would see it and weigh in.