It is becoming more and more difficult for me to not be a "Yes Man"

Oh, wait!

When you’re comparing everything to garbage…

But yes, it’s tough to argue he results.

I should’ve added that before this season started, I said I’d be happy with Cassel if he improved by roughly 10%. You know, a couple more TDs, a couple fewer picks, a few % points up in the completions department.

He’s done that and way more.

That VInce Young thing is messed up. I personally believe that the guy may be a few fries short of a happy meal.

Are the D line and the Safeties.

If we can shore those up over the next few weeks, we can compete in the playoffs.

If not, we’ll be working on our draft board while the playoffs are going on.

I think they are both helping each other out right now.

It’s an old cliche that a QB and WR need to “grow together” and “get comfortable”, but maybe it’s true.

I’m dying to see Dex get back. With Cassel looking better by the week and Bowe becoming a “you HAVE to double-team me” kind of guy, Dex could be that little extra (pun intended) that sends us from decent offense to dangerous offense.

Moeaki seems to have the tools to be special.

And yes, Cassel has gotten better. Bowe had the one drop, but I believe a defender got his hands in there too.

That must have been fun watching that with a Seahawks fan!

He’s a bum!

Honestly, he seems like a very talented OC (look at DEN’s passing attack), but a terrible head coach and human being.

The stuff coming out about him right now makes it tough not to think about how Denver seemed in our heads that Sunday… and how ticked off Haley was.

I mean, are we supposed to believe this was the first time they’d done this all year? Against the Niners?

But it still seemed like we’d dominated the game. Just, like you said, a few ridiculous gaffes.

And you have to give a lot of credit to SEA’s ST group. They keep those guys in games.

WHat you saw was over confidence affecting play. Once we got up 21-7, a few of those players started doing a little coasting. Kendrick Lewis also made a very bad rookie mistake on the long TD pass. It was a perfect game for these guys to have to drive home the point that in the NFL you can’t let up. You have to keep your foot on the gas for the entire game. They are learning, but unless they all take heed their season will end before they want it to.

Back when Pioli picked Haley, I went out on the net and did some digging to find out a little more info on him. I don’t remember exactly where I read it, but some info that stuck with me was Todd stated he remembered watching scouting tapes with his dad when he was 7 years old.

I think being a player could help, could hurt, depending upon what lessons you choose to apply. The fact that Todd Haley grew up in an environment where he was watching and learning how to evaluate players for the pro game from such a young age has got to be huge.

Clark Hunt is to be commended on picking solid people, and letting them do what they do.

And I know that every Cassel doubter (myself included) was desperately hoping he’d improve. It’s nice to see good things happen, rather than bad.

Crow tastes pretty good at 7-4, doesn’t it? :)

I noticed him being pretty heated on the headphones as well.

I don’t worry too much about Crennel. He seems much more professional than Weis, and a lot less emotional.

But yes, when someone’s doing as good a job as RC is, we want him happy.

thank you I just think Cassel handles things the right way, and that’s overlooked. Nobody will be too surprised if he’s a top 12 QB in the future. He has the abilities, work ethic, put a solid team around him and he won’t hold them back.
by Bajah07 on Dec 31, 2009 7:08 PM PST up reply actions

Good to look back and see where we are now.

Up to the top, from Steve. Thanks.

Man, lotsa newbies around here lately (which is cool by me). Time for an old guard like you to do a good ol’ fashioned “welcome to AP, now let me show you what the sarcasm font is” type post.

When it was still relatively close.

and bashing Cassel all season long. While I would still like to have another WR opposite Bowe (I’m currently working on my Larry Fitzgerald Chiefs jersey), I’ve gotta say Bowe has stepped up and been THE go to guy. He and Cassel are connecting like Joe Mo and Jerry Rice, it is a B-E-A-utiful thing to watch.

Bowe is not Jerry Rice, and Cassel is not Joe Montana. But for once we have a passing attack that looks darn good, backed by the leagues best rushing attack, and lately I’m finding it hard to scream and yell at Bowe or Cassel anymore. Give credit where credit is due.

Last year I took a ton of crap for believing Haleys approach to discipline was the right way. Some folks would compare his philosophy to their own working environments. My point was always that you can’t compare football world to our world. I’ve never had a coach treat me like a human and I was always better for it and from the looks of things, so are the Chiefs players and coaches. Also, you’re right about needing another poll choice but I don’t think that’s really what this post was about.

I was hoping Haley would handoff his OC duties to someone else this season. While I felt I understood why he did those things last year, my guess is we could have won 3 more of those close games in 2009 if we’d just have tried to win with what we had — BUT, it wasn’t his way, and I’m good with that. Better to blow everything up and install your way from the get-go, and that took cahonies larger than we can fathom in this win at all costs league. I think it also shows there is understanding all the way upto Clark Hunt we had to literally start from scratch on everything about how we did things.

Knowing what we know now (that Haley had contacted Crennel last year, but it was too early after Romeo’s hip replacement surgery for him to return to coaching), its easy to see why we changed over to the 3-4 last year. Better to blow it up then and have a decent idea of which players can adapt, and which cannot. That way you hit the ground running for 2010 knowing what your needs are.

Bill Maas stated awhile back on sports radio that Weis has developed not good, but VERY GOOD offenses and QB’s everywhere he’s been. I’ll be the first to admit I scratched my head at some of the playcalling, but then again, Weis is very respected around the league for his ability, and I’m just a fan; huge difference in expertise there. In addition I understand offenses take longer to gel than defenses. Finally, its never a dumb call when it succeeds, only when it doesn’t work. When you’re trying to build confidence for the long term, I imagine you may do it a bit differently than if it were 4th and 1 from 6 with .06 left in the Superbowl.

Crennel? Well, he’s just been awesome in this fan’s book. Both Romeo and Charlie have been around long enough to have seen every type of every alignment. They also have a history of results that our young team doesn’t question.

Speaking of which, back before the season started, I did a fanpost about our coaching experience. During my research, I discovered our staff has 25 WINNING Superbowl rings, from 33 appearances. That experience runs deep — 12 folks share in that total, more from a coaching vs playing perspective.

 One thing I heard Haley talk about early last year, was when they hired coaches, they also realized attrition was a valid concern, especially once you start winning. So, they were already allowing for coaches being siphoned off to bigger and better opportunity by hiring young, inexperienced coaches (like Sirianni) who would mentor with our seasoned staff.

How do you describe year to year dominance? Think about how dominant NE would have ended up had those 8-9 coaches and staff not left to persue their dreams? Almost puts a shiver down one’s spine.

I was wondering if him tossing the ball all over the field in the 2nd half would wake him up a little and maybe give the coaches enough confidence in him to let him loose.

And it’s been night and day. Better footwork, snappy throws, much better accuracy, gunning it in there a few times, buying time with his athleticism… a crazy amount of improvement.

That 36 yard TD toss to Bowe was a thing of beauty. Right on the money.

That is insane.

JComp gives me a hard time for being on the fence. But I’m with you, it’s a good place to be :)

On the upswing, but with some serious holes before we should start buying SB tickets.

Just having some fun. And I’m with you. I’ve got just the TINIEST portion of reservation left about Cassel, but it’s rapidly gone.

One could easily argue that he hasn’t had a bad game since IND. Not saying he’s been great in every game, but it’s been a while since he’s been below average.

Hopefully the improvement just keeps on coming :)

Tank Tyler – Cut from CAR
Jarrad Page – Started 0 games, played in 5, 2 tackles, 1 INT
Bernard Pollard – 85 Tackles, 11 games started so far. But he had a lot of tackles with us and was horrible in coverage. I know he was still a liability in coverage through weeks 4/5 when I was still kind of keeping up with him. No idea how he’s doing since then though. Would suspect he’s still a liability, but that’s just speculation – who knows, maybe he’s improved like Bowe has?

I’ve seen people talking about replacing him, but he seems decent to me. Which, considering he’s in his 2nd year after being an UDRFA, is very impressive.

He’s a guy that, like you said, is steady. And we need that next to DJ.

I’d also say that our D-line’s improved play has made a big difference as well.

I don’t see a bad guy. I see a guy who isn’t all that smart.

I don’t mean to be a jerk, but that’s genuinely the way he comes off. I think he needs a strong figure to look up to, much like a young teen would. If that’s not around, he ends up saying stupid things and losing his focus on the field.

And I think he’s bought in so totally and wants so badly to be the “right kind of guy” that he’ll do whatever it takes.

Like you, the condition thing won me over.

The Chambers thing sure does look like perhaps their biggest miscue thusfar. I can see why they did it though. He looked like a very solid receiver last year.

It’s frustrating. Can you imagine what our offense would look like if he’d kept up that kind of play, with Bowe having such a monster season and our rushing attack being so dangerous, not to mention Cassel’s development and our added talent (Dex, Moeaki)?

Very frustrating.

That like McDaniels anymore?