Top 10 Kansas City Chiefs Stories Of The Year: The Weis-Crennel Additions

by Chris Thorman on Feb 3, 2011 9:29 AM CST in 2010 Kansas City Chiefs Season

As we continue on with our top Kansas City Chiefs stories of 2010, we come to No. 5: the additions of Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel to the coaching staff.

Just over 17 months ago, the Chiefs coaching staff consisted of Chan Gailey and Clancy Pendergast at the coordinator positions. Pendergast had led a weak Arizona Cardinals defense for the last four years. Todd Haley relieved Gailey of his duties right before the 2009 season and called the offensive plays himself. The result? The Chiefs ranked 25th on offense and 30th on defense in 2009.

Fast forward to January 2010. On January 6th, Charlie Weis was hired. One week later, Romeo Crennel was the Chiefs new defensive coordinator.

The results of these hires were dramatic. The Chiefs' offensive finished 2010 ranked 12th in the NFL. The Chiefs' defense ranked 14th. Matt Cassel threw 11 more touchdowns and 9 fewer picks this past season. Scoring overall for the team was up 25% over 2009. Teams scored about 25% fewer points on the Chiefs' defense this year too.

And as well know, the most important stat is that the Chiefs won six more games in 2010 than they did in 2009.

The improvements in the Chiefs' offense and defense, and the increase in number of wins makes the additions of Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel our No. 5 story of the year.

Previous stories of the year

10. Monday Night Football

9. Tamba Hali

8. Derrick Johnson

7. Charlie Weis' exit

6. Dwayne Bowe

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i wished it lasted for atleast 2-3 yrs

by njchiefs on Feb 3, 2011 10:01 AM CST via mobile reply actions

I'm surprised by the 25% improvement on offense

I realized the offense was playing better than they had in 2009, but had been disappointed in Weis’s ability to innovate. I felt there were more ways he could have used some of our players on offense, especially Charles and DMC. After seeing the actual numbers for improvement, I may tone down my rhetoric but still feel Weis could have been more creative.

by Chiefs4Life on Feb 3, 2011 10:20 AM CST reply actions

Another year and you would have probably seen

the creativity you were looking for. IMO – Part of Weis’ fixing the QB was to bring Matt along very slowly and limit what he was doing. Especially at the start of the season. DMC was also out for several games and I don’t think he was ever 100% after his injury.

by grid_iron on Feb 3, 2011 10:30 AM CST up reply actions

Those are good points

and things I’ve considered. I’m not going to go so far as to say Weis has lost his touh or that he isn’t very good at what he does, but I just wanted to something different. It may just be that my expectations for the offensive brain-child of a Haley and Weis duo were unrealistically high to start with.

by Chiefs4Life on Feb 3, 2011 11:51 AM CST up reply actions