"The first thing we have to do is fix the quarterback, it's like he wasn't being coached", Charlie Weiss upon his hiring as Chiefs OC February 2010.

Let me start by saying I have no illusions that Cassel will morph into Tom Brady what so ever. But I do believe that he has been a victim of not only undo criticism from Chiefs fans but a victim of Todd Haley's incompetence. I have saving this up for some time but have crunched to show just how AWFUL Haley was for Matt Cassel and why that may be good news for the Chiefs and Cassel in 2012.

Below is Matt Cassel's #'s when coached by Charlie Weiss and Josh McDaniel (2008 regular season, 2010 regular season excluding week 17 when Weis's announced his resignation and the wildcard game vs the Ravens)

578-933 (62% completion rate) 6694 yds (7.2 yds per attempt) 48 tds 16 ints qb rating 93.6 pts per game 25.5 win loss record 21-9 against a srength of schedule of .444 (213-267)

Now Matt Cassel with offensive guru Todd Haley (2009 & 2011 regular season, week 17 vs Raiders and vs Ravens wildcard game when it was well known Weiss was leaving):

451-813 (55% completion rate) 4822 yds (5.9 yds per attempt) 26 tds 30 ints qb rating 68.3 pts per game 16.5 win loss record 8-18 against a strength of schedule of only .480 (203-213).

How is it again that the same qb has a passer rating almost 40% higher under coaches from the "Patriots system"? (One that Haley was never part of)Half those games in question were with the Chiefs? How come he can manage 9 pys more per game under Weiss/McDaniel than he did with Haley? Easy schedule? There iss not that big a difference in the overall % between the two. If you take out the 2008 Rams, Chiefs, Seahawks and 2010 Bills your looking at a SOS of 201-215 vs 203-213, nearly identical. But Cassel still wins .650 % of those games, more than double the 30% under Haley. Even better yet Cassel in that same set teams average 26.6 pts per game.

This is probably noticed by Pioli and was a major reason (among many) Haley was fired. Its also a reason why Pioli has stuck by Matt Cassel. He watched Cassel in New England from day one of his career and saw some potential to be if not great, a decent productive qb who paired with a strong supporting cast (including coaches and a good defense) could win ball games. Pioli made a major error in this idea by bringing Haley on board (see above).

Now it’s up to Brian Daboll to "fix the qb". Reports out of camp are that Matt Cassel is doing well. Daboll coached under Weiss and McDaniels for 6 seasons. Lets also not overlook that unlike the Browns where Daboll was working for thre 1st time with Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson (2009), Jake Delhomme, Colt McCoy (2010) and the Dolphins Chad Henne and Matt Moore (2011) for the very first time this is his 3rd training camp with Matt Cassel and his second with Brady Quinn, so there should be a greater degree of familiarity. Not to mention that an old familiar face was at OTA's, Weiss himself.

Matt Cassel probably isn't the qb most Chief fans want, but I wouldn't be surprised if Pioli is making his gamble on the same information above.