FanPost

Checking In On The Progress of Reid/Dorsey Part 1: The Back Story Part 1

After an abysmal 2-14 season, Clark Hunt made a change. Rather than hire a General Manager first, Hunt went out and got the best Head Coach on the market. Much like the Chiefs, the Eagles were ready to move on. Andy Reid had brought them much success over the 13 years he was a HC there. Reid could also relate on a personal level with the Chiefs locker room since he lost his son to a drug overdose during the Eagles 2012 season. He could have sat out a season much like current Tampa Bay HC Lovie Smith did after getting fired in Chicago. No one would have blamed him either. He got back on the saddle and Clark Hunt did everything in his power to get Andy Reid in Kansas City.

After that, Scott Pioli was fired as GM and the search for a new one would take place. Right away the Chiefs were linked to John Dorsey but could not make any real headway since the Packers were still in the playoffs. After the Packers were eliminated, talks really started heating up and John Dorsey would be hired.

First thing was to get a new QB because that was one of the biggest weaknesses on the roster at the time. After Collin Kaepernik lead the 49er's to the Super Bowl after thrashing the Packers, Alex Smith was up for trade. Dorsey and Reid scouted all the potential QB's that would be entering the draft and probably felt like that none of the QB's would be allow them to win now. The Chiefs promptly traded a 2013 2nd Round Pick and a conditional 3rd round pick that would turn to a 2nd if the Chiefs would more then 8 games. Looking back, I personally think that it was the best move at the time. The Chiefs needed a QB and Alex Smith had done well under Jim Harbaugh for a year and a half. Unless EJ Manuel and Geno Smith turn into Jim Kelly and Joe Namath, going to be hard to convince me that those two would have been a better option at QB. Would have loved to have tried and got Nick Foles but Chip wasn't letting him go.

During the time between Free Agency and the draft, the Chiefs fleshed out their coaching staff that included former Jets LB Coach/Assistant HC Bob Sutton and former Bears ST Dave Toub. Andy Reid also hired former Eagles QB Coach and his former QB Doug Pederson as his OC.

The Chiefs in Free Agency had some room to play with and was able to re-sign WR Dwayne Bowe and Punter Dustin Colquitt. Using the Franchise Tag on Branden Albert. They also acquired QB Chase Daniel, CB Sean Smith, TE Anthony Fasano among others.

In the draft, the Chiefs used their 1st overall pick on OT Eric Fisher. The top end of the draft was horrible and probably the worst since 2009. The draft for the Chiefs included back up RB/KR Knile Davis, TE Travis Kelce and DE Mike Catapano along with the aforementioned Eric Fisher.

The Chiefs later traded Javier Arenas to the Cardinals for FB Anthony Sherman. This trade was criticized by many since the Chiefs had drafted a FB and Arenas was their NB. Of course Arenas wasn't happy that he would not be an outside CB like he was used during the 2012 season.

Fast forwarding into the regular season, the Chiefs would go on a 9 game winning streak to start the season. Winning was back in KC and the fans were happy. The Chiefs biggest test would be on SNF when they would face off against the Denver Broncos. Peyton Manning had been a thorn in the Chiefs side and the Broncos would defeat the Chiefs. A defensive collapse hamstrung the Chiefs season that was in part due to Pro Bowl LB's Justin Houston and Tamba Hali going down with injuries during a home game against the Chargers. The Chiefs would only win 2 of their last 7 games (Redskins and Raiders) but still made the playoffs having locked in the #5 seed in Week 16. Andy Reid would rest the majority of the starters against the Week 17 game against the Chargers.

The Chiefs depth gave the Chargers starters everything they could handle. The Chargers would win in OT but not without some controversy. You see during the final seconds of the game, Chiefs Kicker Ryan Succop lined up to try a game winning FG. He did miss but the Chargers were lined up illegally (overloading one side of the line) and should have been a re-kick. During OT, the Chargers would attempt a fake punt, fumbled and the Chiefs ran it in for a TD. The play was reviewed and was ruled that the Chargers player's forward progress was stopped despite the fact that the player was still moving when he fumbled.

The Chiefs would play the Colts in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. The Chiefs lost due to a defensive collapse and some bad luck (no pun intended). I could go into details but I have tried to erase that game from my memory.

Why did I go into this great detail on stuff that most already know? I think it is good to know where this Chiefs team came from. Yes, I am well aware that I have another season to cover. I only intended this to be a numbers article but it quickly morphed into a 3 part series.

Next time, we go into the 2014 season that would test the Chiefs physically and mentally.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.