In a somewhat surprising move, the Kansas City Chiefs released WR Mark Bradley on Tuesday afternoon. I say surprising because Bradley had come off of possibly his best game of the season. However, with the good comes the bad.
Bradley dropped some key passes on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns and was a victim of the Chiefs drop problem this season. As we've pointed out before, the Chiefs are nearing a NFL record for drops in a season.
Head coach Todd Haley said the move wasn't over anything specific but quickly started talking about drops.
"When you drop balls like we did on Sunday," he said, "and throughout the year at times, they cost us victories and an opportunity to feel a little better about ourselves - for the quarterback to feel a little better about what he’s doing, for the offense to feel better about what we’re doing."
After Sunday's game, Bradley told me and a group of reporters that the drops are "contagious" and you just have to fight your way through it.
"In talking to Scott [Pioli] we both said we’ve got to get this right. We’re trying to find the nucleus of guys we’re going to go forward with. Some of them are here and some of them aren’t here right now.
Bradley apparently isn't part of those long-term plans going forward. Haley said they've got to get an idea on some of these going forward sooner rather than later.
"We give guys opportunity to show that they can be a part of it. Sometimes they flourish and sometimes they don’t."
Basically, what I gather from this is that they pretty much knew Bradley wasn't going to be a long-term fixture as a Chiefs receiver and wanted to get some guys in there that could possibly fulfill that role going forward.
Haley also said that the numbers game is just the way it goes sometimes. Bradley wasn't always a starter so coming in cold doesn't work for everyone.
"It’s not an easy situation and it’s not for everyone," Haley said. "There are certain guys that have a mentality that they can do it and others it’s not a great spot for them. It’s an effort to try and find this mix.”