Often times when examining some of the decisions of Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley we look back at what Bill Parcells has done or would do in similar situations. Haley often refers to him as one of his mentors and we can see a lot of the philosophies Haley talks about with the Chiefs were present in Parcells when he was an NFL head coach.
Haley's making headlines in Kansas City because he likes to go for it on fourth down a lot. He says there are short-term and long-term reasons for the decision to for it more often on fourth but won't get into too many details.
So what would Bill Parcells think about going for it on fourth down?
To figure this out I went back to Bill Parcells' last three coaching jobs and checked out where he ranked on fourth down attempts at the end of the season.
As you can tell in the numbers below, earlier in his career he was a madman about going for it on fourth down. Those numbers during his Patriots years would outnumber Haley's in Kansas City by a wide-margin. Haley was with Parcells in New York and they had a couple of seasons where they ranked highly in fourth down attempts. Parcells didn't seem to go for it as much in Dallas and I'm not quite sure why.
I think these numbers -- particularly in the early goings in New England and New York -- show where Haley got some of his motivation to go for it on fourth down more often.
I think this also shows that these likely aren't off-the-cuff decisions Haley is making. Well, let me be more clear: the idea of him going for it more often on fourth down isn't an off-the-cuff decision. Each individual fourth down is its own decision independent of others but the overall strategy of going for it more often appears to come from Parcells.
2006: 8th (19)
2005: 19th (13)
2004: 11th (17)
2003: 23rd (12)
1999: 2nd (27)
1998: 13th (16)
1997: 7th (21)
1996: 1st (34)
1995: 1st (39)
1994: 1st (35)
1993: 1st (27)