The Kansas City Chiefs are looking for a new head coach and at some point in the near future they'll start the interview process. When it comes to these interviews, it's a two-way street -- the Chiefs have to be comfortable with their coaching candidate and the coaching candidate has to be comfortable with the Chiefs.
So when looking at the Chiefs, what will the coaching candidate see? I've jotted down a few random thoughts on the Chiefs job and how attractive it might be. (Related story: Kent Babb of the KC Star talks about the attractiveness of the Chiefs job.) Drop in some of your comments on why the Chiefs job is an attractive or unattractive one.
Chiefs have cap space. The GM ultimately makes the call on which players are brought in via free agency, the draft or trade but the Chiefs cap situation does make the job more attractive for a head coach. The money is there, if the Chiefs need/use it, to acquire more talent.
Lots of young pieces are in place. This isn't the Chiefs team that Todd Haley took over in 2009. The Chiefs have several young players that have developed to the point where they're a known quantity (Derrick Johnson, Tamba Hali, Jamaal Charles, etc). Those players were unknowns when Haley took the job but now we know they're legit. The Chiefs have plenty of pieces offensively and defensively. From that regard, it should be an attractive job because the cupboard isn't bare in KC like it is with many new jobs.
One big piece may not be in place. Yes, the Matt Cassel question. 610 Sports' Nick Wright has been reporting that people around the league believe Scott Pioli will stick with Cassel moving forward. If that turns out to be accurate, the new head coach will have to inherit the quarterback. Is this a good thing? A bad thing? I'm not totally sure how Cassel is viewed around the league because his career has been up and down through four seasons -- good, bad, good and bad.
Good fan base. The Chiefs have a terrific fan base (when they're winning, at least) and I imagine the aura of Arrowhead is appealing to other head coaches. The home field advantage that Chiefs fans can create is a competitive advantage so that's something coaches care about.
Stable ownership. The history is there with the Chiefs franchise and the Hunt family has owned the team since its inception. The ownership is stable in the NFL's eyes and that's important to a lot of folks.
Working with Scott Pioli. The Chiefs officially say Pioli and Haley had a good working relationship and that wasn't necessarily part of the reason for his dismissal. The NFL rumor mill says they had trouble getting along. Those in league circles probably won't have much of an issue figuring out the real story, and whether Pioli is easy to work with or not. But the ability to work with the GM is obviously one of the standard questions any coach has to ask themselves before taking a job.