The Kansas City Chiefs coaching search hasn't received much play in the NFL media world mostly because there isn't a whole lot going on until the end of the season. Romeo Crennel, who certainly appears to be the favorite, has said he will receive an interview for the full-time job after the season so that's when things will really get going.
Since then, we've seen a number of names thrown out -- Jeff Fisher (unlikely), Kirk Ferentz (staying at Iowa), Bill O'Brien (a new one) and Josh McDaniels (under contract in St. Louis). And it's that last one, McDaniels, that's received the most attention.
We've seen a number of reporters bring up the idea of this "succession plan" in Kansas City. Essentially, Crennel gets the full-time job now and, assuming he's fired from St. Louis with the rest of Steve Spagnuolo's staff, McDaniels comes into KC as an offensive coordinator. GM Scott Pioli then has an experienced guy he knows at the head coaching position in Crennel and a young up-and-comer on the staff as a "coach-in-waiting" type of deal.
Don Banks of SI.com has this theory in his must-read look at Black Monday, and I've seen others, like Jason La Canfora just last night, mention it.
I think having a "succession plan" might be over-thinking it a little bit. The Chiefs just need to nail this head coaching hire, whether that's Romeo, or someone else. No need to plan things out multiple years down the line, if you ask me. If Romeo doesn't work out, that'll be two head coaches GM Scott Pioli has hired that didn't work out. At that point, would Clark Hunt automatically give Pioli the right to hire McDaniels, the third head coach in his tenure? I'm not sure that would be the case, at least we don't know that now.
I'm not saying I totally disagree with McDaniels-to-KC -- at least I can see the football reasons it makes sense -- but I don't want to see it sold as this coach-in-waiting type of thing. McDaniels is still too toxic, as Banks notes, and that's a tough sell right now if he were to come to KC.