The Kansas City Chiefs released RB Larry Johnson on Monday. In 75 games (55 starts) with Kansas City, Johnson rushed 1,375 times for 5,996 yards (4.4 avg.) with 55 touchdowns. He also registered 151 receptions for 1,369 yards (9.1 avg.) with six TDs. He concluded his Chiefs career with 30 100-yard rushing games and also added two 100-yard receiving games.

Johnson established an NFL single-season record with 416 rushing attempts in 2006 when he set a franchise single-season mark with 1,789 rushing yards. He originally entered the league as the Chiefs first-round selection (27th overall) in the 2003 NFL Draft out of Penn State.

via Kansas City Chiefs – Chiefs Release RB Larry Johnson.

My longtime readers know that I like to title my articles after songs. Sometimes I pick good ones. Sometimes I elect to be ironic and pick bad ones. Once upon a time I even picked a Jimmy Buffet song. I’ll do my best not to commit any more offenses of that heinous a nature.

This time around my taste is immaculate. Getting In Tune is track one, side two of The Who’s 1971 album, Who’s Next, a collection of songs mostly intended for a rock opera that never materialized. The Chiefs no doubt understand a thing or two about plans that fail to materialize. Plans, for instance, like scoring on the ground. Just as last year’s team set a league record for fewest sacks in a season (10), this year’s team stands a very real chance of setting another record: fewest rushing touchdowns. The modern era record of 2 is shared by three units: the 1972 Eagles, 1995 Jets, and 2005 Cardinals. Combined, those squads posted a record of 10-36. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not a tough record to beat.

Priest Holmes holds Kansas City’s franchise record for career rushing yards. His number is 6,070. That’s good for fifth lowest in the league, ahead of only Tampa Bay, New England, Carolina, and Houston. The number itself isn’t that special. What is special is how he did it and how quickly he did it–63 starts in 65 games, over half of which came on the wrong side of an injury that would have ended the careers of most backs. He did it all with limited natural ability too. At no point in his career was he the fastest or strongest back on the team, but he was always the smartest and the best prepared.

In light of everything the Chiefs have been through since with Holmes’s replacement, it’s hard to remember exactly how maligned the holy one was by the team’s fans. Mercurial by nature, Priest infrequently granted interviews, made few public appearances, and never traveled with the team while injured. The latter isn’t altogether uncommon–Andy Reid, for instance, doesn’t allow his injured players to travel with the team under any circumstance–but it rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way. His decision to sit out an entire season in 2006, claiming the need to further rehabilitate from a midseason injury in 2005, rubbed fans the wrong way too, particularly when he announced in October of 2007 that he planned to return. Fans felt Priest had let the team down. He had, in their estimation, placed his own desires over the team’s needs, holding out for longer than needed, knowing full well the offense was struggling in his absence. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a good thing the Chiefs wore their throwback helmets against the Chargers on Sunday. Otherwise, someone might have mistaken them for the team that eked out a victory over the Redskins seven days earlier. That team was mistake prone but mentally tough; athletically challenged but physically commanding. Apparently Tank Tyler was that team’s muse. His absence was the only change, but the shape of the team was radically different.

I’ll admit that I was among the foolhardy few that predicted a Kansas City win. I felt that the win over Washington would serve as a catalyst, sparking the team to more similarly opportunistic wins over similarly underachieving opponents. I overestimated the chemistry, however. This team clearly has none. They are an experiment gone wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

The Kansas City Chiefs barred RB Larry Johnson from practicing with the team or participating in team activities on Tuesday, saying they are continuing to investigate his recent comments in which he reportedly belittled coach Todd Haley via Twitter and reportedly used gay slurs addressing media in the locker room.

The decision on Johnson appears indefinite, as no timetable given for his return.

Haley is expected to address the situation surrounding Johnson during a news conference Tuesday, which is scheduled for 2:40 p.m. ET. That news conference can be seen live on NFL Network.

The Chiefs released a statement Tuesday announcing the decision on Johnson. Read the rest of this entry »

I realize that the Kansas City Chiefs did not stun the professional football world in their win over the Washington Redskins. They did not convincingly stomp a maligned Redskins team. They did not assert themselves as contenders for the AFC West crown. Further, the next few weeks will bring a new set of challenges for our inexperienced players and coaches to overcome. However, it was most definitely progress.

In all but one of the previous games this season the Chiefs held the game close into the fourth quarter, only to find a way to lose. Against the hated Raiders, we watched as Matt Cassel threw two interceptions and Savage failed to get out of bounds as halftime ended the drive. When it counted, our defense made JaMarcus Russell look like JaMarcus Elway, as he drove the Raiders down the field in the fourth quarter to take a lead the Chiefs would not take back. We’ve seen multiple penalties and some confusing play calling. Just last week I had to cover my eyes as our second-year corner Maurice Leggett twice missed tackles and our veteran safety was not in a position to stop game changing – and game ending – pass plays.
Read the rest of this entry »

As I wrote this article, the New England Patriots had the opportunity (but declined, as a show of mercy) to break two substantial NFL records: most points in a shutout (the record is 66) and most points by a single team in a game (72). The Pats got sloppy last week and lost to a team they should have beat, so they did what Belichick’s Patriot teams do: make an example of the next team they play. That was the mindset that carried them to the Super Bowl in 2003: Lawyer Milloy, hellbent on vengeance against his former team, led the Bills to a 31-0 shutout in week one. New England finished the regular season 14-2, on their way to their second of three Super Bowl wins in a four year span. Likewise, the team showed similar fire in 2007 amidst allegations of cheating and preseason speculation that they no longer held the competitive edge they had in years past. To prove those speculations to be inaccurate, the Pats embarrassed most of their opponents, surpassing 30 points in 12 of 16 regular season contests.

Meanwhile, a few hours ago the Kansas City Chiefs secured their first victory in nearly a year by beating the Redskins, 14-6. Low scoring affairs like that are usually indicative of matches between two dominant defenses. Not so in this case. There was a bad offense and a bad defense on the throne in Kansas City; there was a bad offense and a fair defense on the throne in Washington. Read the rest of this entry »

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In my May 6 article (Post-Draft Musings, Part 1: In the Kitchen with Scott Pioli and Todd Haley) I warned that rookie coaches and GMs often come into their first assignment believing they have all of the answers. Newcomers come from successful organizations, and they’ve learned their trade from watching successful role models. Successful role models execute unsuccessful maneuvers from time to time, however, and sometimes even the best pupil lacks the discernment to understand which of those maneuvers flopped the hardest. They mimic the good, but sometimes they mimic the bad too.

It is from the latter that Todd Haley culled his mid-practice stunt last Friday, wherein he pulled his coaching staff from the field, leaving the players to guide their own final gameday preparations. That move was taken from the Bill Parcells playbook. Specifically, Parcells walked out of a New York Jets practice on October 15, 1998. Haley was one of his assistants at the time. Prior to the walkout, the Jets were 2-3. They finished the season 10-1. Haley undoubtedly viewed the move as a turning point for the team, and he hoped that mimicking the maneuver would produce similar results for his struggling Kansas City team. Read the rest of this entry »

There is a pivotal scene in the movie Tin Cup, Kevin Costner’s ode to underachieving, alcoholic golfers, wherein Costner’s character breaks every club in his bag except his 7-iron. He then proceeds to shoot par through the remainder of the course using a single club. Later on, he asks Don Johnson’s character if he ever shot par with a 7-iron. Johnson replies, “Well hell, Roy…. it never even occurred to me to try.”

I don’t know if the coaches and execs of the Kansas City Chiefs ever watched that movie, but if they did, they took the wrong half of that scene to heart. Every season they take a few more 7-irons to each game, casting aside the clubs they really need to be competitive. The organization has made practice of shedding its most talented player at the end of each year, sometimes owing to retirement (Willie Roaf and Will Shields), but far too often to trades that fail to yield results (Jared Allen, Tony Gonzalez, and even Trent Green). The result? A team of role players. Good athletes. No stars. Read the rest of this entry »