The 2009 draft was the first opportunity for Scott Pioli to build the team in his image; to build it for the future. Pioli was notorious for taking defensive players in the first round at New England and he did it again with Kansas City.
With the third overall pick, Pioli took defensive end Tyson Jackson out of LSU. He would then take defensive tackle Alex Magee in the third round, cornerback Donald Washington in the fourth, offensive lineman Colin Brown in the fifth, wide receiver Quinten Lawrence in the sixth, running back Javarris Williams, tight end Jack O'Connell and Mr. Irrelevant, Ryan Succop, in the seventh.
One could fairly go back and say that this draft wasn't a success. Magee, Brown, and Williams aren't even with the team this year; Washington and O'Connell are special teams players (although O'Connell did a good job filling in for Moeaki when he was injured), and Jackson has not lived up to the hype and has missed significant portions of this season to injury and only has a handful of starts. One could honestly say that Succop has been the best player so far.
The 2009 season didn't fair much better.
Chan Gailey was fired two weeks before the start of the regular season; Larry Johnson had his issues and then was released; Matt Cassel split even with 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions; Dwayne Bowe was suspended four games; and the Chiefs ended the season 4-12.
But there were positives from that 2009 season, positives that the Chiefs could build on.
Chris Chambers, picked up mid-season, gave us a number two receiver and his game against the Pittsburgh Steelers showed it; Jamaal Charles went on to have an amazing season, finishing with over 1,100 yards rushing and that break-out performance in Denver; Derrick Johnson earned his starting job back in that Denver game too; and, for a young team, we were just a few play-makers away from being a team to be reckoned with.
So began the 2010 offseason, where Scott Pioli would silence the critics and get the Chiefs closer to their goal of the playoffs.
On January 7th, Charlie Weis, who had worked with Pioli in New England, was hired as offensive coordinator. On January 13th, Pioli hired Romeo Crennel as defensive coordinator. They had also worked together in New England. These are questionably the two biggest signings of the offseason.
As far as free-agent signing are concerned, however, Pioli was also successful. He gave Chambers a contract, brought in running back Thomas Jones from the Jets, brought in offensive guard Ryan Lilja from the Colts, brought in defensive end Shaun Smith from the Bengals, and brought back center Casey Wiegmann from the Broncos.
Then here came the 2010 draft. This was Pioli's second chance to build the team for the future and this time it would not be a swing and a miss, it would be a home run. It is also arguably the best draft of any team this season.
In the first round and fifth overall, the Chiefs took safety Eric Berry; running back Dexter McCluster and cornerback Javier Arenas in the second; guard Jon Asamoah and tight end Tony Moeaki in the third; and safety Kendrick Lewis and defensive end Cameron Sheffield in the fifth.
With these new players signed and these veteran coordinators hired, it was up to Haley to put all these pieces together.
Man, it's like your saying Peterson was a better GM than Pioli and I know you don't think that. Am I right?
ReplyDeleteI think Pioli is a better GM and I think Peterson had to go. I wanted Herm fired badly and I wanted overhaul of the whole franchise at the time. But since enough time has gone by, I think we should at least consider the fact that Peterson didn't leave us completely up a creek. The 2009 draft wasn't as successful as we would have hoped but the free agent acquisitions and the 2010 draft has solidified Pioli as a great GM in KC. I just wanted to try to give an unbiased look at how we got here and I'll go on more about Pioli in part 3 which will come out Friday.
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