The Red Zorn

This morning, the Chiefs announced the hiring of Jim Zorn as the quarterbacks coach. He was recently let go from the same postion from the Baltimore Ravens. And the Chiefs coaching staff just got that much better.

How did they get that much better? They brought on a coach thats entire football career has focused around the quarterback position. And that career has seen its share of success.

Zorn was a starting quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks where he spent the majority of his career. He then went on to coaching, and after spending a few years in the college ranks, took the jump to the NFL. Before the Chiefs, Zorn has been a qb coach for three other teams (Lions, Seahawks, Ravens), and even the head coach of the Washington Redskins from 2008-2010 (though hired originally as the offensive coordinator the same season he was promoted).

Upon the hiring of Zorn, head coach Todd Haley had this to say: "We are excited to finalize our coaching staff today with the addition of Jim Zorn. As a former head coach with more than two decades of experience playing and coaching the quarterback position in the NFL, Jim has a tremendous working knowledge of the game, and he will play a big role in the continued development of our football team.”

This is the move that many of us, including myself, wanted. Not necessarily Jim Zorn, but a respected quarterbacks coach that can help in the development of Matt Cassel. I had also mentioned Zorn's name a while back as a potential offensive coordinator.

However, some argue that he is too "soft" of a coach and will do whatever Haley tells him to do. I don't agree with this statement how it is; he's the qb coach, not the OC. His primary goal is to work with the quarterbacks and I think Haley will let him do his thing without interference. If Haley planned on working a lot with the quarterback, he would have just promoted Nick Sirianni but do most of the work himself.

Plus, Zorn has shown that he is very good at what he does. As Zorn as their qb coach, different players have shown great improvement from one season to the next. Hasselbeck had his best seasons under Zorn, leading his team to the Super Bowl during the 2006 season. Under Zorn in Washington, Jason Campbell had his two best seasons to date. And then, last season, Joe Flacco posted his best season in his three year career (unfortunately Chiefs fans got to witness that) with Zorn as his qb coach (another interesting fact is that Flacco was infuriated with the Ravens organization after they fired Zorn).

Zorn will give balance to the offense; this is what many Chiefs fans were worried about after the promotion of Bill Muir to offensive coordinator. I think, after this hire, all those same fans will be able to sleep a little sounder tonight.

And, here's a little bonus for you. For everyone asking what the connection between the Chiefs and Zorn was, I have one. It's probably more of a coincidence than a connection, but still an interesting fact. Zorn was stripped of his play calling duties on offense in 2009 as the head coach of the Redskins after a loss to the winless Chiefs; this of course gave Todd Haley his first NFL win as a head coach. It signified the beginning of the end for Zorn in Washington, and now we have him in KC. Chiefs seems to be good at stuff like that (Cassel, but sort of the opposite circumstances).