To say this season has been injury plagued for the Kansas City Chiefs is an understatement. Tony Moeaki, Eric Berry, Jamaal Charles, and now Matt Cassel. Although Cassel isn't officially out for the season yet, the other three are, and our season will forever be remembered as what could have been.
These injuries have exposed some things on the Chiefs roster, however, and we should not look idly past. After Tony Moeaki went down with injury, we learned that there is no other tight end on our roster that can effectively replace him. We tried implementing Leonard Pope and even brought in veteran Anthony Becht, but they have not been overly effective, even at the blocking game. I know Moeaki would have just been in his second season, but he showed the team he could be a long term answer at the position. After all, he did break Tony Gonzalez's rookie tight end records, and he was a long term answer.
At the safety position, the Chiefs learned just how valuable Eric Berry was. After having played every defensive snap in the 2010 season, Berry didn't make it to halftime in the opening game of the season against the Bills, tearing his ACL on a questionable block from Buffalo wide receiver Stevie Johnson. Now the safety position has been a fluid schedule of Jon McGraw, Kendrick Lewis (although he mostly plays free safety), Rashard Langford (who blew the coverage on the 56 yard touchdown from Tim Tebow) and Sabby "Wow, I'm still in the NFL" Piscitelli. To summarize their performance: Iffy. Berry brought stability to the position and we haven't had it since his injury.
Jamaal Charles was perhaps the second most important player on the team. He was second in the league in rushing last year, and second in history in yards per carry. He was a spark that could ignite at any moment during any game for a long touchdown run. His absence has, perhaps, been the biggest loss to the Chiefs this season. Without Charles, we have had to resort to a "committee" system at the position. Thomas Jones, the supposed backup, is averaging only 2.9 yards per attempt, and has lost the majority of his playing time to Jackie Battle. Jones was struggling at the end of last season, and many thought the Chiefs should bring in or draft a running back to eventually replace him. The Chiefs didn't; but on the bright side, if we had, we wouldn't have discovered the magic of Jackie Battle (originally written as sarcasm, but the more I think about it, the more true it becomes). Jackie Battle has exceeded my expectations, but still only has one 100 yard day and one rushing touchdown for the season. Dexter McCluster can't hang on to the ball, and is only effective in the draw or screen (much like last season). Although it's hard to replace a runner like Charles, the Chiefs have not even come close.
And now, down goes Matt Cassel. Afflicted with a yet-to-be-disclosed hand injury, Cassel is possibly done for the season and at least done for a while. Sliding in to take the reigns for back-to-back prime time games is Tyler Palko, Kansas City's newest celebrity. He entered the league as an undrafted free agent, didn't work out for the Steelers, and was signed last year to be a back-up to Brodie Croyle. With Croyle not being pursued in free agency this offseason, Palko became the number two quarterback. Ricky Stanzi, a fifth round draft pick in 2011 out of Iowa, has been inactive through the first half of the season. Since Cassel arrived in KC in 2009, he has never gone a season without missing a game. It was the opener in 09, the matchup against the Chargers last season, and now several games for the foreseeable future in 2011.
So, to sum up what I'm getting at: the Chiefs had a complete lack of depth.
In an age of two running back systems and where first round quarterbacks are backups (Brady Quinn, Kyle Boller, Matt Leinart, etc), the Chiefs have had to rely on two undrafted free agent players to fill the void at the most crucial positions on offense, and do a mix-and-match at the other two positions we have lost for the year. Teams with depth can overcome these losses, teams without it can't.
The Green Bay Packers last season overcame injury after injury, relying on the depth the team had built up and on their quarterback. The result was a Super Bowl victory. This season, in a similar situation, the Chiefs were 4-5 and couldn't buy a win at home. The depth wasn't there. A similar situation is that with the Texans. Arian Foster missed the first few weeks and Ben Tate stepped up to run all over opponents. Now Matt Schaub is reportedly lost for the season with a foot injury and they will use Matt Leinart as their backup. As shaky as Leinart's performance has been, he has played in 29 games and attempted 595 passes. That is a little more than Palko's 13 career passing attempts in the regular season.
And it's not like the Chiefs didn't haven the opportunity or ability to add depth. In August of this year, NFL Network reported that the Chiefs had over $32 million in cap space, the most of any team. With this much money just setting there, the Chiefs decided it was better served . . . sitting there. We pursued some free agents (Brandon Siler, Steve Breaston, Le'Ron McClain, Kelly Gregg), but we also let depth escape, choosing not to re-sign a number of players.
Cassel's history with missing games supported the notion of bringing in a veteran backup quarterback just-in-case something happened. The Chiefs chose not to do that. Charles' size combined with an increased number of carries supported the notion of bringing in a running back or two in the draft or free agency, just-in-case something should keep him out a game. The Chiefs chose not to do that. Even after injuries, we could have brought in a veteran safety, or claimed a running back off of waivers, but the Chiefs chose not to.
They wouldn't even have to necessarily be short term fixes; if they did well, could they not push for a roster spot next year? Todd Haley's first two seasons as head coach were all about creating competition between players so that they perform at their best. Given the cap space and the circumstances, why not take a chance?
It's this lack of depth that has hurt the Chiefs, almost as much as the injuries sustained. Injuries are a part of football, and, as lucky as the Chiefs were last season at avoiding them, we have been equally unlucky this season at suffering them. And if the ending of the above paragraph lead you to believe I blame Todd Haley for the lack of depth, then I haven't made myself clear. The person responsible for bringing in personnel is Scott Pioli. Sure, the Chiefs constantly work out players during the season, and have even signed or come close to signing a few players through the course of the season. But these players have been of little or no use. The 2009 draft class is but a skeleton, the 2011 draft class is constantly inactive, and the team refusing to tap into their funds has come back to bite them. I'm not saying we spend a ton of money on one player, but wouldn't it be nice to spend that same amount of money on several different players in key positions? You can only have so many undrafted free agents starting on your team before you ask why.
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