What's Next for Crennel?

Today, the team officially announced that Romeo Crennel was to be the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs for the next three seasons. This decision, reported by Adam Schefter of ESPN on Saturday, warranted this update by the Chiefs denying any decision had been made. But apparently, their mind was made the next evening, and on Monday, Crennel, along with GM Scott Pioli and owner Clark Hunt, met with the media in a press conference to announce their new hire.

“I have a deep appreciation for the vision that Clark Hunt has and his commitment to building a championship-caliber team,” Crennel said. “I believe in the types of players that we are trying to win with and the identity we are trying to create. It is a rare opportunity to be a part of an organization like the Kansas City Chiefs with its storied history and passionate fans and I am eager to get to work and bring this franchise and our fans the success they deserve.”

I've said that for the last week, Romeo Crennel is the right choice for the team. And now that he's officially head coach, there are a few questions and decisions that Crennel and the rest of the Chiefs organization will have to address in the upcoming months. A couple of these questions were brought up at the press conference:

• What to do with Kyle Orton?
• Who will take over as Defensive Coordinator?
• Who will become the Offensive Coordinator?

Kyle Orton

The Kyle Orton debate has been going on ever since he helped the team upset the Green Bay Packers. His services were invaluable compared to that of Tyler Palko's, and it was his skills that nearly got the Chiefs into the playoffs. Crennel acknowledged Orton in his media session: "Kyle did a tremendous job for us and I'm probably not sitting here if Kyle hadn't done the job that he did. I'm very appreciative of that. I'm also appreciative of the fact that he is an unrestricted free agent and we have to go through the process. I would be unfair to him not to say that I appreciated what he did for me. I'm not going to say I didn't appreciate it but the situation is the situation. We have two quarterbacks under contract. He's not under contract. So we'll play it out and see what happens."

Obviously Matt Cassel is still on the team, but even Crennel knows how important Orton was to his new head coaching job. I got the impression, however, that Crennel was almost thanking Orton one last time for his services, almost knowing that he wouldn't be coming back next season. I know I'm probably reading too much into these comments, but that's just the impression I got. I will have more on this topic at a later date. 

Defensive Coordinator

With Crennel's promotion to head coach, the DC position has now become available. When asked about the plan for that position, Crennel said: “We’re going to look at everything and talk through everything and try to figure out what’s best for the Chiefs to do. If we determine that it’s best for me to do the job, then I’ll do the job. If not, then we’ll go through that process and name someone else.”

Scott Pioli wasn't crazy about Todd Haley calling the offensive plays and being head coach in his first season in 2009, so I have a strong doubt that Crennel will actually be his own DC next year. Strong internal candidates exist such as Emmitt Thomas, the secondary coach, and more importantly, Gary Gibbs, the linebackers coach. Nate Bukaty of 810 Sports Kansas City tweeted on Sunday that he heard it from a "pretty good source" that Gibbs would be Crennel's DC. If this is true or not, it's still something to consider. Something else to consider is ... the Mangenius (my own personal theory).

Offensive Coordinator

Reports came out last week that Bill Muir was going to retire. While nothing has been confirmed with the Chiefs organization, the press conference gave you the sense that report was accurate. “I think right now it’s a little early for me to be able to say I know exactly who it’s going to be because to be truthful with you, I don’t know who it’s going to be,” Crennel said. “It could be in the building, it could be outside the building, but we’re going to do our homework and then we’re going to come up with who we think is the best candidate.”

Many Chiefs commentators, especially Nick Wright of 610 Sports, have been reporting that the Chiefs plan was to make Crennel HC, and then get Josh McDaniels from the Rams as OC. But McDaniels took the opening OC position in New England, and now the Chiefs have no idea what they want to do. I suggested last week the only two options that would make sense if Matt Cassel is truly the Chiefs man are: Josh McDaniels (which is no longer an option) and Jim Zorn. 

Only time will tell on these questions, as well as free agency, and now Crennel has the privilege of being a major factor in determining the answers. Congratulations to Romeo Crennel being named the 12th HC in KC Chiefs history.