At 11:25 PM on Friday night, Adam Schefter sent out a tweet that read: "Chiefs hired former Dolphins assistant Brian Daboll as their offensive coordinator." At 11:26 PM on that same Friday night, most Chiefs fans in the country that heard the news at such a late hour were disappointed.
Daboll, as many people who talk and write about the Chiefs and the NFL will tell you, is a good guy, a good coach, and might be a spark plug in the offensive coaching staff. But to say this hire was uninspiring is probably an accurate statement. As Kent Babb from the KC Star tweeted immediately following the Schefter announcement: "Daboll, of course, could be a brilliant hire. Just disagree with the continued lack of creativity of importing folks from [New England]."
New England being where Daboll spent 7 of his 12 years in the NFL, including time with both Romeo Crennel and Scott Pioli.
I wrote a blog post last week about Brian Daboll once the rumors of the Chiefs interest in him surfaced. I broke down the statistics and numbers of the two teams he's formerly been offensive coordinator for, and the results aren't very pretty. Granted, in his two years in Cleveland he wasn't surrounded by an ideal situation or a very talented roster, but I think the season Daboll was in Miami is probably the most relevant.
The 2011 Dolphins were a very similar team to the 2011 Chiefs, and were actually much better on offense. Chad Henne = Matt Cassel, Matt Moore = Kyle Orton, Brandon Marshall = Dwayne Bowe, the similarities go on and on. Plus Reggie Bush, who could have equaled Jamaal Charles, was able to play a full season unlike Charles, and Daniel Thomas, the Dolphins other running back, was much better than Thomas Jones (as was every other running back in the NFL it seemed). And let's not forget that the Dolphins offensive line is littered with high draft picks.
But even with that talent, the Dolphins only managed 6 wins, and were ranked 22nd in the NFL for total offense and had a negative turnover differential. As comparable as the Chiefs and Dolphins were, this is not an encouraging sign for the hopes of the Chiefs offense.
As negative as this post might sound, I have to believe that Daboll is definitely an upgrade over Bill Muir, who was the Chiefs OC last season. The Chiefs offense in 2011 was anemic, and Daboll is a vast improvement.
The issue I have is that I'm not sure if Daboll was the best option.
Reports were circulating throughout the day that the Chiefs would make a decision soon, and that the three finalists were Daboll, former Chiefs and Raiders OC Al Saunders, and Chiefs quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn. With Al Saunders and Brian Daboll, the Chiefs offense would have gotten new systems, but with Zorn, the offense would have had continuity since Zorn was with the team last season.
Continuity was something the team as a whole needed. That is why Romeo Crennel got the head coaching job. Continuity on offense, however, was something that GM Scott Pioli and Crennel were obviously looking to avoid. And why shouldn't they? Our offense last year, for lack of a better word, sucked. That is why two offensive coaches were let go this past week, and Muir was never even considered to resume his OC responsibilities.
The Chiefs are cleaning house on offense, that much is certain.
On the same day that Bill Muir announced his retirement, Adam Teicher of the Kansas City Star also reported that Jim Zorn had told people that he would resign if not hired as the new OC. I addressed this in a post on Thursday, and my thoughts accordingly. If those rumors Teicher reported are true, then Daboll's hiring might mean we will be seeing Zorn's resignation soon and the last chance Matt Cassel has of being familiar with an offensive coach dealing with the quarterback position for more than a year. It's hard to develop as a quarterback with this constant OC shuffling (just ask Alex Smith), but it was clear that what the Chiefs were doing wasn't working.
Matt Cassel, on the other hand, might be the reason that the Chiefs made this move. As Evan Silva from NBC Sports pointed out following the hire: "Daboll not a sexy hire for #Chiefs, but Matt Cassel has had his best 2 NFL seasons in offenses just like his. Pioli going all in on Cassel."
If this "all in" statement is accurate, then Pioli's recent talks of inviting QB competition this coming year was just a tease and any thoughts of Peyton Manning in a Chiefs uniform happily cycling through your head is nothing more than a dream.
Sigh.
I'm sure the Chiefs will have a post up on their official website soon addressing the hire with quotes and information abounding about their new offensive coordinator. In the meantime, the rest of Chiefs nation will be distracted with the Border War.
Good timing.
[But if you have time for a 33 second clip of Daboll getting crushed by an offensive lineman during a game celebration, click here]
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