Chiefs Need To Win It All This Year
Many football fans are familiar with the concept of a championship window. There’s an idea: that teams suck for a while, amass talent, and then have a chance to win big before they start losing good players because of the salary cap… and I don’t hold to that. The Kansas City Chiefs had the #1 overall pick the year Dorsey arrived, but they had their best draft so far picking Marcus Peters at 19th overall (not to mention Travis Kelce at #63, Mitch Morse at #49, Chris Conley at #76 and Steven Nelson at #98). If sucking were a guarantee of roster talent, the Cleveland Browns would be the toast of the town instead of just, well, toast… but I digress. The Chiefs need to win a championship, not because of impending contracts, but for entirely different reasons. Here’s why K.C. need to win the Super Bowl this year.
For Jamaal Charles and Tamba Hali
The first whole season of Chiefs football I watched was the year Todd Hayley took over. During those dark times, there were three shining spots on a bleak and bad team. Jamaal Charles, Tamba Hali, and the immortal Dustin Colquitt. While punters may play forever, it’s pretty evident that Father Time is catching up to both Hali and Charles. Frankly, these two players have meant too much to Chiefs fans to just let them go into the obscurity of retirement with nothing to show for it. Nobody deserves a championship more than these two, and, while Hali might play one more year, this is probably the last chance to get both of them a ring. Chiefs are loaded at RB with Ware looking like an elite player and West being a solid backup. The 2017 draft also looks to be the deepest RB draft in years. Charles has struggled to stay healthy and has a big cap hit next year, when the Chiefs will be tight on space. I’d be surprised if he plays in 2017, which is why K.C. needs to treat him right this year by winning it all.
Respect
Those of you who watch the Chiefs on cable may not have noticed, but last Sunday, the local broadcast was delayed, while CBS aired the overtime of a game between two NFL bottom-feeders: the Miami Dolphins and the Cleveland Browns. Now, that sort of thing happens from time to time, but once overtime was over, did CBS cut to the K.C. game already in progress? No. In fact, they cut to commercial in the middle of a Chiefs’ drive. I have a hard time believing that CBS would do the same to a household name like the Patriots or the Packers, but Chiefs are a small market team and networks can afford those kinds of slights to their fans. ESPN can afford to field an author like Adam Teicher who is universally despised by Chiefs fans, because ESPN just doesn’t care about a little team that’s barely been a playoff threat. When Chiefs had their biggest comeback in franchise history, against the Chargers, it didn’t just miss the front page at Bleacher Report, they also didn’t write a single article about it. Not one. If Kansas City wants to get respect as a small market team, they’re going to have to earn it, and winning a Superbowl, in my lifetime, would be a fantastic start.
Veteran Free Agents
While Superbowl teams tend to lose a lot of their free agents, they also tend to become destination place for skilled veterans from bad teams. One of the reasons Patriots have been able to stay competitive, in addition to their drafting skill, is that any free agent who wants to win a championship, and is willing to take a discount, tends to wind up there. The Broncos were also able to employ this strategy when they had Peyton Manning. Indeed, you can see the stark contrast between the Broncos free agency period in 2015 and 2016. Elway didn’t become a horrible GM over-night, he just lost a lot of his appeal when Manning left.
Officiating
There’s a dirty little secret about officiating in the NFL. So Many rules exist, that calls have become highly subjective. In this age of gray areas, reputation is critical. If you watch Chris Conely, you’ll see tons and tons of un-called defensive pass interference. Those same calls will get made every time for guys like Brandon Marshall and Antonio Brown. In 2013 Seattle’s defense went from strong to unstoppable, because they could get away with contact other defenses couldn’t. I don’t believe the NFL is rigged, but the subjective bias involved in interpreting the game can absolutely make it seem that way. We saw an example of this just the other day. Marcus Peters has developed a reputation as a hot-head. This led refs to call Peters for a finger wag that JJ Watt does constantly and would never get called for. In fact, Phillip Gaines did the same finger wag in the same game and was never called for it. Denver is one of the dirtiest defenses in the league, yet, they were able to get away with helmet-to-helmet hits repeatedly on Cam Newton with no calls. Why? Because they have a reputation for being a tough defense and the refs are influenced by that. For the Chiefs, going to the next level will require them to develop enough of a reputation that they stop being the team who gets screwed by bad calls and no-calls. Such a reputation certainly could have come in handy on the Tyreek Hill TD return against the Texans.