Posts tagged BrodieCroyle at FanHouse

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is right around the corner, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterbacks: Oh, holy God. Do we have to start here? Can't we start at defensive line? Or even offensive line? No? Okay. So last season, Damon Huard was such the pinnacle of mediocrity, he may have redefined the word for decades. It wasn't so much that Huard was spectacularly terrible, throwing constant interceptions as he heaved them down the field, Rex-Grossman-style, it was that he looked singularly incapable of actually getting the ball downfield to begin with. So, after far too many games watching the offense set new franchise lows, Brodie Croyle who had been waiting in the wings, finally took the reins. The results were less than spectacular. Chiefs fans support Croyle because the kid has shown flashes of leadership and a pretty solid arm. The trouble is, the protection was so bad last year, no one knows whether to pin the offense's disastrous play on an inability by Brodie to produce, or a result of the fact that Croyle spent so much time on the run it's a wonder he's not dead in the cold, cold ground. So with a retooled and slightly upgraded offensive line, he should be better? Right? Right? Oh, Jesus, where's the bottle? Wait, what? Huard's still on the team? Must get bigger bottle. Heat Index: 2

It looks like the Chiefs could have a Brett Favre situation on their hands. Except exactly different. Tight end Tony Gonzalez is entering his 12 season and he's indicating that there's only a 95 percent chance he comes back for No. 13. See, just like Favre.

In fact, according to the Kansas City Star, if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, Gonzalez is gone -- apparently, the future Hall of Famer gives the team a five percent chance to win the whole thing, which seems awfully high, but, hey, he gets points for optimism.

Fantasy Island scenarios aside, Gonzalez sounds like a guy who'll be around in 2009:

"There are going to be some growing pains," he said. "There's no doubt about that. But I think by the end of the year we're going to have a really good football team, and we're going to be that much better next year."

Which should make quarterback Brodie Croyle very happy.

Oh, and another reason to hang around for one more season: Gonzalez would have to return a big part of his signing bonus. Whenever he finally decides to leave the game, Gonzalez will retire as one of the best tight ends in NFL history, and more importantly, I suspect he'll graduate to the television studio and spare us all the need to un-retire a handful of times before actually doing so.

Thanks in advance for skipping the self-indulgent, "this is all about me!" act. Greatly appreciated, sir.

Maybe what former Ravens third-round wideout Devard Darling needed was the proverbial change of scenery. Or maybe he's nothing more than a No. 3 or 4 NFL wide receiver. That he struggled to make it on the field in Baltimore's anemic offense is indicting, but it's hard to place all the blame on the pass catchers when Kyle Boller is whizzing footballs in the general direction in which they were intended.

Whatever, Darling is now in Kansas City, and he's trying earn playing time on the only AFC unit with bigger questions at wide receiver than Baltimore (the Bears have the league's worst wideouts by miles, in case you're wondering). Second-year player Dwayne Bowe is quarterback Brodie Croyle's go-to guy -- and he should be -- but after that, it's a crapshoot.

The rest of the Chiefs' receiving unit is a bit of a mystery. But Croyle is pretty sure he's spotted the Chiefs' fastest receiver.

"That would probably be Devard Darling," Croyle said. "He can really go. It's one of those things where you don't really notice it until you see the film. He just 'leaves' people."

So there's that. Bowe is primed for another big season, but defenses are sure to roll coverages in his direction, which means that Tony Gonzalez and his protege, Brad Cottam, will play an integral role in the offense (which, frankly, isn't much of a change).

One of the biggest transitions from the college game to the NFL is the complex offensive and defensive schemes. Assimilating enough information to fill a phone book and then being able to recall it the split-second before taking a sack is one of the things that separates young quarterbacks from veterans.

In an effort to accelerate Brodie Croyle's development, new Chiefs offensive coordinator Chan Gailey has simplified the offense, which, theoretically, should allow Croyle to worry less about formations and pass protections, and more about what happens after the snap.

"I really like the offense," Croyle said Thursday after the Chiefs completed their second week of the on-field portion of their offseason program. "I'm very comfortable, surprisingly. The reads are pretty clear right now for us.

"It's a pretty simple offense. It's giving guys the chance to go out and play, not a whole lot of thinking about it, just go out and line up and go."

Midway through Eli Manning's rocky rookie year, the Giants pared down the game plan to a handful of plays and the first-overall pick responded with more consistent, confident performances.

Croyle's entering his third season, but this will be the first time he enters training camp as the starter. He had a chance to win the job last summer, but floundered during training camp. Hopefully, the new streamlined offense will makes things easier. That Gailey plans on emphasizing the run should only help.

I think we can all agree that the Chiefs had the best draft in the history of the world last month. After having close to 50 picks, Kansas City landed a starting lineman (Branden Albert), a potential Pro Bowl defensive tackle (Glenn Dorsey), a nickel back (Brandon Flowers), and a change-of-pace back to compliment Larry Johnson (Jamaal Charles).

Kansas City also added a humongous tight end (6-8 Brad Cottam) and a heady safety (DaJuan Morgan), and every one of these selections were made in the first three rounds.

But maybe the most important pick (or one of the most important -- it's hard to think anybody will overshadow the impact Dorsey should have) is Missouri's Will Franklin, drafted 105th overall.

Coming off a four-win season usually means a team has any number of needs. The Chiefs did a swell job of addressing most of them, but depth at wide receiver remained a huge question, even after Kansas City added 12 guys to the roster via the draft.

Last year's first-rounder, Dwayne Bowe, emerged as the team's only legit downfield threat a year ago, but the Chiefs may have found another young starter on the outside in Franklin:

After a four-win season largely due to the inadequacies on offense, any news is good news at this point. The Chiefs had 47 picks in the April draft, and although they fell short of Herm Edwards' goal of landing starters with 75 percent of the selections, the team had one of the best drafts in recent memory (as much as a draft can be deemed good hours after Mr. Irrelevant wraps up the proceedings).

In addition to adding a dominant defensive tackle (Glenn Dorsey) and a potential Pro Bowl offensive lineman (Branden Albert), Kansas City shored up the secondary (Brandon Flowers) and the backfield (Jamaal Charles). All should contribute a lot in '08, the Chiefs' success will largely be contingent on quarterback Brodie Croyle.

Croyle struggled through his first two NFL seasons, but much of that had to do with his (lack of) supporting cast. Year 3 is off to a more promising start -- at least according to the team's only legit wide receiver, Dwayne Bowe:

"Brodie's looking good, man," wide receiver Dwayne Bowe said. "He threw a go route, back shoulder, against the wind. It was on the money. I was like, 'Dude, you're ready. It's on.' "

Bowe then added, "I don't hear you unless you knock, Curtis." Anyway, it's early, but progress, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is a big deal; after all, the Chiefs passed on drafting a quarterback, instead putting their eggs in Croyle's basket and focusing on other team needs.

Okay, so it looks like Herm Edwards and Carl Person do, in fact, have a plan. After two first-round picks and a little draft-day maneuverin', Kansas City has a franchise defensive tackle AND a franchise left guard/tackle. All before 5 p.m. Honestly, I didn't see that coming.

Of course, acing the draft grades won't mean jack once the season starts, but if nothing else, Chiefs fans can enjoy a weekend for the first time in three years or so. This morning, Edwards was bloviating about how he wanted 75 percent of the team's 13 picks to be starters this fall. That worked out to roughly 10 players, which is, well, insane.

Well, two down, and after trading up from 17th to 15th to grab Albert, the Chiefs are down to nine picks, so maybe it's not as ludicrous as it originally sounded. Still, even if Kansas City pulls this off, they will be extremely young next season, and unless they draft a quarterback later today, there will still be questions at the position (hell, they'll be questions even if they do take the next Brodie Croyle because, well, he'll be the next Brodie Croyle).

But assuming the Chiefs bust out another four-win season in 2008, at least the franchise will finally be moving in the right direction. And with Clark Hunt unwilling to fire anybody, Peterson and Edwards should be around to accept all the backslapping should the team actually show improvement. So there's that too.

Herm Edwards is honest if he's anything. That probably doesn't make many Chiefs' fans feel better about the state of the franchise (hey, he apologized for the "get over the losing" remarks), but the guy in charge has a plan. Edwards alluded to it at the end of last season, but it basically comes down to this: Kansas City is rebuilding, and it's going to take more than a few free-agent signings to fix things.

"You can call it rebuilding, blowing it up, whatever you want to call it. We're starting, not from ground zero, but close. . . . That's why we didn't dabble in free agency a whole bunch (of late). We're going to build a football team."

I'd like to think that's why the Chiefs stayed away from Pacman Jones, but I'm guessing that had very little to do with free agency and everything to do with Jones predilection for getting arrested. The Denver Post's Jim Armstrong points to the Chargers and Colts as examples of teams who had to "blow it up" and use the draft to restock the roster.

Moral to the story: Sometimes, in the NFL, you've got to be really bad to become really good. It's a fact of life borne out not only in San Diego, but in Indianapolis, where the Colts' wretched ways earned them the first pick in the 1998 draft, which they used to select one Peyton Manning.

Generally, i think that's right, but it's important to point out how much luck plays in all of this. If the Colts draft Ryan Leaf instead of Manning, how different might things have been?

The Chiefs may not have much to show for their efforts in terms of wins and losses, but there is a bright spot: they've had two of their better drafts in recent history, and embattled head coach Herm Edwards had a hand in both.

The Kansas City Star's Adam Teicher writes that Tamba Hali, Jarrad Page and Dwayne Bowe should develop into stars, and the only obvious miss so far was kicker Justin Medlock.

"I've had the chance to watch the two of them together, and they're very much on the same page," said Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt, referring to Edwards and [vice president of player personnel Bill] Kuharich. "It's always important to have your head coach and the guy running your draft on the same page, and I think we've had two very good drafts.

Unfortunately, those guys to this point have been too young to have a tremendous impact. Going into 2008, I would expect that 2006 draft class to have a tremendous impact."

And that's the thing: the Chiefs have had solid drafts recently but it wasn't enough to offset a four-win season in 2007. Hopefully, though, that'll change.

Although the defense is in good shape, it's the offense that raises some concerns. Hopefully, new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey will mitigate some of that, but there's only so much he can do. Ultimately, it'll come down to whether Larry Johnson is healthy enough to play, and perhaps more importantly, if Brodie Croyle will be able change his draft grade from "TBD" to "quality NFL starter."

The first step was admitting there was a problem. Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards did that when he dismissed most of the offensive coaching staff. Next, he had to try to fix things, and that came in the form of new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey.

Now all we can do is sit back and see if the 2008 Chiefs are markedly better than the '07 version. Backup quarterback Damon Huard, who played for Gailey in Miami seven years ago, likes the hire.

"He's not afraid to get after somebody, which is a good thing," said Huard... "If you're not getting your job done, you'll hear it from him. He's very good in front of the group, a good motivator. I'm still very impressed with his leadership skills. He comes across well in the meeting room. He has an ability to get the message across and be passionate about it."

I thought Herm was the motivator? Seriously, this all sounds great, and to Gailey's credit, his resume (as a coordinator, anyway) is sparkling. But ultimately Kansas City's success is going to come down to two things: can the front office fix the offensive line, and is Brodie Croyle the team's future at quarterback.

You can be the world's most aggressive coordinator, but if the line ain't blocking and the quarterback is skittish, well, you saw how that turned out this season. Good news on that last front, however: "Huard says Gailey's system is quarterback-friendly and simple for Croyle to learn."

Now, about that offensive line...