Scott Pioli

GMs ON THIN ICE

Gene Smith / Jaguars — The arrival of new owner Shahid Khan, who has yet to tip his hand on how patient he will be as an owner, paired with the fact that Khan this past offseason signed off on a contract extension for Smith that runs through 2014 makes this a difficult situation to gauge. It seems likely that Smith will be given until at least the end of 2013 to right the ship in Jacksonville, but most league observers agree that, four years into his rebuilding project, Smith’s roster lacks the necessary talent and depth to be a postseason contender. Smith’s future remains directly tied to second-year QB Blaine Gabbert. If Gabbert doesn’t make major strides in Year Two, it doesn’t bode well for Smith’s long-term future with the Jaguars.

Top personnel exec: “Gene is one of the greatest guys you will ever meet, and I like him a lot as a person, but his drafts have been very average, free agency has been a near disaster and there’s just not enough talent on the team to make a run at it. He’s been there from the start. Has he had the support he has needed to get the job done the last few years? Probably not. But that’s his team. He put his stamp on it. He might be able to finagle one more year, but they better show continued progress or he’ll be out fast.”

A.J. Smith / Chargers — Right after the 2011 season ended, team president Dean Spanos retained GM Smith and head coach Norv Turner. “A.J. Smith is the best man to improve our roster, and Norv Turner is the best man to lead that roster on the field,” Spanos said. We hear that Spanos was very pleased with what Smith did this offseason, improving depth throughout the roster, but through four games, not many of those veteran additions have made huge strides. If the Chargers miss the playoffs and a change has to be made, it would be Turner leaving before Smith. It likely would have to be a disastrous season for Smith to go as well.

GM: “People in the building tell me (current Bills GM) Buddy (Nix) was the key guy there making the draft decisions. When he was pushed out, the drafts went to (nothing). He was the one guy that would stand up to A.J. — (A.J.'s) an overbearing personality now. It’s black and white — there’s not a lot of grey area with A.J.”

Scott Pioli / Chiefs — Pioli was brought on by Chiefs owner Clark Hunt in 2009 to reshape the roster and change the direction of the team. Pioli was asked to turn the Chiefs into the Patriots of the Midwest, and the early results smacked of great, quick progress. Pioli and head coach Todd Haley turned around from 4-12 in 2009 to 10-6 and a playoff appearance in ’10. Optimism followed in 2011, but the team yinged and yanged to a last-place appearance last season, with Haley getting fired. Pioli reached to his past, promoting defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel as Haley’s replacement, and the team’s 0-2 start this season raised serious pressure for head coach and GM. Two Kansas City writers attacked Pioli — far more than Crennel — for the team’s lack of talent, depth and, notably, a franchise quarterback. Could Pioli be in trouble with a losing season? Perhaps, but he has improved Hunt’s product (at worst, financially) and remains close to the owner.

GM: “I don't think the Bill Parcells style of being a (jerk) works. The game is too (expletive) hard — you might as well enjoy where you are working and enjoy working with (your) people. That style and where they get that, I don't get it. … Kansas City has an intimidating, scare-tactic style of doing business. As long as he has the owner fooled, he’ll be fine. I don’t think he’s in immediate danger, but I don’t see the team getting better. … If Scott doesn't know the difference between Shaun Rogers and Kelly Gregg, he's in trouble.”

Former Chiefs front-office employee: “Pioli could get run out in K.C and Romeo might get a pass for a year or two, the same way Lovie (Smith) did when (Jerry) Angelo got run out. They might let some money burn off his contract first before they fire him and start the clock over. It would give a new GM time to hire the next coach and turn it around."

Rick Spielman / Vikings — The Vikings made a GM commitment for the first time since Jim Finks stepped down as general manager in 1974 when Spielman was promoted from vice president of player personnel to GM this January after six years with the team, changing the front-office power structure. Spielman has final, absolute say over personnel matters, something that previously was muddled when several men held a share of the power. Spielman brought back head coach Leslie Frazier, oversaw his first draft this April and made the call on the team’s trades and free agents. He has a strong foothold with the team, despite it appearing that the Vikes sit fourth on the NFC North totem pole and likely are there to stay unless ownership drastically changes direction.

GM: “Did anyone think the Vikings would be 3-1 right now and have a win over the 49ers? I know I didn’t, and anyone who is honest would tell you the same. I know people in the building who are already looking for new jobs. They don’t think it’s going to hold.”

GMs FOR WHOM THE CLOCK IS TICKING

This bully style of doing business is why I honestly think neither Manning or Fisher would even sit down with Pioli

ON THE HOT SEAT

Scott Pioli, Chiefs general manager

Two lead columnists for the Kansas City Star carved Pioli a new Belichick after the team's second blowout loss. Wrote one of them, Kent Babb: "Pioli has, for years now, learned from far too many mistakes. Haley. Sticking with Cassel. Thinking he can control every ounce of information. A growing number of unimpressive draft classes. The way front-office employees are treated and how bizarrely secretive everyone is expected to be." Ouch.

ott Pioli done enough to improve the Kansas City Chiefs?
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Sep
21
2012

By Mike Settle


Has Scott Pioli done enough to warrant a contract extension?
Local media has been caught in a frenzy over the past few days after the Chiefs were man handled by an average Buffalo Bills team this past Sunday.

Everyone is pointing fingers this week. They’re all being directed at quarterback Matt Cassel, head coach Romeo Crennel, the leadership of the organization, Clark Hunt, and general manger Scott Pioli.

Scott Pioli was brought into Kansas City to be the man to turn the franchise around after a train wreck led by Carl Peterson and Herman Edwards, but to this point it looks as if the train still hasn’t been fixed after four years of conducting the ship.

Chiefs kingdom thought Pioli was going to be a ‘sure thing’ coming from the Patriot way philosophy. After all, New England had built a perennial winner with Pioli in charge of pro player personnel.

To this point, the “Patriot Way” has proven not to exist outside of New England.

The patriot way is Tom Brady, and Bill Belichick.

Other teams have attempted to replicate this supposed philosophical way of thinking, and none have reigned supreme.

Josh McDaniels made an attempt in Denver. Failed. Eric Mangini had a shot in New York. Failed. Romeo Crennel gave it a try in Cleveland. Failed. Charlie Weis took his talents to Notre Dame. Was ran out of town.

You may think to yourself, “what about Thomas Dimitroff, he came from the Belichick tree.”

While true, he did take part in scouting for the Patriots from 2002 to 2007, he has choosen to sway away from the typical way of thinking and create his own route. He drafted quarterback Matt Ryan as first call of duty.

He’s selected key players throughout the draft to improve the football team such as Curtis Lofton, Thomas DeCoud, William Moore, Harry Douglas, Sean Weatherspoon, Sam Baker, and was headstrong enough to trade up and make a move for an elite wide receiver named Julio Jones.

Dimitroff made aggressive, witty moves to improve his football team such as trading a 2nd round pick to the Chiefs for Tony Gonzalez.

Meanwhile Scott Pioli and the Chiefs used that pick to select Javier Arenas. A nickel corner who will never be asked to start on the outside and cover a true starting wide out.

Tom Dimitroff went outside the “Belichick tree” when selecting his coaching hires. He brought in Mike Smith, a defensive coordinator with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He followed up by hiring Mike Mularky to run his offense. Another guy that was never involved with the patriot way.

He choose to do things his way, and refused to be a follower.

Dimitroff is everything the Chiefs’ fans thought Scott Pioli would be.

So much hope, so much promised. That’s the unfulfilling part of what Scott has brought to the Chiefs.

We were told to expect a consistent team that won championships, and was always on top such as the Pittsburgh Steelers, or Baltimore Ravens.

Bringing in quarterback Matt Cassel may have seemed like a fine move from the beginning. We all had a glimmer of hope that Cassel could continue to improve on his incredible performance in New England and become a franchise quarterback.

After three years it has become apparent that he is not the QB we need in this town.
The fans see it. So when will Scott Pioli admit to his mistake and move away from the quarterback who’s only beaten one playoff team in his three-plus years in Kansas City?

He let one quarterback walk this off-season after he beat two playoff teams in only a three game span. Maybe Kyle Orton knew he wouldn’t stand a chance competing against Pioli’s golden boy, so why stay in a bad situation?

Pioli has built an environment around the organization that is on edge. He’s too worried about candy wrappers, whose talking to who, and how he can spin stories to make it appear that ex-head coaches were the problem and it wasn’t anything he was doing wrong.

Everything around the facility is “coach speak” and secretive as if the Chiefs are running some kind of CIA operation that only select few can peek in at.

The fans have become alienated since the arrival of Scott Pioli.

Carl Peterson, the man who built the “Arrowhead experience”, would put a clause in every players’ contract that promised they would make at least two public appearances each year to support the Kansas City community. He wanted the Chiefs to be a part of the city, and a part of the lives of everyone in the area. Very few things were kept a secret, and although he ultimately failed, he understood that the fans were the most important part of the organization.

Thanks to the “patriot way” mindset, the Chiefs just look like an insecure franchise that is attempting to hide a lot of things that shouldn’t be a secret in the first place.

It’s not just the culture change that has Pioli in the hot seat right now across the city.

His draft classes are nothing to ride home about to this point.

His first pick as GM was a 5-tech defensive end whom had never played the position before and was only the second team all-SEC player of the year twice.

All that as a top three pick, because franchise 5-techs win championships.

The rest of the 2009 draft class only gets worse. Most have flaked out by now, but the Chiefs still have tight end Jake O’Connell and kicker Ryan Succop to look forward to.

2010 appeared to be a different story. Eric Berry was taken as the fifth pick overall, and made the pro bowl his rookie year. As for the rest of the class we’ve ended up with a couple gadget players such as Dexter McCluster, and Arenas. We took a guard by the name of Jon Asamoah in the 3rd round along with tight end Tony Moeaki.

That 2010 class as a whole looks promising, but the talent hasn’t fully emerged yet.

Our first round receiver in 2011 has barely seen the field so far this year, and after the selection of Justin Houston in round three, the rest of the class looks almost as bleak as 2009.

The core of this football team still runs through the draft class put together in 2008 by Carl Peterson and Herm Edwards.

Aside from the draft process, has Pioli done enough to improve the football team? The starters look fine, but the depth across the team is scarce. If center Rodney Hudson has to miss a few weeks, who steps in? If Eric Winston misses a game or two, will the next man up be ready to take that roll? I wouldn’t put my faith in rookie Donald Stephenson.

If Brandon Flowers has a nagging ankle injury and is forced to miss time who will replace him? We’ve seen how that played out. We subbed in a guy who hadn’t played in an NFL game for over two years just to watch him get beat like a drum by Thomas Dimitroff’s draft piece, Julio Jones.

Scott Pioli is on year four of a five year contract granted by owner Clark Hunt. Typically a GM will receive an extension the year before his final season, and time is ticking for Scott to put the Chiefs back on a winning track. Can he find a way to get the ship back on track, or will he just be another body in the long list of failed Belichick disciples?

Or maybe, we’re just led to believe “It’s a process”.



Posted by mikesettle2925 at 12:30 pm Tagged with: Kansas City Chiefs, Matt Cassel, NFL, Patriot Way, Scott Pioli, Thomas Dimitroff

Pioli will draft someone like Geno Smith and save his career here.

Unless Quinn saves it for him this year. Unless the team doesn't rally around him like they did Orton last year... but they have just completely given up on Cassel.

The offense with Cassel out there looks flat. Quinn could come in and make a couple big plays and infuse some excitment into the offense.