Todd Haley Gets Testy

A 3-9 record your first year as a head coach will put anyone on edge.  But Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley has been pretty composed in his daily press conferences.

The first time he got a little testy was when 610 Sports Radio’s Nick Wright questioned the role of LB Derrick Johnson.  He dubbed Wright “Derrick Johnson question guy” and used the opportunity to defend the player ahead of DJ, Demorrio Williams, but all in all was pretty tame.

That was roughly two months ago and even with the Chiefs struggles, Haley has kept a pretty even keel.

Until today that is, which Mr. Wright was back at it.  He asked Haley how Matt Cassel could have to earn his job like everybody else, but that the coach could say he was the starter for the next week without looking at the tape of that day’s game.

Haley was quick to explain his reasoning.

Number one, I’m the head coach of the team.  Number two, with most of these guys there is a full evaluation that is going on all the time, going all the way back.  We’ve talked about that. These guys are being evaluated all the time.

There is a lot more that we see that everybody else doesn’t see.  Everybody else sees the obvious, sees a game.  It’s easy to say coming out of that game, as I heard in the hallway from one guy, ‘that awful game.’  That’s from a non-expert.  There are a lot of reasons, especially on offense, and why things happen.  There are a lot of variables that go into it.  The obvious are easy to see, the not so obvious you need to have a little bigger picture which we have the luxury of seeing.  We see him every day.  We’re in meetings early at 6:30 in the morning with him and we’re here post-practice talking.  I’m in a lot of those meetings and there is a lot that goes into the evaluation of these players, not just the quarterback.

It’s easy to jump up on the pedestal and see a throw and say that was a bad throw when there may have been some other variables that go into it.

I felt pretty comfortable when that game ended where our quarterback was at, enough to make that statement.

It’s always dangerous for any coach to take on the media and even more when you are struggling through your first season.  Don’t get me wrong, Haley didn’t “attack” Wright but was certainly more defensive than he should have been considering how benign the question was.

With the way Cassel has played for long portions of this season — and specifically the past two weeks — it is completely fair for a reporter to ask about the quarterback position just like it was fair to ask about Derrick Johnson and his status at inside linebacker.

I’ve been adamant all year that this is and will continue to be Matt Cassel’s job unless he suffers a major injury.  Until Scott Pioli and Haley put more talent around him on offense, it’s virtually impossible to properly gauge his progress.

However, with that being said I can guarantee you that if Cassel continues to struggle in the last quarter of the season, the Chiefs head coach will be answering questions about the quarterback position through the draft and into training camp.

It would be wise for Haley to worry more about getting Cassel back on track than playing the “I’m an expert and you’re not” card.

Tags: Matt Cassel, Todd Haley