Kansas City Chiefs Revamped Staff Brings Plenty of Experience

(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

Clancy Pendergast joins Kansas City as the Chiefs defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach, after spending the last five years in the same positions with the Cardinals. 

Despite an under-talented defense, Pendergast’s squad lead the NFL in fumble recoveries and finished fifth in the league in total takeaways.

During the Cards’ improbably playoff run, the team forced a league best 13 turnovers and 10 sacks while holding opponents to just 72 rushing yards per game.

Pendergast is considered one of the best defensive backs coaches in the league, witnessed by his sending safety Adrian Wilson to the Pro Bowl in 2006 and 2008, and his 2007 squad setting a franchise record for interceptions returned for touchdowns.

After spending the last three seasons as defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints, Gary Gibbs joins the Chiefs as their linebackers coach.  Despite less than stellar results in the bayou, Gibbs has still managed to rebuild a career that seemed dead over a decade ago.

Gibbs is best known from his time with the Oklahoma Sooners, where he played linebacker in 1972-74 and immediately began his coaching career after graduation. 

In 1989, Gibbs had the unenviable task of replacing coaching legend Barry Switzer, and while his six years there were hardly disastrous, they weren’t up to Oklahoma’s standards, and he was unceremoniously fired after a 6-6 record in 1994.

Gibbs remained out of coaching until 2000, when the University of Georgia hired him as their defensive coordinator.  He moved to LSU the next season, and in 2002 made his NFL coaching debut as the linebackers coach for the Dallas Cowboys. 

Ironically, his arrival in Dallas was just a few years after Barry Switzer had left that franchise.

Gibbs’ personal history might be interesting, but it takes second place compared to that of Pat Perles. 

Perles made his NFL coaching debut in 1992 with the then Los Angeles Rams, coaching two seasons under Chuck Knox but was let go when Knox was fired after a 5-11 season. 

Perles spent the next 15 years bouncing around the coaching community, a tour which included three stops in the Canadian Football League before returning to his alma mater, Michigan State.

Perles has spent the last five years at North Dakota State, most recently as their offensive coordinator.  However his return to the NFL will be as a defensive quality control assistant, which also marks the first time since 1993 that he will coach on the defensive side of the ball.

While Haley, and by extension Pioli’s first staff is certainly colorful, few people can claim they are short on experience.  Whether that experience can translate to wins, is up to them.

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