Kansas City Chiefs: Charlie Weis Leaves, Could Josh McDaniels Be His Successor?

On New Year's Day, Charlie Weis and the Kansas City Chiefs announced that the offensive coordinator will leave the Chiefs after the 2010 NFL playoffs and will join the Florida Gators for another stint in the college ranks, as reported by The Sporting News.

The Chiefs have lovingly been called the "Kansas City Patriots" for acquiring a staff full of former personnel from the dynasty of the previous decade, including front-man Scott Pioli, former defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel and, of course, quarterback Matt Cassel.

Which brings me to former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Judging by his short-lived tenure in Denver, it's clear he doesn't have what it takes to run a team just yet. He does, however, have a history of developing talent and getting the most out of his quarterback, as evidenced by his work with Cassel in New England.

He's also incredibly fond of Cassel, as evidenced by his willingness to trade for him despite the presence of Denver's former franchise quarterback Jay Cutler.

With that, it would seem that McDaniels would be a perfect fit for the Patriots...erm, Chiefs, right?

Wrong. So incredibly wrong.

Let's start with the fundamental conflict in philosophy. We saw the Chiefs run the ball more than any other team in 2010. Subsequently, they scored 356 points, and ranked 11th in scoring.

The Broncos, meanwhile, had the 10th most pass attempts behind an offense that only scored 316 points, 21st in the league.

40 points may not seem like a lot over 15 games, but those 2.7 points per game could be the difference between winning and losing plenty of games.

But bringing in an offensive whiz like McDaniels should be an instant upgrade for everyone involved, right?

After all, the Broncos were 13th overall in passing in 2009 and seventh in 2010. All things considered (those "things" being McDaniels shipping off most of his talented offensive weapons), that's none too shabby. Or is it?

Taking a deeper look at the picture using my personal favorite website for obscure stats, FootballOutsiders.com, we learn quite the opposite. He's led the Broncos offense to merely the 18th overall ranking in offensive DVOA over the past two years. This after they ranked second in 2008.

Quite the contrary, the Chiefs ranked 29th in 2008, 25th in 2009 and have jumped to 13th this season.

Oh, and then there's that whole feud between McDaniels and Chiefs head coach Todd Haley.

The rivalry between Haley and McDaniels didn't take long to boil over. Haley had some choice words for the former Denver Broncos head coach after a meeting between the division rivals resulted in a 49-29 loss for Kansas City.

Haley is a man of principle, as are many who have fallen from the Parcells coaching tree. This isn't to say that he would refuse to bring him on solely because of the conflict. As mentioned earlier, it also comes down to overall philosophy.

There's no doubt the Chiefs will need to hire a qualified offensive coordinator, but his name likely won't be Josh McDaniels.