Kansas City Chiefs: Wrong Move Promoting Bill Muir To Offensive Coordinator

The Kansas City Chiefs offense took a big step in the right direction this season, both on the ground and through the air, but the promotion of offensive line coach Bill Muir may have just set the team back next season.

Many people believe that offensive coordinator Charlie Weis was a major reason for the team's improvement this year; I was not one of those people. Weis did little in the way of creativity when it came to the Chiefs offense this season other than a couple of trick plays that looked nice on the highlight reel against the 49ers in week 3.

The Chiefs had enough talent on the offensive side of the ball to get by in most games this season, (when you have Jamaal Charles, getting yards isn't a problem) but too often Kansas City went for a big play that wasn't there instead of just keeping the chains moving.

This occurred on multiple occasions throughout the season, but two of the biggest occasions happened at Houston and in the playoffs against the Ravens. The Chiefs seemed to have a stranglehold on a road victory against the Texans in week 6, winning by 10 as the 4th quarter began. With 3:30 remaining in the game, the Chiefs had the ball and a 3-point lead, all they needed to do was getting two first downs and the game was over. In many situations like this one, the Chiefs would have been conservative and ran the ball three times and punted, but instead they ran for four yards and passed for another four. On third and two, the Chiefs attempted a play-action pass deep across the field to tight end Tony Moeaki that fell incomplete.

Had the play been successful, it would have been a great call as is the case with any big play that works, but it was not. The Chiefs were averaging six yards per carry that game and needed just two to pretty much put the game on ice, but instead of keeping the chains moving the Chiefs went for a big play. This was often the case this season as the Chiefs could not keep the chains moving when they should have been.

In the playoff game against the Ravens, the Chiefs pretty much outplayed Baltimore in the first half but still trailed 10-7 as it wound to a close. The Chiefs got the ball to start the second half and moved down the field to the Ravens 33 yard line where they faced a critical 4th and 1 play. The Chiefs were having better than average success running the football against the Ravens and they were doing so by lining up and playing their game, running the ball off-tackle as Charles found his way through the openings in the Baltimore defense.

But on 4th and 1, the Chiefs tried to get cute again and faked an inside hand-off (that really wasn't much of a fake) and quarterback Matt Cassel pivoted and pitched the ball out to Charles who had no where to run for a loss of four yards. Yet another potential scoring drive gone awry for the Chiefs offense, and one that ultimately sealed their fate this season.

The players were to blame for the loss to the Ravens, but the coaching staff should shoulder a large chunk of that blame as well and the play-calling in particular. All season long Weis tried to get creative at the wrong time, leading to punts and stalled drives for the Chiefs offense. When his receivers couldn't get open in the last two games of the seaso,n he did nothing to get them open.

The Ravens consistently bunched receivers together and ran rub routes off of each other to free receivers open and tight end Todd Heap was constantly finding himself open underneath as other potential targets went deeper down the field.

Kansas City, on the other hand, chose to spread their receivers out. The Ravens double-teamed Dwayne Bowe and alternative Chiefs receivers failed to win their one-on-one match-ups to get open. So while much of the fault rests with the players who failed to give Cassel an open target to throw to, the coaching staff did not have a good game-plan on game day.

This brings us to today's promotion of current Kansas City offensive line coach Bill Muir to the position of offensive coordinator. Muir is by no means an up-and-coming coach at this point in his career, as he is 68 years old and has been in the league for some time. Muir's expertise primaily lies in running the football, something the Chiefs did better than anyone in the league this season, but how much did that really have to do with play-calling?

Zero. That's how much.

Charles was the best running back in the league this season, averaging 6.4 yards per carry, the second best mark of any back in a season all-time. Had he not taken his last carry against the Raiders and dropped his average, Charles would be the all-time record holder. Anyone who has seen Charles run knows that he doesn't need much of an offensive line to gain yards, as he proved in 2009 behind a terrible offensive line and once again this season behind a solid but not spectacular unit.

The Chiefs need to get a younger and more talented offensive line and then their running game will really be a force in the league. But the priority going into next season has to be finding a receiver opposite of Bowe and improving the passing game. Muir is not going to do anything to improve the passing game with his running background and his promotion makes it increasingly likely that head coach Todd Haley will likely call plays next season.

Haley struggled to juggle his head coaching and play-calling duties in his first season with the Chiefs in 2009, but he seemed to be much more comfortable this season without the distraction of calling plays.

The Chiefs would have benefited much more from a young and upcoming offensive coordinator who was more concerned with developing the passing game than the running game. Don't get me wrong, being able to run the football is a proven winner in the NFL, but we all know the Chiefs can already do that. The passing game needs improvement and the promotion of Muir does nothing to inspire hope for next season.

Here's to hoping the Chiefs can find a receiver opposite to Bowe this off-season that can take the pressure off of Muir and Haley next season.