NFL: Brodie Croyle's Time in Kansas City May Be Complete

Remember when Herman Edwards praised Croyle for his football skills? Edwards saw something that we never saw in Croyle and wanted to build a football team around him. Croyle received a lot of undeserved attention during his time in Kansas City.

After Kansas City traded Trent Green to Miami, Croyle competed against Damon Huard in the 2007 preseason for the starting quarterback job. After Week 3 of the preseason, Edwards surprisingly announced that Huard would start over Croyle in Week 1. However, the starting duties were eventually taken away from Huard and were given to Croyle in the middle of the season. The quarterback competition was heavily featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks series.

In 2007, Croyle started in six games and played in nine. Croyle not only struggled to pick up a victory, but he also had a hard time preventing the injury bug. It only got worse for Croyle in 2008 as he played and started in only two games.

He opened the season against New England, but was forced to miss four games after suffering a bruised shoulder in Week 1. Croyle’s return was nothing but comical in Week 7 against Tennessee. Early in the second quarter, Croyle released a pass to Dwayne Bowe before getting knocked down. After the play, Croyle was limping and was immediately taken to the locker room. Following the game, Edwards announced that Croyle would not return for the rest of the season.

In 2009, Edwards, who wanted to stick with his plan by having Croyle as the starting quarterback for next season, was fired by Scott Pioli. This move came just one week after Pioli was hired as the new general manager. Later in the offseason, Pioli acquired Matt Cassel in a trade with the team he spent nine seasons with in New England. Many people in Kansas City figured that Croyle's tenure as a Chief was coming to an end.

In Week 3 of the 2009 preseason, Cassel suffered an MCL injury. The injury would prevent him from making his regular season debut with the Chiefs. New head coach Todd Haley announced that Croyle would start in the season opener at Baltimore. Croyle put together his best performance as a starter as he threw for two touchdowns and no interceptions. However, the Chiefs were unsuccessful in picking up a win. Croyle never started another game that season.

In December of 2010, Cassel underwent an emergency appendectomy. When Cassel did not travel with the team to San Diego in Week 14, it was clear that Croyle would start his first game of the season.

Against San Diego, Croyle was ineffective and made no effort to help the Chiefs find the endzone. Croyle completed seven of 17 passes for 40 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions thrown. The Chiefs moved the chains only five times in the entire game.

Out of the 10 games Croyle has started in his career, he has never picked up a win in any of those starts. Out of the 18 games Croyle has appeared in, he has thrown for 1,669 yards, eight touchdowns and nine interceptions, which equates to a 67.8 quarterback rating.

During the 2010 NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs drafted quarterback Ricky Stanzi out of Iowa. From the moment the Chiefs made this selection, it’s very likely that Croyle saw himself playing for another team, perhaps in another league. Although multiple players showed up to Bishop Miege High School for the voluntary minicamp without a contract, Croyle did not. This allowed Stanzi to receive more snaps than expected during the three-day practice.

We will never know why Edwards liked Croyle’s ability to play football. We never saw the side that he saw in Croyle. As spectators, we saw Croyle as an inconsistent player who was injury prone, although Croyle denies that he has problems staying healthy.

While with the Chiefs, Edwards also tried to hide from the fact that Croyle had issues being a good football player. Croyle has said in many interviews that he wants to become a starting quarterback in the league. That will not happen in Kansas City and it's doubtful he gets that opportunity with another team in the league.

Now that the Chiefs have a more reliable backup quarterback, the end of an overrated era has come to an end.