Kansas City Chiefs: Blame for Self-Destruction Lies More with Haley Than Pioli

Yes, there's plenty of blame to go around for the ridiculously horrible performance Kansas City has put on these last two weeks. In fact, it's already gotten to the point where I'm running out of adjectives to describe just how bad the Chiefs have played, and the season just started.

Abysmal? Used that one. Inept? Last week.  Horrid, disheartening, miserable and desperate are all off the table, too.

In 20 years of following the Chiefs, I've never been this despondent about being a Kansas City fan. That includes the "felon" days of Bam Morris, Tamarick Vanover and Andre Rison. It even tops the pitiful Herm Edwards era of "playing not to lose."

Pitiful.  There's one I haven't used yet.

With their play on the field, Chiefs fans are hard-pressed to find anything to feel good about. Some are apparently nostalgic for the great days of Carl Peterson.

They're ready to throw Scott Pioli and Clark Hunt under the bus. More than that, they've gotten into the driver's seat and want to throw that puppy into reverse afterwards.

It's all too easy to look at the past with rose-colored glasses, though. Look past Peterson's last draft in 2008. Do the names Sylvester Morris, Greg Hill or Trezelle Jenkins sound familiar? All were first-round picks during Peterson's tenure.

Even as recently as 2007, the Chiefs wasted picks on players like Tank Tyler and Turk McBride. Peterson brought some great players to Kansas City, but more often squandered high draft choices on players who quickly made their exit from the NFL.

Pioli's freshman draft class leaves a lot to be desired, but 2010 more than makes up for it. And while the jury is out on 2011 with Jonathan Baldwin banged up from a locker room brawl, Rodney Hudson, Justin Houston and Jerrel Powe all project to factor into the Chiefs' future.

And yes, Kansas City started the season with enough cap room to sign Nnamdi Asomugha twice over with room to spare. However, the Chiefs face a number of contract extensions this year and next. Tamba Hali and Brandon Flowers both hit payday this year, and Jamaal Charles scored big back in December.

Dwayne Bowe and Brandon Carr were both poised for sizable deals in the near future, though their play to date in 2011 might change those plans. The point is that Kansas City needed flex room for their current talent, which looked much better before the season started.

While the labor dispute inflated this year's free agent class, the number of players who would fit in Kansas City didn't quite meet their needs.  Players like Charles Johnson, Sidney Rice and Kevin Burnett all scored serious contracts, far more than they're really worth.

Overpaying for a good talent hurts your team in the long run. The Washington Redskins wrote the book on that one.

The biggest mistake of Pioli's tenure as general manager doesn't lie with his cap management or draft choices. The worst move came when he took a fledgling offensive coordinator and gave him a head coaching position before he'd had time to mellow out or really understand what was required of him.

Todd Haley made his bones coaching receivers and did well; Larry Fitzgerald credits Haley with making him a better receiver, and Bowe improved drastically last year. But Haley only had two years' experience as an offensive coordinator and only one year actually calling the plays.

Chiefs fans can't throw the baby out with the bath water on this one. Pioli earned NFL Executive of the Year honors over and over again in New England. It's not like the Pro Bowl, where votes go to the most popular player. Pioli won those awards because he earned them, not because Bill Belichick was on hand and did his job for him.

Haley needs to get himself and his team under control if he hopes to coach in Kansas City next year. But Pioli deserves a lot more latitude before fans look to burn him at the stake.

For Haley's sake, it'd better be soon, too. Otherwise, I might have to start making up words to describe games. As much as I'd hate to use it for the Chiefs, "ineptipathetitude" has a nice ring to it.