Why Todd Haley Deserves Another Season at Helm of Kansas City Chiefs

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley started Week 3 interviewing real estate agents—or at least he should have.

Chiefs fans had just witnessed back-to-back craptastic games against Buffalo and Detroit. Eric Berry, Jamaal Charles and Tony Moeaki landed on the All-ACL Injured Reserve Squad. The 2011 season arrived in the emergency room without a pulse.

Dead on arrival. Flatlined. Worm food. Every aspect of those games showed a marked lack of discipline and execution, with no hope for improvement.

When that happens, it's not the players. It's the coaching. Haley didn't control his locker room or his team on the field. Jonathan Baldwin couldn't keep his hands to himself. Kansas City's defense tried setting a record for most personal foul penalties in a minute.

His players weren't drinking the Kool-Aid, so I wrote an article on how to prepare for 2012 and said the Chiefs needed to dump Haley.

Five weeks change a lot of things. Kansas City's won its last three games, shut out the Raiders in Oakland and stands a real shot at taking the lead in the AFC West this time next week.

So, if Haley deserves the accusations for the losses, he deserves the accolades for the wins.

That's why Haley's earning himself another year in Kansas City.

It started somewhere in the San Diego game in Week 3, probably during the sideline shouting match between Haley and Matt Cassel. The Chiefs nearly pulled off the major upset when most figured the Chargers would easily cover the 14-point spread that week.

Instead, the game went down to the wire. Then the Chiefs put together a win against Minnesota, and came from behind against a broken Indianapolis squad. That hopelessness so apparent in the first two weeks disappeared, both for the fans and the players.

Then the Chiefs shutout their first away game in nearly 40 years. It wasn't pretty on offense, particularly in the passing game, and Kansas City drew way too many penalties, but that didn't change the 28-0 final score in Oakland.

There's still a lot to fix for Kansas City and a tough road yet ahead, but for whatever reason, the players believe in their coach—it's shown more and more each week. If Haley can keep them believing, the Chiefs might just have a shot at something more than the chance to draft Andrew Luck next year.

Or Haley could blow the whole thing and find himself looking for a receivers' coach position for next year. The last few weeks have shown there's a lot of football yet to be played, and anything can happen.