Over the weekend Chiefs fans witnessed a resurgence of the franchise via a
draft full of riches and promise. Because of that success, Monday morning those
fans woke up with a bounce in their step. Among them was Chairman of the Board
Clark Hunt.
Hunt told Warpaint Illustrated he thought the Chiefs had an outstanding draft
and was proud of the job his staff carried out Saturday and Sunday.
As I interviewed Hunt Sunday evening, it was fitting that construction
workers outside Arrowhead were digging what appeared to be huge moats, laying
the foundation for the new stadium. The same can be said about the work inside
Arrowhead.
Since September, Bill Kuharich, Chuck Cook and Ray Farmer, the architects of
KC's player scouting department, have been laying the foundation for potentially
one of the greatest draft classes in team history.
It might be premature to make that judgment, because NFL games aren't won on
paper. But when you collect the kind of talent the Chiefs did this weekend, it's
tough not to be optimistic.
Hunt had plenty of optimism even after the first day of the draft, despite
the fact that it will cost him tens of millions of dollars in signing bonus
money and player contracts. But the financial aspect of the game was not on his
mind when the Chiefs selected LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, Virginia
offensive tackle Branden Albert and Virginia Tech cornerback Brandon Flowers.
"The term I used to describe it was a home run," said Hunt.
"Clearly, that was after two rounds, but we had picked up three very good
football players. Three guys who really ought to be able to come in here and
compete for a starting job and hopefully win a starting job next year."
"The way the first round played out, where we were able to get the
offensive tackle, which was the big need going into the draft, and then you sort
of throw Glenn Dorsey in as a bonus, that's a pretty good bonus, to say the
least. We were ecstatic over that."
Hunt was ecstatic over KC's choice of Glenn Dorsey in the first round.
Jim McIssac - Getty
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But that was only the beginning. The Chiefs had nine picks on Day Two, and
when it was all over, Hunt was equally impressed with second-day crop.
"We picked up a bunch of good football players," he said.
"Several will compete for starting jobs this year and many of them will see
significant playing time. All in all, it was a very exciting draft."
The root of all that excitement came from KC's scouting department, according
to Hunt. He said his personnel department was ready for every opportunity that
presented itself on Saturday and Sunday.
In fact, they were so prepared that the Chiefs' coaching staff was impressed
like never before.
"Just talking to the coaching staff, their comment to me was - and some
of these coaches have been coaching for 30-plus years - they had never seen
preparation like this," said Hunt. "It was just the best they'd seen,
the most thorough. I think that sort of bore itself out as the draft unfolded,
so I'm very positive from that standpoint."
"There was a lot of like-mindedness between our general manager and our
head coach and Bill Kuharich, who was running the draft. There wasn't any
dissention on which player we should take or what position. I always like to see
that, that's very important."
Hunt credited Kuharich for the groupthink in Kansas City's war room over the
weekend. About a month before the draft, he said offensive coordinator Chan
Gailey, defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham and head coach Herm Edwards met
with Kuharich to go over every player entering the draft.
"They all rate the players, and Carl's part of that process as
well," said Hunt. "At the end of the day, the grade we have on a
player is a grade that's a by-product of everybody's thought process. There's a
lot of buy-in when Bill includes the coaching staff. Bill's been doing this for
a while at one level or another in the National Football League. I think he has
a real good feel for it, he's a very thorough football person, and we're lucky
to have him."
•••
Of course, in order for the 2008 Draft to be so successful, Hunt had to make
a difficult decision - to trade All-Pro defensive end Jared Allen to the
Minnesota Vikings. It wasn't easy for Hunt.
First, he had to deal with the public sentiment for one of Kansas City's most
popular players. Second, he had to deal with the realistic chances of signing
Allen long-term. Hunt had a good relationship with Allen, which means it may
have been difficult for him to weigh what he wanted and what was best for the
football team.
"He's going to go on to do great things in Minnesota," said Hunt of
Allen. "We'll miss his passion and energy on Sundays. On the other hand,
the compensation that was offered by Minnesota finally got to the point where,
from a football standpoint, we had to make the move. I believe it was the right
decision, but also a difficult one. We gave up a good football player. But now
that we've had the draft, I know we got some good football players in return for
him."
Trading Allen wasn't easy for Hunt.
Jim Mone - AP
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And what about those other football players? The rest of KC's roster was
watching as Carl Peterson sent Allen to the Vikings in exchange for three draft
picks.
Allen signed with Minnesota for a bundle of cash. What does that mean for the
future players who might be in the same boat a year or two years from now? Will
they face a similar route out of town, or will homegrown stars have the option
to remain Chiefs their entire NFL careers?
Hunt's answer Sunday night was that every situation is different.
"The first key is making sure you've got good drafts, because if you
have good drafts you're going to have some of those quality young players who
will play out their first contract," he said. "Our philosophy
generally will be to re-sign those players."
"But there will be times when one way or another, we'll let a quality
young player go. I don't like doing it, but if you look at the examples of
Pittsburgh and New England, they've been willing to let quality players who are
still in their prime go, through trade or just outright through free agency,
because they don't believe the compensation that would be required to keep that
player is in the best interests of the team."
"I think you'll see a mix. Certainly I'd like to keep as many of the
quality guys that we draft as possible, but it won't be possible to keep them
all, and that's just the nature of the business. It's tough to deal with but
that's part of building a successful football team. You have to identify which
players need to be a part of your franchise long-term and which players you can
replace."
•••
Ultimately, Hunt knows that he's serving the fans. Can they endure another
losing season while this year's draft class matures? Hunt thinks so.
"I do realize that in the short run, going with young players could have
some shortcomings in terms of our performance on the field," he said.
"But that's OK. I think those guys will learn and our fans will enjoy
watching those players develop."
"What I've come to learn is that the fans are actually really studied.
They're really smart. It must be because there's 24-hour news on the National
Football League. It's Warpaint Illustrated and all the cable channels that cover
the NFL and the constant media attention and the internet. Fans have become very
smart in terms of how championship teams are built, and I sense they understand
what we're doing and will support it."
What exactly are the Chiefs doing? Successful football teams, the ones that
compete for division titles, conference championships and Super Bowls have
nearly flawless systems.
Hunt realizes his franchise needs to develop one of those systems, but
believes the Chiefs are on the right track.
"There was a path we could have gone, and a lot of teams go this
direction, that probably has a higher probability of yielding a mediocre
football team in the short run," he said. "That involves hanging on to
more veteran players, signing more veteran free agents, but mediocrity is not
what we're after."
Hunt believes Chiefs fans will have patience with his young team.
Jamie Squire - Getty
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"We're trying to build a championship football team. I'm not interested
in having a team that year-in and year-out wins eight or nine games. That's not
what the exercise is about. The only way you can give yourself a shot at
building a championship team is by drafting outstanding football players. That's
where you get them, you bring them into your system, they learn your philosophy.
Hopefully the end product two or three years out is a team that's capable of
competing for a Super Bowl."
"Long-term for this organization, this is how we want to do it. I want
the approach to be independent of both the general manager and the head coach,
because those people, over time, will change. I'm not saying in the short-term
that they will, because we have good people in those positions. But I want the
philosophy that the organization uses to build the football team to always be
the same."
"One by-product of doing that is you don't go through these difficult
transitions when you have a change at the head coaching position. We're living
through that right now having gone from Dick Vermeil, who preferred the veteran
player, to Herm, who prefers the young player."
"If the organization can have a consistent philosophy and exercise it
year in and year out, then when you have changes at the head coaching position -
which will happen, because head coaches, even the most successful ones, burn
out, step down, etc. - if your philosophy is the same you won't take a big step
backwards. You just pick up right where you were and keep building."
Does that mean Hunt has anything but complete confidence in his head coach?
Not at all. Sunday he reiterated the support for Herm Edwards that he's shown in
the past.
"We're very lucky to have Herm, because of his preference for young
players," said Hunt. "We have a coach who not only likes young
players, but who will play them. That's what we need right now, so Herm's
absolutely the right person to be doing what we're doing."
•••
Hunt now faces a 2008 season filled with unknowns. With an A-plus draft under
the team's belt, fans may have expectations that might not previously have
existed. Hunt, at the moment, will refrain from offering any predictions on the
team's record.
"I do expect us to be a better football team than we were last
year," he said. "I think particularly on the offensive side of the
ball we'll be greatly improved over last year. With the way the draft unfolded,
it's pretty exciting to be able to think about what we might be able to
accomplish on defense as well. Clearly, losing Jared should hurt us in some
aspects, but picking up Glenn Dorsey is going to help in some others. How those
two offset I don't think we'll know until the games start playing."
And even though it's over 100 days until Kansas City kicks off the season in
New England, Hunt is already anticipating a 2008 season that will be filled with
youth. Fortunately, there's plenty of time to get the new batch of Chiefs up to
speed.
"The thing about the day after the draft is you're ready for the season
to start tomorrow," said Hunt. "But since we've got so many young
players I'm glad we've got a few months to get them here, get them in the
system, get them familiar with the playbook, and then we'll get after it in
August."
Read more about the Chiefs and their new draft class at our Kansas City site on the Scout.com network, WarpaintIllustrated.com.