FanHouse HermanEdwards

Another NFL draft has come and gone, and it's possible that you spent much of your weekend glued to a television set laughing at the Raiders and screaming for your team to find the next Tom Brady at the bottom of the sixth-round. If you're like me, you live in an area of the country where your only option for draft day coverage is ESPN's wire-to-wire mayhem.

If you happened to miss the draft, or watched it on the NFL Network, here's what you missed.

Last year, the Chiefs put together one of the most impressive two-day draft showings I can remember. Glenn Dorsey, Branden Albert, Brandon Flowers, and Jamaal Charles -- all taken in the first three rounds -- saw significant playing time as rookies, and fifth-round defensive back Brandon Carr started every game. (Worth pointing out: the Chiefs might try to move Dorsey.)

It wasn't enough to save Herman Edwards' job; after taking the Chiefs to the playoffs in 2006, he only managed six wins the last two seasons. But new general manager Scott Pioli and new head coach Todd Haley have plenty of young talent to rebuild the team, and in March, they traded for their franchise quarterback: former Patriots backup Matt Cassel who, according to NFL Network's Mike Lombardi, just signed a six-year, $36 million deal. Not Matthew Stafford money, but it'll keep him comfortable.

When the Chiefs knocked off the Broncos at home a week ago, more than one Chiefs fan probably hoped that the win would jumpstart the rebuilding process and provide a blueprint to a respectable 2008 season. That was wishful thinking. The Chiefs showed little fight against the Panthers in a 34-0 rout yesterday.

Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star reports, that may be because the Chiefs didn't seem too fazed by the whole ordeal.

And yet the Chiefs' locker room had a surprising and disconcerting chipperness after the game. I'm not saying anyone was happy, because it wasn't that. And I'm not saying that after games like this football players and coaches should lock themselves in stockades and allow quarterbacks with accuracy to throw tomatoes at them. But, from coach Herman Edwards on down, the Chiefs seemed three connecting flights away from reality.

Talk of learning experiences and growing pains are great for making it seem like you are making progress. Yesterday was a major regression, though, and, no matter how little talent is in the building, it should make your team upset.

Making it all the stranger is Edwards' presence at the helm. The coach who famously made "you play to win the game" part of the NFL lexicon presiding over a sanguine post-loss locker room makes for a difficult image to conjure. One wonders if he might not be thinking about how much easier it would be to talk about games like this on TV than live them in person.

Historically, rookie wide receivers take about three years to mature into consistent playmakers. Now, though, the learning curve has been lessened; more first-year wideouts are making contributions, and for some teams, it's been a godsend.

Like the Chiefs, for example. They drafted LSU's Dwayne Bowe last April and midway through the '07 season, Bowe has 29 catches for 499 yards and three scores. That he's third on the team in receptions behind Tony Gonzalez and Larry Johnson speaks more to the offense's overall struggles than his ability to get open, I think. Still, what Bowe has accomplished thus far is pretty impressive.

"I anticipated (the struggles) when we drafted him and we simplified some things so he could line up and play,'' [head coach Herm] Edwards said. "Him and (second-year receiver Jeff) Webb . . . We simplified some things so these guys could play.''

Hey, how about that? Edwards is actually trying to improve the offense. I'm kidding, but it's sometimes hard to tell if you've seen the Chiefs play. So why is it so difficult for wideouts to make the adjustment from college to the NFL?

"I just think (it's) all the coverages that they see at the pro level,'' said Edwards, a former long-time defensive back and defensive backs coach in the league. "Obviously the guys that are defending them are a little bit better. In college there aren't a lot of great corners, that's why they're so hard to draft. You don't find a lot of great corners in college football.

I suspect as college programs continue to implement NFL offenses, the transition will be smoother. Now if the Chiefs could just decide on a quarterback.

Dwayne Bowe might want to get his hands on a time machine:

Kansas City's first-round draft pick began his professional career by showing up 30 minutes late for his first practice. Stretching exercises and coach Herm Edwards' welcoming remarks were finished by the time [Bowe] hurried onto the field for the opening session of a three-day rookie minicamp.

Then the 6-foot-3 Bowe, who described himself on draft day as "intimidating," proceeded to drop several passes.

To be fair, I've heard Edwards' welcoming remarks, and Bowe was right to miss them. So what reason would a rookie have for being late to his second day of practice? Apparently, he "had some things to do."

Edwards seemed to have a little more in the way of specifics, though his reasons don't make the situation any less ridiculous:

"I don't know. I think he had a shoe problem... That's what those big guys have. You know, when they get those big contracts they don't know what shoes to wear, I guess. I don't know. But he was here. He started practicing. He was in the drills. He dropped some balls and I told him relax..."

Yeah, Edwards really sounds like he's into this whole coaching thing. Now, maybe the head coach ripped Bowe a new one out of they prying eyes of the camera, but to read his comments, you get the impression Edwards wasn't too concerned. Maybe it's not a big deal -- though I think every other NFL coach would disagree -- I mean, Bowe did finally show up. Even if he didn't catch a lot of passes. At least he got the shoes right.

If Chiefs coach Herman Edwards was in charge of dishing out punishments for NFL players who misbehave off the field, what you'd end up with -- other than a lot of fatherly lectures -- is a system that doesn't ever fine players, but deals in suspensions. Herm doesn't want you to play to win the game, in fact, Herm doesn't want you to play at all.

"I've never been a big proponent of fining players. Players, last time I checked, if they don't get to play, they understand that," he said. "If they don't get to play, that's what they understand. You don't dress. You don't play. Go home. You sit there and you watch.

Sounds great. I'm on board. The only problem is that the NFL will never let that happen. Sure, they're concerned about the players Pacmanning it up out there, but the most important thing to the NFL is selling their product. And because they have a product to sell, they want their best players on the field on Sundays, regardless of whether or not they committed rape, murder, arson, and rape (bonus points to whoever gets that reference) on Wednesdays.

That's the truth. Because Herm Edwards is right, suspensions would be a much harsher punishment for players. But I'm right, too ... because the NFL knows damn well that Herm Edwards is right, and yet, it will never, ever happen.

It's not like you're going to stop buying tickets and merchandise and DirecTV packages if NFL players don't "clean up their act." You may get indignant in a few behavior-related comment threads here in the FanHouse, but you're not going to stop watching football. You just aren't.

So the punishments will continue to be light, Chris Henry and Jerramy Stevens will continue to be on the field on Sundays, and we'll all continue to enjoy the NFL and not think about criminal behavior at all between the whistles. That's just the way things are. But thanks anyway, Herm.

Maybe Herm Edwards doesn't like to watch the Super Bowl, but he sure likes to talk about it. Edwards wrote a guest commentary in the Kansas City Star entitled: "The Colts Are Here Because of Defense." As always, Edwards got directly to the point:

Defenses win games. I keep telling people that, and they don't believe me.

When you look at the playoffs, that's what won it for these guys, is their defense. Both teams have played good defense in the playoffs. Both of them had shootout games, too. Lovie (Smith) and those guys had a shootout game against Seattle, and Tony had a shootout game against New England. But in the other games against us and Baltimore, they played good defense.

Edwards then goes on to, for all practical purposes, write a Colts love-fest. I know Edwards is close friends with Tony Dungy, but his commentary was basically an early Valentine's Day love note to the Colts' defense.

Edwards probably shouldn't quit his day job anytime soon, either. He concludes his commentary by saying:

Peyton is playing better. It was just a matter of time because he's that kind of quarterback. To me, a key for both teams is special teams because they both have good return guys. And then how (Rex) Grossman plays against those guys. If he doesn't turn the ball over, they'll be in the game. If he turns the ball over, that's not good.

Not exactly Pulitzer material there.

If you want to know what worries the Chiefs, here they are in no particular order: offensive and defensive line, fullback, wide receiver, safeties, overall offense, overall defense.

One part noticably absent from the above list is special teams. No punter or kicker listed. Obviously, kick and punt returner wasn't listed. However, this wasn't the case last year. Lawrence Tynes was coming off an erratic rookie year. Dustin Colquitt was a rookie. Tynes' holder was Colquitt, who had little experience as a holder. Even the return team was a question mark because of age, inconsistency, and the injury histories of key players. I was baffled; after all, Dick Vermeil started in the NFL as a special teams coach, and it almost seemed he was minimizing that crucial third element of the team, especially in pairing a sophomore kicker with an inexperienced holder.

But with new blood on the coaching staff comes a new attitude. New special teams coach Mike Priefer has the benefit of a more confident Tynes and a more experienced Colquitt, but perhaps most importantly, he has new blood on the return and coverage teams. Last year, Hall did as much as he could with what had become a fairly predictable blocking scheme, almost as if the blockers went through the motions, expecting The Human Joystick to do the rest.

This year, Priefer has hungrier personnel, and he has implemented new blocking schemes. The results can only be positive for Hall, who relies as much on unpredictable movements as agility and speed. Players such as Bernard Pollard and Jarrad Page bring rookie intensity, while Boomer Grigsby exemplifies young, but experienced, personnel. Even starters like Derrick Johnson may play significant roles. These players may have an even bigger impact on coverage teams, which had almost guaranteed opposing returners several unnecessary yards on punts and kickoffs last year.

Meanwhile, Tynes and Colquitt are primed for strong years. Tynes originally had issues with Colquitt's holds, but consistency finally took hold at the end of last season, and Tynes finished strong. Colquitt was excellent in accuracy but erratic in length. So far this preseason, he has been fantastic, combining a surprisingly strong leg with excelleng accuracy with the abnormal spin he puts on the football. With question marks on offense, the kicking game could be crucial this year, and Herm Edwards would certainly appreciate not having to worry about two positions Vermeil would fret over all the time.