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Originally Posted by DaWolf
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But let’s start with the Chiefs. Though most people in that organization seem to maintain genuine affection for Dorsey, issues simmered there for almost two years. They began to boil over following the departure of director of football operations Chris Ballard in January, and came to a head at a most unusual juncture in the NFL calendar—the deadest time of the football year.
Back in February, with the five-year deals of Dorsey and coach Andy Reid set to expire after the 2017 season, Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt told the Kansas City Star: “I would expect to sit down with them over the course of the next year and talk about an extension.” The Reid talks happened, and a deal was struck to keep him in Kansas City through the 2021 season. The Dorsey talks didn’t.
So there are two questions to answer: 1) What changed? 2) How did Hunt see what few on the outside could, and what few on the inside thought would never reach the ownership level?
The truth is, some of this traces back to a shift in the organizational model in 2013. Scott Pioli was the only person on the football side reporting to Hunt from 2009-12, and Hunt changed that, in part, because he wanted more oversight. So Reid, Dorsey and president Mark Donovan would all report to Hunt, as Hunt was determined not to let problems fester as they had with Pioli and ex-coach Todd Haley.
In practice, that meant Hunt had a better view of the internal issues than many realized, particularly since Reid and Dorsey set up their football operation in the old Eagle model, with coaching and scouting somewhat sovereign to one another.
Given the power each then wielded, the stock criticism of Dorsey—that while he’s incredibly respected as an evaluator, he’s more scout than manager—was validated with a level of disorganization that was noticeable before the hyper-organized Ballard departed, and obvious after he left for Indy.
As one source explained it, “It wasn’t dysfunction so much as it was decisions were being made that seemed to come out of nowhere. So that existed, but the people here weren’t aware that ownership was aware of it. … You look back now, how it worked out, and ownership was more aware that it didn’t need to be run that way.”
There were also a few flash points to prove it out over the past 18 months:
• The selection of Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan in the fifth round of the 2016 draft. That move stunned scouts and coaches, based on the evaluation and meetings leading up to the draft. Hogan didn’t wind up making the team four months later, and started last season on the Browns’ practice squad.
• The four-year, $48 million extension with left tackle Eric Fisher in August 2016. At the time of signing, Fisher had failed to entrench himself at the left tackle spot he was drafted to play. In fact, Fisher lost the job to Donald Stephenson during the 2015 season, and Fisher was flipped to the right side. The Chiefs still did the big contract, despite having a year left on Fisher’s rookie deal, and an option year after that.
• The five-year, $41.25 million deal for guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif in February. This deal came, like Fisher’s, in Duvernay-Tardif’s first offseason eligible for a second contract. Meanwhile, the Justin Houston and Eric Berry contract talks simmered—cap guru Trip MacCracken was let go last month—and the team has spent the past couple years perilously close to the salary cap.
Others in the building saw signs of decisions becoming less collaborative, and more centered on Dorsey’s instincts. It also didn’t go unnoticed that Dorsey’s draft picks, like Fisher and Duvernay-Tardif, were the ones getting paid early. And the way the Jeremy Maclin release was handled—key members of the staff didn’t know until after it became public—didn’t help squash the internal whispering.
This isn’t to say there weren’t decisions that were made with a roaring consensus from the team’s football operation. One such call was the one to pursue Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the draft. The Chiefs moved aggressively to make it happen.
But too often, there were big moves made where scouts and coaches were left scratching their heads. It still bothers some close to Dorsey that Hunt caught wind of it, because there certainly weren’t many signs externally that the ax was about to drop. Some still maintain that it was right to keep these issues in-house, since they may have been fixable.
The trouble with that, of course, was the Chiefs were going to have to sign up for another half-decade with Dorsey. And in the end, that’s something that Hunt wasn’t going to do.