LNBS: Why were the Chiefs bad in the 1980s?

[Best22]

Looking at the roster they had a good secondary (Albert Lewis, Deron Cherry, Kevin Ross, Lloyd Burress) and the receiving corps seemed pretty nice (Stephon Paige, Carlos Carson, Henry Marshall).

I know they never had a great quarterback but I feel like I’m missing something. For the fans who remember, why did they suck?

[warpaint*]

Originally Posted by Bl00dyBizkitz

I told a buddy of mine who's a Cowboys fan that franchise won't go anywhere until Jerry kicks the can.

It’s already played out - all but the dying. Jerry wants to win but not at the expense of his ego.

I think Stephen and Charlotte are smarter but time will have to tell.

[Woogieman]

Originally Posted by siberian khatru

George Blowfish on line 1.

Help me with the reference...

[scho63]

Originally Posted by Woogieman

Help me with the reference...

His deceased Dad had season tickets that now George has from Municipal Stadium days, well over 50 years. He is a legend both at Arrowhead and here.

He has 2 tickets in front row on the 50.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by scho63

His deceased Dad had season tickets that now George has from Municipal Stadium days, well over 50 years. He is a legend both at Arrowhead and here.

He has 2 tickets in front row on the 50.

George used to have a webpage where he dissed Kenny and that entire era pretty badly.

He hated that dude.

[Woogieman]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

George used to have a webpage where he dissed Kenny and that entire era pretty badly.

He hated that dude.

Lol...interesting. So much more to hate in that era. Pitiful line play, maybe two defensive players that you would want on your 85-man roster, their cheerleaders were plucked from Chess King, and of course the front office knew more about dividends than d-ends, but I get it.

[JohnnyV13]

Originally Posted by Woogieman

Lol...interesting. So much more to hate in that era. Pitiful line play, maybe two defensive players that you would want on your 85-man roster, their cheerleaders were plucked from Chess King, and of course the front office knew more about dividends than d-ends, but I get it.

Actually, the Chiefs had more than decent defensive talent in the 80s. Albert Lewis, Deron Cherry, Rock Ross, Lloyd Burrus might have been the best secondary in the AFC. The had some decent linebackers in Dino Hackett and Gary Spani. Art Still was a top rate DE and NT Bill Maas could play. DE Mike Bell had 10 sacks in 1984 and 13 in 1984.

[Imon Yourside]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Why did the Chiefs fire Marv Levy?

Levy ran the boring ass Wing T, it was a horrible pro offense. He left here and did the K-gun thing and had a lot of success except for ya know always failing at the end.

[Imon Yourside]

Originally Posted by siberian khatru

George Blowfish on line 1.

Bill Kenney threw the best punt passes ever.

[Pepe Silvia]

Originally Posted by Imon Yourside

Levy ran the boring ass Wing T, it was a horrible pro offense. He left here and did the K-gun thing and had a lot of success except for ya know always failing at the end.

He bitched about the Bengals hurry up and got it banned for them and then stole it and used it for the Bills. Those 4 SB losses were karma IMHO.

[Rain Man]

My two cents, and I'll start by saying that I mean no offense against anyone I may be critical of. They were all Chiefs and did their best, so I respect the efforts of everyone in that era even if they didn't produce a lot of success.

The drafts in the 1970s were shockingly bad. Now, there may have been a coaching problem that exacerbated it, but I think there was a lack of talent coming in each year. This meant that we didn't have players learning from veterans, which slowed down development of young players throughout the 80s.

We certainly had some good players, but never to an extent to get critical mass. By position group, I'd suggest the following. Note that I'm not looking up any stats and am just going from memory.

Running backs. We were perpetually weak at running back, despite a few high draft picks (Tony Reed, Jeff Kinney, etc.). Delaney was the only guy who came in strong, and we know what happened there. We had too many years with journeyman lead running backs like Billy Jackson and Ted McKnight and Theotis Brown in a running-heavy era where other teams had guys like Earl Campbell and Walter Payton and Marcus Allen. Okoye arrived late in the 80s but had a short career. Grade F.

Quarterback: Believe it or not, we tried. We spent high draft picks on both Steve Fuller and Todd Blackledge in that era, and both busted. Bill Kenney had a few good years (I disagree with Blowfish on his skill level), but for the most part we had subpar talent here. Grade: D.

Wide Receiver/Tight End: Prior to the Mahomes era, I would have said this group was good. We had a few years with Carlos Carson, Stephone Paige, and Henry Marshall, but the harsh truth is that they were an average receiving corps, or only slightly above average, in their best years. We didn't have perennial stars. Walter White was really promising at tight end, but I think his career ended prematurely. Grade: C.

Offensive Line: We had good players on and off but never a powerful overall unit. Jack Rudnay was a solid but undersized center for a decade. John Alt arrived in the mid-80s, along with Irv Eatman and Mark Adickes from the USFL. But that was late in the 80s. For the most part the offensive line was weak outside of Rudnay. Grade: C-

Special Teams: We were good at finding kickers with Stenerud up to the late 70s and then Lowery in this era, and we had decent punters off and on (e.g., Jim Arnold). Our returners were typically subpar. I remember J.T. Smith being okay. Grade: B+, based mostly on the kickers.

Defensive Backs: This is the one area where we shined. Gary Green was around in the late 70s and maybe early 80s, and Gary Barbaro was a hoss at safety, one of my favorite players ever. Over time we got the Lewis/Ross/Burruss/Cherry group. Grade: A.

Linebackers: This group was really weak from the mid-70s until Derrick Thomas arrived. I remember our leading guys often being guys like Thomas Howard, Charles Jackson, Ken McAlister, and a short burst from Tim Cofield. How many people remember those guys? In a running era, linebackers were important, and we also transitioned to a 3-4 without a lot of linebacker accomplishment. Grade: F.

Defensive Line: For much of this era we had Art Still, who I think is a Hall of Fame snub. If he had gone to a strong team, he'd be a Hall of Fame guy right now. We added Bill Maas, who was pretty good, and Mike Bell, who was okay. We seldom had depth, but it was a reasonably strong unit for much of the 80s. Grade: B+, mostly due to Art Still.

Overall, my take is that we could generally field a good defense, but our linebackers were a weak spot that kept the defense from being strong enough to carry the team. And our offenses were pretty much always below average other than a couple of years of Bill Kenney throwing all over the place. Our special teams were pretty good at the skill spots, but with little offense they were hamstrung.

I blame a lot of poor drafting at offensive skill positions, weak linebackers, and often subpar offensive lines.

[Woogieman]

Originally Posted by JohnnyV13

Actually, the Chiefs had more than decent defensive talent in the 80s. Albert Lewis, Deron Cherry, Rock Ross, Lloyd Burrus might have been the best secondary in the AFC. The had some decent linebackers in Dino Hackett and Gary Spani. Art Still was a top rate DE and NT Bill Maas could play. DE Mike Bell had 10 sacks in 1984 and 13 in 1984.

Good point, when I had season tickets, I tend to remember the futility of Getty, Condon, and Herkenhoff on the O-Line, Theotis Brown, James Hadnot, and Jewerl THomas at RB, Whitney Paul, Jerry Blanton, and Thomas Howard at LB who were the league's worst position group, Dino Mangiero, Dave Lindstrom, Fuzzy Kremer, and Don Parrish along the DL. Just stomach turning talent. My memory skews to the earliest years of the decade, before Mackovic's miracle playoff team that had an A+ defensive backfield, but little else!

The point remains...I could choose three CPers today who, without even getting on a plane, would conduct FAR more successful drafts than the FO of the early 80s.

-In the 1980 draft, the CHiefs selected Brad Budde, and three OLs taken after him were Pro-Bowlers, one of which was a HoFer.

-1981 the Chiefs took TE Willie Scott in the 1st: 12 Pro Bowlers, and 4 HoFers went after Scott in the 1st 3 rnds. Scott's entire career was an off-year by Kelce standards (89 receps, 766 yds).

-1982 the Chiefs took WR Anthony Hancock who played 5 yrs in KC and had a slightly more productive career (73 rec, 1266 yds), but the Chiefs missed on 6 Pro Bowlers, 2 of whom were WRs.

-1983- we all know that painful story. In the 1st 2 rnds alone, there were 23 Pro Bowlers and 7 HoFers, none of which the Chiefs got. Without trading up, the Chiefs could still have changed their fortune by taking Marino or Kelly.

Boys, consider yourselves blessed...bumbling, stumbling Front Offices still exist, but the current Chiefs have built a winning DNA of sorts, and I think we are in for a few more decades of good football. We may have a few lean years here and there, and a disappointing HC hire after Andy, but I'm confident we will never be in the position of praying that Tyler Thigpen starts over Brody Croyle.

[PatMahomesIsGod]

Originally Posted by scho63

His deceased Dad had season tickets that now George has from Municipal Stadium days, well over 50 years. He is a legend both at Arrowhead and here.

He has 2 tickets in front row on the 50.

That and Todd Hayley told him to **** himself.

[Shiver Me Timbers]

Originally Posted by Shiver Me Timbers

I personally blame Blacksludge. As I mentioned previously he was/is a grifter. Look at him in the booth. The guy is greasy and sounds like he should be selling high mileage used cars. And it was a hell of a lot more than a decade.

Disclaimer-
I have an "unhealthy" hate for the guy according to my son.

This past Sunday I was flying out of ORD to State College PA.

Son and I board the plane and about 10min into the flight I notice the guy one row in front to the left that looks like Blacksludge. I start shaking my head and my kid asks me whats wrong. I say I am 99% sure that is Blacksludge. We land. Son confirms it is Blacksludge and advises me me not to make a scene. It was Easter so I decided to take the higher road. I did walk by him with a Chiefs cap on, looked at him and shook my head in disapproval.

Oh and he walks like he has 2 bad hips, 2 bad knees and his ankles are jacked. Kind of Pigeon toed like Elway.

[scho63]

Originally Posted by Best22

Looking at the roster they had a good secondary (Albert Lewis, Deron Cherry, Kevin Ross, Lloyd Burress)

Our secondary wasn't good, it was GREAT.
Best in the league.

We had a shit offense, shit QBs and shit coaching for the most part.

Gary Barbaro and Art Still were great but wasted.

Steve Fuller and Bill Kenney sucked moosecock.