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?

[Woogieman]

When Jack Steadman was named GM in 1966, the NFL was more a car club than a multi-billion $ enterprise...guys with money getting together, show off their cars, but was more of a reason to drink a few beers and show off their status. Hunt ran the Chiefs like this his entire life, he did not have the same drive to win as Al Davis et al, and hired business buddies with little to no football background to run the org. His scouting dept. literally knew as much as you and I about college football with the info we currently have. Drafts were abysmal, there was no focus on QB (even though all the SB champs of the era had HoF QBs)...drafting so high every year, you could hardly miss out on talent, but without a comprehensive rebuild plan like Parcells brought to the moribund Giants, they just floundered year after year. Several franchises did. I think it was Bill Walsh, Parcells, and Joe Gibbs that demonstrated to the league that they will anally rape you in the SB if you don't have a top notch scouting/personell dept., a HC that is also a highly organized CEO, and get a QB capable of running an efficient offense without TOs.

In the decade of the 80s, only Thiesmann and McMahon weren't multi-SB champs, and only the Bears didn't have a multi SB HC.

[crayzkirk]

I always felt that Blackledge never really got a chance. There were lots of missed opportunities, Steve Fuller over Joe Montana. The coaching was bad, the Hunts had lost interest after winning the SB. I recall going to a lot of games in the 80s where there was absolutely no one in the upper seats. When games were televised, they cameras would stop at the gold club level to prevent showing the empty stadium. The loss of Joe Delaney really did send the team on a negative path. The Royals were always in contention and people only have so much money to spend on sports.

[Woogieman]

Originally Posted by kccrow

Why do we blame Steadman? Should we be blaming Schaaf?

Steadman was GM from '60 to '76. He became President in '76 and Schaff took over as GM until 1988.

Steadman helped Lamar establish the AFL and helped put the Chiefs in Missouri. Our initial prominence is in large thanks to Steadman.

Sure, the decline began in the mid-70s under Steadman once all of the greats started aging out but Schaaf never truly dug us out during his tenure.

Yes, Schaaf was a disaster, but he was brought in by Steadman. Neither were "football" men, and Lamar Hunt was ultimately to blame for putting these men in charge of football operations and personnel decisions. They were a decade or two behind in the "science" and analytics of pro football. They were so far out of their element, I'm surprised they weren't busted at the airport in dresses trying to steal lingerie.

[Best22]

What did people think of Bill Kenney? He made the pro bowl in 1983

[LagunaSWana]

He's been mentioned, but my very 1st thought when seeing this thread title was Todd Blackledge. Not blaming him personally, but just picking him over QBs that had great careers. That pick set the franchise back a decade.

[tredadda]

They were bad for the same reasons that so many other teams tend to stay bad for large sections of time regardless of talent. Poor GM and poor HCs. At least KC had a good owner which those other teams typically don’t have.

[Deberg_1990]

Ethan Horton
Brian Jozwiak
Paul Palmer.
Back to back to back. Woof

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by LagunaSWana

He's been mentioned, but my very 1st thought when seeing this thread title was Todd Blackledge. Not blaming him personally, but just picking him over QBs that had great careers. That pick set the franchise back a decade.

Set them back until ~2017. Because of the failure of Blackledge this team didn’t take a chance on a first round QB until Mahomes. That’s 34 years of at best treading water. While they improved during the Marty era, that never translated into championships.

[warpaint*]

Marty favored veteran QBs. Prior to his tenure I can’t really comment a whole lot bc I was too young. Obviously the 83 draft is infamous.

Firing Mackovic didn’t cost them a title but was clearly a step in the wrong direction and doing so due to a coup is asinine.

CP clearly favored veteran QBs as well as he traded for another after Marty left. CP whiffed on many a draft pick on top of that - he was a decent GM but nowhere near elite.

My read on it is CP refused to take the risk involved with trading up and trying to hit on a QB bc 10-6 playoff berths kept him employed as long as the stands were full and he was right bc that tact allowed him to milk it for 20 years give or take.

What is so remarkable is this Mahomes/Reid era has wiped out the ineptitude of the previous 50 years in an incredibly short period of time in a comparative sense as there are incredibly now only 4 franchises with more Super Bowl wins and there’s a good chance that halves shortly.

[KC_Lee]

Honestly, I don't think Lamar Hunt really started caring about the Chiefs again until Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys. Lamar could not stomach another oil man in the league and in his home state of TX.

After Jones bought the Cowboys, Lamar cleaned house, brought in Carl & Marty and the rest is history as they say.

[Woogieman]

Originally Posted by Best22

What did people think of Bill Kenney? He made the pro bowl in 1983

Fans loved Kenney, he was the 1st QB in years capable of big numbers in what was a RB dominated era. He had huge games with Carlos Carson (1,351 yds in '83), Henry Marshall (most all-time receptions for a Chiefs WR?) and Stephon Paige (2 seasons 900 yds, one seasom averaged about 22 yds/reception). He was a bit of a gunslinger with too many INTs, but he had to be with that defense. He had a string of injuries that diminished his careers numbers, but surely would have been remembered as more of a winner had Joe Delaney not tragically drowned. Delaney may have brought down his stats, but they would have won more games...the RBs selected after JD were utterly without pro ability.

[Woogieman]

Marty wasn't COMPLETELY wrong about a "great D and running game", as that formula workes a few times in his era (Hostettler-Giants, Rypien & Williams-Redskins), but when you combine journeymen QBs with journeymen WRs, it's almost impossible. And the Defense better be so good, they had a nickname.

[PatMahomesIsGod]

Originally Posted by warpaint*

Marty favored veteran QBs. Prior to his tenure I can’t really comment a whole lot bc I was too young. Obviously the 83 draft is infamous.

Firing Mackovic didn’t cost them a title but was clearly a step in the wrong direction and doing so due to a coup is asinine.

CP clearly favored veteran QBs as well as he traded for another after Marty left. CP whiffed on many a draft pick on top of that - he was a decent GM but nowhere near elite.

My read on it is CP refused to take the risk involved with trading up and trying to hit on a QB bc 10-6 playoff berths kept him employed as long as the stands were full and he was right bc that tact allowed him to milk it for 20 years give or take.

What is so remarkable is this Mahomes/Reid era has wiped out the ineptitude of the previous 50 years in an incredibly short period of time in a comparative sense as there are incredibly now only 4 franchises with more Super Bowl wins and there’s a good chance that halves shortly.

The top 10 teams have won 43 of 57 SBs.

Really top heavy.

[warpaint*]

Originally Posted by Woogieman

Fans loved Kenney, he was the 1st QB in years capable of big numbers in what was a RB dominated era. He had huge games with Carlos Carson (1,351 yds in '83), Henry Marshall (most all-time receptions for a Chiefs WR?) and Stephon Paige (2 seasons 900 yds, one seasom averaged about 22 yds/reception). He was a bit of a gunslinger with too many INTs, but he had to be with that defense. He had a string of injuries that diminished his careers numbers, but surely would have been remembered as more of a winner had Joe Delaney not tragically drowned. Delaney may have brought down his stats, but they would have won more games...the RBs selected after JD were utterly without pro ability.

My father always said Kinney’s numbers were inflated with garbage yards playing catch up while the other team played the clock with a lead. He thought he was meh.

Undoubtedly regardless he never had adequate help.

[LagunaSWana]

Originally Posted by tredadda

Set them back until ~2017. Because of the failure of Blackledge this team didn’t take a chance on a first round QB until Mahomes. That’s 34 years of at best treading water. While they improved during the Marty era, that never translated into championships.

Good point. The Chiefs were shy about drafting a QB after the Blackledge failure.