Post by number1chiefsfan on Jun 24, 2003 16:23:51 GMT -5
Here's what Vic Carrucci Had to say about the Chiefs.
Is Vermeil's third year charm for Chiefs?
By Vic Carucci
National Editor, NFL.com
(June 18, 2003) -- It makes perfect sense that the Kansas City Chiefs have hitched their hopes to thingy Vermeil's history of transforming the NFL teams he has coached into playoff qualifiers by his third season.
After all, Vermeil has done it twice, with the 1978 Philadelphia Eagles and the 1999 St. Louis Rams. As he approaches season number three in Kansas City, who could blame Chiefs front-office types, coaches and players for the buzzing they've done this offseason about Vermeil working his third-year magic once again?
I certainly can't.
But it's important to understand that expecting the Chiefs to keep Vermeil's remarkable streak intact is based on sound, rational thought. What he achieved with the Eagles and Rams did not result from any mystical force or sheer luck. In each instance, he implemented a systematic, step-by-step program of instruction and development that, by its very design, should yield such success in three years.
"I'd like to think the good things we did (in the first two years) compound and all of a sudden, a lot of things swell," Vermeil says.
Granted, no one, including Vermeil, could have envisioned the Rams skyrocketing from 4-12 in 1998 to Super Bowl champions a year later. The emergence of Kurt Warner from unknown backup to NFL and Super Bowl MVP certainly wasn't part of Vermeil's grand blueprint.
However, Vermeil fully expected the Rams to at least make the same sort of strides that the Eagles did when they improved from 5-9 in 1977 (when the NFL had a 14-game season) to 9-7 and a wild-card playoff berth a year later. The Eagles lasted only one round in the postseason, but were 11-5 in 1979 and made it to the second round of the playoffs. In 1980, they were 12-4 and reached the Super Bowl.
After 6-10 and 8-8 seasons with the Chiefs, Vermeil is confident he can deliver a significantly better finish in 2003. And he has every reason to feel that way.
For starters, the Chiefs have one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL. They have one of the best running backs in the game in Priest Holmes, presuming he recovers from the hip injury he suffered at the end of last season. They have the best tight end in the game in Tony Gonzalez. They have a prolific quarterback in Trent Green. They have as sound an offensive line as any in the league.
The Chiefs also have taken solid steps to inject much-needed speed and talent into their defense by acquiring former Eagles linebacker Shawn Barber and former Green Bay Packers end Vonnie Holliday.
thingy Vermeil hopes to have the Chiefs groomed and ready for a Super Bowl in 2003.
But a less obvious, yet equally important, reason for optimism is what players who have been with the Chiefs since 2001 have absorbed from Vermeil and the coaching staff. Through each practice, meeting and game, they are constantly challenged to raise the level of their performance -- to push themselves to heights they never thought they could reach. This goes for offseason work as well.
In fact, one of Vermeil's highlights with the Chiefs came in March, while he was attending the league meetings in Phoenix. He placed a call back to Kansas City, to get a status report from director of football operations Mike White on the team's offseason weightlifting program. White was happy to inform Vermeil that attendance was at an all-time high.
"thingy, we've arrived," White said.
Players have gone through on-field sessions with the same type of enthusiasm and urgency.
"Things compound if you keep doing it right," Vermeil says. "People trust you and the guys that get to stay, the more they're around you, they keep buying in. And when they believe, then positive things start happening."
Another issue regarding Vermeil's third season in Kansas City is that, contractually, he does not have a fourth there. It is widely presumed that this will be his final year of coaching and that, after twice returning from retirement, he will finally walk away for good. However, Vermeil has kept his options open, saying that what he does beyond this season will depend on what the Chiefs do on the field.
"If the football team is playing well and competitive, and is a real good football team, then I'd like to be part of that," he says. "But if we're not playing like I think they ought to play and we're not as good a team as I think we ought to be, and I've been given three years to do it, then I think they ought to have somebody else better doing it because the kids deserve better.
"I never think in terms of maintaining. I think of getting better."
Obviously, Vermeil wants to see the greatest improvement in a defense that ranked at the very bottom of the league last year. He says the pressure is on the defensive coaches and players to respond.
Yet don't assume for a second that the Chiefs offense isn't feeling considerable heat to maintain its lofty status as the highest-scoring unit in the NFL. Vermeil has singled out two veterans who joined the team in 2002 -- offensive tackle Willie Roaf and wide receiver Johnnie Morton -- as needing to step up their games this year.
And it doesn't even matter to Vermeil that Roaf, who turned 33 in April, made the Pro Bowl last season.
"There is room in Willie to play better," Vermeil says. "I've just got to get him to solidly buy into our work ethic. My opinion is, the older you get, the harder you'd better work because you lose those skills. He was a wonderful addition as a person. We love the guy and he played well for us. I think he can play better because I have seen him, in his younger years, play better. And my goal, as his boss, is to get him to play as he did at 27, 28 years old."
Another goal is for Morton, who caught only 29 passes for 397 yards and a touchdown, to improve his physical endurance. The former Detroit Lion had problems keeping up with the pace of the Chiefs' up-tempo practices.
"We practice fast, especially in the passing game," Vermeil says. "And we run a ton of pass offense, so you're going all day long. If you're not used to it, sometimes it takes a while to build that stamina to go through that kind of work and then come back and be fresh on Sunday to play. I think Johnnie felt a little bit like a rookie. He wasn't sure of himself. I expect him to be a bigger contributor this year.
"Our whole thing this year is to close the gap. Individually, it's the gap between how well you are playing and how well you can play. For our team, it's what we are now and what a playoff team is."
If Vermeil's history is any indication, the Chiefs should close that gap this year
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