Chiefs still experiencing Hard Knocks
The Kansas City Chiefs gained plenty of publicity from the HBO series "Hard Knocks," a behind-the-scenes look at training camp and preseason.
The bad news is anyone who watched the show was given the impression the Chiefs held a quarterback competition with no winner, drafted some underachieving rookies, kept some players that deserved to be cut, and were a complete mess after completing preseason with an 0-4 record.
The spectacle made it easy to forget Kansas City was a playoff team last year. Second-year coach Herm Edwards tried to explain some of those problems this week during a teleconference with Chicago reporters.
He had a reasonable answer for the team's quarterback situation. Starter Damon Huard posted a 98.0 quarterback rating last season while filling in for an injured Trent Green, who is now playing for Miami. Huard's rating was second only to Peyton Manning in the NFL.
"It's a veteran offense when you look at it, really," Edwards said. "We started off slow last year, 0-2. There's a lot of season left. Out of all the playoffs teams last week, 5 won and 7 lost."
Of course, not all of them lost the way Kansas City did, piling up 4 turnovers in a 20-3 road loss to the Houston Texans. The team's best offensive weapon, running back Larry Johnson, had just 10 carries after skipping most of preseason due to a contract holdout. The league's second-leading rusher expects more touches Sunday when the Chiefs face the Bears at Soldier Field.
The bad news continued for the Chiefs even after the HBO camera crew packed up and left. Veteran Eddie Kennison, Kansas City's most productive wide receiver, injured his hamstring last week and won't play against the Bears.
The Chiefs also released their rookie kicker Justin Medlock, a fifth-round pick who missed a 27-yard attempt at Houston. His replacement is former Green Bay kicker Dave Rayner, who was beaten out in Packers camp by a rookie (Mason Crosby) drafted later than Medlock. The Chiefs did keep Medlock on the practice squad.
"We are very marginal (on offense) right now," Edwards said. "We don't have a lot of room for error."
As for having his training camp televised, Edwards expressed no regrets.
"I thought it really helped the fans understand how difficult it is to be a professional football player and how much work is put into it by everybody," he said. "I think anytime you can represent the league in a positive way - hopefully we did that - I think it helps you.
"You get tired of that microphone always following you around. The strange thing about it is when they put cameras in your office and no one's here, the camera's always kind of rotating. You're sitting on your phone and looking at the camera going, 'You can't have this conversation (for the show).' Other than that, it's OK."