Scouting Report
3 -
Kansas City Chiefs
With a new system that diversifies their offense,
the perennial playoff flops hope to have more poise
under pressure and avoid another January
disaster
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Impressive as a rookie last year, the athletic Gonzalez
brings an added dimension to the attack as starting tight
end.
(Andy Lyons/Allsport)
| As anxiety
dreams go, it's a doozy. Elvis Grbac is standing on the turf of
chilly Arrowhead Stadium, trying to drive the Chiefs to a
game-winning touchdown in an AFC divisional playoff against
the Broncos, when suddenly his world turns to mush. The
final seconds are
ticking away, he can't hear the play call in his helmet radio
receiver, and everyone in the joint—Grbac's teammates,
his coaches and 77,000 unsettled fans—is screaming for
the quarterback to do something. He wants desperately to
block it all out, take
charge and rally his team to victory. But Grbac is numb and, in a
sense, naked, stripped of aggressive options by a Kansas
City offense he calls
"constrictive."
This isn't a dream though. It is harsh reality, the memory
of a 14-10 defeat last
Jan. 4 that added to the Chiefs' nine-year litany of postseason
misery under coach Marty Schottenheimer. The sordid
season-ending sequence, which ended when Grbac's end-zone pass to
Lake Dawson into double coverage on fourth-and-two from the
20-yard line
fell incomplete, exposed the flaws in a team that finished
with the AFC's best record in 1997. To the organization's
credit, the bulk of its off-season energies were directed
toward avoiding a similar
disaster.
Grbac, who was flourishing in his first year as a starter
until he broke his left clavicle in the ninth game and
missed most of the rest of the regular season, should have
much less cause for anxiety this year, because the
departure of offensive
coordinator Paul Hackett to USC brings a shift in philosophy. To
replace Hackett and his West Coast-style offense,
Schottenheimer promoted running backs coach Jimmy Raye, who
previously served as offensive coordinator with the Rams
('84), the Buccaneers
('85-86) and the Patriots ('90). Whereas Hackett's players were
seldom drilled to anticipate and execute certain audibles,
Raye has installed an offense that gives the quarterback
much more freedom to change calls at the line of
scrimmage.
"This year we're going to try to win on every
offensive play," Grbac says. "That means everyone
on the field will be prepared to improvise and
attack."
An improved receiving corps will make the job easier. Andre
Rison, released by three teams in the two previous years,
resurrected his career in '97 and became the Chiefs' first
Pro Bowl receiver since Carlos Carson in 1988. But as
defenses caught on to
Rison—he had just 29 of his 72 catches and two of his
seven touchdowns in the second half of the season—no
other viable receiving threat emerged to keep opponents
honest. "It got to the point where we knew pretty much
every coverage that we were going to
get: It would be rolled to Andre's side," Grbac
says.
Kansas City addressed that issue by signing fifth-year man
Derrick Alexander, fresh off a 1,000-yard season for the
Ravens, and elevating its No. 1 pick in '97, Tony Gonzalez,
to the starting tight end spot. "Tony is big and
athletic," says Raye, "and
if he stays healthy, he could become the standard by which
[tight ends] are
judged."
If Raye has his way, the Chiefs' fate in important games
won't come down to Gonzalez or Rison, or to Grbac's ability
to call audibles. Like any old-school disciplinarian with a
yen for physical play, Raye aims to stay on the ground when
possible. "I
want us to be able to run the ball in the fourth
quarter," he says, "when the other team knows we're going to
run."
| Schedule |
| Sept. | 6 | OAKLAND |
| 13 | at Jacksonville |
| 20 | SAN DIEGO |
| 27 | at Philadelphia |
| Oct. | 4 | SEATTLE |
| 11 | at New England |
| 18 | OPEN DATE |
| 26 | PITTSBURGH (Mon.) |
| Nov. | 1 | N.Y. JETS |
| 8 | at Seattle |
| 16 | DENVER (Mon.) |
| 22 | at San Diego |
| 29 | ARIZONA |
| Dec. | 6 | at Denver |
| 13 | DALLAS |
| 20 | at N.Y. Giants |
| 26 | at Oakland (Sat.) |
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|
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Kansas City should get plenty of chances to do that,
because its defense seldom gives up enough points to let
games get out of hand. Coordinator Gunther Cunningham may
be the best in the business, and his fast, punishing unit
of last season has been
fortified by adding former Raiders defensive tackle Chester
McGlockton.
Whether K.C. can grind out yards when necessary is the
question. The offensive line is solid, anchored by guards
Will Shields, who made the Pro Bowl, and Dave Szott, who
should have. But the retirement of Marcus Allen and the
release of former
first-round draft pick Greg Hill leave the halfback job in the hands
of the inexperienced Donnell Bennett. The 236-pounder says
he is fully recovered from a torn ACL suffered as a rookie
in '94. He battles asthma and does nightly breathing
exercises in an attempt
to control his
condition.
"I've dealt with adversity all my life," Bennett
says. "I have to stay on top of the asthma because I
don't want it to be a hindrance to me getting 100 yards in
a game. I'm at the point where if I relax, block out
everything and concentrate real hard, I
can control
it."
Thanks to the changes in K.C., the next time the pressure
peaks, Grbac should be able to do the
same. — Michael Silver
By the Numbers | Inside Slant | Lineup
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