This past five weeks of the Chiefs season reminds me of day old donuts. My grandfather used to run a famous donut shop in Northeast Kansas. The donuts were awesome when they were fresh. Grandpa, like every donut maker, tried to sell his day old donuts, but they were stale and not nearly as good.
The Chiefs roster is a big donut. You can scroll down and find my earlier blog on "WHERE'S THE MIDDLE CLASS" and see what I mean. The 53 man Chiefs roster this past Sunday included 15 players with 8 years or more experience. Tony Gonzalez and Donnie Edwards are the only two players in that category who have played at a consistently high level for the entire season.
It could be predicted that 10 of those 15 players will not be with the Chiefs next year. That list would include; Ty Law, Jason Dunn, Damon Huard, Eddie Kennison, Chris Terry, Kyle Turley, John Welbourn, Greg Wesley, Casey Wiegmann and John Carney. It is not shocking that seven of the ten are offensive players. One of the strategic blunders of the past two years is that the Chiefs tried to run the same, old offense with the same, old players. What once was an offense that resembled a fresh donut became day old donuts at the end of the shelf.
In contrast, the other part of the donut is that 23 of Sunday's 53 man roster had 3 years or less experience. It is interesting that three of the five Pro Bowl worthy Chiefs players are in this category. Dustin Colquitt, Dwayne Bowe and Derrick Johnson have all performed as All-Pro types along with T Gonz and of course, Jared Allen.
Herm Edwards deserves the chance to rebuild this team and do it his way (acutally the way the Colts, Patriots and Steelers are doing it). He should have the opportunity to have to bring balance to the roster with older, experienced high performing players being a base for a roster mostly built with younger, developing stars.
You have four more weeks to buy the day old donuts. Then, hopefully the donut shop will be closed.
