Easier said than done

Aug 26, 2008, 1:34:00 AM by Jonathan Rand - FAQ

The Chiefs’ rebuilding program seemed less daunting in the planning than in the execution.

Their rebuilding right now is as fragile as a newborn babe. Every cough is reason for alarm, and the 24-0 loss at Miami was a cough heard all over Kansas City.

Coach Herm Edwards made it clear that the game against the Dolphins, who finished 1-15 a year ago, would mark his team’s most serious pre-season effort. You dread to think what the score might’ve been had he planned to get the starters out quickly, then evaluate players on the bubble.

Nobody ever said rebuilding was going to be pretty, though few probably expected such an unsightly performance this early.

It’s never encouraging when rebuilding teams talk about the need to build confidence in the preseason. Confidence comes from winning, not the other way around, and if you don’t have enough players ready to win, confidence will prove elusive.

Rebuilding teams always hope that if they achieve pre-season success, it will carry over to the regular season. Fact is, with the first regular-season kickoff, rookies learn and veterans are reminded that they’re stepping into an entirely new world.

An absence of carryover actually would be a positive for the Chiefs right now. They certainly wouldn’t want their performance in Miami to carry over into Thursday night’s pre-season finale against the St. Louis Rams at Arrowhead Stadium.

So what’s Edwards to do now?

He’ll no doubt stay the course, just like any of us should if we expect to succeed with a career change, a first wedding or anything else that takes us into uncharted waters. The plan always seems well reasoned and sound in the planning stages but when it’s time to follow through, we wonder “Can I really do this?” or “Will this really work?”

That knot in our stomachs gets even tighter when the early results are not encouraging.

But once the initial wave of panic subsides, you’ve got to remember how much care you gave the original plan and summon the confidence that it deserves every chance to succeed.

Besides, the Chiefs have no reasonable alternative. Having purged the roster of declining veterans and rebuilding through the draft, there’s no turning back for Edwards and the rest of the organization.

Not that NFL head coaches are prone to changing course prematurely. There’s a good reason why stubbornness is a primary qualification for the job. No matter how bleak developments appear, the head coach has to remain resolute that prosperity is just around the corner.

There’s also something to be said for the old saw that a football team is never as good as it seems when it’s winning, or as awful as it seems when it’s losing. It’s clear now that too much was read into the Chiefs’ offensive success in the pre-season opener in Chicago. And too much, perhaps, is being read into the whitewash at Miami.

The Chiefs’ offense, which collapsed last season, was not about to turn over a new leaf overnight. Coordinator Chan Gailey is still in the earliest stages of changing the Chiefs’ system and, most significantly, the line, though Branden Albert, the projected left tackle, has yet to play. The quarterback, Brodie Croyle, is a work in progress and has yet to post a regular-season win.

Football organizations, unlike construction firms, can’t guarantee if and when a project will be completed. Which is why any obvious setback becomes a cause for legitimate concern.

And there’s nothing wrong with legitimate concern — just as long as it doesn’t turn into panic.

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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A former sportswriter and columnist in Kansas City and Miami, Rand has covered the NFL for three decades and seen 23 Super Bowl games. His column appears twice weekly in-season.