Now that Charlie Weis is the offensive coordinator at Florida, the Kansas City Chiefs need an offensive coordinator to fill his spot and head coach Todd Haley has said he will not hold dual titles. Brad Childress, once the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings and offensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles before that, needs a job.
So I’m having a very tough time figuring out why exactly these two sides have not come together.
Childress has the same type of philosophy as Haley in that both seem committed to the run. Childress didn’t get to run the ball a lot when he was the OC in Philadelphia because he had pass-happy Andy Reid looking over his shoulder, but he pounded the ball with Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor in Minnesota.
Then, once Taylor jumped ship for Chicago, Childress drafted a running back — Toby Gerhart — in the second round. Unless you’re a guy who’s committed to the run, you’re not going to spend a second-round pick on a running back with a guy like Peterson already in your backfield.
In Kansas City, Childress would have Jamal Charles and Thomas Jones to work with. Any coach who likes running the ball would salivate at that backfield. Throw in a Matt Cassel — a guy with a lot of talent still learning to play quarterback — throwing to Dwayne Bowe behind a solid offensive line and a guy like Childress could have just as much if not more success with them than Weis did.
The only problem seems to be personality. More specifically, a personality clash in Childress and Haley. During his short tenure in Kansas City, Haley has shown himself to be a very territorial, insecure, and somewhat paranoid head coach. There are whispers that Weis left town because he was sick of dealing with Haley’s inflated ego, and that certainly won’t go over well with a head-strong guy like Childress.
Childress meshed well with the stoic Reid. He didn’t mesh well with a demonstrative quarterback like Brett Favre. It’s possible he and Haley would butt heads from day one all the way until the day Childress storms out like Weis.
Still, even having an offensive coordinator for a year would be beneficial. Childress could more than fill that need, and he’d likely come fairly cheap after not getting the interest he was likely expecting.
Now all the Chiefs need is for Haley to swallow his pride and stop trying to find an offensive coordinator who won’t challenge him in any way and instead hire a guy who can get the most out of the Chiefs’ offense.