5000 / 5000 Translation results How important is your best player?

So who is to blame for the Chiefs' season? Todd Haley? Scott Pioli? Matt Cassel? Clark Hunt? There is a lot of fan anger in Kansas City as the Chiefs have stumbled to a 5-8 record. And lots of accusations from fans and the media. Carl Peterson and Marty Schottenheimer took a struggling franchise and made it a winner. But they could never get over the hump. First the fans blamed Schottenheimer. He left. So the fans สุดยอดนักเตะ. And Gunther Cunningham. And Elvis Grbac. And Mike Solari. And Herm Edwards. And Brodie Croyle. The list is long. Today is a Haley / Pioli / Cassel / Hunt combination. The firing of head coach Todd Haley is just the first step in the upcoming changes.

But, as usual, it is rarely that simple. I have some opinions on what happened to the Chiefs this year, but today I'm going to focus on just one of them. How important is your best player?

It's easy to have tunnel vision when looking at your team. Let's get out of Kansas City for a moment. For years, the discussion in the NFL has been: who is the best quarterback in the league, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady? Over the past ten seasons, Manning and Brady have represented the AFC in the Super Bowl six times with four wins between them. They are leaders. They put up great statistics. And they do nothing but win important games.

But beyond these two quarterbacks, most have considered Indianapolis and New England to be among the best franchises in the league. Bill Polian has made the Colts perennial winners and one of the most dominant teams in the NFL. From 1999 to 2010, the Colts have a regular season record of 138-54.

And in New England, Bill Belichick has done much the same. With four Super Bowl appearances and three victories, Belichick is widely considered the best coach in soccer. From 2001 to 2010, the Patriots have a 121-39 regular season record, which includes 2007 when the team went 16-0. The Patriots are the only team other than the Dolphins to finish a regular season undefeated.

Manning and Brady have not only been consistent winners, they have remained remarkably enduring. Schottenheimer used to say that the best skill of a player was availability. And when it comes to an elite quarterback, nothing could be more true. But what happens when you take away the best player from a team?

In 2008 we got a glimpse of what the Patriots would be like without Tom Brady. The Chiefs knocked out Brady for the season in their first game. His reserve came in Matt Cassel. A kid who shouldn't even have been in the league. Cassel was a backup quarterback at USC, never starting a game or playing significant minutes for the Trojans. How did it go? The Patriots finished the season 11-5 and Cassel played very well.

And now, in 2011, we'll see the Colts without Peyton Manning. The Colts are 0-13 and could very possibly go 0-16. They are so bad. Quite a turnaround for a team that won the AFC South last year and finished 10-6.

What is the lesson to be learned? New England surrounded its backup quarterback with enough talent to be successful. Indianapolis did not. If anything, this has only reinforced the incredible quarterback Peyton Manning has been.

Now back to Kansas City. The Chiefs lost their best player, Jamaal Charles, earlier in the season. And while Charles is not a quarterback, he was the driving force behind the offense. Before the season started, he had this to say: "Last year the offensive line got a lot of praise for the Chiefs' No. 1 running game. I give Jamaal Charles a lot more credit than the line.

I firmly believe that the loss of Jamaal Charles, combined with a below-average offensive line, has completely derailed the Chiefs' season. Yes, there are other factors as well. But the Chiefs have shown that they can't consistently run the ball behind this offensive line without Charles. And Matt Cassel has been under constant pressure throughout the year. It has not had time to find its recipients. The running game has struggled. The passing game has had problems. And the Chiefs have found it very difficult to score points. As Len Dawson likes to say, start with the greats.

Kansas City fans are ready to get Cassel out of town. But surround him with the right players and he can be productive, as he demonstrated in 2008 with the Patriots (11-5 record) and 2010 with the Chiefs (10-6 record). Cassel is not Manning. He cannot lift the team on his shoulders.