YOUTHFUL (UN)EXUBERANCE

Some local talking heads have been taking Chiefs fans to task recently for talking the talk when it comes to rebuilding via a "youth movement," but not walking the walk. According to these hosts, some Chiefs fans were all for getting younger in concept, but are not now willing to endure the "pain" that goes along with building a team with young players.

I would suggest that these fans have perhaps been jaded by the perpetual "youth movement" employed by the Kansas City Royals over the past 15 years.

More importantly, though, I think fans are a bit reluctant to buy into this "youth movement" because they're not sold on its core concept: that Brody Croyle will be a competent NFL starting quarterback. In turn, this creates doubts that Herm Edwards is all that competent a head coach, since he doesn't seem to understand that, "at the end of the day," a good quarterback is very helpful when trying to win a game, or a championship. Herm's tendency to embrace "good enough" when it comes to quarterbacks is troubling.

Brody Croyle looks too injury prone/inconsistent to be a quality NFL starter. Damon Huard is an aging backup. Tyler Thigpen is an ongoing comedy of embarassment for the franchise...and some have suggested that the only reason he's played the last couple of weeks is to make Croyle look better when he returns.

I think Chiefs' fans concern is this: great, you spend a couple of years playing and developing younger guys all over the field. You develop a solid, though probably not spectacular, defense. You develop some good options at RB and WR. And then, you finish off this unit with Brody Croyle. This is not the stuff of which future championships are made. This is the stuff of 9-7, 1st-round playoff losses. If the Chiefs don't have a quarterback to go with the rest of their youth when it's ready to play, the current suffering through the youth movement will have all been for naught.