Nearly a full week after Chiefs coach Todd Haley played his starters into the fourth quarter of the fourth preseason game, Haley is still taking heat for his plan.
Randy Covitz of the Kansas City Star wrote a piece that ran in Wednesday’s paper wondering about Haley’s methods, including criticism from former players like Mark Schlereth.
“Those measures were taken because the Kansas City Chiefs looked like garbage in the first [three] preseason games,” Schlereth said.
We’re not so sure. The Chiefs barely played their starters in the first two preseason games. So Haley essentially just decided to distribute the playing time differently than other teams.
It just didn’t work.
The Chiefs got unlucky when tight end Tony Moeaki was hurt, but you can get unlucky with injuries anytime. Maybe Moeaki would get hurt if he played more in the third preseason week. Moeaki and Matt Cassel both were injured in the first half of the fourth game anyhow. We didn’t see a lot of criticism lobbed at Patriots coach Bill Belichick , who played Tom Brady for a while in the fourth preseason week.
Fans and media in Kansas City seem to be criticizing the results, not the plan. No one would have cared about Haley’s plan if everyone stayed healthy, but he got unlucky. That can happen anytime. It’s football.
We’ve always thought it’s odd how everyone goes insane about how preseason injuries are tragic. Are they somehow less costly when they start happening in bulk a few weeks later in the regular season?
The Chiefs lost Moeaki for the season, but the rest of the squad looks to be in good shape. Matt Cassel practiced fully Wednesday and said he was starting on Wednesday. Haley confirmed that.
The only player on the injury report was wideout Jonathan Baldwin, still recovering from the beatdown Thomas Jones gave him.