Tidbit Topics: Pioli, Cutler

Pioli's Priorities Are Horrendously Misguided

The Kansas City Star's top sports columnist, Kent Baab, has now written two articles in a 9 month span that have blown me away.  Back in January Baab revealed the awful work environment that Chiefs' GM Scott Pioli has helped to create around Arrowhead Stadium.  And yesterday, Baab continued, describing Pioli's efforts to further micromanage all aspects of both football and non-football related activities.  Baab's stories have made national headlines, capturing the attention of NFL fans around the country.  Assuming these stories are fact and not one journalist's opinion, Pioli might be considered amongst the worst executives in all of sports.  This kind of secretive workplace clearly hasn't worked in Pioli's four seasons in Kansas City.  It's been a peeve of mine for years when sports journalists state that certain transactions couldn't be made because a particular GM could not deal with the backlash from fans and ticket holders (an example might be trading a star player to the team's division rival or choosing not to sign a free agent in demand by the fanbase).  It simply is not the job of the GM to worry about those types of problems--let the team's public relations and sales/marketing executives work on ways to spin it to the fans.  If Pioli believes in a certain coach or player (or doesn't and chooses to let him walk) then he shouldn't waste more than two minutes explaining a decision.  The Chiefs went into the 2012 season with question marks at several positions on the field and after an 0-2 start, those questions have multiplied.  Pioli has far greater problems to concentrate on, and now, because his priorities are so badly misguided, his new biggest problem might be lack of a job.

Bear's Cutler is out of Excuses

Jay Cutler is the second most polarizing player in the NFL behind only Tim Tebow and it's been a frustrating bunch of seasons for him in Chicago.  Since he joined the team in 2009, the team, its fans, and even Cutler himself have had excuse after excuse for why they haven't won anything of any significance with Cutler captaining the Bears' offense.  Prior to joining Chicago, Cutler apologists point to Denver's subpar defense as the reason the Broncos never made the playoffs with Cutler.  His first few seasons with Chicago, the excuse was a lack of established receiving targets.  Later, it was a poor offensive line and a delusional offensive coordinator.  The Bears' defense has been and is expected to be well above league average, the Bears fired Mike Martz, and they traded for Brandon Marshall and drafted Alshon Jeffrey.  While true their offensive line leaves much to be desired (particularly at left tackle where 7th round pick JaMarcus Webb has been horrendous in 2012), it is the job of an elite quarterback to overcome his team's shortcomings.  Is Jay Cutler an elite quarterback?  The Bears and a large percentage of the fanbase purport him to be.  But a QB who can only win games with a great defense, ingenious coordinator, All-Pro wide receivers, and a stout line allowing him six to seven seconds to throw every play, isn't elite--he's the proverbial "game manager."  The Bears have given Cutler all they are going to give him; if he doesn't produce multiple playoff wins this season then I'm going to believe those Jeff George comparisons that were made in 2009 are accurate.