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The Kansas City Chiefs were rumored to be in the mix for Peyton Manning this offseason. Manning never took a formal visit to Arrowhead Stadium nor was he interested in becoming a Chief after talking with Scott Pioli. None of this bothered Romeo Crennel. The Chiefs head coach shed the interim tag back in early January and feels his team has a good group of quarterbacks coming into camp. Kansas City has developed an up-and-coming defense, but has been lacking play-makers on the offensive side of the football. With the addition of Peyton Hillis and Kevin Boss to the Chiefs offense, Crennel is confident his team can rise up and compete against Manning in the AFC West.
Romeo Crennel joined WHB in Kansas City with Kevin Kietzman to discuss settling in as Kansas City Chiefs head coach, the Chiefs getting together for the first time since he officially became the head coach, having the chance to talk with Peyton Manning during free agency, Brady Quinn competing for the starting quarterback job and his assessment of Brady Quinn’s career at this point.
Are you completely settled in now as the head coach? Is it feeling right to you these days?
“Well so far it feels good. Of course we haven’t played any games yet. That’s when it gets really hectic.”
This team must feel like yours at this point though right?
“It does. It was good to see the guys come in today and to have football players back in the building. That was exciting and I think they feel good about it. I know I felt good about it and so these next couple of weeks they’ll be doing some strength and conditioning. Then like you said in a couple of weeks we can do some individual drills with them and try to get these guys better.”
Did you ever get a chance to talk with Peyton Manning? If so how did it
go? Were you disappointed he wound up in your division? “No I did not get a chance to talk with Peyton. I know Scott [Pioli] had some conversations with him after he announced that he was going to look at some teams and he choose the teams that he was going to go visit and we were not one of them. That’s just one of the things that happened. He’s in our division, so we have to play him twice. We look forward to that challenge because I think he is going to bring the best out in our team.”
Do you see Brady Quinn strictly as a backup quarterback? Does he have a chance to become a starter?
“Well I tell you what we’ve told all the quarterbacks that they will be competing. Now they will be given an opportunity, but right now Matt Cassel has been the guy that has taken us to the playoffs in the past and he’s going to be the guy and if those other guys can unseat him it’ll be good for us because it’s better all the way around. If they don’t unseat him they will just wait their turn and be the best teammates they can be, but I think we have a good group of quarterbacks that will work well together and be ready to step in if they have to.”
What kind of opportunity do you think Brady Quinn has had in the NFL to his point?
“Well probably not as good as he would have wanted. When he was in Cleveland he was involved in a competition that he ended up not winning initially then later on he went into the starting role and then he got hurt shortly there after. Then he ended up out in Denver and probably that didn’t work out the best for him. A similar situation with [Tim] Tebow goes in there and Tebow goes to play. I think Brady [Quinn] knowing me and also knowing Brian Daboll, the offensive coordinator, I think he has a good feeling about the both of us and that’s why he decided to come here and I know Brady will work very hard. He’ll be a great teammate and he’ll be ready to go when called on.”
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