By Scott Pioli on Rumors of Chiefs Trading Dwayne Bowe for a Draft Pick: “I will say unequivocally 100% untrue.”
May 3, 2012 – 9:00 am by Steven Cuce
The NFL draft may have occurred a week ago, but the Kansas City Chiefs are at work addressing more needs on the team. Dallas Clark and O.J. Atogwe made visits to Kansas City this week as Scott Pioli looks to fill the remaining holes left on the team after the draft.
Another big area of contention is locking up Dwayne Bowe long term. The rumors of the Chiefs seeking a draft pick for the Pro Bowl wide receiver have officially been turned down by Pioli himself in the following interview. From the sound of it the Chiefs GM is doing all he can to lock up his star player.
Scott Pioli joined WHB in Kansas City with The Border Patrol to discuss the status of Wallace Gilberry in terms of leaving or coming back to the Kansas City Chiefs, the rumors regarding the Chiefs trading Dwayne Bowe for a draft pick, Dallas Clark/O.J. Atogwe visiting the Chiefs and John Harbaugh’s comments regarding Spygate.
Is Wallace Gilberry not coming back because Dontari Poe is wearing No.92?
“Well I would say it’s probably accurate. We had talked with Wallace a number of times throughout the season about an extension. We talked to him in the off-season and Wallace wasn’t ready to make a move and wasn’t ready to do anything. He wanted to see what the market was and we hadn’t heard back from his people and that’s from him and his people. I think both sides wanted to see what happened until after the draft. What I will say is we never say never and I don’t know what Wallace’s plans are right now. I’m not…Romeo Crennel and I talked about it the other day. We are not shutting the door on him. What you do have to do is issue players numbers and what we weren’t going to do is sit here and wait. It was a number the player requested and if Wallace Gilberry ends up back here as a player and he wants his number? He can talk with Dontari about that. We’ve already watched a bunch of negotiations. What I don’t want do and what I don’t think is fair is that numbers have been issued. Free agency isn’t over and if Wallace decides he wants to come back we would certainly talk to him about it and the number stuff? We will take care of that later. We don’t want to make too much of a big deal about that. A number is a number. We will sort that stuff out, but that’s where that is at right now.”
There were rumors that the Chiefs were considering the idea of trading Dwayne Bowe for a draft pick. Can you give us an update on that?
“I’ll tell you this: I had heard somone…I don’t know if it was said or written? I don’t know which one, but someone told me about it and I will say unequivocally 100% untrue. We never talked with anyone about a trade for Dwayne Bowe. I didn’t. Romeo didn’t. No one who would ever have anything to do with a trade called or talked to anybody nor did we field any calls, so wherever that came from I will say unequivocally 100% untrue. We did not talk nor are we looking to talk with anyone about a trade for Dwayne.”
You had free agents like Dallas Clark O.J. Atogwe visiting this week. What are some positions that you need to address after the draft is now over?
“Well I think yes we are still involved in free agency. O.J. Atogwe was in a couple of nights ago or was in right after the draft and Dallas is going to busy with us today taking his physical. We continue to talk to free agent players priors to the draft and truthfully we talk during the draft when certain things happen with the draft it kind of gives you…the team start to crystalize a little bit more before your eyes and you have an idea of the players you may need to talk to. We are going to continue to talk and you mentioned Wallace Gilberry also and not only Wallace Gilberry, but a couple of other players that were here that were unrestricted free agents that we are going to continue to talk to in terms of potentially still having roles on our football team. It is not always again what we want to do, but the players have to figure out what they want to do and where they want to be and what situation they want to be in. I think some of the positions we are going to continue to talk about we’d like to continue based on who’s in here we would like to have another veteran tight end to add to the mix as long as it’s the right player with the right skill sets. Safety is another position and again I want to be clear we are excited about the progress we made this off-season. We are excited about how much we have improved our football team, but we don’t think we are there yet. We are not sitting there in these offices thinking ‘Wow. Boy we got this figured this out. We’ve arrived. We are ready to go.’ We are still a long way off. We are talking about a football team that was 7-9 last year. We’ve gotta get better and yes we have improved, but as we improve everybody around us…We’ve improved our football team. We still have a long way to go. This roster is not complete and it’ll never be complete.”
You were apart of the Patriots championship teams. Do you have any response to John Harbaugh’s comment regarding the Pats championships now having asterisks after the Spygate scandal?
“At this point here’s what I think and concern myself with is the Kansas City Chiefs. Everyone is always going to have opinions about history and there will be a time for me to address history and my time there and what I feel about. I don’t have the time or energy right now to be thinking about anybody’s comments about what happened in New England. My focus is on the Kansas City Chiefs and getting this football team better and that’s trying to win a division championship and then trying to win a bigger championship.”
Listen to Scott Pioli on WHB in Kansas City here
Tags: 2012 NFL Draft, Kansas City Chiefs, NFL, Scott Pioli, The Border Patrol, WHB in Kansas City
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