Damon Huard will run out with the first team offense and many Chiefs fans will shake their head in disgust. Its understandable. The last time the Chiefs drafted and developed a long-term starting quarterback wasÉ well, how does never sound?
Trent Green from St. Louis. Elvis Grbac, Steve Bono and Joe Montana from the 49ers. Todd Blackledge was a bust. Heck, even the greatest signal caller in franchise history, Lenny the Cool, was discarded by the Steelers and Browns first.
What a long, strange trip being a Chiefs fan has been for the better part of forty years. Maybe its been a longer, stranger trip being a Kansas City quarterback. A stat that makes your head hurt? The last time a quarterback drafted by the Chiefs led the team in passing yards: Steve Fuller, 1980.
Holy K.C. Fox, Batman.
How can it be this franchise, through both success and heartache, has never developed a starting quarterback of its own? To begin, its not just Carl Petersons fault (although for most Chiefs fans everything from ticket prices to flat pop at the concession stands is). Kansas City had been unable to tab a young quarterback well before King Carl. However, to examine the teams recent travails in this department, we can point the finger at Peterson.
Peterson, as it is widely understood, is responsible for both assembling a football roster and selling tickets. As Carl has chased that elusive Super Bowl appearance, he has been unable to rip up the game plan and start fresh. The same cheese is always at the end of this maze. Forget starting a rookie quarterback, going 5-11 and playing in front of 40,000 fans. A trip to the big game is always just a few veteran pieces away.
So, acquire Bono or Grbac or Montana or Green and hope that someone else endured the growing pains for your successes. Unfortunately, it hasnt quite happened that way.
This would seem like the perfect opportunity to finally get it right. This is not a Super Bowl-caliber team. Herm Edwards likes to play youngsters and has infinite confidence in Brodie CroyleÕs talents, going so far as to guarantee, -He is going to be the starting quarterback of this franchise one day.-
Just one problem: Brodie is not ready.
It would be too much a leap of faith to hand Croyle the starting nod now after a hideous preseason. Croyle has some tangibles, some intangibles. He has a decent pedigree and the confidence of his coach. But what locker room credibility does Herm have when he declares his errant, baby-faced gunslinger from Alabama the starting quarterback? How many of the veterans would look at 2007 as a lost season already?
If Brodie played well (heck, if Brodie just played not-awful), maybe the guys in that huddle could rally around him. But its so glaringly obvious that Huard is the better quarterback at the moment this was really an easy decision for Herm.
The silver lining is this: Its far easier to yank Huard after a 1-3 start than Croyle. Once Brodie tastes the first team, he is locked in for the long haul. If this team does struggle like most people expect, it wont be hard to pull the trigger on the Brodie Era by October. If the team sputtered out of the blocks with Croyle, however, you cant ask Huard to come rescue a forlorn season.
Plus, theres one other note Chiefs Nation should remember. The worst-case scenario in stalling Croyles development would be for Huard to seize the opportunity, throw touchdowns and win ball games. Which is really not such a bad thing at all.
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A
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Damon Huard will run out with the first team offense and many Chiefs fans will shake their head in disgust. Its understandable. The last time the Chiefs drafted and developed a long-term starting quarterback wasÉ well, how does never sound? 
