A Good First Step … Wednesday Cup O’Chiefs

The NFL owners took the necessary first step on Tuesday when they approved a change in overtime rules for post-season games.

Here’s to hoping they take the necessary second step and approve the change for all games, not just the playoffs. They’ll have that chance at the next league meetings, coming up in May in Dallas.

Under the new rule, if the team winning the overtime coin toss goes down on its first possession and kicks a FG, the other team would get a possession, with a chance to tie the game with a field goal or win it with a touchdown. A field goal would put the game under the old sudden-death rules where the next team to score wins the game.

The measure passed 28-4, a cushion of four votes; it needed 24 of the 32 teams to vote yes. Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati and Minnesota voted against the change.

Reports from the meetings in Orlando seem to indicate there were quite a few teams that were of the same mind as Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt – why not institute the change for regular season games as well. But the owners decided to put that off until May.

”There was a lot of sentiment in the room to change this rule also for the regular season,” said Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay, co-chairman of the league’s competition committee. ”The idea was to go back and study it . . . and then come back in May or next year or whenever it may be because there is an idea that this system needs to be changed.”

In fact, the discussion on the change was so positive and accepted by the vast majority of the clubs the vote was moved up a day; originally it was supposed to be voted on Wednesday morning. Nobody seemed to be willing to explain why the timing of the vote was changed. But there’s a good chance that the league office types knew they would lose votes if owners spent the next dozen-plus hours talking to their coaches and some general managers. Overall, the majority of coaches were against the change.

The coaches may be able to rally support against the change for the regular season in the coming months, but the rule should be standard for all NFL games.

In the last decade, the Chiefs played 10 overtime games, going 3-7. In four of those games the opponent won the toss and went down and kicked the game winning FG, with the Chiefs never getting their hands on the ball.

Eight of those 10 games were ultimately decided by a field goal. There were only two games decided by a touchdown. The first came in 2003 when the Chiefs beat the Packers at Lambeau on a 51-yard TD pass from QB Trent Green to WR Eddie Kennison. The other game came last year at Arrowhead, when Dallas earned the victory thanks to a TD pass from QB Tony Romo to WR Miles Austin.

The Chiefs have played 29 regular-season overtime games since the extra period was voted in before the 1974 season. A dozen times the Chiefs have won the OT coin toss, but only once did they go down and score the winning points on the first possession of overtime. That came in 1983, when they beat the Houston Oilers 13-10 on Nick Lowery FG.

Seven of those 29 games were decided on a field goal in the first offensive possession. The Chiefs were 1-6 in those games.

The owners need to make sure that they take the next step in May and make the rules change good for the regular season as well.

THE AFC COACHES HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY

One of the highlights of the annual March meeting is the opportunity to speak with the head coaches in attendance. Tuesday morning that meant having breakfast with the AFC coaches, all 16 of them in the same room.

That group included Chiefs head man Todd Haley. Most of what he had to say to the media in Orlando we’ve heard before from Haley. So we’ll give you comments on a couple of his new players, starting with RB Thomas Jones.

“Thomas first of all came in and really blew us all away just with his attitude and his commitment and love for the game and desire to keep playing and playing at a high level and to be part of something special,” Haley said. “He had been a couple of different places where it turned around and he liked that feeling. He wanted to be a part of it here. We’re all just really excited to get him on to the team and get him in the building. I know he’s excited about getting going. I’m a big believer in letting these guys play and compete and that was a big part of getting Thomas in here was to bring the level of competition to what maybe we didn’t have.”

And Haley talked about the addition of veteran Casey Wiegmann.

“He’s a tough, tough player, a tough, tough guy,” said Haley. “He’s played a lot of games in the league with very few interruptions. He’s a guy that a handful of us had familiarity with going back to New York. We were in New York a short time starting out when I was in personnel, for whatever reason you get connections with certain players and throughout the years when we played either Kansas City or Denver, places where Casey’s been, we’d see each other before or after the game. I’ve always been impressed with what he’s done since he left New York. When we studied Casey, it appeared he was still playing at a high level. He’s done a great job of taking care of his body, a really, really great job and he’s got the mindset that he wants to play some more.”

Haley also added some revealing comments about his young first-round defensive linemen Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson.

“Obviously, we need to get better talent-wise and scheme-wise because we weren’t good enough last year,” said Haley. “There was a lot of speculation about whether he fit, are we trading him? We were clearly a better team when Glenn Dorsey played. He learned a lot of things last year and he’s much further along and now understands what our expectation level is with him and we understand him. Tyson and those guys are just night and day in talking to them having a year under their belt. It’s a difficult transition. Those guys are thinking the right way. They’re working hard.”

Here are some other noteworthy comments from AFC head coaches:

JETS COACH REX RYAN EXCITED ABOUT HIS NEW CB: “Antonio Cromartie might have as much talent as any player I’ve been around playing cornerback. Combine him with Darrelle Revis and that will be a pretty lethal combination. It allows us to not just roll coverage to one cornerback or the other, and we had to do that a lot last year. He’s got some maturing to do. Is he perfect? Probably not.”

COLTS COACH JIM CALDWELL ON HAVING A NEW OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR FOR QB PEYTON MANNING: “I’m not certain why you would try to take a guy who’s been on the rise statistically in every single category, MVP of last year and just keeps going in the right direction, why in the world would you want to change it? Every year we look at different ways to get a little bit better. But that’s one of the things that I think is dangerous. You have to be careful. You want to stay with your core values. I think that’s extremely important. But you don’t want to get stale. It will catch up with you quickly.”

BILLS COACH CHAN GAILEY ON FLORIDA QB TIM TEBOW: “He’s got every intangible that you could ever want in a quarterback. The bottom line on him is, is his delivery going to keep him from being able to play? How much work is there to be done? I haven’t gotten the tape yet, so I don’t know about his workout. But how much work is there yet to be done and how much of a change can he make. If you go with the delivery he had he will really struggle in this league.”

BRONCOS COACH JOSH MCDANIELS ON HIS SITUATION AT QB WITH KYLE ORTON AND RECENTLY ACQUIRED BRADY QUINN: “He’s (Orton) a guy who made the most of an opportunity he was given last year. He still hasn’t been in our system for a calendar year. Year 2, I anticipate he will know more, he’ll be more comfortable in a system. Kyle started all but one game for us last year, and he’s got the respect of his teammates and coaches and we look forward to him improving. Now Brady’s here competing, and as always, players determine their roles by what they do on the field.”

RAIDERS COACH TOM CABLE ON WHAT’S EXPECTED FROM NEW OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR HUE JACKSON: “Score more points. It’s plain and simple. With him, it’s not just one guy. He’s got to get 11 guys on the same page and moving in the right direction. We need to score at least two touchdowns and a couple field goals a game. If we can do that, if we can get better play at quarterback, we’ll be fine.”

UPDATING PERSONNEL: THE OFF-SEASON DAY #19

• BENGALS – RFA LB Rashad Jeanty signed tender offer.
• EAGLES – the Saints did not match the offer sheet given to RB Mike Bell. It’s a 1-year deal, $1.7 million, $500,000 guaranteed.
• JETS – RFA OT Wayne Hunter signed tender offer.
• RAIDERS – RFA LB Ricky Brown signed tender offer.
• REDSKINS – signed P Josh Bidwell.