USA Today: Romeo Crennel energetic again, takes reins as Chiefs D-coordinator
Romeo Crennel is eagerly jumping back into the NFL with renewed energy and diminished pain.
He'll be the defensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, taking over a unit that's been miserable under its last three coordinators. But he may not be here for long if another team comes calling with an offer to be head coach.
"I think that's why many of us coaches are in this business, to get to the highest level possible," Crennel said Thursday. "And I think being the head coach is the highest level. And if that opportunity came along again, I would definitely be interested in that. But at the present time, the opportunity is to be the defensive coordinator for the Chiefs. That's what I'm putting all the energy into."
The Chiefs made the hiring official on Thursday and Todd Haley confirmed that one of the first things he did after becoming head coach last year was to offer Crennel the job.
SI: Crennel agrees to become defensive coordinator for Chiefs
Just call them the Kansas City Patriots.
When they take the field next year, they Chiefs will have the same defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator and top front office executive who helped lead New England to three Super Bowl titles between 2002-05.
Throw in quarterback Matt Cassel, who backed up Tom Brady with the Patriots, and the New England-Kansas City connection becomes even stronger as Scott Pioli attempts to reverse the fortunes of the long-suffering Chiefs.
Romeo Crennel, the defensive coordinator on the Patriots' Super Bowl teams, agreed Wednesday to join the Chiefs in the same capacity, his agent said. Crennel, who was out of football this past season following hip surgery, will be reunited with Charlie Weis, who was New England's offensive coordinator and agreed last week to take that job with the Chiefs.
Nothing’s official yet, but according to a league source, Romeo
Crennel will be joining the coaching staff in Kansas City and not with
the Giants. Crennel would be reunited with Charlie Weis and Scott Pioli
in KC. The trio had a lot to do with the success of the Patriots.
Also another team will be firing its DC later today, opening another job and throwing another candidate onto the market.
Yesterday, we pointed out an entry from the Twitter page of Kansas City Chiefs CB Brandon Flowers indicating he was headed to Alabama to see if he needed surgery.
I speculated that the surgery was for a shoulder injury he had been
dealing with all season and the surgeon could be famed sports surgeon
Dr. James Andrews. That's all still speculation.
Babb: Chiefs’ rebuilding project is very different than the one from 20 years ago
The coach was in town for a job interview, taking a tour of the
place that would become his new football home. He’d heard about
Arrowhead Stadium. Things had changed, though, and the challenge for
the next Chiefs coach was to redirect the team toward better times.
He
visited the offices, passed through corridors where few outsiders go,
and stopped finally in the locker room. The coach stood with the
Chiefs’ general manager, a new hire himself, considering what was
possible if a few things broke the right way. A disappointing decade
was winding down. The Chiefs wanted to end it with assurances that
better days lay ahead.
The coach remembers his interview as if it
were last week. The colors and the history and the optimism, the way a
veteran player shook his hand and said it would be nice to have a coach
that they could believe in.
Charlie Weis, in his first public statement today since being named
Chiefs offensive coordinator, sounded the same theme as head coach Todd
Haley. Haley had said he was looking for a good fit for his new
offensive coordinator.
''As I’ve been sitting for the last month or so at home studying the
different teams in the NFL, one of the things that was really important
to me as I was looking for a new opportunity, I wanted to go somewhere
where fit was the number one criteria,'' Weis said. ''There are several
teams out there that are in the hunt for different types of coaches.
At that end of our post announcing Charlie Weis' hire in Kansas City, we mentioned that the next logical step would be hiring Romeo Crennel.
That move may be on its way.
A
few prominent NFL voices believe Crennel could indeed be joining Todd
Haley's staff. ESPN's Adam Schefter writes, "It's likely to be a New
England reunion: Now that Charlie Weis has agreed to work in Kansas
City, Romeo Crennel will not be far behind."
Mark Maske of the Washington Post writes: "Romeo Crennel could be next as defensive coordinator [In Kansas City]." continue reading...
