For Chiefs, it’s the end of an error

By Mike Ash  |   Friday, May 18, 2007  |  Comments( 6 )

Kansas City Chiefs
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From the very beginning, Ryan Sims' career in Kansas City didn't go according to plan.

Considered by most as the best defensive tackle in the 2002 draft class, a strong Senior Bowl performance cemented North Carolina's Sims as a consensus top-10 pick. When the Dallas Cowboys went on the clock with the sixth overall selection that year, Sims was still on the board. And the Chiefs -- sitting two spots back with the eighth pick -- orchestrated a last-minute trade to move up for him.

The deal was a no-brainer for both sides. It was widely believed that the Cowboys coveted Oklahoma safety Roy Williams, who would still be available for them two slots later. And moving up past the seventh pick allowed the Chiefs, who ranked 27th against the run in 2001, to vault over the Minnesota Vikings and their 31st-ranked rush defense.

The transaction seemed simple enough. But as the Chiefs would soon find out, nothing was ever easy where Sims was concerned.

Before the trade between Dallas and Kansas City could be finalized, the Cowboys' time expired. Minnesota, knowing which player the Chiefs were moving up to take, sent its runner to the front with Sims' name on the draft card. But thanks to a quick-thinking draft runner on the Chiefs' end -- their assistant equipment manager, Allen Wright -- Kansas City was spared the potential embarrassment of having the player it wanted taken from under its nose.

Prior to the clock running out on Dallas, Wright put Sims' name on the Chiefs' card and handed it to his colleague Chris Shropshire. The 150-pound Shropshire stood in front of the NFL draft managers and refused to move until the trade was complete, physically blocking the Vikings from submitting their pick.

The trade was announced moments later and Shropshire immediately turned in his card, making Sims a member of the Chiefs. But the ride only got bumpier from there.

Sims immediately endeared himself to fans in Kansas City when he engaged in a lengthy holdout that lasted through training camp and the preseason. When he finally reported to the team just 10 days before the Chiefs opened their regular season, then-coach Dick Vermeil remarked that Sims had shown up "fat and out of shape."

Sims participated sparingly in the first month of his rookie season, not making much of an impact on the field as he worked himself back to his playing weight. And after making his first career starts in Weeks 5 and 6, he promptly suffered an elbow injury that took him out for the rest of the year.

Sims returned in 2003 to start all 16 games for the Chiefs, but he still didn't display the ability expected from a top-10 draft pick. In fact, he was often confused and missed his assignments, habits that eventually led to a locker-room shouting match with fellow lineman Eric Hicks after a loss late in the season.

The Chiefs replaced defensive coordinator Greg Robinson with former head coach Gunther Cunningham after the 2003 season. For fans still hoping that Sims would turn things around, there was a feeling that Cunningham's more aggressive brand of defense would allow Sims to better resemble the player he was in college.

Sims agreed.

"I really think Gunther's going to save my career," he said in 2004.

But Sims' production only got worse during his third year in the league, and he began to lose his grip on his starting job. To make matters worse, Carolina's Julius Peppers, who played on the defensive line with Sims at North Carolina, made his first Pro Bowl that season. Peppers was the second overall pick in the 2002 draft, and it was rapidly becoming apparent that, between the two Tar Heel linemen, the Chiefs had gotten the bum end of the deal.

Sims responded to the mounting criticism by delivering what observers called the best training camp of his career in 2005. But a foot injury in the first game of the season caused him to miss the next 10 games. When he finally returned to the field, he delivered the same lackluster performances that fans had come to expect.

Herm Edwards took over as head coach of the Chiefs in 2006 and Sims saw his playing time drastically decrease. And after Edwards added defensive linemen Turk McBride and Tank Tyler in the 2007 draft, the final nail was driven into Sims' career in Kansas City. Surprising many who felt that Sims had no trade value, the Chiefs were able to ship him to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for what's believed to be a late-round pick.

There is plenty of speculation among Chiefs fans as to why Sims turned out to be such a bust. Many have suggested that his success in college was simply the byproduct of lining up next to a talented defensive end like Peppers. Others feel that he actually was a good player and just got lazy as soon as his $9.75 million signing bonus found its way into his bank account.

Whatever the reason, despite all of the offensive success that the Chiefs enjoyed during Vermeil's tenure, his time in Kansas City was marred by a miserable defense, bad drafting and poor talent evaluation. No player symbolizes those failures more than Sims, and parting ways with him is a big step forward as the team works on correcting those mistakes.

As for Sims himself, he has a chance, albeit slim, to turn things around in Tampa Bay. Maybe the wake-up call of being shipped out of town, aided by a change of scenery, will motivate him to become the player everyone once thought he could be.

But in Kansas City, the Ryan Sims era might best be remembered for the irony of draft Saturday in 2002, where a 150-pound equipment manager displayed more heart and toughness than Sims would in his five disappointing seasons with the team.

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