Can you sum up the season? I know it's not exactly what you wanted."I was proud of the guys today.
Are you going to play that 'what if' game?"I think it's hard not to. Although during some of those games when we let those opportunities get away from us, you had the thought in the back of your mind, 'wow, those could come back to bite us.' And at the end of the day it sure did and it's disappointing. At the same time, I'm proud of the team, proud of the coaching staff – Andy (Reid), two winning seasons in his first two years. There are a lot of positives. We go into the offseason with a win, a winning season and we get to figure out how we can come back next year stronger."
What is the number one thing that you want to see changed next season?"Well, I don't think there is any one thing that you can say, 'okay, this is how we're going to be better next year.' John Dorsey, his staff; Andy and his staff, they'll get into the self-evaluation mode here right away. We'll have free agency and the draft right around the corner. And the key is we've got to come back a better football team next year."
Do you look at this season as a wasted opportunity with all of the talented players that you have?"I wouldn't say it's a wasted opportunity, but I would say it's a missed opportunity. We had a chance sort of two thirds of the way through the season to really lock down a playoff spot and we didn't get that done and we put ourselves in position where we had to win today and have some help from other teams. We took care of our business, but we didn't get the help that we needed. And that is something that we'll just have to carry into the offseason. Hopefully it will be a motivator for everybody to come back better next season."
What happened to this team, losing four of their last six?"Again, I think that is something that Coach Reid and his staff will have to figure out and evaluate and that is something they'll get started on next week. Again, as I said earlier, I don't think you can point to any one thing."
What do you think of Justin Houston's season?"Tremendous season for Justin all the way around. He had a great day today with the 4.0 sacks; broke the Chiefs single-season record for sacks. Really a tremendous player who was a big part of the success that we had this year."
The Chiefs will probably be hearing from his agent too."That's what offseasons are for."
Was this kind of the NFL that Pete Rozelle and your father envisioned where so many teams are in the playoff race at the end of the season?"I think it makes the NFL better that teams have a chance. I think going into each season every team thinks in the back of their mind, 'hey, we can do it this year.' And I think in particular in the AFC you saw that. And really as early as the middle of the season, you looked at the table and thought, 'wow, how is this going to play out? There are so many teams that have winning records and sure enough it came down to the last week of the season and unfortunately, we weren't one of the teams that made it into the tournament."
Photos from the Chiefs Week 17 matchup against the Chargers
How do you think Chase Daniel did today?"I thought Chase did terrific. Thinking about his two starts over the last year, both against San Diego, I thought he played well in both games. He played well enough for us to win in both games. It didn't work out that way last year in San Diego, but I was happy for him to get the victory today." When you came to the stadium today, were you thinking about 2006 where lightning struck and the Chiefs were able to make the playoffs?"Yeah, thinking about this season, that's the season that most compares to it where we had to have a lot of things fall our way the last week of the season. We had to get a victory. That year it happened for us; this year it didn't. This year probably now feels more like 2005 where we won enough games, you would think, to get in the playoffs, but it just didn't happen for us."
