The Kansas City Chiefs announced a new addition to the coaching staff on Tuesday. Jim Zorn, former Washington Redskins head coach, will be the Chiefs' new quarterbacks coach.
Chiefs head coach Todd Haley hinted during Super Bowl week that another addition to the staff could be coming. We figured that would be a quarterbacks coach for a couple of reasons.
First, Charlie Weis, the former offensive coordinator, fulfilled the role of offensive coordinator and Haley was technically quarterbacks coach. The Chiefs only replaced the offensive coordinator position with Bill Muir, who has a history along the offensive line, and not quarterback.
Second, it was reported early on by the KC Star's Kent Babb that the Chiefs wanted a quarterback guru of sorts to be in place to work with Cassel. Zorn's that guy.
Zorn spent much of his 11-year playing career with the Seattle Seahawks and also broke into the NFL as a coach in 1997 with Seattle. He's known to most people as the former head coach of the Redskins in the 2008 and 2009 seasons where he compiled a 12-20 record before being let go.
Zorn made his way to Baltimore last season where he coached Joe Flacco and the quarterbacks. After one year, he was let go in Baltimore, which didn't make Flacco happy. I take that as a good sign for the Chiefs that Flacco enjoyed working with Zorn so much.
I think this is a good move for the Chiefs. As Haley has said several times, they can't go backwards. Hiring Zorn is an effort to continue Cassel's improvement, and the Chiefs know the importance of the success of the quarterback in developing an offense.