He was a big part of the story of the 2011 Kansas City Chiefs. That’s not in a good way. In a season that the AFC West was up for the taking by anyone who remotely wanted to step forward and grab it, the Chiefs finished only one game out despite the fact that they fired their coach. Yes, a losing season so bad that a head coach gets fired is the same one that the Chiefs almost repeated as AFC West champs two years in a row.
A big reason the Chiefs lost fell on the shoulders of the decision maker. In the main sense, that means Todd Haley. But one of Haley’s oddest decisions was sticking with Tyler Palko under center instead of going with Ricky Stanzi at some point. Palko was horrible, to say the least, and for a team to go with him as the starter for 25 percent of its games was stupefying.
Palko is now a free agent since the Chiefs did not tender him today as they did with others (i.e. the second rounder given to Jovan Belcher). Many fans will be glad to see him go, but he’ll always be tied to the inexplicable season that was.