Kansas City Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli recently took some time out to discuss a few points on The Dan Patrick Show and found himself asked about a number of potentially contentious subjects. The Chiefs' failure to lure Peyton Manning's attention, the absence of Dwayne Bowe from training camp, the quarterbacks behind Matt Cassel were all discussed, but Pioli stood in the crosshairs well.
Perhaps no subject saw Pioli handle himself as well as the questions about Peyton, and Pioli was very forthright about the entire situation.
"Well, I'd say that we evaluated, but there wasn't much to evaluate on him," said Pioli. "But we did reach out to him and I'd made that point clear at the time that we did reach out to Peyton and his people and he made his decision to do what he wanted to do.
Pioli did express some light-hearted frustration at his eventual landing spot with the rival Denver Broncos.
"I just wished he wouldn't have ended up in the division," said Pioli. "I thought it was over having to face him as often. When he was in Indianapolis, we had to face him every year whether it was regular season or postseason or sometimes it was both. Now I'm stuck having him with a team that we're gonna be facing twice a year. He's a heck of a player. Obviously, he's a Hall of Fame player."
The obvious follow-up to the question was asked about incumbent Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel, but Pioli also took that in stride. When asked about smoothing over the feelings of his current starter, Pioli didn't hesitate.
"You're using the words 'smooth it over' and I guess there would have to be a problem in order to smooth it over, but Matt didn't have a problem with it at all," explained Pioli. "There's no smoothing it over. I've been with Matt since the beginning of his career and players that know me and that I have relationships with understand that any opportunity that I see or have to improve our football team or improve the competition, I'm going to do that.
"Matt's no different from any other player on this football team and he understands that. Just like I'm doing everything I can to add talent to the guard position or to the tackle position or the nose position or running back position, I'm going to do that at quarterback if the opportunity arises. Again, Matt's attitude was fine about it. He understood it and welcomed it."
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