Kansas City Chiefs head coach Romeo Crennel announced Monday that he would be stepping down as the defensive coordinator and would be handing off the responsibilities to linebackers coach Gary Gibbs.
The Chiefs are 1-7 on the season, which played a factor in his decision. He went on to say he is releiving himself as the defensive coordinator because he wanted to remove the idea that he is spending more time on the defensive side of the ball and completely ignoring the offensive side.
“I will continue to be in meetings sometimes,” Crennel said. “I will meet with Gary on a regular basis as well as I do with (offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and special teams coach Tom McMahon) to know what the game plan is and what’s going on there. But I’m going to spent more time with the whole team and less time with the defense.”
The Chiefs defense is currently ranked 16th in the NFL allowing 347.5 yards per game. Offensively, the Chiefs only average 16.6 points a game, which is 30th in league.
Crennel feels that perception on him has been misinterpreted, but wants people to understand that he cares about all aspects of the Chiefs.
“We have a young team and some guys, the perception may be that I’m a defensive coach, that I’m a defensive coordinator, and I don’t care about other parts of the team, which is not true,” he said.
Crennel said he is hopeful that his decision will allow others to change their perception about him.
Before stepping down as defensive coordinator Crennel made one more change to the defense by releasing starting cornerback Stanford Routt.
Routt was signed during the winter after Brandon Carr jetted to the Dallas Cowboys and was viewed as one of the Chiefs’ biggest off-season signees. Routt had previously played seven seasons with Oakland Raiders.
Crennel said Routt’s transition to the Chiefs defense was taking longer than it should have and decided the time had came to part ways.
“He was trying to learn the system and he trying to adapt and making some progress at that but I needed it to be faster,” Crennel said. “I thought it was going to be faster but it wasn’t happening so I made the move.”
Javier Arenas will start in Routt’s place Sunday against the San Diego Chargers as Gibbs makes his debut as defensive coordinator.
Crennel will have the opportunity to try to resurrect the Chiefs season and change the perception of others if they get their second win of the season.
