The real problem with Eric Fisher not starting for the Chiefs

The only damage control that matters happens on the field. It’s the show that does beaucoup ratings and determines the wealth and professional reputations of men who devote their lives to football.

And on that point, the Chiefs did well. Good thing, too, because it serves as temporary cover for a real problem.

The Chiefs beat the Texans 27-20 in the season opener Sunday at NRG Stadium, and the most important football development was a makeshift offensive line holding up pretty well against one of the NFL’s best defensive fronts.

They did this despite Jah Reid, signed last weekend after being cut from the Ravens, starting at right tackle with few to no reps with the first team during the week’s practices.

It was a potential powder keg of a problem — another team’s castoff starting against J.J. Watt — amid multiple reports by media outlets including The Star that had Eric Fisher asking out of the starting lineup because of a high ankle sprain. The Star’s report cited multiple sources saying the Chiefs were upset at Fisher’s decision.

Again, a potential powder keg. Instead, Jah Reid could stand up and joke about it.

“The guys kept reminding me who I was going against,” he said. “They thought it was pretty funny. He made some plays, but he didn’t seem to make enough to stop us.”

It’s a good line, and for now keeps the issue with Fisher squashed in the background. But the Chiefs do have an issue here.

The reports demand questions about Fisher’s toughness and commitment, which are the worst questions that can be asked about a professional athlete. Shaun Smith, an outspoken former Chief who maintains friendships in the locker room, used Twitter to call Fisher a “chump” and “scared” of Watt. Messages left for multiple people close to Fisher were not immediately returned on Sunday.

Chiefs coaches and management have always protected Fisher. They have a lot invested in him. Coach Andy Reid and general manager John Dorsey selected him with the top pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, their first in charge of the Chiefs and the franchise’s first No. 1 overall pick since the merger.

When Fisher struggled as a rookie, Reid said it was because Fisher was playing away from his natural left tackle position. When Fisher struggled in year two, Reid emphasized Fisher spent his offseason rehabbing from surgery instead of adding strength. When announcing last week that Fisher would be the starting right tackle, instead of at the more prestigious and important left tackle position, Reid spun it as a nod to Fisher’s versatility.

“He can play any position on the offensive line, and play at Pro Bowl caliber,” Reid said at the time, despite Fisher grading below average at right tackle as a rookie and at left tackle last season.

Reid has to know nobody believes that. Not Chiefs fans, not reporters, not others around the game. Fisher is athletic, talented, and showed promise last season, but Reid’s words are about an organization (smartly) protecting a large emotional and financial investment.

After the game Sunday, Reid said the decision not to start Fisher came on Friday. Reid said he noticed subtle signs that the ankle hadn’t healed, and that Fisher thought he could push through it, but that the coaches made the decision to rest him.

Fisher also said that he “was definitely going to try” to play, was taking the lion’s share of first-team reps in practice, and as late as Thursday night expected to start. He ended up playing a few snaps, some on special teams and then late as a replacement for Donald Stephenson.

The story from the Chiefs and the timeline of how this happened suggests a miscalculation, at the very least. Jah Reid would’ve benefited more than Fisher from those practice snaps. If the coaches thought Fisher’s status for the game was in question, they surely would’ve divided them differently.

There are so many ways to look at this, but none of them are a great look for a Chiefs organization that prides itself on togetherness and promoting positive messages.

Because even if you give the team the benefit of the doubt about the reports — hey, one source’s “asking out” of the lineup could be another source’s honesty about an injury — there is a deeper problem here.

These reports surfaced relatively quickly after Fisher’s status for Sunday came into question. The reports came from different media outlets, presumably with different sources.

The way it was presented by those sources — Fisher’s decision, the coaches surprised, the team upset — paints a picture of some around the team questioning his desire to play.

The Chiefs presented a unified front here after the game. Andy Reid went into uncharacteristic detail about what he saw on video to make him question Fisher’s health, and a team source called the notion that Fisher was scared to play on the ankle “ridiculous.”

That’s fine. Again, there may be an element of “he said, he said” to all of this. But the problem for the Chiefs is that there are sources from inside the team questioning the toughness and commitment of the former No. 1 overall pick.

Even if that perception is held by a minority, it is an issue, particularly for a player who is so consistently and thoroughly protected publicly. Dorsey and Andy Reid have worked so hard to fix the broken culture they inherited. Few things can divide a locker room faster than a perception of weakness, or that different rules apply to sacred cows.

The Chiefs won on Sunday. They are 1-0 going into a game against the Broncos on a national, Thursday night platform. Jah Reid and the rest of the line played well enough that Fisher’s absence isn’t the first thing people are talking about after the game.

But even when looked at in the softest light, the context of how and when this story came up indicates a deeper problem.

This story was originally published September 13, 2015 at 6:56 PM with the headline "The real problem with Eric Fisher not starting for the Chiefs."