Chiefs’ John Dorsey optimistic team can take the next step in 2016

The offseason is a mirage in the National Football League. Doesn’t really exist anymore, thanks to a league-wide effort to make professional football a year-round event fueled by television and the Internet.

As the Chiefs’ lead personnel man, general manager John Dorsey knows this all too well.

Only a few days after the Chiefs’ season came to screeching halt with an AFC Divisional playoff loss to New England on a cold afternoon in Foxborough, Mass., Dorsey and his team of scouts found themselves interviewing potential draftees at the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl last week in sunny Los Angeles.

This week will offer more of the same, Dorsey and his men will attack the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., in their ongoing effort to nail down their free-agency and draft plans.

“Our season of personnel starts now,” Dorsey said.

And it is only beginning. Their annual trip to Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine looms in February, and so do many, many meetings as they attempt to properly evaluate hundreds of football players — one of the hardest tasks in sports, given the background research required to get a feel for a player and the tricky nature of projecting a player’s skillset to the next level.

But for men like Dorsey, who is about to enter his 26th year as an NFL personnel man, it’s a challenge worth attacking.

“It’s a fun process,” Dorsey said. “It gives you a chance to really put your hands on these players, watch them move around, watch them compete. It also gives you a chance to kind of, for the first time, really to see who they are as people as well.”

Dorsey loves football, and he’s a man who is always scouting, whether he’s watching practice or college football on television. But he hasn’t let his never-ending focus on player evaluation cloud his appreciation for what he and head coach Andy Reid have managed to put together over the past three years.

After inheriting a team that went 2-14 in 2012, the season before they arrived, the Chiefs have gone 31-17 in three seasons, which includes two 11-5 seasons, two playoff berths and one playoff victory — Kansas City’s first in 22 years.

“A team that goes 11-5, I think you did a pretty good job,” Dorsey said. “I think we have made that progress that we talked about over a three-year period, we’ve made some positive steps in this thing. Of course we’re going to have to build off of that and I understand that. Where we were and where we are today, I’m very happy with that.”

Despite the Chiefs’ success this season, they do have some positions they need to fortify.

“I think when you reflect back on this team, from a personnel guy, maybe there were some moves that you could have made during the season that could have helped increase the depth of this roster,” Dorsey said. “We laid out a plan early in 2015 and I thought we met a lot of the objectives that we had set out to meet. And then you move into the draft; I think we got a lot of the guys that we wanted in this draft.

“But as the season goes along, is there one or two moves that could have helped us? I think in hindsight, you could do that.”

Receiver, offensive line, cornerback and interior defensive line should be at the top of the Chiefs’ need list, though the location of the Chiefs’ first-round draft pick this year’s NFL Draft — 28th overall — is typically an area where wise, well-run teams often take the best available player.

The Chiefs will likely have a solid chunk of change available to spend in free agency. Former agent and salary cap expert Joel Corry projects that number to be around $23 million, provided veteran leaders (and looming free agents) Eric Berry, Derrick Johnson and Tamba Hali all sign deals slightly above market value.

Dorsey made it sound like the Chiefs wouldn’t be taking an “all-in” approach when the bidding begins in March, although the plan for the 2016 offseason hasn’t quite been laid out yet.

“Well … I want to do what’s best for this organization in terms of long-term approach,” Dorsey said early last week. “With that being said, I think the first step is that we have to do a little self-evaluation with regards to the team and how we look moving forward … I don’t think right now is the time to say we’re going to be this, this or this.”

When asked how the close the Chiefs were to being a team that can play in the AFC Championship Game — only one win away this past season — or the Super Bowl, Dorsey was optimistic, nonetheless.

“I think we have the makings of a good team, I think we have a core team,” Dorsey said. “I said early on (that) I thought this was a better team this year than it was the year before and I still believe that. And I think at the end of the year, those guys showed that they’re a pretty good team.”

After Dorsey credited the staff and players for bouncing back from a 1-5 start, he was also asked if it’s reasonable to think the Chiefs could take the next step in 2016.

“Well, as you well know, every season is different,” Dorsey said. “I’m a very optimistic individual and I believe that … every year we’re going to get better. So, I believe that.”

This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 9:08 PM with the headline "Chiefs’ John Dorsey optimistic team can take the next step in 2016."