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Herm Edwards was 39-41 in five years with the Jets.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Herman Edwards was hired as coach of the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday, replacing the retired Dick Vermeil and inheriting a team that barely missed the playoffs.
The Chiefs will give Edwards' former team, the New York Jets, a fourth-round draft pick as compensation. Edwards still had two years left on his contract with New York.
"We selected Herm Edwards because he is, without question, one of the most qualified head football coaches in the NFL today," Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson said in a statement issued before a news conference. "Herm has coached players and teams in playoff games and he has won playoff games."
Vermeil retired after going 44-36 in five years but reached the playoffs only once and did not get past the first game.
The 51-year-old Edwards, a friend of Chiefs president Carl Peterson, was 39-41 in five years with the Jets, but made the playoffs three times, more than any previous Jets coach. He began his NFL career in Kansas City as a personnel executive and then an assistant coach under Marty Schottenheimer.
Edwards' 2004 Jets team came within a field goal of reaching the AFC championship game. But starting with a loss in Kansas City in the season opener, the injury-wracked 2005 Jets fell to 4-12 and many fans became disgruntled.
On Dec. 31, when 69-year-old Vermeil tearfully told the team he was stepping down, Edwards was still saying he wanted to remain in New York.
Days later, Peterson was dropping hints that he intended to be reunited with his friend and protege of more than 30 years, and the relationship between Edwards and the Jets quickly turned sour.
"From a personal standpoint, I have wanted to do this for many years," Peterson in the statement.
Edwards began pressing for a contract extension and raise over his $2 million salary, which alienated owner Woody Johnson to the point that Edwards' departure became inevitable.
SI
