Dwayne Bowe: Romeo Crennel 'knows how to treat players'

Kansas City. (Getty Images)

Dwayne Bowe is transitioning from an offensive-minded coach (Todd Haley) to a defensive-minded one (Romeo Crennel). Which you think might make him less than enthralled about the focus on the Chiefs offense this year.

But it's quite the opposite. Bowe is pumped to work under Crennel. 

"Romeo is awesome,” Bowe told Josh Looney of KCChiefs.com recently. “That guy knows how to handle a team and how to manage a team. He definitely knows how to treat the players. He’s knows the players’ needs and respects the players."

The phrase "definitely knows how to treat the players" doesn't necessarily mean that Bowe's last coach, Haley, doesn't. But it kind of implies it. And when Bowe makes a direct comparison between Haley's regime and Crennel's, well, that kind of says enough, right?

"Over those last three games with him last year, guys had so much more energy and were so much more confident," Bowe said. "Guys are so excited to come back to him, you can’t even imagine."

Again, that doesn't mean people wouldn't be excited to come back and play for Haley, but it doesn't mean people would be excited to come back and play for Haley. There's at least something to Bowe's theory though: the Chiefs looked like a disaster for much of 2011 (though injuries played a serious role) before they temporarily floated to the top of the AFC West. But it never seemed like they were a serious threat to do damage.

With Crennel in charge down the stretch, the Chiefs really seemed to gel, even though they were missing the majority of their players. Or maybe it was just Crennel's willingness not to put Tyler Palko under center.

That fact has to be pretty exciting to Bowe as well.