Andy Reid roundup: 4 takeaways from the Chiefs head coach

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid met with the media over Zoom conference call Monday in his first media availability following the Chiefs' bye week. The Chiefs are 7-4, first place in the AFC West and fourth place in the conference.

Listen to the full presser above or by clicking here.

In his opening statement, Reid noted that the NFL's competition and parity remain "unbelievable." Week 12's games saw the Las Vegas Raiders upset the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos — Kansas City's next opponent — upset the Los Angeles Chargers.

Reid also passed his condolences to the family of former Chiefs defensive tackle Curley Culp. Over the weekend, Culp's family announced he had passed. Reid called Culp one of the "building blocks" of today's Chiefs organization.

Reid then took questions, which we rounded up in four takeaways:

Reid provided injury notes on offensive linemen Lucas Niang and Kyle Long.

Niang missed the last two games heading into the bye week due to an injury to his ribs.

"He was making good progress prior to the bye," said Reid of Niang. "I'll get a report [Monday] on him... there's a chance he's ready. I can't tell you until I see him."

Long returned to practice for the Chiefs 20 days ago, but he remained on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list as of Monday. The Chiefs now need to make a decision on the veteran.

"He's worked his tail off during his recovery time here," said Reid of Long. "We'll see how all of that goes here. We're sorting through all of that [Monday]. But I appreciate having him here and doing what he's been doing, too, and how he's handled everything, so we'll make the decision, and I leave that up to (general manager) Brett [Veach], doctors and that. But we'll make that decision here [Monday]."

Reid wasn't so forthcoming with what he took away from some bye-week self-scouting.

Reid and the Chiefs' coaches typically dig into the film during the first few days of the week off.

"How am I going to tell you that?" laughed Reid. "If there was anything good, I'd tell you, I'd tell the world, right? Doggone it. There's always a little something you find out about yourself. And yeah, because you have extended time, it gives you the opportunity to look even a little deeper — although, we try to do it on a week-to-week basis, so there weren't any huge surprises — but there's always a little nugget in there somewhere if you look hard enough."

Perhaps Kansas City will aim to get running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire more involved in the passing game. That has been a topic since the Chiefs drafted him, yet the back only has 10 catches in six games played this season.

"I've said that since he's been here," admitted Reid. "He's a valuable tool... if you want to look at it that way, because he can catch the ball so well. Last game (against the Dallas Cowboys) was just a matter of getting him back in and get him back rolling again. I thought he did a nice job there, had a couple grabs and did good with that, too.... he becomes a valuable piece in the offense."

Reid confirmed safety Tyrann Mathieu came out of the game against Dallas OK and complimented his determination to participate.

Remember that Mathieu was suddenly questionable and a game-time decision due to his knee swelling overnight leading into the last game.

"He came out actually OK," said Reid. "He was able to push himself through, which was amazing. He's a tough kid, so tough-minded. That also carries over to the defense. Our players knew that he wasn't quite where he wanted to be and yet he didn't say anything. He just kind of pushed himself through it."

Mathieu registered three tackles (two solo) in the game.

Reid described that preventing interceptions is a team effort.

A stat came out last week that quarterback Patrick Mahomes has thrown six interceptions on passes that had a 75% chance (or better) of being completed in 2021. Mahomes has thrown 11 total picks through the 11 games.

"I always say that interceptions can be spread around to different people," said Reid. "It's not always necessarily the quarterback. But, inevitably, he has the ball in his hand last — or he's the one throwing it. Again, Pat's always going to take the responsibility for it, but there's always another part of that, whether it's the call, whether it's the protection, whether it's a receiver tipping it, a D-lineman tipping it, whatever it might be. A linebacker tipping it — we saw a couple of those this weekend.

"It all ends up kind of the same. It's an interception. We all take responsibility for it. We all try to work on fixing our problems and you move forward. That's part of this thing being a true team game. If you look at the big picture of it, you've got to get people dancing the same dance — and if not, you can be off just by a tick, and something crazy happens. And then there are also times when the quarterback — we — shouldn't have made the throw. Those happen in there, too. I'm not excluding that position, but there are a lot of factors that go into it."