The Kansas City Chiefs are back in the building after a week off and looking forward to their Week 13 contest against the Denver Broncos. Andy Reid spoke to the media on Monday, providing some updates coming out the bye week. So what all did we learn from the head coach?
Here are some quick takeaways from what Reid had to say:
Andy Reid eulogizes Curley Culp
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The Chiefs lost Hall of Fame defensive tackle Curley Culp to late-stage pancreatic cancer over the weekend. Reid opened up his press conference speaking about Culp’s legacy in Kansas City.
“Let me just say something before we jump into it—I just wanted to mention Curley Culp, one of the all-time great Kansas City Chiefs,” Reid began. “A Hall of Famer playing the nose guard position, which is a tough thing to do, but also just a phenomenal athlete—a championship NCAA heavyweight wrestler and then also a Pro Football Hall of Famer. So, my heart goes out to his family. I’ve had a chance to talk to Emmitt (Thomas) who was very close to him, and I not only listened to him but stand by what I saw he put out there. I just know how much he meant to that football team and this organization. One of the real building blocks of what is now the Kansas City Chiefs.”
The 75-year-old had just announced his diagnosis on November 16th.
Further emphasis on passing the ball to Clyde Edwards-Helaire
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One of the biggest strengths of RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, while he was at LSU, was his pass-catching. In the NFL, he hasn’t been quite as successful with just 46 catches over the past two seasons.
Asked whether getting Edwards-Helaire the ball in the passing game was a priority moving forward, Reid said it has been a priority for him all along.
“Well, I’ve said that since he’s been here,” Reid said. “He’s a valuable tool if you want to look at it that way because he can catch the ball so well. The last game was just a matter of getting him back in and getting him back rolling again. So, I thought he did a nice job there. He had a couple of grabs and did good with that too. But he becomes a valuable piece in the offense.”
So far this season, Edwards-Helaire has 10 catches for 74 yards and two touchdowns. That’s 7.4 yards per reception and a 20% touchdown rate as a receiver. It would seem the Chiefs would be wise to amp up his targets moving forward.
There is no secret to Andy Reid's post-bye success
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Reid has seen an unprecedented level of success in games played after the bye week during his career. The veteran head coach has a 19-3 record during the regular season after the bye week, including three consecutive post-bye week wins dating back to 2017.
Asked about the secret to his success, Reid didn’t have too many details to reveal.
“Oh, I get asked that every year,” Reid said. “I’m not sure what it is. We go back and we try to redo everything and make better corrections, but I don’t know if there’s any secret there. I think everybody kind of does that.”
It seems like Reid chalks everything up to the bye week process, with his coaching staff evaluating the team and making necessary changes and improvements. There’s also something to be said about how his players approach and attack the bye week to get themselves ready for the remainder of the season.
How having a game flexed impacts the week of preparation
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The Week 13 game against the Broncos will be the Chiefs’ third game on “Sunday Night Football” this season after networks agreed to flex the game.
Reid was asked whether the NFL’s flexible scheduling had any impact on their week of preparation. He revealed that it only impacts how the team handles the following week.
“There’s not really anything you have to change that’s immediate in the process,” Reid said. “Normally you try to get a jump later in the week on the following team because you’re not going to have any time. It’s a late-night and you have a relatively early morning without any sleep, so you try to get a jump on the team coming up. At least some coaches do that, but other than that everything is the same.”
A few coaches will be responsible for some early scouting on the Raiders, but the Chiefs do have the benefit of having already played Las Vegas back in Week 10.
What did Reid learn about his team during the bye week?
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There is a lot of self-scouting and introspection that typically takes place during the bye week given teams don’t have an opponent to prepare for. Reid was asked about what he learned about his team during the bye week and the veteran head coach was tight-lipped.
“How am I going to tell you that? If there was anything good, I mean I’d tell you, I’d tell the world, right. So doggone it,” Reid said with a smirk. “There’s always something you find out about yourself 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.”
Don’t expect anything too prolific to come from the bye week, but there could be “a little nugget” that they found to help the team.
Who is accountable for interceptions, Mahomes or his receivers?
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Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes has seen some bad interception luck this season. At least five of his picks hit a receiver before they were intercepted by an opponent this season.
Asked about who is held accountable when interceptions happen, Reid emphasized that it isn’t always on the quarterback.
“I always say that interceptions can be spread around to different people. It’s not necessarily always the quarterback, but inevitably, he has the ball in his hand last or he’s the one throwing it,” Reid explained. “So, again, Pat’s [Mahomes] always going to take the responsibility for it, but there’s always another part of that, whether it’s a 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 week. It all ends up kind of the same. It’s an interception. We all take responsibility for it.”
While there’s plenty of blame to go around when interceptions and turnovers happen, the one constant is that it’s a team effort to fix it so they don’t happen as frequently.
“We all work on trying to fix our problems and you move forward,” Reid continued. “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 kind of dancing the same dance, and if not, you can be off by just a tick and something crazy happens. Then there are also times where the quarterback shouldn’t have made the throw. Those happen in there too, so I’m not excluding that position, but there are a lot of factors that go into it.”
