Andy Reid should be the NFL's coach of the year
It's high time the Chiefs' coach gets the recognition he deserves.
Andy Reid would probably hate that I’m writing this.
The Chiefs’ longtime head coach is known for brushing off any praise directed towards him and instead lavishing it on those around him. No matter what the accomplishment (incredible offenses, winning streaks, playoff runs, even Super Bowl titles), the first thing you’ll hear from Reid in interviews will be about those around him. If you were to believe everything the man says during interviews you’d think he has absolutely nothing to do with his sustained success in the NFL. The players, assistant coaches, the training staff, equipment managers, ownership, even the fanbase will get credit from Reid before he’ll ever say anything about what he’s done. It’s everyone around him, you see.
Of course, we know that’s not true. You don’t sustain the kind of success Reid has in the NFL without doing a lot of things right. And in 2024 specifically, the job Reid has done as a head coach has to be acknowledged (even by someone like me, who occasionally bemoans certain aspects of the usual gameday experience in 2024). The Chiefs are 15-1 (!) and locked up the one-seed in the AFC a week early (!!) by winning three games in 10 days (!!!), with two of those games against playoff teams (!!!!).
And yet, there’s hardly a whisper about Reid in the NFL’s “coach of the year” discussion when you look online or at the talking heads who debate such things. In terms of odds, last I saw he’s behind Kevin O’Connell (Vikings) and Dan Campbell (Lions) and tied with… Dan Quinn, who is coaching the 10-5 Commanders.
This leads to an interesting (at least for me) background conversation about the NFL’s coach of the year award. Historically speaking, the award goes to a coach whose team has outpaced expectations. That’s why when you look at the history of the award, you don’t always see the coaches who were ACTUALLY the best coach in the league that season. Instead, it’s quite often coaches of teams who everyone thought would be bad but were at least decent to good (with exceptions, of course).
And then there’s Andy Reid, who has not won the award since 2002 and has never really been in the discussion during the entirety of his time with the Chiefs. This is despite turning the Chiefs from a laughingstock to a playoff team in 2013 (Ron Rivera won that year). This is despite multiple Super Bowl titles, another Super Bowl appearance, and two other AFC Championship appearances during the “Mahomes era.” Want to know who the winners have been the last six seasons? Matt Nagy, John Harbaugh, Kevin Stefanski, Mike Vrabel, Brian Daboll, and Kevin Stefanski AGAIN.
Yes, that’s right. During the time period Andy Reid’s team has won 3 Super Bowls and appeared in another, Kevin Stefanski has won two coach of the year awards, Reid’s current offensive coordinator has won, and Brian Daboll was given the award.
And yes, Andy Reid has Patrick Mahomes. But the idea that the man who is continuously finding gaps in defenses to exploit, particularly in the biggest games, does not deserve recognition is absurd. Because even in a year that’s been uneven for the offense, Reid has continued to do his thing, as the whole NFL world say on Christmas day against Mike Tomlin’s defense.
And so I want to talk about Big Red and the argument as to why 2024 should be the year he gets the recognition he deserves. From dealing with injuries, to developing players, to handling underperforming pieces, to preventing distractions from becoming an issue, it’s impossible to argue with the results he’s managed to get despite everything working against the Chiefs this season.
Let’s talk about the things Reid has managed to handle while steering the ship to a 15-1 record and one-seed with time to spare. I’ll start off looking at it in terms of the big picture, then go towards a some of the very specific things he’s done that should earn him the nod as coach of the year.