For the legacy; Andy Reid and the Chiefs are world champions again

The Chiefs' coach gets to enter the conversation as one of the best to ever do it, and he earned every bit of it against his former team. Even if he'll never take credit.

The Chiefs are Super Bowl champions! To celebrate that (and to celebrate Andy Reid), this article is unlocked for all to read. If you like it, know there will be MUCH more stuff like this breaking down every aspect of Super Bowl LVII in the coming weeks and you can subscribe to get all that (and more) for $12 a year forever by clicking the link below.

I didn’t cry this time.

As the clock wound down to zero and the Kansas City Chiefs became Super Bowl champions for the second time in four years (and cemented their status as having one of the best 5-year runs in history), I found myself more contemplative than emotional. Maybe relieved to not have to deal with the bad narratives that would have inevitably sprung from a loss? Sure. Thrilled? Of course. But mostly thoughtful.

And those thoughts didn’t turn initially to Patrick Mahomes, a quarterback who is on a path like nothing the NFL has ever seen. Nor to Travis Kelce, the GOAT tight end (argue with a wall if you disagree) who added to his only-bested-by-Rice playoff resume another 81 yards and a touchdown. Instead, I kept thinking about Andy Reid.

Vahe Gregorian @vgregorian

Andy Reid in postgame locker room:

In the interviews on the field immediately following game, as confetti still fell from the sky, Reid didn’t talk about himself or any of his numerous accomplishments. Instead, he heaped praise on his quarterback, his OL, his assistant coaches, and basically everyone else in the building. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to people who have watched Reid over the years. I have never, in a decade of watching him coach the Chiefs, seen him take credit for any of their success. Nor have I seen him blame anyone but himself when they’ve fallen short of their goals. All the other coaches call the good plays. All the players make it work. The scouting staff finds him the guys he needs. And when things go wrong, if you believe him, he’s the one to blame.

That’s Andy.

Of course, it’s a bald-faced lie, even if it’s an incredibly well-intentioned one. A person doesn’t have the sort of success Reid has had in the league without being absurdly good at what he does. And make no mistake, that level of success is reaching skyscraper heights not seen by many coaches.

NFL @NFL

247 wins (5th most all-time) 22 playoff wins (2nd most all-time) 10 conference title games 4 Super Bowl appearances 2 Super Bowl wins Where does Andy Reid rank among the best Head Coaches of all?

Andy Reid has been doing this for nearly a quarter of a century. He’s seen the landscape of the NFL drastically change. He’s seen rule changes alter the way the game is played. He’s seen the rise of multiple different generations of quarterbacks make the old ways of playing seem obsolete. He’s seen every possible defensive strategy come into and then fade out of popularity. Through it all, he’s been on the forefront of offensive innovation and kept ahead of the rest of the league even as he hit his 50’s and then 60’s. And through it all, he’s never really changed, supporting his players/staff and encouraging them to be themselves while challenging them to excellence and never ever taking credit.

That’s Andy.

As written in detail by the unmatched Rany Jazayerli, everything changed for the Chiefs when Andy Reid came to Kansas City in 2013. A franchise that had descended to laughingstock status (I will never forget trying to cover that 2012 season for SB Nation and having no idea what to write week in and week out about a franchise with no hope) was, in the course of a single season, a playoff team. He brought a level of competence and consistency that the team hadn’t seen in years. It wasn’t just about his level of offensive genius (we’ll talk about that), it was his ability to get everyone in the building to buy in and follow him to the standard. And of course, he never too credit for any of it.

Of course, as wonderful a trait as humility is, it becomes much more impressive when a person has every right to lack humility. And if there were ever a person who could rightly claim they deserved a little arrogance, it would be Andy Reid when it comes to designing, teaching, and calling an offense in the NFL. The man’s ability to adapt to his personnel and the changing tides of defenses is genuinely remarkable.

And that brings us to the second half against the Eagles. The Chiefs, following a shaky first half performance in which Philadelphia dominated the clock and the offense didn’t find a groove after an impressive first start, needed excellence. And Reid proceeded to call one of the finest games I’ve ever seen from a coach, pulling out play designs in the red zone in particular that Kansas City hasn’t put on film all season to maximize their chances at scoring. Every time they needed yards/points, Reid reached deep into his bag and pulled out something the Eagles weren’t prepared for.

That’s Andy.

One of my favorite calls came on Kansas City’s opening drive of the first half. They’d reached the goal line and needed to punch it in. To do so, Reid marched both Jerick McKinnon and Isiah Pacheco onto the field (they’ve rarely shared snaps) and utilized the uber-tough McKinnon as an H-back lead blocker to help get Pacheco into the end zone.

Of course, the play featured Reid sending a receiver across the field on a jet sweep action, because any time Reid can dress up a play he’s going to do it. And in this case, that sweep action dragged multiple defenders away from where Trey Smith and McKinnon were pulling to buy space for Pacheco. Reid has utilized H-backs with this blocking design before in short yardage situations, but never another running back that I can recall this season. And to call it on a drive Kansas City 100% needed a touchdown, taking the Eagles totally by surprise?

Well, that’s Andy.

Reid has been as great as he is for as long as he has not just because of his ability to design plays and call them, but by identifying weaknesses in opponents and exploiting them. As the Super Bowl (that’s so much fun to type) moved along, Reid identified that the Eagles’ cornerbacks weren’t always switching the way they should in their assignments. He also identified a certain amount of aggressiveness in a defense that was used to imposing their will, and began to use it against them.

There were so many great Reid calls and moments Sunday night (you could basically pick any play in the 2nd half and you’d say “that was a great call for that moment”), but one that stood out was early in the 4th quarter with the Chiefs trailing 21-27. The Eagles had just been flagged offsides on a play where Kansas City was looking to hit Kadarius Toney out of the backfield for some cheap yardage. The play was whistled dead (due to a defender being unimpeded towards the quarterback).

So what does Reid do? He sees how the Eagles were looking to crash on Toney and calls up a play that looks virtually identical, except this time Toney is just a ruse to get Juju Smith-Schuster open.

The Eagles bite hard on the fake, which opens up Juju beyond them. The cornerback that should, in theory, pick him up is driven backwards by the threat of MVS going down the field (no routes are wasted in Reid’s designs), and there’s a gaping hole in the coverage for an easy pitch and catch first down.

Once Reid identifies a potential issue, he just starts to pick at it. And a few plays later, Reid decided to test out Philadelphia’s ability to handle motions/switches on a “gotta have it” 3rd down at the goal line. And it worked so well that the results were borderline comical.

Do you know what has to happen to get this wide open in the NFL? On the goal line? Against a great defense? In the SUPER BOWL? Toney is by himself by the time the ball arrives.

This call took advantage of the Eagles being terrified of Travis Kelce and sending extra attention his way. It also took advantage of some of their communication issues and overall aggressiveness. Finally, it took advantage of the Eagles having neve seen the Chiefs put this on tape throughout 2022. And the result of the play was one of the easiest touchdowns you’ve ever seen.

That’s Andy.

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And in typical Andy Reid fashion, he wasn’t done getting players absurdly wide open for touchdowns. In fact, that little motion wrinkle worked so well that Reid dressed it up a little different, flipped the sides and personnel, and did the doggone thing all over again the very next drive.

Something you’ll often hear about Andy Reid’s offenses is that, outside of his bag of completely nuts trick plays, he’s not reinventing the wheel necessarily. What Reid is gifted at doing is taking good concepts and dressing them up in ways to prevent defenses from anticipating them. He’s also terrific at utilizing those concepts differently so that, even when a defense was JUST burned with a similar motion the previous drive, they don’t recognize that the same thing is about to happen to them.

Being able to consistently create opportunities for your guys is what being a play caller is all about. And there’s a reason Reid is on a very, very short list for the best offensive play callers to ever live. But there’s more than that to being a coach. When things start to melt down (as they did late in the first half for the Chiefs), you are the tone setter. It is your job to ensure that every single player continues to buy in and believe, that not one points fingers, and that everyone keeps a cool head.

That’s a hard thing to do, and it’s not the kind of thing you can choose to do (or be) in that moment. Some of the best advice I ever received from my dad was that we choose who we are in a bad spot well before that bad spot ever occurs. Every day we decide in advance how we’ll handle adversity and hard moments. And when those moments come, what happens isn’t a product of an in-the-moment decision, but who we’ve been all along. And Reid, by being the same guy every day and refusing to deviate from his process, has fostered a culture in which his team has come back from deficits multiple times en route to their Super Bowls. The team stayed calm because he stayed calm, and that was a decision he made well before times got tough Sunday night.

That’s Andy.

But of course, we can’t always see that intangible stuff. What we can see is the calls on the field and the way he puts players in a position to win. The last play that I’ll talk about tonight (it’s past 1 a.m. as I write this) was a terrific example of it. After the Eagles tied the game up late in the 4th quarter, the Chiefs were facing the dreaded 3rd and 1 (they’d struggled much of the year in short yardage) and needed to convert to keep the ball away from Philadelphia and move towards scoring range.

Another pivotal moment, another design brought out that the Chiefs had barely shown this season.

Remember the knock on Reid that he would never learn to use the run correctly/effectively? Here, with the Eagles continuing to play downhill, he took advantage of his rookie running back’s acceleration and called up a gorgeous outside run with both guards pulling left and fullback Mike Burton plowing straight ahead to prevent the edge from causing problems in the backfield.

It’s well-designed and well-executed, and again, not a look we’ve seen much from the Chiefs this year. Burton has been on the field for less than 7% of their snaps this season, and when he is it’s not generally to work this sort of seal block on an outside run. To call his number (as well as pull both guards in short yardage, a highly risky move) with the SUPER BOWL ON THE LINE requires a certain sort of… gumption that is almost hard to fathom. The same sort of gumption that leads to calling for your backup QB to run a sprint out from shotgun with a playoff game on the line, I suppose (congratulations on your retirement, Chad Henne, your place in Chiefs’ lore is secure).

But that’s Andy.

All of it’s Andy, really. The consistency. The ability to adapt his offense over the years. His confidence in his players to involve them in the process and, through that, create even more buy-in while still remaining undisputedly in charge. His willingness to take risks at the most crucial moments, and to move on from a bad moment into the next moment.

That’s all Andy Reid, and it’s helped bring the Chiefs (along with a one-of-a-kind quarterback that you can bet we’ll be talking about this week) an amount of success I never would have dreamed of a decade ago. For all the incredible things we’ll be breaking down here and discussing in the coming weeks, I wanted to talk first about the man who called a nearly flawless half of football against one of the best defenses in the league. The man who has led Kansas City from the abyss to becoming the league’s model franchise. The man who can be legitimately argued belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of NFL coaches.

But you’ll never know it to hear him talk. He’ll thank his quarterback and all the players who execute his plays. He’ll thank his coaches and other staff members. He’ll thank Brett Veach and Clark Hunt. He’ll thank his wife and everyone who supports him. And he won’t take an ounce of credit for himself.

Because that’s Andy.