Kansas City Chiefs: 2018 is Andy Reid's year to prove doubters wrong

The Kansas City Chiefs have made a lot of moves this off-season and it all leads to the 2018 season being all on the shoulders of head coach Andy Reid.

Reid has been the Chiefs head coach since 2013 and his success has been a mixed bag. On one hand the Chiefs have won over 50 games in his five seasons. They’ve made the playoffs four out of the five years, including two AFC West division titles. These are all large improvements over the Scott Pioli years where the team went 23-41 and only one playoff appearance in four years.

The bad side of Reid comes when the regular season ends and the playoffs begin. Despite making the playoffs in four of five seasons, the team is only 1-4 in those appearances. The one win was over a pathetic Houston Texans team while the losses include two of the biggest meltdowns in NFL history.

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After the abysmal performance against the Tennessee Titans in last years home playoff loss, the team decided to make a lot of changes. A major constant has remained however, and that is Reid and his hand picked staff. Many fans wanted defensive coordinator Bob Sutton fired, but Reid retained him. In doing so the team put the blame on the players for not executing properly rather than the coaching and game plan.

The same opinion was made on the offensive side of the ball as quarterback Alex Smith was sent packing and Sammy Watkins was paid big money in free agency. The Chiefs traded a lot to pick Patrick Mahomes II in the draft in 2017 because they did not feel that Smith had reached his ceiling. Meanwhile the coaching staff with Reid at the top has stayed largely the same. Yes Matt Nagy has left to become the head coach in Chicago, but he was replaced with long time staff member Eric Bieniemy.

It’s easy to make the claim that the Chiefs have blamed their recent playoff failures on the players. I am fine with that if that’s their view, but that means going forward every failure or success lies solely on the shoulders of Reid.

The offense success will depend on Reid putting his ego and past behind to allow Mahomes to be who he is. That means not taking the foot of the gas if the team is up by 17 points at halftime. It also means that Reid needs to be willing to revamp his offense. The two tight end short screen game playbook should be thrown away. The Chiefs have built an offense designed to run and gun like the St. Louis Rams greatest show on turf teams of the early 2000’s. If Reid goes into a shell with this offense, he should be held accountable.

On the defensive side he’s put all his faith in the coaching ability of Sutton. He blamed last years poor defense on injuries and aging players. The Chiefs will have a different looking defense when the 2018 season kicks off. No Marcus Peters, Derrick Johnson, Tamba Hali, Ron Parker, Ben Logan just to name a few guys who are gone. If the 2018 defense runs into the same problems as the 2017, that blame will have to go into the only common denominator, Sutton. And the man who stood behind Sutton and put his faith him in, is Reid.

If the Chiefs take the leap they should take this season and go deeper into the playoffs, Reid should get all the credit. He would have put the faith in these new players and his coaching staff to put them in the right place to succeed. It means Reid has changed the way he has operated for the past 18 seasons and decided to play to win instead of playing not to lose.

The 2018 season is a very important one for the Chiefs. It can’t be a rebuilding year where the team wins seven games and fans are given excuse after excuse of why next year will be different. This year needs to be a reloading season where Reid shows he has what it takes to win a Super Bowl. In keeping with the Easter season, team owner Clark Hunt has put all his eggs into the Andy Reid basket. Chiefs fans can only hope it was the right choice to win a Super Bowl, and not just the right choice to keep fans in the stands.

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Kansas City Chiefs: 2018 is Andy Reid’s year to prove doubters wrong

By Britt Zank | Mar 26, 2018

The Kansas City Chiefs have made a lot of moves this off-season and it all leads to the 2018 season being all on the shoulders of head coach Andy Reid.