One thing I didn’t realize coming into this thing with Andy Reid: He is innovative. He tries new things. He doesn’t stick to doing things a certain way because that’s the way they’ve always been. He’s also hard-headed about other things so I can see why some Eagles fans might be laughing but on offense he has been trying new things in Kansas City.
“To be honest his playbook is just nonstop growing,” Chiefs TE Travis Kelce said recently on PFT Live. That’s what makes it so fun and I owe a lot of, just about all of the success that I’ve had in the NFL is because of him and Alex Smith ... It’s a nonstop growing thing here that coach Reid is going to come with a new twist even to the crazy stuff that he has. I definitely thank Andy Reid for being the guru that he is.”
Cris Collinsworth mentioned this on NBC a few weeks ago that he doesn’t know how the Chiefs practice all their plays because they seem to have new ones each week. That’s a great trait to have.
Speaking of new things, Kelce said the most common question he’s gotten from the media this year is what’s changed with Alex Smith.
“To be honest,” Kelce said, “I really don’t see anything week to week that’s different from last year to this year. He’s always been the first one in, the last one out. The captain, the leader of this offense and frankly of this team right now. I honestly believe he’s taken it upon himself to up his game to a whole other level. It’s a mentality that he’s had and his decision making has been spot on and we’re rolling with every decision he makes right now.”
Some would say that Patrick Mahomes is the difference. That Mahomes’ presence made Alex Smith more aggressive or that Alex saw how the Chiefs players reacted to Mahomes’ deep balls in training camp and changed his game.
“Pat’s right there trying to learn everything he can from Alex and Alex is trying to help him out as much as he can,” Kelce continued. “I think what Alex has done best is he’s been running this offense to a T. So, he’s showing Patrick just how to execute it and what Mahomes does in practice is just unbelievable. I mean, the kind of behind the scenes stuff that you guys haven’t seen on Sundays is Mahomes is getting better and getting more fluent and getting more comfortable just being a professional athlete and understanding the scheme and the timing and how long the seasons are and stuff like that. He’s gauging all that stuff and I think when he gets on the field eventually knowing that he is going to get the keys to the car eventually. Everyone knows that. When he does I can’t wait to see how good he is.”
Kelce is doing a great job of getting me excited for the future while at the same time keeping me excited for the present.