Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid spoke to Peter King for the MMQB podcast after the big win over the Patriots on Thursday night.
The topic was - what else - the quarterback. Alex Smith put up a monster, 368-yard, 4-touchdown performance as he outplayed Tom Brady. Where did this Alex Smith come from? The first thought for many Chiefs fans, including myself, is that Alex raised his game with the 10th overall pick waiting in the wings behind him.
“It might’ve been (because of Patrick Mahomes) but I’ve seen him do it over the last few years and keep getting better at it,” Reid told King about Alex’s performance. “I’m sure that didn’t hurt.”
Reid said that everything Alex and Mahomes do is a competition. You could even see it on the field before the game when they were warming up. Reid called it like a “big brother and little brother” type of thing.
“It’s like the Williams sisters,” Reid said. “It’s one of those deals. You don’t want the younger one to show you up.”
I found it interesting that Reid said Alex didn’t throw it deep early in his Chiefs career because he wasn’t asked to as much. The offense was different. He also said that Alex wasn’t good enough at throwing outside the numbers to his receivers when he first got here but he repeatedly worked at it to get better. That was a rare moment when Reid acknowledged Alex’s limitations.
He’s not acknowledging limitations anymore. He doesn’t have to.