No, Andy Reid was not taking a shot at Alex Smith Thursday

The talk coming out of Kansas City Chiefs training camp this week has mostly been about quarterback Patrick Mahomes throwing more interceptions than you’d probably like to see at this stage of the game.

Mahomes even threw another pick on Thursday, this time to safety Daniel Sorensen.

Reid addressed the interceptions after practice.

“He’s been doing a great job,” Reid said of Mahomes. “I know people wrote about the interceptions. I told you at the beginning of camp, I don’t care about all that stuff. I want him to test the offense. It’s so important. It’s so important we give him a ton of plays and [we’re] testing it. If you don’t have the intestinal fortitude to go test it, you’re going to be one of these quarterbacks who checks it down every time, and that’s not what it’s all about.

“The great thing about Pat is he never makes the same mistake twice. It doesn’t happen. He sees everything. He knows it. When he does make a mistake, he comes back and he can talk to you about, and so, he’s done nothing but get better and better as we go, and he’s got a load on him here.”

With Reid mentioning checking down, there will be some association over the next 24 to 48 hours to now-Washington Redskins QB Alex Smith, but based upon all of Reid’s press opportunities this offseason, I can tell you there is no way Reid was taking a shot at Smith.

Reid was simply reiterating what he said at the beginning of camp and probably should have used a different choice of words.

As a reminder, Reid called Mahomes’ interceptions to come back on day one—Sunday, July 22:

“[Mahomes] had a learning period that took place during the OTAs,” he said. “Let’s not back up. Let’s keep moving forward with that. Now, in these live periods, it will be a little bit faster than what you had in the OTAs because of that. With the pads on, which we weren’t able to do, let’s see what you can do. Let’s work through it. Let’s not be hesitant.

“If there’s an interception here or there let’s learn from it. Let’s challenge the offense, not only the player, but challenge yourself within the offense and see what you can get away with. If there’s an interception, we will fix that, but don’t hesitate. If you see it, let’s shoot it and go.”

Mahomes is being aggressive by design.