Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid spoke to media members on Monday, a day after the team’s 31-24 Sunday Night Football loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Here were some of the items that stood out:
1. Reid commented on Patrick Mahomes telling NBC that he would have played if the Chiefs were in a playoff game.
“Isn’t that what you love about him?” asked Reid. “He was telling me that he wanted to go back in after he hurt it the first time in the Denver game. That’s him. Who wants to slow that down, right? That thinking, at least. Then, it’s important that the medical people take care of it from there. That’s how you want him. You want him wired that way. He wanted to play last night.
“Unfortunately, you don’t see a lot of that in this league right now. Not like that, out where the quarterbacks are saying things like that or people are saying things like that. But, there is a lot of heart. There is a small minority that is opposite of that thinking.”
Reid would not comment on the next step in the evaluation process for the Chiefs starter, who missed last game with a kneecap dislocation.
“I leave that up to the doctors, as far as that goes, and (head trainer and VP) Rick (Burkholder) in how they evaluate it,” said Reid. “Then, Pat’s communication with them. I look at the visual part. Can he do the things that he needs to be able to do to play in a game? Then, I’m always asking, ‘How are you feeling?’ If I ask, he normally tells me how he feels. I probably would add that into the equation. But, the doctors have to do that. I don’t claim to be a doctor at all.”
Later in the press conference, Reid joked that Mahomes would be back to practice on Wednesday “unless he has a cold or is sick.” We’ll see if he is a limited or full participant.
2. In his initial statement, Reid wanted to make it clear he does not believe in “moral victories.”
“When you’re playing a good football team, you can’t have the mistakes that we made in a close game,” said Reid. “It’s something that we can learn from and take from that, whether it’s a turnover, a missed field goal – whatever it might be – dropped interceptions. We all had a part in it. Coaches and players, we can all do a better job, and will. There are no moral victories or any of that stuff. The guys that were in the game are in there to win the game. It doesn’t matter who, where or when, that’s how we roll.”
That being said, Reid acknowledged the attitude the Chiefs showed on Sunday night.
“I appreciate the effort though that the guys are putting in,” said Reid. “We have some young guys that are having an opportunity to play. That’s going to help us down the road. But, we have to maintain the attitude that we have. And as you start getting guys back, that they continue on with that same attitude, also. Then you’ve got something there. It’s not the guys that didn’t play. It’s the numbers. You do this thing as a team. You get kind of low on certain positions, then you don’t have that rotation going. That’s the part that ends up being a little bit tough. But, the guys battled through it.”
3. Reid said he does not expect LeSean McCoy’s fumbles to continue.
“Traditionally he is not a fumbler, throughout his career,” said Reid, who drafted the running back to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2009.
McCoy fumbled against the Packers only weeks after doing so against the Indianapolis Colts — and both fumbles occurred in key parts of games that resulted in losses.
“He has had the two here and they have come at bad times. Not that a fumble ever comes at a good time. But he has not been a fumbler. I would expect it to go back to that way.”
4. It sounded like the Chiefs are considering Matt Moore for another start despite Chad Henne being eligible to return from IR this week.
“We’re playing a good football team coming up here, a good defense,” said Reid. “We’ll go through and look at what they do, study them and then we’ll come up with what we feel is best against them and for Matt, if he ends up being that guy in there. Then we go. It wouldn’t be any different if it is Patrick (Mahomes), Matt, whoever. I’m sure that Matt is going to wake up this morning a little stiff. He took a couple of hits in there and played a full game, which he hasn’t done for a while. But, there are some things that, if he is asked to play again, that you see that he does well.”
Reid was asked about how Henne looked in his return to practice last week (the Chiefs have another two weeks to activate him, or his season is over).
“I’ll get with Brett (Veach) on that. I thought he did well. He was a little bit sore early, but we’ll go through and look at that and evaluate that in the next couple days.”
Obviously, Reid and the Chiefs were not ready to name a starter at quarterback for the upcoming game against the Vikings on Monday.
5. Reid was asked why Mecole Hardman, who scored a touchdown, only played nine offensive snaps.
”There wasn’t any real reason behind that,” said Reid. “We try to keep the guys on a rotation the best that we can. Sometimes, it just doesn’t work out that way, with his number being in there.”
It’s reasonable to think that Sammy Watkins’ return to the lineup might have hurt Hardman’s playing time percentage.