Andy Reid roundup: Patrick Mahomes’ status and thoughts on defense

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid held his weekly conference call early Monday afternoon after the Chiefs’ 40-26 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Here are five items of note from the Chiefs’ head coach:

1. Patrick Mahomes appears to be doing fine after spraining his ankle on Sunday.

The Chiefs quarterback sprained his ankle in the game’s second quarter on Sunday.

“Patrick (Mahomes) had the ankle,” Reid said. “I mentioned that to you [Sunday] and [he] was moving around well today. I have seen him.”

Reid was asked about how he determined Mahomes was OK to go back in the game after the injury.

“First of all, you have to be aware of it – aware of the injury – and how significant the injury is,” Reid said. “These guys are very competitive guys so they’re going to want to get back out there, you know that. Then, you trust your medical staff and your trainers. I thought those guys gave me good information. Patrick is very, very competitive and wants to be out there, but at the same time, you want to make sure that you’re not putting him in a bad situation.”

2. Reid explained that the thought behind the failed no-look pass attempt was freezing an opposing Jaguar.

Reid broke down what he saw on the third-down incomplete pass.

“That one, he actually froze that underneath coverage guy who was working a drive underneath where Kelce was going,” Reid said. “That was the objective there. He was off a tick on it. It looked like to the naked eye it would be an easy A to throw it out there but that one kid that was underneath there, the flat defender, widened out and gotten depth but Patrick kept his eyes inside at [Sammy Watkins].”

It is Reid’s belief that Mahomes looking in the other direction was why Kelce was so open in the end zone. Still, the pass was off the mark.

“Anyways, he missed it,” Reid added. “It was a miss. I know he mentioned to you guys he thought it was going to be flatter or higher and all that but when you’re not looking at it, it’s hard to tell if it’s flatter or higher. I understood why he did it. The picture is there, so I can see it with my own eyes. It’s there if you guys have access to it, just look at the underneath coverage guy and you’ll see what he was thinking there.”

3. Reid confirmed that his running back usage went off as planned headed into the game.

As we wrote in the snap count report Monday morning, Damien Williams had 39 snaps, and LeSean McCoy had 18 snaps.

“(Darwin) Thompson got a few snaps in there too,” Reid said of the rookie’s two plays. “You have two veteran players there that love to play and they give you different flavors. I figured that’s how it would work out in that area.”

4. Reid thought there were some things rookie wide receiver Mecole Hardman did well and some things he could clean up.

“It was good to see him get in there and move around and have an opportunity to play,” Reid said. “I’m sure he wants that one catch that was kind of on his back shoulder there back—that short bubble pass.”

In the fourth quarter, Hardman looked to turn up the field too quickly, taking his eyes off the ball and letting the screen attempt bounce off his left shoulder.

“Other than that, I thought he did some good things in there. He’s a smart kid so there was not a lot of mental errors or any of that. I thought he did a good job with the other stuff.”

Hardman saw 46 offensive snaps in the absence of Hill. By comparison, Demarcus Robinson only had 35 offensive snaps.

5. Reid shared his initial impressions of Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.

Reid liked what he saw from the defense against the run.

“I thought that we did a pretty good job there,” he said. “[Leonard Fournette] is an elite player. Their three inside offensive linemen are tough, veteran guys. They are good players. A good, solid group inside there. I thought we handled that pretty well.”

Fournette finished with 13 carries for 66 yards (5.07 yards per attempt), but he did lose a fumble forced by Chiefs linebacker Damien Wilson.

“It was good to see (Juan) Thornhill jump in and do what he did – and more so in the run game. That was the question. Everybody knew that he could do the coverage stuff, but when you get into the run game, how are you going to fill when asked to? I thought he did a nice job there.”

Reid highlighted Nick Foles’ early touchdown pass to wide receiver DJ Chark with cornerback Kendall Fuller in coverage.

“We gave up the big play that Nick (Foles) got banged up on,” Reid said. “It was a perfect throw and the guy made a great catch. We were right in a position to make the play and we have to do that. We have to make the play. I thought it was one heck of a job by them. I thought our coverage was there, you just have to get the ball out. You want to get off the field the best you can and, for the most part, we did that. We had a couple that we were right in position to make the play, which I look at. Those things are the things that are going to get better here as you go on and keep working the defense.”

The Jaguars finished with five conversions on 10 third-down attempts.

“I thought for the most part that we got off the field,” Reid said. “Your third downs become important. I thought we did a good job there. I just liked how aggressive we were. I thought the intensity maintained strong and the tempo was fast throughout the game. I think the guys are in shape. I just think it is becoming even more familiar with the defense. I think that as time goes on here, I think they’ll just keep getting better and better in that way.”