Andy Reid roundup: 4 takeaways from the Chiefs head coach

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid met with the media over a Zoom conference call on Monday as the team begins its preparation for the first game of the season on Sunday.

Listen to the full presser above or by clicking here.

In his opening statement, Reid outlined the weekend schedule that was: the Chiefs took Friday, Saturday and Sunday off before reporting to the facility on Monday. Reid said they would begin preparation for the Arizona Cardinals on Monday before the typical players’ day off on Tuesday — and then would would practice Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Reid then took questions, which we have rounded up in four takeaways:

Reid made some initial comments on the anticipation Week 1 brings.

We know the Chiefs' offense will look different this year following the offseason trade of wide receiver Tyreek Hill — and Sunday in Arizona will be fans’ first opportunity to see what it can do.

“I think everybody can’t wait to see what you are,” said Reid. “That’s kind of the way it goes every year — what you're capable of, and we’re lucky that we have a good opponent to do that against in Arizona, so you get an idea of where you’re at when everything’s flying fast.”

On the other side of the ball, the Chiefs’ defenders will need to find a way to contain mobile adversary Kyler Murray.

“Well, you have to stay disciplined, obviously. Speed becomes important. You’re talking about the quarterback — he’s got speed, and so does the runner (James Conner), so keeping them contained is important as you work through it. That discipline becomes a big factor but you always want aggressiveness, you want speed, you want that transition between the run and the pass to be aggressive and fundamentally sound.”

It sounds like the Chiefs will use a committee approach with their running backs.

In somewhat of a surprise, Kansas City opted to keep four running backs on their initial 53-man roster, including Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Jerick McKinnon, Isiah Pacheco and Ronald Jones.

“We’ll just see how it goes for who’s up and who’s down,” explained Reid. “Some of it depends on special teams and play there. But if they’re all up, they’ll have an opportunity to touch the football. If they’re not, then whoever’s up — they’ll definitely be three of them up — they’ll touch the football.”

It sounds like the Chiefs will have Edwards-Helaire, McKinnon and Pacheco (the kick returner) active, whereas Jones will likely be inactive until he is needed due to injury or otherwise.

The Chiefs kept 10 “speedy” defensive backs on their roster, including four rookies.

Rookie cornerbacks Trent McDuffie, Joshua Williams and Jaylen Watson — and rookie safety Bryan Cook — will all be expected to play a role on the Chiefs' defense in 2022.

“I like the speed they play with,” said Reid of his young defensive backs. “I think Juan has done a good job of helping everybody out back there and managing that from a player’s standpoint back there. But it looks like we’ve got good speed and range and those types of things.

“There are going to be some hiccups here and there. When you have young guys, that’s what happens — but I think in the long haul, we’ll be OK with the guys we got there.

Reid provided injury updates on tight end Blake Bel and wide receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.

Our John Dixon has more on that here.