The case against Andy Reid

[matthewschiefs]

I'm going to start by saying that Andy Reid was the right hire for the Chiefs in 2013. And he deserves a lot of credit for how far this team has come since the time he was hired. That was then and this is now. And now this team needs to move away from Andy Reid. Some feel that this is an overreaction so let me lay out my case in full.

Charge #1 PLAYCALLING!!!! This is something I think that we have all been frustrated with time and time again over the past few years. I know that I have been harping on this for years now. In postgame after postgame loss pressers, he has said over and over again that he has to do a better job in that. And yet the following week we see the SAME thing. Does he really recognize the problem? Or can he just not stop himself from running the failed plays? Either way, it has been something that has haunted him his entire NFL head coaching career. And if he hasn't learned in what is now 20 seasons will he ever? Yesterday it was reported he was giving up the duties but still overseeing the offense. And for the most part, the offense REALLY went well. But then like normal Andy just couldn't help himself. You have a defense that is struggling the ball and a 3rd and 1 you take out one of the best TEs in the NFL and call a play to get an O-linemen the ball? Surprise surprise it failed. Some might question if Andy called the play or Naggy? At the end of the day, Andy is the head coach and has the final call regardless. He just couldn't help himself one way or the other he allowed it to happen.

Charge #2 Discipline. We have seen this really stick out this season. Kelce has had a couple of them already and Peters did yesterday. We saw it some last season as well. You are damn right that you can put a lot of the blame for the guys losing their cool. But when you have so many cases of this it stands out. And as a head coach, it's your job to get this fixed. He hasn't. You can tell a lot about a coach by the discipline that his team has. And in this area, we have seen some very lackluster times. Between just bad penalties or plays losing it on the field, they don't have the discipline of a championship team.

Charge #3 Clock management. Like charge 1 this has been something that has haunted Andy his entire head coaching career. It is not quite at the level as the playcalling issue. But like the playcalling issue, I think this has been something that has left us all frustrated from time to time. While I can't point to one big thing in this regard relating to yesterdays game I can recall the time it bugged me the most. Going back to the playoff loss to the Pats. Late in the game Chiefs have the ball clock ticking way too much camera shows Andy just shaking his head. Doing nothing about it. And that time would come back to haunt the Chiefs in that playoff loss.

I'm not going to even pretend to say the Andy Reid shouldn't be an NFL head coach. If you are a team that is in need of being turned around then he is without a doubt a very good option to bring in to get things started. He is deserving of being one of the 32 guys that are an NFL head coach. But you are not going to get a championship level with him. He lacks the ability to fix the weakness in his teams. As I stated at the start he was the right hire for the position the Chiefs were in at that time. But now is the time it's time to move on. He has gone as far as he will go. It's time to move on from Andy Reid IMO If he could fix these issues I think he would have in the 20 years he has been an NFL coach.

[Eydugstr]

Don't see Clark moving on from Reid unless Reid delivers a couple of 4-12 seasons. Will add one more gripe to your list through: Strength and Conditioning. We have too many critical players on crutches, and the majority of the team looks like it's lost a lot of steam.

What I am curious about, is the situation with Veach replacing Dorsey. Unfortunately we won't really know how good or bad Veach is until midway through next season.

[matthewschiefs]

Don't see Clark moving on from Reid unless Reid delivers a couple of 4-12 seasons. Will add one more gripe to your list through: Strength and Conditioning. We have too many critical players on crutches, and the majority of the team looks like it's lost a lot of steam.

What I am curious about, is the situation with Veach replacing Dorsey. Unfortunately we won't really know how good or bad Veach is until midway through next season.

Oh, I know that it's very unlikely that Reid is going anywhere. But I really think they should

I did forget to add more other Charge so I'll do it now.

Charge #4 Inconsistent play. One of the true marks of a great NFL coach is that their teams don't often have too many slumps. This has not been the case under Andy Reid. Starting with his first season. Yes, we started 9-0 but then we lost 3 in a row then 3 in a row to end the season if you include the playoff loss to the Colts. We all know the story of the 2015 Chiefs yes we won those 11 games in a row and the first round playoff win. But we still started the season losing 5 out of 6. This has been a trend with Reid teams since 2005 going back to look at his Eagles teams. You see many years with losing streaks of 3 in a row or 3 out of 4. While that was not the case for the 2016 Chiefs that has not been the norm. And this is a sign that coaching is an issue for a team.

[Seek]

Here is my problem, The Chiefs did nothing this off season to sure up obvious holes. Instead they made more but letting Maclin go.

I have been worried about our secondary since day one. We couldn't name who or second starting corner was when the season started. Throw in the injury to EB and this secondary is what it is.

Now the lack of run support is discouraging.

We have holes that wont be fixed next year because we traded away many quality draft picks and cap issues.

Now if Andy as complete control of this team. He has a lot to fix.

[ctchiefsfan]

Personally, I think we are all over-reacting a bit. Myself included. We're all frustrated as hell. Not surprising either. Something has gone HORRIBLY WRONG this season but honestly I don't think any of us know what it is. I sure don't. For 4 years Sutton ran some of the best Defenses in the NFL. This year not so much. But some people want to fire Sutton. For 4 years Reid had the best won-loss percentage of any Chiefs coach in history. At the end of this year he may still. But some people want to fire Reid. For 4 years Toub had one of the best Special Teams in the NFL. This year not so much. Some people want to fire Toub. Others want Alex's head. Still others want the head of Peters and Kelce. Maybe we should fire Butker too. After all he missed a kick against the Jets. I've even seen suggestions on the ChiefsCrowd FB page that all would be fine if we hadn't given up next year's first round pick to get Mahomes. This from people that 6 months ago thought getting Mahomes was the greatest pick we had ever made.

Do you see where I am going with this? We're all frustrated and angry. We all want to find a scapegoat and have him PUBLICLY EXECUTED! Preferably with lots of blood and humiliation. OK...I understand that. It's a natural reaction because we are all very passionate about our Chiefs. But I think we all need to take a deep breath, perhaps a stiff drink and ask ourselves if we are really reacting rationally? When you have an employee who for 4 years has been one of the best you have ever had at his position do you fire him because he goes into a slump? Smart business owners don't. Smart managers don't. Yes...our season is going down the toilet. None of us expects us to make the playoffs. Most of us doubt we'll have a winning record. Some of us doubt we can even go 8-8. I'm starting to doubt that myself. And yeah...I WANT TO PUNISH SOMEONE FOR THAT! But I just don't think any of us really knows who it is that needs to be punished.

On a slightly more humorous note....I think we'd all agree that Len Dawson was one of the best QBs we have ever had. I looked up his passing stats....In his years with the Chiefs he had a completion rate of 57.1%. Pretty poor by today's standards. His average yards per passing attempt was 7.67. His average passing yards per game was 136. PATHETIC. Maybe we should retroactively fire him and remove him from the HOF? Yes...I know the game has changed since the Dawson days. Just trying to inject a little humor into the situation. Sometimes it's better to laugh than cry.

All-in-all, for the rest of the season I think we need to cheer for our Chiefs when we can and try to suppress our desire for revenge when there is not much to cheer about. At least for the rest of this year. Then our coaches and players will have to figure out what went wrong and try to correct it. Will the day come when "Heads must roll"? Maybe. But now is not the time. It's simply too early. We have a bright, shiny new QB waiting in the wings who certainly plays a very different style of football than Alex and with our cap situation and Alex's cap hit next year that new QB is almost certain to be our starter next year. So I guess what I am saying is that we need to adopt the attitude SSG Hickman taught me in the Army...F.I.D.O. FUDGE IT! DRIVE ON!

MOST IMPORTANTLY..... I hope nobody here will take this as a criticism of themselves or as me "calling them out". THAT IS NOT ​what I am doing. I'm just trying to put my emotions aside and look at this mess logically instead of emotionally.

Final thought....This is RAIDER WEEK. I know most of you despise the Broncos more than the Raiders, but for me the Raiders are, always have been and always will be PUBLIC ENEMY #1. ​GO CHIEFS!!!

[matthewschiefs]

CT.

First off no offense is taken. Never worry about that. Unless you personally attack someone then a difference of opinion is what open forums are all about.

About the overreaction aspect. There are times that people do overreact. But I really don't think that's the case here. I've tried to take this year out of it entirely. I'm looking more at the long term Andy Reid resume. And when you do you see the same issues have haunted his teams in both Philly and KC. That's what I'm driving at here. And why I don't think we are going to go any farther then what we have under Andy Reid.

Or let me make my case this way. In Charge 4 I mentioned the inconsistent play. Reid teams have regularly gone to losing streaks of 3 or more or 3 of 4 (25% of the season) almost every year for over 10 years. Look at the ultimate championship level coach in NE. You know how many times his teams have had one of those stretches 1 time in that same period. And keep in mind he went a full season WITHOUT Brady.

I don't mean to say that Reid did not do a Good job in KC. That would be just nonsense to say. My point is he in 20 years has only gotten so far. 20 years of history show you that this is probably as far as he can take a team.

To your point about Reid have the most success again you're correct. But I ask you this. The owner of that business probably has some goals. Just like Clark Hunt has. When someone continues to fail to meet that goal not just for you but elsewhere for 20 years. How much more time to you give him? Yes, he came closer than anyone else but he's still failing to meet the big goal. I think we have all enjoyed winning the games we have won under Andy and your damn right I will be rooting for them to win this Sunday again. But history can not be ignored. I think we all would love to have Andy win a super bowl in KC. But at some point you just have to look at it and say it's just not going to happen. Andy got us a long way. Now we need someone to get up to the promise land.

[ctchiefsfan]

Matt....Sorry I'm taking so long to reply. My computer is having some problems with this page.

[ctchiefsfan]

OK that went through. I'll retype my lengthy reply.

[matthewschiefs]

Matt....Sorry I'm taking so long to reply. My computer is having some problems with this page.

Can we get rid of this CT guy? Nobody keeps the all-important Matthewschiefs waiting This is ban worthy

[ctchiefsfan]

HAHAHA! BIG SMILE! I just tried reposting my reply and it still won't go through. Did that by copy/paste. Guess I am actually going to have to retype the entire thing.