Kansas City had its only losing season in 13 years under Andy Reid and missed the postseason for the first time since 2014. Reid has enough to do with the 6-11 struggles of the past.
“I’m excited to get into this offseason and get going,” he said, via the team’s official transcript. “We didn’t do very well last year, and that hasn’t been our MO there. I’m going to fix the problem — the problems we had in every phase, it’s not just an offense, every phase. There’s going to be some guys that move on, there’s going to be people that come in — players and some quality controllers left and some other guys after all of that and we can be good at times here, and we can be good at times here, and we can be good at times here. That’s what I’m excited about.”
After nine straight division titles and eight consecutive runs to at least the AFC Conference Championship game, Reid’s team collapsed. Even before Patrick Mahomes suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 15, KC was already on the brink, headed for a 6-8 record when the quarterback tore the ACL in his left knee.
Mahomes’ recovery will loom over the Chiefs’ entire offseason, as the star QB aims to be ready for Week 1. There will be plenty of questions on offense, from who the backup will be this offseason to the future of Travis Kelce to how they revamp the operation with OC Eric Bieniemy back. Yet these are not the only difficult questions. The defense needs help, especially in the passing game.
Without a deep playoff run to recover from at this time, Reid & Co. to attack the offseason questions, come back stronger and start the second phase of their dynasty.
“I think we do a good job with that, we try to give you a little bit of a different flavor every year and stay ahead of things,” Reid said when asked about avoiding becoming stagnant. “I think we’ve got to do better in every area, I think that’s important. And so, you go through and you knock it out, you take every offensive play, every defensive play (and) every special teams play, you go through it, you make sure you have guys that are aware of the league and how things go there defensively and specials. use all the techniques that are out there. There’s no reason to be stagnant, you should not having to bring the latest here and there and all that.