Can the Chiefs Winning Culture Get to the Next Level?

Can the Chiefs Winning Culture

Get to the Next Level?

by Laddie Morse

Head Coach Andy Reid arrived 5 1/2 year ago and although the team has made the playoffs 4 of those 5 seasons, they have only won one playoff game in the past 25 years. While that record has been oft advertised, the overall playoff record during that span has not: the Chiefs have gone 1-and-10 in two decades in the playoffs leading to the question: can the Chiefs winning culture get to the next level?

So many fans who follow the Chiefs, while thankful for the winning regular season record, want to know if this team can make it to the Conference Championship or get past that to the Super Bowl? K.C. fans are weary of being passive bystanders when the Lamar Hunt Trophy is handed out to another team. In fact, the Chiefs have never won that trophy even though it is named after the man by who was the original owner of the the Chiefs, and one of the co-founders of the AFL.  With a winning percentage of .663 over the past 5 regular seasons, the team has established a winning culture that has players “expecting to win.” That’s been a huge relief for Kansas City Chiefs fans, who once had an airplane flown over Arrowhead with a banner waving an inscription: “RETURN HOPE — FIRE PIOLI — SAVE OUR CHIEFS.”

The desperation that Chiefs fans had reached in 2012 was at an all time high (or low, depending on how you view it) and the idea of fielding a winning team was enough to satiate when Andy Reid came to town. So, most were giddy and goofy when the team started winning right off the bat: a nine (9) game winning streak was just the salvo owner Clark Hunt needed to hypnotize the natives and keep him from being tarred and feathered by the town’s people.

Now, winning regular season games — is not enough. Now, just making the playoffs — won’t do at all.

These Chiefs have already broken the mold by:

1) Drafting a first round QB in 2017, for the first time since 1983,

2) Winning back-to-back AFC West Championships for the first time in the team’s history, and

3) Running off 5 straight winning season records, for the first time since Martyball was popular in 1997.

So the expectations for this team go way beyond just making it to the post season.

The Chiefs Winning Culture

The Chiefs have made it a habit of winning since 2012 by succeeding at a .663 pace. What that does for players who play for K.C. is set a level of confidence in winning, every time they step on the field. In a piece by Ilan Mochari, about Bill Parcel’s impact, for Inc.com, he says that a change can come through the expectations set by a new man in charge and poses the question: “How can one new leader enter a losing culture and turn it around?” He then notes,

“The question cuts to the heart of leadership itself, since it presumes one person can change or elevate the work ethics and personalities of countless incumbent employees — employees whose habits were likely formed amid the acceptance of losing.”

Andy Reid’s inaugural Chiefs season gave the team’s record a huge bounce by taking a 2-and-14 team in 2012 and not only supplying a 9 game turn around at 11-and-5, he took them to the playoffs vs the Indianapolis Colts. Yes, they lost in dramatic “lose-from-ahead” fashion, 44-45, while relinquishing a 3 TD lead, but at least to Chiefs fans, they made the playoffs.

So, what is a winning culture? The answer comes to us from Nathan Jamail, author of “The Leadership Playbook” which states:

“Culture includes the beliefs, ideas, values, rules, and codes of conduct in an organization or a society.  It shapes how people within the culture think, feel, and act.”

Jamail goes one step further to specifically ask, “To create a winning culture, what must you do?” Then he sets out 4 goals: 

• “First, position people in roles for which they are best suited based on their likes, interests, attributes, and skill sets. 
• Second, make the tough decisions when they need to be made.
• Third, hold the team members accountable to your game plan and expectations.
• Fourth, get team buy-in.”

Sound familiar? It’s exactly what Andy Reid and ex-GM John Dorsey have been espousing since 2013 when they first arrived (and to a lesser degree Brett Veach, and you can certainly credit him for making his share of tough decision in the past year). How have they done this? By making sure all the players are on the same page is critical. This probably gives us a clue as to why a player like KeiVarae Russel was cut before he ever played a regular season down for the Chiefs, even though he was the team’s 3rd round pick, #74 overall, in 2016.

Was the Chiefs 2018 Draft a Winning Culture?

• Breeland Speaks’ team, Ole Miss (SEC), was 21-and-16 during his 3 years there.
• Derrick Nnadi’s team, Florida State (ACC), was 40-and-13 in his 4 seasons there.
• Dorian O’Daniel’s team, Clemson (ACC), was 50-and-7 in his 4 years there including a National Championship.
• Armani Watts’ team, Texas A&M (SEC), was 31-and-21 in his 4 years there.
• Tremon Smith’s team, Central Arkansas (Southland Conference, for Div. I-AA schools), was 33-and-15 in his 4 seasons there.
• Kahlil McKenzie’s team, Tennessee (SEC), was 13-and-12 in his two active seasons there.   

The overall record of the players the Chiefs drafted, in 2018, while they were in college for the past few years was: 155-and-69. That works out to a .692 winning percentage. The Chiefs have already brought in a bunch of winners, in fact, every single one of their current draft picks was a winner in college.

It’s a lot easier to get your players to understand the feeling that goes along with having a winning schema (background knowledge or prior knowledge)… when they already have a winning schema. You only need to look at the Cleveland Browns to understand that they have been bringing in high round draft picks while refusing to address their lack of a winning culture, from the top. Once those players get to Cleveland and begin to lose, they inherit a losing culture attitude (schema). Their 0-and-16 record in 2017 is not just what they have accomplished… to a large degree, it’s who they are. Consequently, it hasn’t done them any good bringing in high rated draft picks from winning programs because they first didn’t have that winning attitude engrained and entrenched: nor modeled and taught once they arrived.

By drafting winning players, the winning Chiefs have replenished the winning culture mindset.  Now, that should pay dividends as these players begin to take more and more reps and even before that, they’ll help maintain a winning culture routine-and-temperament in the clubhouse. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons Brett Veach has made so many of the moves — by moving players out — that he did this offseason: to nurture a winning… tough guy… buy-in, conviction.

While many critics, including moi, believe that someone needs to inform Andy Reid, “You’ve Got to Change Your Evil Ways” as far as playcalling and clock management goes once the playoffs arrive, I can also hear Reid rebutting that he’s needed the right tools (players) to accomplish, and execute, his offensive goals in those big games. Now, he may well have those pieces — on offense. However, the Chiefs have seen a turnover rate upwards of 50% of their starting defensive players from 2017, so the question of weather or not those pieces will fill the bill is still unknown. With training camp just a 2 1/2 weeks away, those answers will come soon enough.

Let the hitting — and winning — commence!

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