Chiefs: It’s the Time of the Season, For Coaching

For the Kansas City Chiefs, it’s the time of the season for coaching and that’s exactly how they’re spending their time together at this year’s Organized Team Activities. What may of us who follow the Chiefs closely are bemoaning is that these practices are closed to the media, for the most part so it’s difficult to gage, progress much less team identity. However, that may also be exactly what we should be paying attention to: THE NOTHING.

If you recall the 1980’s movie called, “The Never Ending Story” you may also recall, “the nothing” portrayed in that film — SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT — portrayed as, “the lack of creativity.” While we Chiefs fans are left guessing about the nature of what is happening during OTA’s we can fairly accurately surmise the process.

Other Teams OTAs

The Baltimore Ravens have broken the rules pertaining to OTAs and because they allowed actual “hitting” between their players, the league has stepped in and taken away multiple days of OTAs. On one hand, coaches plans for months in advance about the details they’ll cover with their players leading up to OTAs so having these days taken away, is worse than having the rug pulled out from under you. It’s kind of like taking away your livelihood — the game itself. On the other hand… some teams give up their OTA days. Either way, it’s one reason you’ll find a lot of pictures like this at the Chiefs OTAs:

Pads. Pads. Pads. It all about the pads. Without the pads, the Chiefs would be losing OTA days as well.

Some teams go to the movies as part of their OTAs and the Raiders recently held a football clinic for their local high school kids where the Raiders players became the coaches. It’s new Head Coach Jon Gruden’s way of making it: all about football all of the time. Yawn.

OTA’s Are Mostly About Coaching

While head coach Andy Reid has closed his doors for most OTAs days, he has allowed some media to attend the last day in each week (the team usually meets three days during the week during OTAs). The Chiefs workouts then, have become private. I don’t know how you feel about having your boss, or others, watch you as you work, but that’s essentially what Reid has taken away, which allows his coaches to get in a lot of player specific work.

Even if we could sit in on these workouts, we’d not be able to tell much about the quality of tackling… because there isn’t any. Nor could we determine whether or not the defensive backfield is an improved group over last years DB corp. That’s where the critical components of teaching come in.

Let’s take the coaching process for the DBs. Lesson One, which any DB coach teaches, is: play the pass first, the run second. The problem with getting that point across in the past was: Marcus Peters. Now, there are a host of Peters’ fans who think the Chiefs made a huge mistake in trading him away to the Rams. I’m not one of those people. Consider Lesson One and how frustrating it must have been to have Peters not only pretend in practice like he was breaking it off from coverage to go get the RB… but see him in games, not coming up to make the tackle… time and time again. It totally undermines the teaching process. Beyond that, as I understand it, Peters had a following on the team and anytime you have a student, who is countermanding what the teacher is teaching, the lessons are worthless and team unity takes a big hit.

That’s one of the reasons I believe the Chiefs will have an overall improved secondary. As each player plays their role within a plan, the coaches know what to do next. If the first plan fails, coaches will evaluate why and then can take the appropriate actions. Bob Sutton and his staff haven’t had that for the last few years. Marcus Peters may have had excellent individual numbers but you could also make the case that as Peters numbers went up… the defensive ranking went down. Some want to blame that on Dontari Poe’s back… and they have… but let’s be realistic about the overall negative effect that a malcontent has had within the context of a whole group working together. Peters rebellion gave way to turmoil and disorganization. Now, the Chiefs coaches don’t have to have any of those kinds of conversations.

While training camp will offer the opportunity to teach the bump-and-run process more thoroughly — because training camp is when the pads come one and hitting is allowed — OTA’s can give DB coaches plenty of time to work on “shadowing without contact”… which has now become the NFL’s preferred methodology for playing the game of football. I think there are some people in the Commissioners office who would like the game to be devoid of hitting at all.

Privacy For Defensive Coaches & Players

Getting in this kind of individual work when the Chiefs are going through the rebuldin… err… retooling, process allows them to isolate individuals like David Amerson, and work on any bad habits they may have fallen into with their last team (da Raidahs). Sure, I’d like to be a fly on the wall during these OTAs but knowing that Al Harris and Emmitt Thomas are getting more one-on-one time with DBs who need it if worth it.

• With both Will Redmond and Keith Reaser attempting to resurrect their careers, it gives those players an exclusive and non-public time to work on their skills.
• With rookies Armani Watts and Tremon Smith coming aboard, it gives them time to acclimate without all of Chiefs Kingdom hanging on their every move.
• With Safety Robert Golden coming over after 6 years as a Steeler, it gives him more time to bond with his coaches and teammates and provides a bit of camouflage for his transition.

Coaching Makes a Difference

It’s no small coincidence that Andy Reid’s ex-OC Doug Peterson won he Super Bowl this February. While you could argue that the coaches that used to coach under him have succeeded in spite of Reid, you’d still have to admit that he has an eye for those who can coach and then he hires them. One of the perceived roster strengths right now is at RB. Eric Bieniemy has served for the past 5 years as the RB coach under Andy Reid and was promoted to Offensive Coordinator since Matt Nagy moved on to become the Chicago HC. Who did Reid go out and get to replace Bieniemy? USC RB coach Deland McCullough.

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Installing New Offensive Plays

Andy Reid’s reasons for making his offseason activities private may have more to do with installing his newest offensive plays stealthily than anything else. As much as Alex Smith was responsible for allowing Reid and his band of merry men to include the Run-Pass-Option (RPOs), Patrick Mahomes may be responsible for bringing about a whole new wave of plays. Plays that Reid has been dreaming of incorporating into his offense for years… maybe decades. Andy Reid and his old coaching buddy Brad Childress first met up when Childress was the Offensive Coordinator and Reid was the Offensive lIne coach at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff Arizona. Now, Childress is an Analyst for Matt Nagy in Chicago and Reid is wondering what new ways he can use the toy he got in last year’s draft: Patrick Mahomes II.

Andy Reid’s challenge will be to infuse more run-and-shoot (RNS) formations without becoming more predictable in it’s application. In a typical RNS formation, two WR line up wide and two WR line up in the slot on each side as well. In other words, the QB takes the ball out of the shotgun with an empty backfield. Once the Chiefs go to an empty backfield, they are committed to passing the ball. It’s not like the Chiefs haven’t done this before with Alex Smith, but whenever it becomes a regular part of the offense, it also becomes more predictable.

With WR Chris Conley having a “phenomenal” offseason so far, it’s easy to see Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, Travis Kelce and Conley lining up in a standard set with Kareem Hunt in the backfield with Mahomes under center. The million dollar question is, who would be that 4th WR when the Chiefs go to the RNS look?

Some are projecting that a Mahomes led offense will use more run-pass-options (RPO’s) but I’m not so sure. While that was an offense that Alex Smith ran in college, Patrick Mahomes was the trigger man for Kliff Kingsbury’s — Mahomes college coach — air raid (RNS) offense.

With this essentially being Patrick Mahomes “rookie” year, coach Reid is likely to call a lot of quick hitches out of the gate to help protect him from pressure. It will take some time for Mahomes to figure out how to beat the blitz, you would htink, so Reid does the next best thing by keeping his pass-play calling focused on short routes.

I heard a rumor recently that Matt Patricia, in Detroit, was in danger of losing some of his player (loyalty wise). Many Chiefs fans began this preseason process by wondering when Bob Sutton would be fired but we were assured by coach Reid that Sutton was staying. Now, in the midst of the Chiefs organized team activities, the coaches and players are finally “getting on the same page” and that’s a good thing. A very good thing.

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