Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid Quotes
September 30, 2022
OPENING STATEMENT: “Ok as far as injuries go, (Harrison) But(ker) did not practice and then (Joshua) Kaindoh is sick and then we’ll see how Butker does going down the road. Everybody else went out and practiced. Ronald Jones was back after being sick. (We) look forward to the challenge of playing the Bucs. (They’re) a good football team, well coached. (Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach) Todd (Bowles) does a heck of a job not only working with the defense, but also as a head coach. So, time’s yours.”
Q: Is it fair to call Harrison Butker a game-time decision?
REID: “Yeah, we’ll just see how he does here.”
Q: Is the plan to have Harrison Butker kick pregame?
REID: “We’ll see. We’ll see how all that goes.”
Q: You mentioned Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Todd Bowles and his team. Do they look any different? Has he put his fingerprints on them yet?
REID: “Well, I think he had his fingerprints on it before, obviously with that defense. I’ve been around him, and I mentioned before he was one of the best interviews I’ve ever had. I think he’s a heck of a football coach, so I’m sure he’s put his mark on the team.”
Chiefs Players Quotes
September 30, 2022
DE FRANK CLARK
Q: Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo came in here and said you had one of your best games in a long time. I wondered what you saw in yourself when you went back to the film.
CLARK: “You know, just (as) someone who needs to continue (and) just continue to get better day in and day out. I don’t ever look at things – it’s still early in the season – I never look at it and I don’t look at myself and evaluate myself early on and say, ‘What I can do better’ or ‘What am I doing great’, you know what I mean? And so, it’s like one of those ‘head down’ things. We took the loss last week, so of course I am being more critical on myself than the normal person would when you win but at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about. You can sit back all day and tell yourself how good you are at certain things, but people don’t want to look themselves in the mirror and say what they need to work on so it’s still improvement all around that I feel like I need to do so I can help my team win the game.”
Q: Speaking about the defensive line as a whole, how much better do you guys feel as a unit this year compared to last year?
CLARK: “I feel like we feel real good. When you look at it, guys are playing well together, we’re meshing well. It’s a newer group, we’re meshing with a few other guys from the last four years that I’ve been here. It’s a good group. We’ve got our rookie, George (Karlaftis), he’s filling in (and) doing his job (and) just trying to figure it out. Like I said before, when you’re a rookie coming in, the league is a mystery to you. Every player – the player, the conference, you don’t really understand that, so you kind of grasp all of those things, so you know, hats off to him for continuing to show up to work and put forth his best effort. And as a whole, we just continue to improve. I feel like we’re showing some spurts of a team that wants to stop the run. I feel like the past two games we’ve shown that we really want to rush that passer when we get that opportunity. You’ve got guys – it’s great watching Carlos (Dunlap) on his road to 100 sacks, watching Chris (Jones) break 50 (sacks and) watching our interior guys step up. You’ve got Khalen Saunders as one of the guys we don’t really talk about a lot but – an underdog. He had one of his best games – probably the best game of his career last week and like I said, we lost so a lot of that goes under the rug and it gets swept under the rug – how good some of these guys have played. Him (Khalen Saunders) along with some of our young DB’s, 35 (Jaylen Watson), he’s continued to impress. You know, the guys in the backend (safeties). Nobody’s been talking about how good Juan’s (Thornhill) been playing and filling in for the role in the secondary with Tyrann (Mathieu) being gone. It’s a lot of good things happening but like I said, it’s still early so it’s nothing to talk about right now. We kind of got our heads down chopping wood right now.”
Q: How do you want to approach Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady?
CLARK: “Yeah, I know. It seems like every time we’re about to play this man it’s like ‘Yeah, it could be the last time you play him’ and it’s like four years later. This dude never seizes to amaze me (laughs). He has this whole big thing like leaving football (and) everybody’s shouting him out then it’s like ‘Yeah, I’m coming back.’ It’s like ‘Dude, come on, give somebody else a chance’ (laughs). No, for real though, hats off to (Buccaneers QB) Tom (Brady). He’s still doing it – 45 (years old) I believe, or 44 years old, he’s still doing it. I could only imagine what his kids and his wife are thinking right now. Man, I’ve been playing him for a minute now. It dates back to (when I played for) Seattle (Seahawks). But just being here (in Kansas City), that’s kind of one of those games me and Chris (were) talking about it earlier in the week. (We) were just going back to where we lost to him in the Super Bowl (Super Bowl LV). It kind of put a sour taste in our mouth from that point. I believe it’s the first time that we’ll get to see him since then so it’s a lot of things that we want to do this time around to execute and go ahead and get the job done. Although we know it’s not the Super Bowl, we’re two years removed from that (but) it’s about execution. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. It’s only Friday. We’ve got two days until game time and a whole day to wait until the night (game). You’re playing, arguably, the best quarterback to play this game. One of the best players to play this game, ever. So everything defensively, we’ve got to be on key. He’s going to understand every check, he’s going to understand every coverage, he’s going to understand every blitz. If you show as a linebacker, if you show as a DB coming on the edge, he’s going to understand. He’s going to check with his tackles to cut the end off. If you’re a (defensive) end and you show that you’re dropping in coverage, he’s going to understand that (and) he might check to a run. It’s going to be a lot of that going on. It’s going to be one of those technical games where keys are important. Paying attention to the man in front of you and playing technically sound. Hands and eyes and feet. If you do those things, then you know you’ve got to trust your ability to get the job done.”
TE TRAVIS KELCE
Q: How important is it to get that bad taste out of your mouth from the Indianapolis Colts game and get off to a good start against Tampa Bay?
KELCE: “Honestly, I haven’t thought about it since Monday, brother. It’s in the past now. You learn from it, you know what you got to clean up and you just approach this week like we have – with the attention to detail, the focus, the effort, showing guys around you that it matters to you and that we’re going to get this thing fixed and sure enough that’s what we did.”
Q: Do you find yourself thinking more about the things you did wrong than things you did right in a loss?
KELCE: “Every single film session I go into I think of, ‘What did I do wrong?’ – whether we win or lose. I got to keep fixing and raising the ceiling for me personally so I can be accountable for everybody else.”
Q: On using the tight ends a lot in short yardage situations.
KELCE: “We got a really athletic group, physical group. And the two young guys – I can’t really call them young because they play like vets – they understand the game, they understand the offense and they understand the intentions of the play caller and what Pat likes. It’s a fun group to be a part of. Jody (Fortson) and Noah (Gray) have been progressing so much since they’ve been here. I get excited when I see those guys have success out there on the field. And anytime we can go three tight end sets, I think we got the advantage.”
Q: On Patrick Mahomes historically doing better against a team he lost to during the previous matchup. Can you sense something from him in that regard?
KELCE: “I just think the more reps that 1-5 (Patrick Mahomes) gets, the better he gets. He’s very calculated, but he also plays the game free. And that being said, he’s doing his homework. He’s trying to find out new ways to beat everybody, and especially when we aren’t at our best, the following episode we play a team again he seems to be a little bit more on cue with what the defenses are trying to do to stop him.”