OPENING STATEMENT: “I feel like this is about the 50th press conference that I’ve done here in the last few days, but I’m just going to leave it open to you. We came out injury free and Pat (Mahomes) is actually feeling good in my meeting with him this morning. As far as offseason surgeries or anything, I don’t have that information for you if we have any that are going to take place. What I’ve been doing today is we’ve got a meeting – a team meeting where we talked about a variety of things – the parade included – and about the offseason, and now I’m actually in the middle of talking to each player. Each player will meet with his position coach, a coordinator and myself, so they’re going through that exercise there. With that, time’s yours.”
Q: Patrick Mahomes said that he was confident that he would be ready to go for OTAs. Are there any concerns for what he can and can’t do?
REID: “I think he should be. I mean, I’ll meet with (Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance) Rick (Burkholder) on everything, but I think right now, he should be okay by that time.”
Q: After a year of coaching JuJu Smith-Schuster are there things that you learned about him or are there things that surprised you when he first arrived?
REID: “Yeah, I like his game. I like the way he helps counter (Travis) Kelce. I think he’s a smart player, great in space, strong hands, all of that. I really like him, but what he bring to the team, his personality, his leadership, he gets it. He’s one of those guys that understands it – what it takes.”
Q: There was a report that you would take some time to consider retirement. Are you thinking about that?
REID: “No. I was asked that about 50 times down there, and I think by the time that I got to Jay Glazer I just went, ‘Hey listen, I’ve been asked this about 100 times,’ (and) that’s not the direction that I’m going but it wasn’t a yes or no answer, I guess, so it came across maybe that way (but) that’s not what I was thinking.”
Q: There are sixteen guys, including the guys on the practice squad, that are getting another ring. There’s so much turnover in the NFL so how important is it to get fresh blood in there to continue the ring chase?
REID: “Listen, I think it’s a great challenge to get back there (the Super Bowl) whether it’s fresh blood or not fresh blood. I don’t think it hurts to have the same guys back. It doesn’t seem to happen that way in the NFL, so I think that it’s fluid. I mentioned this to the team this morning that we’re not going to all be here, in this room next go around – next time we gather but the majority probably will be here. That’s normally how this thing works so our offseason, we’ve really got to attack it and then whoever’s new that comes into the team, they’ve got to do the same.”
Q: Kadarius Toney had the longest punt return in Super Bowl history. Did you see a tendency from the Eagles that led to that?
REID: “Yeah, I’d ask (Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator) Dave (Toub) on that. I think he kind of actually cut back across the field from the normal return that was there. But, I thought the guys did a good job of blocking for him and then I thought Kadarius (Toney) did a nice job. I’m not sure he’s had to run that fast (or) that far in a while. We’ve kind of tapered back on the length of the routes that he’s had to do but he sure did a nice job with that one.”
Q: As you’re meeting with the players and sort of considering all that has happened and this fulfillment you have right now, how do you start setting the message for what comes next and how are you going to put that in their view screen in terms of incentivizing them after a great season?
REID: “Yeah so, you’re only as good as that right there. It’s the final – the season’s over, one team is happy and we’re fortunate enough to be that team and so think of the hard work that went into that and take some time off and then get back into it. You’re going to meet with your coaches, before we met with the coaches you asked me what I already said so, I mean if you don’t know your strengths and weaknesses make sure that you and your coach talk about it and so you have something that you can go out there and attack knowing that these coaches in the National Football League are going to be studying every move that you made this past season and they’re going to come up with answers. You’ve got to train yourself in that manner where you attack those issues and be in great shape doing it.”
Q: Can you take us through your celebration? What did you do when you did get back?
REID: “Yeah, I went to Pizza 51 (laughter). I got a mushroom and sausage pizza, how about that? And a salad just to make my chubbiness feel good.”
Q: Given your background with the offensive line, how important of a priority of it is it for you to get a long-term deal with Orlando Brown and try to retain Andrew Wylie?
REID: “Those guys obviously had good years for us. All these contract things I haven’t gotten with (General Manager Brett) Veach on at all. I kind of stay out of that world, but I think both guys are very well liked here and I’m sure that Brett will surely make a strong attempt to keeping them here, but we’ll see how that goes.”
Q: Now that you’ve had a little bit of time to reflect, is there something that you feel like your coaching staff did specifically with the rookie group that you found to be rare that helped them be as successful as they were through camp, and then the season?
REID: “Yeah, I think patience was maybe the biggest thing. They’re teaching while they’re doing here maintaining the patience. I think the rookies, on the other hand, did a good job listening and trying to do what they were asked to do and try to do it in live periods during games. But I would tell you the patience was an important part.”
Q: What is it about coaching that keeps drawing you back to chase that next Championship? Since you’ve been through the experience before what’s the toughest part of trying to defend and win another title?
REID: “Yeah, well, you know, Nick (Jacobs), you talk about defending it but the thing that drives me is the day-to-day process, the teaching of being a coach and working with these young guys – young men that want to be great at what they do. They’re already the best in the whole world at what they do because they’re in the National Football League but giving them an opportunity even to be the best of the best so that drives me but it’s also the same thing that allows you to potentially go win it again or go to another Super Bowl, it is that you don’t look at the whole thing there. You don’t – you get in, you (get) work in and give your best effort every day and drive yourself that way and if the guy next to you is doing that and the guy next to him is doing that and so on then you have a strong team. But it’s one thing to talk about it, it’s another thing to get in and do it and so that drives me. I like to test myself that way and I like to have players around me that do the same thing.”
Q: Can you give us a glimpse of what the immediacy looks like for you in terms of the next couple of weeks? When do you actually dig into the offseason stuff?
REID: “Yeah so, listen, we start right away on scheme eval(uation) – so once the parade’s over. The guys are going to have time off but everything’s – we’ve got iPads and everything’s on these iPads. We can watch every game, every snap, endzone, far copy – we’ve got it all. So, they’ll start going back through and doing player evals of our guys that we have here now and then we’ll lead that into scheme evals when we get back.”
Q: Can you explain what Patrick Mahomes has been able to accomplish at 27 years old? What’s ahead for him?
REID: “Yeah so, again, he’s done as much as anyone’s done in the game with these first few years. The way he’s wired, his hunger to be great is – there’s a longevity part of that; the more you do it over and over, that really determines how great you are. And that’s just how it goes. And he has a great feel for that. He knows that there’s a time in there – very similar to what I told you about what drives me, what drives a team, what should drive a team is that day-to-day process. So go through (it). We give the coaches a calendar, we give the players a calendar, go through and dissect it and make sure that your days are all lined up on the days you’re going take off, what you’re going to do there and then the days that you’re going to work. And exactly what are you going to work on to make yourself greater than you already are. And so, we all need to make sure we get that done here in the next little bit.”
Q: On the thought and inspiration behind the third-and-one sweep play to Isiah Pacheco in the fourth quarter.
REID: “Yeah, that’s the old Bem-sweep that was popular at one time in the NFL. I know when I was at San Francisco State, that was one of the plays that we ran a lot of. I give credit to (Offensive Line Coach) Andy Heck for pulling that one out of his file and putting it in the short-yardage situation there. So, it was just a matter of getting it called. And then (Michael) Burt(on) did a great job of slicing and dicing the defensive end. And our big fellas got out and pulled and did a nice job with their contact points there. And then (Isiah) Pacheco executed perfectly. So, when those things work, they’re a thing of beauty to watch.”
Q: With Offensive Coordinator Eric Bieniemy’s contract expiring and it not looking bright for him to latch on elsewhere, do you expect Bieniemy to return? If not, are you still pushing for him to get the last few jobs remaining?
REID: “Yeah, I would tell you the first part of that, that I’d push him (for that). There’s no reason he shouldn’t get one of these jobs, he’s too good of a football coach to not.”