Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid
Opening statement:
“There’s not really injuries to talk about. Everybody came through pretty good. Listen, it was a good
effort all the way around. Defensively, I thought we started fast, which we needed to do. Offensively,
we had a few hiccups there early, penalties and that, so. We’ve got to take care of business with
that. But I thought all in all, all of the groups came out and played good football—respectable
football—and that’s what you try to get done in the second game.”
On if he felt Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes needed a sustained drive to “check the box”:
“Yeah, he actually said that. He’s the one who got in there and got some work done and he was able
to get the offense in the endzone there so that’s a positive. I thought the offensive line did a nice job
for him and the receivers. We had a lot of guys catch the ball, which is positive. I thought all of the
offensive line held their own. They’re a brand new group here and he’s trying to establish himself
and doing a nice job of that, so he can use this game to (his) benefit.”
On if there was a conscious effort to target Chiefs WR Rashee Rice:
“Well, not necessarily. His number just got dialed up, but he’s a good football player and has had a
nice camp for us. He can return punts too, so he gives you a lot of flexibility there.”
On if he values perfecting what the team does well or fixing what can be corrected during the
preseason:
“I think knocking the rust off for the ones is important. A little communication and continuity there.
Just bringing things together and working off of each other. I take that for the ones and then the rest
of the guys are trying to make the team. They’re trying to show where they can fit. Our message
from the beginning is just make it hard for (Chiefs GM Brett) Veach and myself to make those
decisions, and they did that tonight so that’s a positive.
On if the depth chart switch of Chiefs QB’s Blaine Gabbert and Shane Buechele was due to
their performances a week prior:
“Well this was a game that (Chiefs QB) Blaine (Gabbert) wasn’t scheduled to play. Normally, the
third guy goes, but both of them played great, and that’s a good thing that (they) both really played
good football.”
On if he thought Mahomes was out of bounds on his sidearm throw in the first half:
“Yeah, (Chiefs Offensive Coordinator) Matt Nagy was yelling at him to get out of bounds. Don’t take
a hit.”
On if Mahomes received ‘the hit’ he wanted to get in preseason:
“He doesn’t need to get hit. That’s a good thing.”
On if Mahomes will play next week:
“We’ll see. We’ll see how that goes. We normally don’t but we’ll see how it goes.”
On the importance of receivers bouncing back after a dropped pass:
“Yeah, it’s great to come back, but let’s try not to do it at the start. If you do then you’ve gotta come
back. Let’s try to eliminate the first part of the equation.”
On WR Richie James and his role on the offense:
“Yeah, he knows the offense. He’s been in it for a year now. He got a ton of snaps during training
camp and he got enough here.”
On if James will be returning kickoffs as well:
“Yeah, both. We’re good. Experience.”
Chiefs Quarterback Patrick Mahomes
On his jump-pass out of bounds in the first quarter:
“I was either going to throw it away or kind of give a receiver a chance. I tried to give (Chiefs Wide
Receiver) Marquez (Valdes-Scantling) a chance. I don’t know if he knew I was going to still throw it
since I was so close to the sideline, but it makes good work. Being able to scramble around and work
that scramble drill, I thought we did a good job of that on a couple of occasions today. So you get into
a preseason game and you get good work in. I thought we did a good job today.”
On Chiefs OC Matt Nagy telling him to go out of bounds:
“He told me after the fact that I should’ve ran out of bounds, but I was like ‘I wasn’t going to get hit’ so
as long as I’m not taking any hits then I can try some stuff out. You see other quarterbacks try some
stuff out too, and so I thought everybody did a good job today and we definitely had better urgency out
there.”
On not getting hit this preseason:
“I told my offensive linemen that I play in the preseason to get hit one time, and I literally didn’t get
touched these last two games. So they did a great job. It’s a good problem to have. There were times
where I sat in the pocket for a while and it was like they’re keeping everybody away from me. When I
scrambled it seems like I scrambled just to try to make a play when I had too.”
On Chiefs WR Rashee Rice and his growth this preseason:
“He has good feel. We keep pushing him to be better and better. You see the talent. He makes a lot
of tough catches. He had the drop early and he responded well. I think that comes with the jitters of
being in your first few NFL games. But I have a lot of trust in him to make those catches in tough
spaces. There’s just another playmaker that we have in this offense.”
On what he sees from Chiefs WR Rashee Rice after the catch:
“He runs physical. I say he has a lot of what Sammy (Watkins) had when he first got here. Being able
to catch the ball, be physical but still have speed and everything like that. He’s going to be a great
player for us, and we’re going to keep trying too push him and be getting better. Same with some of
those other younger guys that we have.”
On getting a touchdown drive to be in rhythm:
“One hundred percent. I was telling the guys, if we don’t want to keep playing we better score. Because
coach Reid is going to keep us in this game until we score, and so we had some mistakes early in the
game. Obviously, the penalty, the OPI which kind of goes here-and-there. The holding penalty got us
out of rhythm. Some little stuff here and there that we have to clean up. A couple of the guys did a
good job playing hard, playing fast. We’ll continue to get better and better and build for the first regular
season game.”
On the wide receiver room being competitive:
“I was telling you back to OTA’s that I could see the talent one-through-nine, ten. We have guys
throughout the entire roster that were making plays. You saw guys that went down with injuries that
weren’t able to play this week that made plays last week. Then you saw other guys step right in and
make plays. I think that shows we have a lot of depth in that receiving room. Like I said, it’s a good
problem to have because, the numbers, you have to find that right group in that room to get on the
roster. But I have confidence in all those guys, we’re rotating them in, giving them chances and
stepping up whenever the moment is the brightest.”
On Chiefs QB Shane Buechele’s performance tonight:
“I told him he has a little stronger build than I do. I don’t know if I’m cutting back with that safety running
at me like that. He is a playmaker, you saw that last week, you saw it this week. He’s made a lot of
plays happen. He’s been in the system and he’s really comfortable with it. I thought (Chiefs QB) Blaine
(Gabbert) played really good as well. Two touchdown drives and (Chiefs QB) Chris (Oladokun) played
really good at the end of the game, we take pride in that quarterback room and stepping in and making
plays happen. I was proud of those guys.I probably played the worst out of all of them that played
today. That’s a good problem to have.”
On the third-down pass to Chiefs WR Justyn Ross:
“It was a good play, we wanted to get him singled up and see what he can do. He’s been making those
happen all training camp, I think you’ve all seen that. We had a slant and return playcall, and it’s a lot
of trust in him that he’s going to win and he ran a great route, lost the defensive back, caught the ball
and got up the field after the catch. So he’s got a lot of talent, we’ve said it. A rookie, throwing him out
there and giving him chances, and hes stepped up whenever his number has been called. He’s a
different receiver out of anyone else, with how big he is, how fluid he is and how he can catch the
football.”
On the sense of urgency to play better this week:
“Coach Reid said one thing, and everybody knew we needed to have better urgency. He just came
in and basically said that. He said that the one’s didn’t play well last week and the young guys
played well. So the young guys gave us a challenge that we needed to go out there and play better
football from the get-go. The offensive penalties hurt us. The offense, defense played good though,
and in better positions. Then we were able to make that touchdown drive and from there we kind of
kept it rolling. Just having that urgency, we know it’s the preseason that the games don’t necessarily
count, but you want to have that momentum going into the regular season. I think coach Reid is
pretty adamant about that and the guys responded well.”
On if he was reminiscing about the Super Bowl today:
“Not really. We played here a lot the last few years. So you think about that stuff obviously, but we’re
trying to get better and trying to work on stuff. It’s clearly a different atmosphere than the Super
Bowl. The only thing that was different was I think we scored 38 points, which is exactly the same we
scored in the Super Bowl, so someone said something about that to me at the end of the game.
Other than that it was another football game, and keep it moving.”
