OPENING STATEMENT: “As far as injuries go, Noah (Gray) is not injured, but he’s sick. And then (Nick) Bolton is still recovering from the ankle sprain. Other than that, everyone else will practice. We elevated a couple guys (to the 53-man roster) Matt Dickerson and Montrell Washington. We put Prince (Tega Wanogho) down (on injured reserve) because of a quad tear there, and we have a couple practice squad receivers (Daniel Arias and Chase Cota) that we signed on. We look forward to the challenge of playing the Jets, good football team, we know that. (They have) one of the best defenses in the National Football League and an offense that’s growing, so we got to stay on top of our game. (The Jets) special teams I think is number one in a lot of categories right now this season. So, we’ll start the practices today and make sure we detail our work going forward. They’re also well coached. Robert (Saleh) does a real nice job with the team, and Nathaniel (Hackett) we know is a brilliant guy offensively and Jeff Ulbrich is a very good defensive coordinator, so they are fully loaded on the coaching staff. And they’ve got good players. We’ve got to make sure we put the work in this week. With that time’s yours.”
Q: Who did you say was sick today?
REID: “Noah Gray.”
Q: Any chance Montrell Washington will get involved as a receiver or is he just a return guy for now?
REID: “We’re working him in there. He takes some practice reps. We’ll just see how that goes – I mean he’s new to that. His main focus though is returner. He can do both.”
Q: Are you expecting Richie James back at some point this year?
REID: “Yeah, I think so, yeah.”
Q: On how good the Jets defensive line is, especially Quinnen Williams.
REID: “Yeah well, he’s a fantastic player, All-pro. He’s young and explosive, kind of wreaks havoc inside – and he’s not the only one. They’ve got really two full lines, eight guys, and you could probably add a couple of the rushers outside, so 10 guys that bring it. They’re going to throw fastballs at you. It will be a good challenge for our offensive line.”
Q: You said Prince Tega Wanogho has a tear in his quad?
REID: “Yeah, quad tear.”
Q: Is there a plan for who will back up Jawaan Taylor?
REID: “We’re working on that right now. We’ll get all that. We’re working through it.”
Q: Is Prince Tega Wanogho out for the year?
REID: “We’ll see. You guys are asking me these things, having me predict the future on these. I don’t know, I don’t know that; we’ll just see how it goes.”
Q: How have you felt Jawaan Taylor has played overall this year?
REID: “He’s (Jawaan Taylor) done good, with the exception of the penalty part of it.”
Q: How has the offensive line played as a whole?
REID: “You know when you’re getting a lot of yards in the game, normally your line is doing okay, and your tackles are part of that. Can we get better along there? Absolutely. But that’s all of us in there. There have been a lot of yards and a lot of throws and so on. We’ve also had games where we shot ourselves in the foot and haven’t scored, and that’s kind of the most important thing.”
Q: What are you seeing from the Jets defensive backs?
REID: “They’re very good, they’re aggressive. They play quite a bit of man coverage, both the corners play well in man and their safeties likewise. They’ve got good nickels, they’ll play some dime in there, too. They’re all pretty good. Sauce (Gardner) is a special guy, but they’re all very good coverage guys.”
Q: Kadarius Toney didn’t play very many snaps Sunday, was he fully healthy?
REID: “I just didn’t want to push the toe. We started him off and just backed off. That thing gets swollen up, we got the swelling down and kind of wanted to end the game with it that way.”
Q: Do you coach Patrick Mahomes to get the ball out quicker to protect himself and do other things to make sure he doesn’t get hurt considering his value to the team’s success?
REID: “As time’s gone on, he’s done that, he’s gotten it out a little faster, more on time. With the new receivers the more he gets used to those guys, it will increase more as we go through this season. We do enough movement stuff where we move the pocket, that’s all part of this offense, it’s not a secret. All that stuff is important.”
Q: On Travis Kelce’s touchdown it sounds like he broke off his route. How many years does it take with a guy for you to be comfortable with them breaking off routes like that?
REID: “Well as long as he and (Patrick) Pat (Mahomes) are on the same page – you’re walled, we give him some flexibility there. He’s had a few of those.”
Q: Are you surprised at all how good the defense has been early?
REID: “I’m not surprised. From what I saw in camp – I mentioned the zones were tighter and the guys in man coverage were also tighter and doing a nice job. I thought the young guys – they’re growing, they’re in the process of growing. The thing you’ve got to do is you have to do it every week and keep working to get better. These guys have some good receivers, so you’re going to have a good, nice challenge there. Again they’ll tell you they can get better, but they’re working their tail off and I think that’s been a big part of it (Defensive Coordinator Steve) Spags (Spagnuolo) does a phenomenal job teaching along with, if you’re talking about the DBs, (Defensive Back Coach) Dave (Merritt) and (Safeties Coach) Donald (D’Alesio) putting them in good positions, but these guys, they’re making plays all over. You saw what (Trent) McDuffie did. He was in a couple different spots and moving around, (he) did a nice job with it.
Q: What are the main reasons the defense has been as good as they have been so far?
REID: “They’ve worked at it, fundamentals, techniques, they’ve seen it. They’ve been able to see it. Then you’re D-line, there’s some young guys there that have gotten some experience and are playing better just with the experience. That always helps the back end, it helps them.”
Q: With the Jets losing Aaron Rodgers right at the beginning does it look like on film that they’ve packed it in or anything like that?
REID: “No. They won that game. We’ll be ready for their best. That’s what we anticipate getting there. They’re at home and they’ve got talent. So, we’ve just have to make sure we buckle down and work like crazy this week. Take care of what we can take care of.”
Q: There have a been a couple rookie receivers in your system over the years that have had big years. Does Rashee Rice look like he could be one of those guys?
RIED: “He’s growing in front of us here. He’s one of the young guys, but he looks like he’s getting more on the same page with (Patrick) Pat (Mahomes). Pat spends a lot of time with him. He’s got the right attitude, and so it’s consistency. He had a nice game. He’s coming off a nice game, now present it again and take another step this week. That’s the attitude you got to have, and he seems to have that.”
Q: How does a coach give confidence to a quarterback like Jets quarterback Zach Wilson who isn’t playing well?
REID: “Listen (Jets Offensive Coordinator) Nathaniel (Hackett), he’s been doing it a long time. He played the position, so I’m sure he has his own way of doing it. We’ll get him there, he’s (Jets QB Zach Wilson) a BYU guy. I’m rooting for him (laughter).”
Q: What do you make of what Jerick McKinnon has been able to do at his age and with his injury history?
REID: “Amazing guy, great attitude, works like crazy. Even in meetings he’s doing some stretching or doing something there to make sure he’s good to go. Ten years of running back in this league, that’s a long time, dog years (laughter).”
Q: Do you like not being the team getting the most hype with some other teams drawing attention around the league?
REID: “You know, I don’t listen to all that noise that goes on. Most of the media I get is right here, I don’t read stuff, I don’t look at the TV stuff or listen to it, I don’t do all that.”
Q: How about for the guys on the team that look at it?
REID: “Yeah, but you’re asking me (laughter). I don’t know that. I don’t get caught up in it, I don’t talk about that. It takes so much time to get ready for a team in the NFL, so you don’t have time for all that other stuff. I know it’s used out there and that, but if you do this thing right every minute you get, you exhaust on the opponent. You see coaches working long hours, you see players carrying these iPads all over the place – when they’re in the training room they look at them, when they go home, they look at them. If you’re going to be good you’ve got to do that, you have to dedicate that, Then you don’t have time for the other stuff.”
Chiefs Player Quotes
September 27, 2023
QB PATRICK MAHOMES
Q: What are some things that you and Rashee Rice work on together outside of practice?
MAHOMES: “I mean you’ve seen in this offense, there’s so much freedom to throttle and set down, versus come out of breaks. I think just little stuff like that. You saw he did a good job of that this last week in those zone coverages, catching the ball, getting vertical and stuff like that. I thought on the third down one, he maybe could have hit in a bit faster, but that’s the stuff that were working. You see Travis (Kelce) do it so well, and you’ve seen guys in the past do it so well. You just have to keep working on that stuff because they have to see the same thing you’re seeing out there on the field.”
Q: Sometimes Travis Kelce goes off the routes that he is supposed to be running. How are you able to read his next steps so well?
MAHOMES: “(Laughter) People ask me that, like Blaine (Gabbert) asked me that. I just – don’t know why, I just kind of understand what he’s going to do, some stuff that he’s not really supposed to do. There are times in practice where we were thinking about making a call for that when we get that look for him to – to get him to run that route. I remember I was telling the coaches, ‘I mean I don’t know why we need a call; he’s going to do it anyways.’ (laughter) So, of course he does it, and it’s a touchdown. He has a good understanding of the whole entire concept; he understands the coverages. It takes a lot of reps, and I’m just trying to develop that trust that whenever I’m seeing one way, he does it that way.”
Q: How long did it take you to understand Travis Kelce’s tendencies in regard to tweaking routes?
MAHOMES: “I think it was in that first Super Bowl run. There were a couple times throughout the game where I threw some balls that he adjusted his route. I threw it kind of before he even did it, just kind of knowing him. It just took a couple years of just working with him and continuing to do stuff. Not only did I get a feel for how he runs routes, but he got a feel for how I was seeing stuff so just that combination of stuff I think developed that connection where we can kind of go off the radar screen and kind of develop some stuff that isn’t necessarily called.”
Q: You have praised your defense quite a bit. What about your defense impresses you?
MAHOMES: “Yeah, I would hate playing our defense. Obviously, the players, I mean they’re deep at every single position right now, but the scheme and how they execute it. That’s why I always say after training camp, ‘Alright now we can get back to the regular season where I can get focused on the couple of coverages I’m going to see, or the little changeup here or there.” Versus our defense, it’s like every single play you never know what to expect, and I think that’s hard for offenses to go against and then having a defense – I mean a lot of these guys came back for a second year now or multiple years and they have an understanding of what (Defensive Coordinator Steve) Spags (Spagnuolo) and why he’s calling stuff and what he wants. I think that’s what makes it so special, and I think they’re going to continue to grow and continue to get better with more and more reps.”
Q: Are those the reasons why you think the defense has had more success earlier on in the season compared to past seasons?
MAHOMES: “Yeah, I mean you said it. Those guys coming back another year and the defense adding even more talent to it, a lot of young guys that played last year and you can tell they were probably playing faster than their mind was comprehending and now you can feel they’re very comfortable. They can just be themselves, let their talent show. That’s what makes (Defensive Coordinator Steve) Spags (Spagnuolo) defense so good is he gives them freedom to adjust on the fly, and they’re doing a great job of that on a high level.”
Q: What are you seeing from the Jets defense? What are you seeing as you prepare for them?
MAHOMES: “They’re really good; they’re really good. They’re deep on the D-line, but they’re deep everywhere really. They have DBs, they have linebackers, we have a lot of respect for them, and we know – I’m out there trying to prevent myself from negative plays. Just take those easy positive plays, if you get the opportunity to take a shot, take it, but if it’s not there, then you just have to continue to just drive and grind out points in this game. That’s a really good defense. It’ll be a great challenge for us.”
Q: Specifically, what are you seeing from the Jets DBs? D.J. Reed and Sauce Gardner?
MAHOMES: “I think (Jets CB D.J.) Reed got me in college for like a pick-six, so I know he’s good at reading and recognizing routes. (Jets CB Sauce Gardner) obviously had a great year this last year, and he’s going to continue to get better and better. So, they have a good group, I mean the safeties are good, they had to rotate another safety in this last week, he played good ball and they know that their D-line is good so they know when they can kind of jump and make plays happen, so it’s a good unit, you can tell they’ve been together for a year or two now and they understand what their concept of their defense is, and where they can kind of be a bit weaker and execute at that level. So, it’s going to be a great challenge for us, especially our young guys, and I’m excited for it.”
Q: You guys ran the ball more against the Bears. How much does the run game help your job?
MAHOMES: “Yeah, I think we knew in the building especially that we needed to get the run game going. Everybody talks about the offense and how much we’ve thrown over the past, but you always see more at our best when we run the football so we’re going to try to continue to do that, obviously it’ll be a great challenge against this defensive line and linebacking group. We’ll try to continue to establish the run, and when you establish the run, it opens up everything, and so we have a good running back room and a good offensive line, so we want to try to make sure that we keep that progressing in the right direction.”
Q: What is your reaction to the Eagles tush-push play?
MAHOMES: “They’re obviously – it’s an advantage for them but you see other teams in the league try to do it and they can’t do it as well as they do. It speaks to their offensive line, it speaks to their quarterback. They know how to do it at a really high level, they practice it and worked on it, so I think as you’ve seen now other teams have tried to kind of manipulate and do that different type of stuff and they might get the first down, but it’s not as pretty and as powerful as when the Eagles do it. All to them, they’ve kind of mastered something that I think other teams are going to try to do as best as they can.”
Q: Have you been reminded at all about the pick-six you through to D.J. Reed?
MAHOMES: “I mean it’s just; I don’t throw a lot of pick-sixes and he (Jets CB D.J. Reed) had a pick six, so you remember it. He’s a great player, I know – but that’s stuff that you realize. That’s ball recognition, that’s jumping the ball making a play, so that’s stuff that you really have to be aware of.”
Q: Do you remember the specific play?
MAHOMES: “Yeah, I do (laughter). I think he (Jets CB D.J. Reed) was supposed to get blocked by a receiver. He jumped it before the receiver could get there and went to the house.”
Q: Have you followed the Beyonce tour at all or heard of the mute challenge?
MAHOMES: “I have not seen that. I’ve seen some videos of the tour. It looks amazing, the stage is like as big as the field. Brittany (Mahomes) was upset the date got changed because she’s going to come to the game, so she’s not going to be able to go to the concert. It’s going to be amazing for Kansas City to be able to have that big of an event and GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium is going to do it right. It’s going to be an amazing atmosphere.”
Q: Did you go to the after-party Sunday and meet Taylor Swift?
MAHOMES: “Yeah, I met her, she was really cool. Good people. But like (Travis) Trav (Kelce) said, I’m going to let them have their privacy and just keep it moving.”