Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid Quotes
January 3, 2024
OPENING STATEMENT: “As far as the guys not practicing today, Chris Jones has a groin spasm, he won’t practice, (Isiah) Pacheco with a quad contusion and then Rashee (Rice) has a little bit of a hamstring that he tweaked in the game and then L’Jarius (Sneed) with the calf. We’ll give him time to let that heal through there. (We) look forward to the challenge of playing the Chargers. (Interim Head Coach) Giff (Smith) has been put into that position as a head coach, the guys are playing hard for him. We’re going to have a good week of preparation. I’m going to go ahead and – Pat (Mahomes) won’t play so Blaine (Gabbert) will take over at that spot. We’ll rotate the other guys in as we go but we look forward to the challenge of getting ready and we have to make sure that we have a good week of preparation. With that, time’s yours.”
Q: When you have a few players that are nicked up and aren’t practicing, is it best to keep them completely out of the game or do you plan on rotating them in?
REID: “I want them to rehab and get themselves ready to go as needed. No different, stay aggressive on the rehab part of it and we go from there.”
Q: If guys are close to milestones, is that a priority to get them in the game this week?
REID: “It depends, depends on what the milestone is.”
Q: Travis Kelce is close to his eight straight seasons with 1,000 receiving yards. Will he play?
REID: “We’ll see, we’ll see how all that goes.”
Q: What is the conversation like when you have those situations?
REID: “Probably one-sided (laughter).”
Q: It seemed like you guys were running quick hitters against the Bengals. Was that planned and will you do that moving forward?
REID: “Listen, they gave us an opportunity to do that. It depends on the defense that you’re playing. They were going to take away some of the deep stuff and gave us a chance to get the ball out fast and do that part, but (it) just depends on the defense.”
Q: Will Chris Oladokun be up for the game Sunday?
REID: “Yes.”
Q: What are you seeing from Chris Oladokun thus far?
REID: “Listen he (Chris Oladokun) works hard. He works hard every day at working to improve his game. He’s obviously in all of the meetings, and then I think the training camp time that he got to play was valuable for him. Then the scout team stuff, we try to – if a play is similar to what we run, we try to call it that way and run it that way, so the defense gets a real fast look at something that the other side knows.”
Q: Are you going to try to get him in the game?
REID: “I don’t know about that; I’ll just have to see how things go.”
Q: There will be a lot of guys trying to impress you this week and earn some playoff playing time. What are you hoping to see from those guys?
REID: “Well there are going to be front end and back end playing, you can’t have everybody not play but I expect them – it’s a way to build your resumé in this league. (It) gives you an opportunity to also strengthen our team going as we go into the playoffs with guys with a little more experience gained in a game like this so that’s invaluable.”
Q: You’ve had games like this at the end of the season where they don’t mean as much. Is it a little more difficult this year since your offense is still a work in progress? Are you tempted to play more guys?
REID: “It helped that we played okay this past game for sure, and I’m not worried about that though, no. I just want to make sure we’re ready when that time comes and this group is ready for right now. This is not a less important game, it’s just different guys in important positions playing the game and playing well. You don’t just throw these games out, that’s not what we’re doing with that. We want to play well.”
Q: What does the practice week look like for Patrick Mahomes and guys in his position?
REID: “Yeah, they’ll get work. As long as they’re healthy to get out there, they’ll get work.”
Q: Do you have guys on the coaching staff or in the building devoted to weeks like this whether that’s self-scouting or how to treat a bye week?
REID: “Well the important thing is we get this one where we are good with it and then I’ve got some of the assistants looking at the other things, the possibilities. The guys that are in charge of these different areas for this game are focused in on that and doing that. You want to do well – in this game you want to do well and that’s how we go about it.”
Q: How many resources do you use to prepare for next week knowing there’s five possible teams that you can play?
REID: “A couple of the possibilities you already know, so you spend less time on that. These other guys that are doing that, are capable of doing that, they’re in that position where they stay ahead every week for us anyways, so now they have a couple more teams that they have to stay ahead of. That’s alright, spend the time at it, do it, dig in and then you can give us the information down the road. That’s what they do anyways, the quality control guys.”
Q: This is your 18th 10-win season between two franchises, how often do you look back at your accomplishments?
REID: “I don’t look back, that’s dangerous in this business, very dangerous. I look forward and someday when I’m done, I guess then I can look back. The only time I look back is if there was a good play back there that we want to use coming up, but that’s about it.”
Q: What have you seen from Blaine Gabbert this season?
REID: “He (Blaine Gabbert) works so stinking hard in practice. It’s great to have that opportunity to go out and play. I mean he’s been a starter in the league, and so you have confidence that he knows what to do and he’ll go in there and do well. From a personal standpoint, I’m sure he’s excited about the opportunity to get in and play instead of going out here and practicing every day. That’s what he does, now to have a chance to do it in a game is great.”
Q: How has Blaine Gabbert done just being a veteran in the quarterback room?
REID: “He’s done a nice job; he’s done well with it. I checked with (former Chiefs QB) Chad (Henne), he and Chad have a relationship and Chad thought he’d be good for that position. I didn’t know Blaine (Gabbert) like I knew Chad, but he’s jumped in and done a nice job with all of that.”
Q: For the guys not playing, like Patrick Mahomes, how do you want them to use this week to get ready for the playoffs?
REID: “From his (Patrick Mahomes) standpoint, he’ll look at some of the teams, that’s what he does, you’re not going to not have that happen. The thing you’ve got to do, you’ve got to practice, go out and practice. do your thing there, help out Blaine (Gabbert) when he’s in there like he helps you out. So, he’s got to make sure he studies this opponent (the Chargers), make sure he’s got that down, too. That’s what you do. You only have so many elevations, so if Blaine goes out and tweaks his ankle, then you have to be ready to put the uniform on and at least be out there in a position, that’s how that goes. Where you can function.”
Chiefs Player Quotes
January 3, 2024
QB BLAINE GABBERT
Q: How excited are you to get the start?
GABBERT: “Yeah, it’s great. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a great opportunity, and I told the young guys out at walkthrough, ‘Just have fun.’ A lot of guys are going to have a great opportunity to go play for the first time, make a start for the first time. I’ve been fortunate to start quite a few games in the NFL, and these opportunities don’t come around very often, just make the most of them, have fun, cut it loose, just go play ball.”
Q: How do you feel like you’ve grown this year even without playing much?
GABBERT: “I feel good, it’s a new system, so you’re always working through things and the installs are new every week. It’s just about how you prepare throughout the week, week in and week out because the game plans do change every week. The longer you’re in a system, the more comfortable you are. It’s been 20, 25 weeks including the summer in this system so it’s going really well.”
Q: On Rashee Rice’s progression.
GABBERT: “The way Rashee (Rice) has taken off the second half of the year is awesome. That’s a credit to this coaching staff preparing him to be ready to play 17 games. It’s a long season in the NFL coming from college where it’s 12 games. A lot of those guys you see hit a rookie wall and start fading in the second half of the year. He’s done a great job and really caught his stride going into the playoffs.”
Q: Will the offense be run differently with you at quarterback?
GABBERT: “It’s a great question, we had a talk with the coaching staff; there’s a system in place here. We run (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid’s offense, and ultimately, that’s what we’re going to run. Every quarterback is different, every quarterback does things differently, some things better than others et cetera, et cetera. We’re just going to run our offense. Hopefully throw to the open guy, run the ball well and score some points.”
S MIKE EDWARDS
Q: What have the past couple of weeks been like since Bryan Cook went down and you have stepped in?
EDWARDS: “It’s tough, he’s (Bryan Cook) a good football player, anytime one of our players go down it’s big. They trust in me. I trust in our team. I trust in our defense, in our scheme. I feel like that’s what they brought me here for, to fill in roles like that. Don’t miss a beat, don’t miss a step, a guy like that going down is big but just step in and play my role and try to make as many plays as possible.”
Q: You mentioned that Bryan Cook talked to the defensive backs before the Cincinnati game, what was his message?
EDWARDS: “Just go out there and play strong. Don’t worry about any outside noise leading up to the game. He was just saying we all need to lean on each other on the back end because you know they’re going to test our DBs with the receivers they have and explosive players they have. Just telling us to get our mindset right – which we did, we came out there with the right mindset.”
Q: Was there anything even back in OTAs that told you that this defense could be as good as it has become?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, we were making play after play. Going against our offense, going against Patrick Mahomes, me guarding Travis Kelce, he’s working me – they give us some great looks and everything like that. I just saw something special from literally day one. (Defensive Coordinator) Coach (Steve) Spags really harped on being a focal point on the defense, helping the offense out, making plays. We didn’t even have Chris (Jones) at that point, so having Chris back was obviously big. We’re not just a one-man group, not a one man show. We have players from the d-line to the linebackers to the secondary, we just all play fundamentally sound defense.”
Q: What makes Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo so good?
EDWARDS: “Obviously, first and foremost he’s a players coach, he’s real hands on. There’s not many (defensive coordinators) like that. I feel like he’s real hands on, relates to us players really well, talks to (us) about life, not just football. That’s one thing I really appreciate about him. He breaks down things a lot, he has a great game plan every week – you’ve got to study every day, his defense is really crazy. That’s the good thing about him, he keeps the offense on its toes, you don’t really know what we’re doing. We have a lot of adjustments and things we can match to different offenses. He just has a great game plan, and he’s a real smart coach.”