Is firing Andy Reid the answer? Contributor Britt Zank says it’s time to risk being horrible again for the sake of also being Super Bowl champs.
One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt will win the award for most insane person in K.C. if Andy Reid returns as head coach in 2018.
Hunt has been insane since the day he hired Reid and traded two second round picks for Alex Smith. I do understand why Clark made both of those moves at the time he made them. The team was coming off the worst two year stretch since the 80s and fans where flying banners over Arrowhead calling for the general manager to be fired. He risked local black outs every week because they weren’t selling any tickets. The team was so bad, I couldn’t give away front row tickets.
At that time, Hunt only really cared about getting fans back in the stands and cars in the parking lot. He makes a lot more money when a team is 12-4 and into the playoffs than he does going 2-14. He tried to get the hot young GM and hot young head coach and it failed. So rather than try that again he went safe and hired the safest coach in the NFL in Reid. He is a very good coach who is almost a lock to have a winning record and get you in the playoffs every season. But ask any Philadelphia Eagles fan and they’ll tell you that is where his success ends. If you don’t believe me go on YouTube and search for the song “We are never going to win with Andy” and just listen to how much of that songn still applies.
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I called Reid “Marty 2.0” on the day he signed and I got hammered for saying it was a dumb signing. Five years later I dare anyone to argue with me that it is not a 100% fact. In his 17th season as a head coach, he is not going to change. He’s not going to give up playcalling duties. He’s not going to all of a sudden turn into a ground-and-pound offense where a great running back like Kareem Hunt gets 25 carries a game. No way is he going to ever let the quarterback take a risk that may put the team in a bad position on a regular basis. Reid is not changing, so if your opinion on keeping him revolves around the fact he could be better if he did something different, then you are fooling yourself.
I know five years ago I was in an extreme minority of fans who didn’t want Reid. I was willing to risk hiring a bust and going 2-14 again to try and hit on the next Mike Tomlin. Hunt just wanted to have a full stadium again and a parking lot full of cars paying $30 to $60 a piece to park. Fans just didn’t want to be bad because they were afraid of turning into the Cleveland Browns. They were happy to sign up for the 90s all over again because the team was good and there was a reason to watch the team every Sunday. But what they forgot was how devastating all those playoff losses were. They forgot that winning in the regular season isn’t worth the heartache of the playoffs. So now the question looms over the franchise and the city, what means more to you, not being bad or having a real shot at a Super Bowl?
If you are content with being relevant and not being bad, than the Chiefs shouldn’t make any changes in the offseason. Maybe let them fire Bob Sutton as a scapegoat and bring in a new defensive coordinator who can revamp the defense. You can say that Reid will open up the offense with strong-armed Patrick Mahomes and, with a bettetr defense, the Chiefs will have another great record and be a lock for the playoffs. You’d be right if you said all of that. But then you’d also have to admit that the playoff success would be based on Reid changing something he does. Then you’d be joining Hunt on the insanity train.
If your goal however is to be a real competitor for the Super Bowl, then you have to change and take a risk. The change is firing Reid and his entire coaching staff. The risk comes after that when you hire a new coach. People always want to say if not him then whom or the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. Well those are excuses to be mediocre because you are scared of being great. The next Mike Tomlin is out there somewhere. Yes there are also a lot of Romeo Crennel’s out there. In fact the odds of getting a Crennel are greater than getting a Tomlin. So that means I’m asking for the Chiefs to take a big risk but I’m also doing it for a big reward because you can’t get a Tomlin if you don’t try. I don’t know the best coaching options out there, and I don’t have a crystal ball that says who will be Tomlin. But I know for 100% certainty who isn’t Tomlin, and that’s Reid.
Maybe insiders Dave Toub or Matt Nagy could be the next big thing. I would give Josh McDaniels a second look because anyone who can win a playoff game with a team led by Tim Tebow can’t be horrible. There are many other coaches who should be options for the Chiefs and the next great coach is one of them. Despite what people on Twitter and in the comments section say, I’m not insane.
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If Reid is the head coach of the 2018 Chiefs, I can already tell you what will happen. The team will be pretty good and most likely make the playoffs. People will continue to hope Reid gives up the playcalling duties and complain about his clock management. They will play a few games that make them look unstoppable and then they’ll lay an egg or two that questions how they ever win a game. They will lose early in the playoffs and we’ll be having this same discussion that I’ve had for going on five years.
2018 is the perfect time to walk away. There is a new general manager already there ready to go. The team is already starting over anyway because we are losing a good chunk of veteran talent. Derrick Johnson, Tamba Hali, Alex Smith, Dustin Colquitt and Dee Ford are all most likely gone. Bob Sutton is gone no matter what, so no matter who the head coach is, the defensive scheme is going to change. Supposedly with Mahomes at quarterback, the offensive scheme will change because he can make more plays than Smith can. Since a lot is changing anyway, why not make one more change and just go all the way? This gives everyone a nice reset and fans will be behind it because they have the quarterback of the future. Even if the team has a bad year, they can just say, “Yeah but we got the quarterback and he’ll be better in year two.” You are guaranteed a year free pass where anything bad that happens can be ignored and people will still look forward to 2019.
There will never be a more perfect time to take a risk at the head coaching position than after the 2017 season. If you want to win a Super Bowl, then you have to be willing to take a risk—just ask the boys in blue across the street. The Kansas City Royals traded the top pitcher in baseball and the number one prospect as well. They hired a head coach who was branded a failure after only five seasons as a head coach. They played Alcedes Escobar every day despite hitting only .200 because they said he’ll be a big part of their success once the rest of the team arrives. Those were all huge risks that, had they failed, would have meant multiple 100 loss seasons. However they knew to get to the World Series, they were moves they had to make. The reward to them was worth the risk. I dare any sports fan to tell me that the feeling you got watching the celebration on the mound or the parade in K.C. wasn’t worth the risk. The 25 years of pain I experienced being worse than the Cleveland Browns went away immediately.
So yes, I’m saying we should do something that could tank this franchise. There is a risk that they could fail and spend three of the next four seasons at the bottom of the league. Arrowhead would be a lot emptier and sports talk radio would be a black hole of negativity between baseball and college basketball season. It would flat out suck; there is no nice way to say it.
However, going 12-4 and losing in the playoffs isn’t a walk in the park either. Being a laughingstock of the league because no matter what you brag about the regular season, people can be justified in laughing and say “yea but you’ll choke in the playoffs”. What trumps all of those feelings is the feeling we all had in 2015 as we watched the once-voted worst franchise in all of sports hoist a championship trophy. The Chiefs can blame the Royals because that scene is a high to which I’m now committed. If you want to have real hope of getting that high with a sea of red at Union Station, then you have to be willing to dream big. I’m tired of being nickel and dimed by the Chiefs. I’m pushing all my chips in the middle of the table and going for the jackpot.