How to change the Kansas City Chiefs after another playoff meltdown
Alex Smith will be gone. Bob Sutton should be. Andy Reid will not (and should not) go anywhere. Get some coffee and your headphones. We’ll get through this together.
It happened again. The Kansas City Chiefs ripped our hearts out with an early playoff exit. This time, it might actually be worse. Not because the meltdown was more impressive than the one against Andrew Luck, and not because the offense was worse on Saturday than it was against the Steelers. In fact, neither of those things are true. It might be worse because this was against an average-at-best Tennessee Titans team.
So what happened? Where did it go wrong?
As always, I beseech you, listen to the podcast for the full line of reasoning and all of the thoughts I have on all of the biggest stories from the game. But there are three people who can be discussed at the front line of Saturday’s meltdown. Andy Reid, Alex Smith, and Bob Sutton.
Andy Reid
I honestly believe that Andy Reid is a top-five NFL head coach. I also believe that Andy Reid continually breaks down in the playoffs. And it is, admittedly, getting a little more difficult to hold both of those thoughts in my head at the same time. But that difficulty is not a fireable offense.
So what? Keep the offense as-is? Absolutely not. Matt Nagy is gone and Brad Childress is retiring. Next year’s offensive coordinator will almost certainly either be running backs coach Eric Bieniemy or someone from outside of the Chiefs organization. Either a run-first mindset or an outsider will bring fresh eyes to an offense that collapsed in the second half. Plus, next year is going to bring a new quarterback.
me when someone challenges the fact that patrick mahomes will start week one of 2018. pic.twitter.com/DMh16et3F9
— Joshua Brisco (@jbbrisco) January 9, 2018
Alex Smith
Alex Smith showed us a higher ceiling this year, but it’s impossible not to notice that he ended up being the same guy we expected him to be.
When things are going well, he won’t hold you back. When something breaks down, he will not save you. That’s Alex Smith in Kansas City.
He wasn’t the problem. He also was bad in the second half. He didn’t get much help. He didn’t create anything for himself. He didn’t make any horrendous plays. He didn’t make any tremendous ones either. I don’t even want to yell about Alex Smith anymore. I said before this season that the year sort of felt predetermined, and that I knew what Alex Smith was. Now the story was over and that cynicism seems pretty accurate.
Smith proved that he could be better in the good stretches of the regular season than I thought he could be when surrounded with three young stars. But in the end, it was back to normal. He saw phantom pressure, he started dropping his eyes and the season slipped away.
The shortcomings of this season cannot be solely blamed on Alex Smith, but there are also no celebrations to be had after another first-round exit. (For more on the plays that Smith didn’t make, check out this tweet and this tweet from Brian Baldinger.)
Bob Sutton
I’m finally fully out on Bob Sutton.
He’s done some good things in Kansas City, but in three of the last four Chiefs playoff losses, he’s failed to adjust. Andrew Luck destroyed him, the Steelers and Titans stampeded the defense at will. Not being able to adjust to the Titans is especially heinous. Reid has to bring in someone else to take a different approach.
I talk much more about Sutton in the show, but if you want to continue to read about why it’s time for a change, Sam Mellinger has you covered.
What’s next?
The good news is that this is going to be a very fun offseason. We’re now in the Patrick Mahomes era. There are going to be coaching changes and personnel changes. This is going to be a truly different Chiefs team next year. Buckle up and we’ll get through the dark days together.
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