Can Justin Reid be the new Landlord for the KC Chiefs?

“The Kansas City Chiefs have signed former Texans safety Tyrann Mathieu.”

“The Kansas City Chiefs have signed former Texans safety Justin Reid.”

It’s a bit strange that two of the biggest free-agent additions Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach has made were very similar and only three years apart. They were both safeties who had formerly played for the Houston Texans.

Of course, everyone knows how Tyrann Mathieu turned out. He was the unquestionable leader of the defense and led the team to two straight Super Bowls and one win. Not to mention three straight AFC title games. But now Mathieu is in the Big Easy, and the Chiefs have once again picked up a young safety from their farm club down in Houston. And his name is Justin Reid.

The Kansas City Chiefs opted to go younger at the safety position by signing former Texan Justin Reid. Can he fill the shoes left by Tyrann Mathieu?

Can Reid follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and become a leader of the Chiefs’ defense? According to some, he already has. It’s a tough task to become the new ‘Landlord’, but a close look at Reid’s stats over the last few seasons shows that he is more than capable of matching the play and skill of Mathieu.

Mathieu was known for his hard-hitting tackling, especially early in his Chiefs career, and over his three years with the team, he put up 171 solo tackles. In Reid’s first four seasons, all with the Texans, he had 230 solo tackles—a slightly higher rate than Mathieu. When it comes to combined tackles, Reid also averages more than 7 tackles per season than Mathieu.

Reid doesn’t have quite as many interceptions as Mathieu did, having only 7 interceptions in his four years. However, Reid consistently had similar and better pass coverage than the Honey Badger did over the past few seasons. In 2021 Reid had a 53.3% completion rate allowed compared to Mathieu’s 69.2%.

One other important thing to consider when analyzing these comparisons: Reid has yet to start a full season of games. In his four years with the Texans, he started every game he played in from his sophomore season on, but in none of those years did he play 16 games (17 last year). In his rookie season, he only started in 12 games.

This means that he achieved nearly the same stats as the Honey Badger, and in some cases even better while playing almost three fewer games per season than Mathieu has.

It’s not hard to see the promise that Veach and Andy Reid saw in Reid. It also helps that this former Texans safety is considerably younger than Mathieu is. I think they see a new Landlord coming to the Kingdom, and I do too. If you aren’t convinced, check out these highlights.