No team in the National Football League has as much coaching continuity as the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022.
Every year, we’re used to the NFL’s coaching carousel going around and around with leadership-needy teams and potential coaches being paired together in some sort of square dance of overtures. Agents leak rumors. Teams conduct interviews. A batch of losing franchises once again hope to right the ship(s).
For some other teams, however, it’s always an interesting time of year because it completely contrasts the organizational cultures of the league’s most successful franchises—at least on average. Ask yourself how many “colleagues” Bill Belichick has watched come and go from the sidelines opposite him on Sundays since he first landed in New England.
The ever-shifting roles in the NFL
At the present time, only 11 of the league’s 32 franchises have a head coach who was in place before 2020. That means two-thirds of the teams in the NFL have hired a new head coach since the pandemic was a thing.
At the coordinator level, it’s even worse with offensive, defensive, and special teams coordinators coming and going in a wave of moves intended to help them take the next step forward in their professional careers. Some guys jump from one team to another. Others find greater responsibility at the college level. Either way, coordinator roles are even more short-lived than their bosses.
Part of the turnover at coordinator, however, is also found on the league’s best teams. That’s because lesser franchises often look to the more successful ones for their next hire. For years, Belichick’s Patriots have been robbed of their assistants in the hopes of finding the “next” Belichick—a hope that a disciple can follow the master.
The Chiefs are the anomaly
But here’s where the coaching continuity of the Kansas City Chiefs stands out so greatly. Somehow they are the team with the most sustained success of the last half-decade and they’ve made the playoffs in every year but one of Andy Reid’s 10 seasons on the sidelines in K.C.—since he first arrived in 2013. What’s amazing, however, is that their coordinators are rooted as firmly (or more so) than most head coaches around the league.
Consider this: Eric BIeniemy is the Chiefs offensive coordinator and he’s been in that very post for five full seasons. On the other side of the ball, former NFL head coach Steve Spagnuolo has served as defensive coordinator for four years. That’s nine combined years of coordinator experience next to Reid.
It’s amazing that those spots have not been emptied and refilled in the last four years. In that span, the Chiefs have hosted the conference championship every season since 2018 and they’ve been to two Super Bowls, winning one of them. They’re on the verge once again of another SB appearance, but it looks like Bieniemy and Spags could stay in place.
No other team can compare
Only the Cincinnati Bengals come close to that level of coaching continuity considering that both OC Brian Callahan and DC Lou Anarumo have been in their current roles since Zac Taylor took over as head coach in 2019. The leadership core has been together for that entire time. Is it a coincidence that the Bengals are fighting with the Chiefs for AFC supremacy?
Beyond that, the Buffalo Bills are next at 7 years, but 6 of those come from one side of the ball only in Leslie Frazier’s incredibly long tenure as DC. The Baltimore Ravens have five combined seasons of continuity at coordinator, while the Tennessee Titans have four and that’s it.
From there, even very good teams or consistently successful franchises are still getting used to the leaders in place. From Sean McVay’s Rams to Mike Tomlin’s Steelers to Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers, coordinators continue to ebb and flow.
Even more continuity behind the scenes
What makes the Chiefs’smsda organizational culture even more special is that the continuity isn’t just about Andy Reid or Eric Bieniemy or Steve Spagnuolo. Heck, it’s not even special teams coordinator Dave Toub’s decade with the team as well, another pillar of a coach in place for the long haul.
The truth is that the Chiefs are a model franchise in part because there is a strong level of trust put in place for everyone to do their job and do it well. You can only get that after you’ve gained experience with the people next to you.
So many of the leadership positions of the Chiefs have been held by the same persons year after year. Even the team’s owner himself is the son of the original owner. Community roots run deep in K.C. and that’s due to familiar faces building trust and learning to communicate.
While changes will eventually come to Andy Reid’s staff in good time, perhaps even this winter, the truth is that much of the Chiefs’ success comes down to having good people in place for as long as they will stay.