‘Andy Reid Bowl’ shines bright light on an NFL coaching legend

Andy Reid’s Legacy

Andy Reid is one of the winningest coaches in NFL history and that winning has continued into the postseason. He is almost universally beloved and respected by his players. One other area we haven’t even talked about is how respected he is in the coaching community. Reid is a great teacher. Period. He teaches both his players and his coaches, and because of that, he has an extensive coaching tree that has seen more success than those of other great coaches.

Current or recent head coaches with major ties to Andy Reid that had/have winning coaching records include John Harbaugh (147-95 record and a Super Bowl win), Doug Pederson (51-45-1 record and a Super Bowl win), Ron Rivera (98-90-2 and a Super Bowl appearance), Sean McDermott (62-35 record), Brad Childress (39-35 record), and Matt Nagy (35-31 record).

Reid could be adding two more names to that list this offseason if Mike Kafka and/or Eric Bieniemy get hired this cycle. There are other coaches with shorter ties to Reid or losing records, but the point is that Reid clearly does a better job of teaching his coaches to succeed than most other successful head coaches.

In addition to winning and being a great teacher, Andy Reid has been at the forefront of offensive strategy and play-calling during his entire coaching career. Reid comes from the West Coast offensive tree that started with Bill Walsh, was passed to his assistant Mike Holmgren and then passed to Reid.

While that West Coast offense has continued to be the foundation of Reid’s system, he has never been content to stay stagnant. As the NFL has evolved over the years, so has Reid’s offense. The amount of pre-snap motion, different personnel groupings and alignments, and spread offense concepts added over the years have kept his offense on the cutting edge of what is happening in the NFL. That usually isn’t the case for a coach in his 24th season as a head coach. Even some of the other all-time greats we discussed earlier saw their success fade as they got older.

The other thing I haven’t mentioned thus far is that a win on Sunday would also give Andy Reid a case for coaching one of the great teams of all time. When people talk about the great teams of all time it is always teams that won multiple Super Bowls over a short period of time. There are the early ’70s Miami Dolphin teams with Don Shula and Bob Griese, the late ’70s Pittsburgh Steelers teams with Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw, the Jimmy Johnson and Troy Aikman Dallas Cowboys teams, the Bill Walsh and Joe Montana San Francisco 49ers teams, and the Bill Belichick and Tom Brady New England Patriots teams.

If Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes add a second Super Bowl win to go with three Super Bowl appearances in a four-year span and five straight AFC Championship Game appearances they will have earned their place as one of the great teams in NFL history.

Andy Reid is already a surefire Hall of Fame coach. He already has a resume that makes him an undisputed top-ten coach of all time and arguably already a top-five coach of all time. The game on Sunday is predicted to be close, but if Reid can bring home a second Super Bowl win on Sunday his legacy as one of the NFL’s all-time great coaches will be indisputable. This matchup of his current and former team should absolutely be a chance to shine the spotlight on this truly great coach and I really hope that is exactly what happens.