Andy Reid has been relatively quiet since the Kansas City Chiefs wrapped up their disappointing 2025 campaign with an embarrassing 14-12 defeat to the lowly Las Vegas Raiders, thus finishing at 6-11 to mark the organization's worst record since a 2-14 finish in the final season of the Romeo Crennel era in 2012.
But the longstanding silence has been broken, as Reid spoke with NFL Senior National Columnist Judy Battista at the Annual League Meeting in Phoenix over the weekend, and he hit up a variety of topics, including the addition of running back Kenneth Walker III and the loss of most of his starting secondary, among other things.
But as one would imagine, the interview kicked off with Battista asking about the status of Patrick Mahomes, who suffered both a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee in mid-December during a Week 15 defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers. And while Reid couldn't offer up a firm timeline on when the two-time NFL MVP would return to full football activities, he was pretty positive about the progress he's been making.
"He's doing great," Reid said. "He spends a ton of time in the building. ... He's in there for seven hours a day. It's showing, the progress. Now, to tell you a timeline? I mean, I know what he's striving for. We'll just see where it goes from there."
One can only assume the goal is to be ready for Week 1 this September. But if Mahomes isn't ready to go, Reid seems to feel very confident in the team's new QB2, Justin Fields.
Andy Reid says the Chiefs "got a good quarterback" in Justin Fields
With Gardner Minshew moving on to the Arizona Cardinals on a one-year, $5.75 million deal, the Chiefs sent a 2027 sixth-round pick to the New York Jets to acquire Fields, who left Gang Green with one year remaining on the two-year, $40 million deal he signed ahead of the 2025 season. The 27-year-old will only earn $3 million with the Chiefs, but was given an $8 million signing bonus by the Jets on his way out of town.
Fields certainly didn't play as poorly as some made it out to be before he was benched midway through last season, as he completed 62.7 percent of his passes for 1,259 yards with seven touchdowns against just one interception in nine games, adding another 383 yards and four scores on the ground while averaging 5.4 yards per carry.
Those aren't exceptional numbers by any stretch, but they could certainly be worse, which pretty sums up his career as a whole. There have been times during his five-year career in which Fields absolutely looks the part of the first-round pick the Chicago Bears made him in 2021, but there have also been plenty of other instances in which he looks like a complete bust.
But there's no getting past the fact that the Ohio State alum is athletic as can be, and during his interview with Battista, Reid seemed very confident that Fields could step in and get the job done if Mahomes isn't ready to roll come September.
"Well, we snuck out and got a good quarterback to back [Mahomes] up," Reid said of Fields. "So, if he doesn't, you know, if he's not able to make it for the beginning of the season, then we know we've got a legitimate backup there that can go win games for us."
Mahomes certainly has fans believing he'll be ready for Week 1, as he recently posted a video of himself throwing the football, which is obviously a great sign just three and a half months into his rehab process. But we'll just have to wait and see how things progress as the spring rolls along.