On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs edged the division rival Las Vegas Raiders 30-27 to improve to 4-0 on the season. What no one expected coming into the week was that they’d do it without starting left guard Kingsley Suamataia. Head coach Andy Reid made a late decision to bench the third-year man out of BYU in favor of backup Mike Caliendo.
"As far as the Kingsley thing goes, before you guys ask, that’s between Kingsley and I. We’ll figure it out, and down the road, we’ll be better as a team for it, and Kingsley will be better for it."Andy Reid
That decision was roundly criticized on social media, and I was right there with everyone else during the game. I didn't mind him being benched, but I thought keeping him on the sideline for the full game was excessive in the moment. In the hours following, I've done a 180, and I believe Reid made the right choice.
Reid almost never benches players
If you consider Reid's history at the helm of the Kansas City Chiefs, benching a player for a disciplinary reason is almost unheard of. Players have been temporarily benched for performance reasons, but there's only one example of Reid sitting a player for conduct.
In 2017, cornerback Marcus Peters was suspended for an on-field incident at the end of a Week 13 game with the New York Jets. Following a defensive holding call on Steven Nelson, Peters picked up the penalty flag and chucked it into the stands. Believing he'd been disqualified, Peters left the field and went into the locker room. He later returned to the field without his socks and punctuated a rough day by arguing with a Chiefs coach on the return flight to Kansas City. The team suspended him for the Week 14 game against the Raiders.
For Reid to ice Suamataia on Sunday, there had to be a serious violation.
Coaches don't view backups like fans do
The principal argument against Reid's decision to bench Suamataia was the in-game fallout. Official pressure statistics aren't available yet, but it was clear Caliendo struggled in Suamataia's stead. He surrendered one sack and multiple hits on Patrick Mahomes. Reid sacrificing his star quarterback's safety just 10 months removed from a catastrophic knee injury appears indefensible on the surface.
The problem is that coaches in the National Football League don't view reserves as inferior the way fans do. Backups are treated as professionals who are expected to uphold the standard and fill in when called upon. Hindsight is always 20-20, but when Reid made the decision on Saturday, he fully expected Caliendo to be the next man up in the same way he would have had Suamataia been injured. That he was sidelined for conduct instead of injury doesn’t change the underlying logic.
By now, I'd expect fans to clock the dynamic in Kansas City. Every year, there are questions about why a player with “inferior” talent gets snaps over a more physically gifted cohort. The answer has always been the same. In this organization, trust is prioritized far more heavily than raw talent. There's a reason why players like Daniel Sorensen, Ben Niemann, and now Jack Cochrane have all been lightning rods for this team.
Trust is the catalyst. In this case, Kingsley broke Andy Reid's trust. His being more talented than Caliendo is a secondary concern when the foundation of the relationship has momentarily been compromised.
A benching sends a message that a fine cannot
If I'm being honest, benching Suamataia for the full game wasn't the only option available to Andy Reid. He could've fined his left guard and kept him on the field against the Raiders' strong defensive front. A fine raises its own questions. Does that send the same message as being forced to sit for an entire game? Is a financial penalty as visible to the locker room? Is allowing a player who violated a team rule or standard to remain on the field tantamount to prioritizing comfort over culture? Reid is responsible for more than managing the flow of an NFL game. He’s also tasked with building and maintaining a professional standard of integrity within the organization.
Some fans argue Reid could’ve disciplined Suamataia in a way that didn’t put Mahomes at risk. A fine certainly meets that criterion, but those fans aren't appealing to a more effective form of discipline. It’s simply a workaround to keep Kingsley on the field. Under the collective bargaining agreement, team-issued fines are tightly limited and often minimal. Are we sure a small financial penalty sends a clear enough message to reform the behavior? If the answer is no, that puts Patrick Mahomes in jeopardy down the line. "Protecting Mahomes" has to cut both ways. Reid’s decision did create temporary discomfort, but it was in pursuit of a bigger and longer-term goal.
The frustration should be on Kingsley (not Andy Reid)
Ultimately, it's not Reid who should be on the firing line this week. It was Kingsley Suamataia who created this problem with conduct unbecoming a member of the team. We may never know the full details of what happened, and that's par for the course with the Reid regime. Private matters are always kept in-house. I'm not convinced additional insight would change fan perceptions of Reid's decision.
Players make mistakes; good organizations hold them to account. If you're lucky, they grow and become more responsible. Kingsley Suamataia is only human, but if there's any criticism to be leveled, it should be directed at him. His actions put Caliendo in position to protect Mahomes on Sunday. Reid is not infallible and is often deserving of scrutiny, but his championship pedigree affords him the right to drop the hammer when necessary.
At the end of the day, Reid didn't bench his young left guard to make a point. He did it to protect the championship culture that built a dynasty. Dynasties aren't built on talent alone. They're comprised of professionalism, integrity, and accountability. Big Red was right not to sacrifice those principles in the short term for the sake of comfort.
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