Chiefs offensive regression is putting uncomfortable pressure on Andy Reid

It's hard to say a bad thing about Andy Reid's time in Kansas City since 2013. He's single-handedly taken a franchise that was in some of its darkest days and turned it into a dynasty. For decades, Reid has been viewed as one of the greatest offensive minds that lifts both skill-player and quarterback talent. However, the criticism of the Chiefs' offensive scheme has been getting louder and louder over the last few years. Some of the top voices in football media have been more and more vocal about the Chiefs' scheme starting to hinder rather than help Patrick Mahomes.

Despite waves of injury and a season that was more or less a tank job by December, the Chiefs' defense still ranked 6th in points allowed, 10th in yards, and 13th in EPA/Play. Yet, the Chiefs spent a large amount of their offseason resources on the defense: signing Khyiris Tonga, Alohi Gilman, Kader Kohou, and L'Jarius Sneed. They also spent their first four draft selections on defense, including trading their 3rd-round pick to acquire Mansoor Delane.

Meanwhile, the offense finished 21st in points scored, 20th in yards, and 11th in EPA/Play. While lots of that can be related to Mahomes' injury, if you go back the last two years, the Chiefs ranked 15th in points scored in both 2023 and 2024. This is an offense with one of the greatest quarterbacks to play the game, what is supposed to be a top offensive mind, and one of the most expensive offensive lines in football. The results aren't matching the investment, and it's getting to a point where tough questions have to be answered.

The Chiefs Don't Look Like Top Offenses

The problem with the Chiefs' offense is how unorthodox their scheme is compared to the league. You look around the league, and the Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay influence is real. Teams are building their offenses through a complex running scheme and building play action off of it. The Chiefs' run game is not diverse. Over 45% of their runs were either inside or outside zone, one of the highest rates in the NFL, per FTN. They ranked 29th in under-center runs in 2025. The offenses that led that stat? Los Angeles Rams, Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks, and Chicago Bears. All offenses that are far more dynamic than the Chiefs.

The Chiefs continue to have a strong interior offensive line that they've invested heavy draft capital and money into, and yet they don't leverage it. They ranked 30th in gap/duo run schemes in 2025. Additionally, they handicap their line by spamming RPOs. With an RPO, the offensive line is handicapped by not being able to fire off the ball downfield in case the quarterback decides to throw the ball. The Chiefs ran RPOs at the 2nd-highest rate in the league. The other teams that led that stat? Washington Commanders, New Orleans Saints, and New York Giants—which might sound like the top of the draft order from 2026.

Not only do the Chiefs spam RPOs, they don't leverage them effectively. The Chiefs passed the ball on RPOs a staggering 84% of the time, nearly 12% more than the second-place team, and they ran the ball at the lowest rate on RPOs by over 10%. They essentially turned run-pass options into pass-only options. The other part of RPOs is the ball must come out quickly due to the offensive line trying not to get downfield. That means the routes the receivers are running are short and not stretching the defense.

The Chiefs ranked 31st in passes from under center in 2025 and ranked 32nd in play-action passes. Not only did the Chiefs' passing offense leverage the threat of the run to force defenders into conflict, but even if they did, the defenses couldn't care less because the Chiefs' run game was the least explosive run game in the NFL. Chiefs running backs combined for 22 carries of 10 yards or more. Patrick Mahomes had 18 such carries in 14 games. For a large part of the season, Mahomes was the Chiefs' leading rusher as well.

The Chiefs' offense lacks skill-player talent, and that's a clear problem, but they aren't doing many of the things top offenses do. They are putting everything on Patrick Mahomes' plate to sit back in shotgun and try to fix everything. There's a certain "Pat will figure it out" arrogance to the offense that can't exist in 2026 with him coming off an ACL injury.

Why is the pressure on Reid?

With all of this data pointing to the Chiefs' offensive scheme regression, what did the team do to address the shortcomings? They brought back Tyquan Thornton, signed Kenneth Walker, and drafted a couple of 5th-round picks. In other words, not much. The Chiefs quietly fired Matt Nagy to bring in another Andy Reid tree coach in Eric Bieniemy.

While the players and fans both seem to welcome the hard-nosed coaching of Bieniemy, there's not much thought that he's going to advance the offensive scheme for Reid. Many fans wanted to see the Chiefs bring in an offensive coordinator who could bring new ideas into what Reid was already doing. Instead, they seemingly didn't interview anybody else and hired him less than a week after the Bears were eliminated.

The Chiefs are telling us what their problems were. They are on their third overhaul of the defense in the Patrick Mahomes era. On offense, they added a few names and put it all back on Reid scheming it up, despite the offense being the far more disappointing side of the ball in 2025. The age-old question of "Xs and Os or Jimmys and Joes?" The Chiefs told us they needed Jimmys and Joes on defense and they can draw up better "Xs and Os" on offense.

There's no doubt that the Chiefs were physically and mentally exhausted from deep playoff runs over the last seven years. Maybe that extra time off will have Andy Reid scheming up some new stuff and digging into other schemes. Maybe the players will simply play better, and that will be enough. However, if the Chiefs' offensive regression continues, it's getting harder not to look at Andy Reid. At 68 years old, can a head coach change his stripes? It's not something we've seen in the NFL very often. It's time for the Chiefs to get back to making Patrick Mahomes' life easier. The question is: will that be with or without Andy Reid?

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