Some pairings feel meant to be. Tyrann Mathieu rejoining the Kansas City Chiefs is one of them.
That's not to say that Mathieu should be lining up in the Chiefs' secondary anytime soon. That ship sailed for the first time in 2022 when the former star safety returned home to Louisiana to play his final seasons with the New Orleans Saints. The idea of Mathieu playing anywhere was deconstructed when he retired for good after the '24 campaign.
But Mathieu is still visible in NFL circles these days. He's got his own podcast (with co-host Tyrell McCall) called In The Bayou, where he's often chatting with former teammates and on-field colleagues. Lately he's even spent a couple of days in St. Joseph alongside the Chiefs, taking in practice and chatting up his former coaches.
It's here on the sidelines, alongside Andy Reid and Steve Spagnuolo, that Mathieu feels meant to be. The Landlord was always a leader of men, from the moment he arrived in '19 with Spagnuolo to help transform Bob Sutton's bend-but-don't-break defense into something more formidable. The Chiefs targeted Mathieu in free agency for that very reason, with a vision of having a cornerstone player and on-field coach in the back half of the defense.
Mathieu delivered on that challenge and became a two-time All-Pro in his three seasons in K.C. It was Mathieu's arrival that coincided with the start of the team's dynastic run that culminated in five Super Bowl appearances and three titles in six years. Even after he left, Mathieu's mentorship of younger players like L'Jarius Sneed and Juan Thornhill helped the Chiefs extend their winning ways.
All of this is why it would make absolute sense for the Chiefs to extend an offer for Mathieu to officially make the turn to coaching, to naturally plug into what he's been organically doing all along. It's not as if this is a far-fetched idea. Even Andy Reid himself has discussed this publicly. A year ago, Reid responded to a question about Mathieu's official retirement announcement and said, "Hopefully, he gets into coaching, because he'd be a heck of a coach if he decides to go that way."
There's an interesting wrinkle in all of this. Defensive backs coach Dave Merritt is a legendary assistant who feels like an obvious coordinator hire (the 49ers even interviewed him in 2024), but he's been adamant about staying in Kansas City for family reasons. "One of the things my wife Yolanda and I discussed years ago was that I was not going to pursue any type of coordinating job while my kids were young," he said in 2024. Even then, his two youngest children were in high school.
If Merritt feels like he might be finally on the verge of a promotion anytime soon, the Chiefs would be wise to hire a younger coach to learn the ropes while he's around. Mathieu would be the ideal candidate. The Chiefs aren't lacking assistants, after already hiring veteran Andre Curtis this season to help coach the secondary, but even then, it's hard to see how bringing Mathieu into the fold wouldn't be anything but an asset to the Chiefs in myriad ways.
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