Andy Reid has done immense good for the Kansas City Chiefs, and the odds of finding a better coach all-time are slim. The Chiefs were in a less-than-ideal position prior to his hiring almost 14 years ago, and he went on to lead this team to three Super Bowl championships and hundreds of wins.
I understand all of that.
At the same time, it's time for the Chiefs to seriously reevaluate the second-most important role in that organization, if not the most important.
The concerns go far beyond one loss
The concerns surrounding this team extend far beyond any single game or playoff finish. Multiple seasons of red flags can no longer be ignored. Dismissing these concerns as a reaction to a single Week 8 game ignores a broader trend that goes far beyond 2026.
A faction of Chiefs fans online has questioned Andy Reid and Brett Veach for years, often met with scoffs citing back-to-back Super Bowls and deep playoff runs, including from me.
I now admit that I might not have been on the correct side of that debate.
This article won't be about a single game or a single season's outcome, and it won't be an autopsy of the overall situation. I won't be evaluating why his offensive scheme isn't the same as it used to be or evaluating every decision he's ever made. That's not the point of this piece.
Yes, this team is 5-2 and still a strong favorite to make the playoffs. Even so, this team does not feel like one capable of winning the Super Bowl. This is at least the third time in the last four seasons we've felt that way. That doesn’t mean they won’t be hoisting a Lombardi Trophy in February 2027, but the Chiefs are not giving their fans much hope right now.
The Chiefs' offensive decline is impossible to ignore
Over the past three or four seasons, a clear pattern of excuses has been made to justify the offense's struggles.
This team has one of the greatest apex predators to ever suit up in this sport, and this offense has not been elite for several seasons. That would not be acceptable under any other circumstances for any other team.
Since peaking in 2022 with a league-leading 29.2 points per game (PPG) en route to a Super Bowl LVII title, the Chiefs' offense has steadily declined. Roster turnover and a subpar wide receiver corps dropped production to 21.8 PPG in 2023, 22.6 in 2024, and a multi-year low of 21.3 in 2025 (21st overall). Though they have rebounded slightly to 23.9 PPG (12th) this season, the offense still leaves a lot to be desired.
Every year, we've found a different excuse:
- 2023: Blame fell on a subpar wide receiver room. While the team won the Super Bowl, it was never easy for the offense (except against Buffalo).
- 2024: We blamed left tackle inconsistency and injuries at wide receiver.
- 2025: Prior to the Mahomes ACL injury in Week 15, there was no real excuse. If we're grasping at straws, the excuse would be close-game regression, but that's not a strong argument.
The scapegoat for last year was Matt Nagy. His contract expired, and the Chiefs didn't bring him back. They brought back Eric Bieniemy with the idea that he would fix the offense. They also signed Kenneth Walker with the idea that he would fix the running game.
Both Bieniemy and Walker have been useful additions, but neither has fixed the root cause of this team's issues.
The root cause of this team's issues is Andy Reid.
Coaches can decline just like players
Acknowledging a head coach's decline can be difficult, but recognizing it is a necessary step.
Andy Reid is not a coach who heavily relies on luck. Six Super Bowl appearances across two franchises confirm he once was a truly elite coach in this league. Coaches, like players, experience performance declines. In 2023, Bill Belichick was not the same coach he was in 2017, and Reid today is not operating at even his 2022 level.
While I don't think Reid has forgotten how football works, there have been apparent structural issues that stem directly from his leadership. Roster limitations and underperforming veterans share the blame, but ultimate accountability stops at the top.
But coaches can decline just like any player. Their decision-making worsens, the league evolves and they don't, and they let their personal feelings dictate how they assemble their staff. It happened with Belichick in New England, who put defensive coach Matt Patricia in charge of offensive play-calling in 2022. That's unacceptable. The Patriots eventually moved on from Belichick following the 2023 season.
There are a couple of major areas where Andy Reid has to take responsibility.
1. Loyalty to Long-Time Assistants
First, his unwillingness to fire his longtime assistants fast enough has cost this team. Matt Nagy did a lot of great things for this organization, but his time should've ended earlier than it did.
Dave Toub orchestrated great special teams units throughout his tenure in Kansas City. That hasn't been the case the last several seasons. His units have been undisciplined, have made very preventable mistakes, and haven't made the game-changing plays we became accustomed to.
2. Second and third chances
The second major area where this team has been hurt is Reid's willingness to give players second and third chances. We all know the classic examples: Tyreek Hill, Frank Clark, and others. Even now, there's Justin Tucker. They've also drafted players with known character issues or red flags beforehand (Hill, Rashee Rice, Josh Simmons, etc.).
These acquisitions place a heavy burden on the fanbase, repeatedly testing public goodwill. This dynamic suggests a disconnect between on-the-field priorities and organizational values.
That's not to say every team has only genuinely good human beings on its roster. There are thousands of players in the NFL. If the league threw away every player who wasn't an angel, it would be a very different league. I'm not saying anyone should get over these issues, not by any stretch of the imagination. What I am asking is: Why is it always the Chiefs giving these players another chance?
Yes, Clark Hunt and Brett Veach could easily prevent such acquisitions, but we all know who is truly responsible. When asked what message the signing of Justin Tucker, who served a 10-game NFL suspension following sexual misconduct allegations that he denied, sent to female Chiefs fans, Reid said, "He's done his suspension, you know, and took care of that business there." He added, "But I'll leave it at that for you."
These types of things might get swept under the rug when the team is functioning at a high level on the field, but they're not easy to overlook when the team isn't functioning at the level it should.
3. Andy Reid's power in the building
Repeated public relations missteps and controversial signings and draft picks reflect broader organizational priorities.
Other than Clark Hunt, and maybe Mahomes himself, no one has more power in that building than Andy Reid. No one really knows how everything works inside that building except the people in it, but a lot has been blamed on other people that may be the fault of the head coach. That includes the drafting, the effectiveness of the offense, and general coaching and leadership decisions.
Yes, the general manager takes responsibility for the drafting, but Reid absolutely has a huge say in terms of the offensive players and whether they take on prospects with character concerns.
The problems are piling up in Kansas City
Several issues on and off the field have contributed directly/indirectly to the frustration of this season. More tangible issues include:
1. Benching starting offensive linemen and giving no reason why. The longest-tenured player has pretty much said he has no idea what's going on either.
2. A very weird saga regarding another offensive lineman and a "back injury," in which the head coach is the main reason no details got out for several weeks.
3. Signing a kicker who, while he has been great on the field, has an off-the-field legacy that makes it harder for female fans to root for the team.
4. Not playing young wide receivers who are clearly more talented than the veteran ones because "they don't know the offense," as if his scheme is impossible to understand in six months.
5. Not moving on from staff members whose units have been issues fast enough.
The Chiefs cannot afford to waste Patrick Mahomes
This team has Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. There's an extremely high probability that the Chiefs will never have a franchise quarterback this good again. It’s on the table that the Chiefs go back to the Stone Age of 2007 through 2012 once Mahomes hangs up the cleats, and we shouldn't take that for granted.
Some people have been saying this on social media for years, and I've resisted them, but now I think they're right: Andy Reid has been holding this team back.
Reid's offensive scheme has grown stale. His personnel decisions (which should fall to the front office, but we all know he has more power than just being the coach) have hindered this team. His PR management has been a disaster. And his inability to move on from his friends has cost this team more games than it ever should have.
This team can't afford to waste more years of Patrick Mahomes. He has paid the price in terms of his legacy for the failures of his head coach. There are really smart people out there today who don't believe Mahomes is the best quarterback in the NFL anymore, and at this point, I don't blame a lot of them. But let’s be honest, Mahomes himself isn't the main reason his stats have slipped the last couple of years. He was also not the reason this team was 6-7 when his season ended prematurely in 2025.
When you have a quarterback as great as Mahomes, you should expect to compete for the Super Bowl every single year. In each of his first seven seasons as the starter, they were in the AFC Championship. That standard appears to be gone. Unless something drastically changes, this team won't be making the Super Bowl and may not even last until Championship Weekend. That can't happen, and it's an embarrassment for this franchise.
Andy Reid should be on the hot seat after 2026
I'm not saying Andy Reid should be fired today. Firing coaches midseason never works out and should never be relied upon. This isn't the NHL or MLB where a midseason coaching change can spark a championship run. Once a coach is fired, your season is over, without question.
However, Reid should now be operating with zero margin for error. Failing to reach the AFC Championship Game should prompt a change at head coach following the season. This conclusion follows careful consideration of the team's long-term direction rather than a knee-jerk reaction.
While executives and superstar players share responsibility for recent problems, the head coach remains the primary factor. A reasonable person can argue that executives/coaches with Belichick's or Reid's status shouldn't be fired, but they also shouldn't let their status hold the team hostage for multiple years.
In the NHL, there's an unofficial process I like to call a "soft firing." If an NHL team doesn’t want to embarrass a franchise icon (either a head coach and/or front office executive) by firing him, what they will do is give him a "fire-motion," where he is removed from the position of power and given a meaningless "senior" role, such as "senior advisor." He is still with the team, and he is not officially fired, but he is also out of position to hurt the organization.
A similar thing should happen in Kansas City. Clark Hunt should open his checkbook and pay the rest of Andy Reid's contract beyond 2026 in exchange for his retirement and/or "promotion."
The longer Andy Reid remains the head coach of this team (post-2026), the more his legacy will be damaged in Kansas City.
Moving on doesn't erase Andy Reid's legacy
Yes, the odds of finding a coach as great as Andy Reid are slim to none. But as of right now, there are many coaches in the NFL I would rather have over him in this current moment. Players decline, some GMs draft worse over time, and head coaches get worse.
Peyton Manning in 2015 (despite winning the Super Bowl that season, ironically) and 2021 Ben Roethlisberger were net negatives for their teams. That doesn't mean they should be remembered as anything less than all-time Hall of Famers, but they objectively weren't great in their final seasons. The same thing is true of Andy Reid.
The same thing happened for him in Philadelphia. He led the Eagles to four consecutive conference championship appearances, but 2011 and 2012 were such a disaster for the organization that they had no choice but to move on. The Eagles ended up winning a Super Bowl five years later, and the Chiefs ended up getting the greatest coach in franchise history. It worked out, despite the Eagles firing a Hall of Fame coach.
Reid was a fantastic coach, and this team would not have accomplished even 10% of what it has in his tenure if it had never hired him in January 2013. Once he is no longer the coach, Chiefs fans should be absolutely grateful for what he's done. This team was nothing before he was hired, but they're quietly becoming nothing again while he's still here.
Once Andy Reid is no longer the coach of this team, hopefully come January 2027, I will write something praising him for what he's done for the city and the team. Transitioning away from a historic coach is difficult, but necessary.
Andy Reid shouldn't be the head coach of the Chiefs in 2027. I don't know who should be, but it shouldn't be him. He'll have his name in the Ring of Honor in a couple of years (at the latest), but Clark Hunt needs to step up and take the keys away from someone causing more harm than good to his football team. The team needs to start the next era of Patrick Mahomes' career to save it.
Thank you for your service, Andy, but it's time to create a new chapter.
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