Chiefs News: Andy Reid should again win the ‘Coach of the Year’ award

On Thursday, Arrowhead Pride’s Tom Childs shared The 33rd Team’s ranking of the all-time top 10 NFL coaches in our daily “Arrowheadlines” feature. There, the Kansas City Chiefs’ head coach Andy Reid was ranked 10th in a list that began with Bill Belichick, Vince Lombardi and Bill Walsh.

It’s easy to argue that any coach on that list could be ranked differently. (I think recency bias places Belichick too high — and I am obligated to disagree with any list that doesn’t have Paul Brown in the top five. Your mileage may vary, of course).

But there seems to be little disagreement on the identity of the league’s best active coach. Expanding on some information from a new quarterback ranking that places Patrick Mahomes in a class of his own, I have just argued that Reid is a genius. Just over two weeks ago, Pro Football Focus named Reid as the league’s top current coach.

Now CBS Sports writer Cody Benjamin has weighed in with his ranking for 2024. Guess what?

1. Andy Reid (Chiefs)

Season: 12th with Chiefs, 25th as head coach
Career record: 258-144-1
Playoffs: 26-16 (3-2 in Super Bowls)

No question here. Once the template for great-but-not-elite coaches overseeing the Eagles’ close-but-no-cigar runs of the 2000s, Reid has completely entrenched himself as a future Hall of Famer in Kansas City, melding the superstar traits of quarterback Patrick Mahomes with constant offensive wrinkles and a warranted trust of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. He and the Chiefs are the contemporary version of Belichick and the Patriots, except with more fireworks, and their unflinching ability to adapt from high-octane attack to disciplined crunch-time strategy sets them well above the rest. Whether his guys need to win in a shootout or by playing ugly, they’ll come through when it counts.

Takeaway

I can’t disagree with one thing Benjamin said about Reid. (Just an hour after posting this, he published a ranking of NFL coaches by their “big-game” ability. Reid topped that list, too).

I know that fans of a team with a great head coach are often disappointed when the Associated Press doesn’t honor them with its annual “Coach of the Year” award. Since it is often given to a coach who has quickly turned a losing team into a winner, it’s reasonable to suggest that its name should reflect that.

Here’s the problem: the coach isn’t always a newcomer who turned a bad team around. Don Shula won it four times. Belichick won it three times. So did Chuck Knox. Kevin Stefanski has now won it twice — the first time for turning the Cleveland Browns into a winner in 2020… and then for turning them into a winner again in 2023.

Reid won it in 2002, after bringing the Philadelphia Eagles to back-to-back conference championships two seasons after he inherited the 3-13 squad.

Reid should have won it again in 2013, when he took the Chiefs from 2012’s last-place finish to the playoffs — and not for nothing, also erased the stench of the 4-12 record he posted during his final season in Philadelphia. I’d argue he deserved it more than Ron Rivera, who had spent three seasons bringing the Carolina Panthers from 2-14 to 12-4. (Rivera won it again in 2015).

I’d also argue that Reid deserved it in 2023, when the Chiefs went from 9-6 to back-to-back Super Bowl championships. Here’s the problem: just like with the AP MVP award, voting is conducted immediately after the regular season concludes; the postseason isn’t considered. As far as the voters knew, Reid had merely salvaged a playoff home game from a forgettable season. Most Kansas City fans weren’t even predicting the Chiefs would repeat!

So I say this right now: if Kansas City wins the AFC West in 2024 — giving them a fighter’s chance for a first-ever Super Bowl three-peat — Reid deserves his second “Coach of the Year” award. I say this without knowing what else might happen this season. If some newcomer deserves it, they can wait a season or two. They’ll get another chance.

It’s past time for Reid to win it again.