KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Clad in yet another of his seemingly limitless supply of Tommy Bahama shirts, Chiefs coach Andy Reid on Friday night suddenly materialized on a Zoom video call conducted from the makeshift war room in his basement as nimbly as if he’d been doing it this way forever.
Speaking before the Chiefs made their third pick in the NFL draft, he gushed over their first two choices, LSU running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Mississippi State linebacker Willie Gay, but also raved about the technology enabling an evidently smooth process despite the bizarre scene provoked by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
“Within being smart and safe, we’d all like to be able to get back and get things back to normal,” he said. “But that might take a little bit. And if it does, we keep pounding it out the best we can and we’re always going to try to maximize that with a positive attitude.”
If that sounds like a mere platitude, it also has conviction and credibility behind it. The statement speaks to Reid’s underappreciated adaptability, a trait as or more crucial to his success as his renowned dependability, but it reflects something more tangible bubbling in the wake of the franchise’s first Super Bowl triumph in 50 years.
With so much uncertainty looming over everything from offseason training programs to even whether a full schedule can be played this season, no NFL team is better contoured and equipped for the unpredictability and haze than this one is.
And we could have said that before the Chiefs added Edwards-Helaire and Gay, dynamic talents Reid says “bring things that are going to help us and have a chance to help us quickly.”
Maybe so. Probably so, even.
But on the premise that it remains to be seen how and when they and third-round pick Lucas Niang (an offensive lineman from TCU) and the rest drafted Saturday will make the transition from college and learn the systems and fit in until they actually put on a Chiefs uniform, let’s stick with the more evident data.
In a league constantly in flux, in a time of broader chaos, the Chiefs are the essence of constancy and primed for prosperity. In many ways, they seem almost distinctly built for this even as the NFL is trying to sort out a variety of contingencies for what’s ahead.
Starting with Patrick Mahomes, the reigning supreme quarterback in the universe no matter what anyone else says or thinks, and a galaxy of playmaking stars like Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill and Chris Jones and Tyrann Mathieu, the Chiefs at this stage will return 20 of 22 starters from a nucleus that has room to grow … and that started talking dynasty within minutes after their 31-20 victory over San Francisco in Super Bowl LIV.
That relative youth hints at years of potential ahead and suggests the possibility that the breakthrough will prompt not complacency but resolve for more, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said in a Zoom call with reporters Saturday morning. These aren’t players apt to sag after chasing a ring forever, Hunt said, adding that he believes they are hungry for more because of it.
They will be further animated by Reid’s remarkable and ever-evolving connection with Mahomes. And they will be further reinforced by the fact that virtually every coach returns, including coordinators Eric Bieniemy, Steve Spagnuolo and Dave Toub — surely a rarity when it comes to the staffs of defending Super Bowl winners.
Oh, and then there’s the architect of so much of this, general manager Brett Veach (and his staff), who in his previous role implored the Chiefs to draft Mahomes. He has since boosted the roster with acquisitions such as Mathieu and Frank Clark and Sammy Watkins and learned to finesse, if not downright tame, the salary-cap beast.
When it was suggested this all seems to bode well for any challenges that could be posed by a truncated offseason or shortened regular season, Reid first joked about taking the first part of the word truncated.
“Sometimes we feel like we’re in a trunk right now,” he said.
