KANSAS CITY, Mo. As he chatted with coach Andy Reid the other day at the Chiefs training complex, general manager Brett Veach took notice of a thick stack of index cards that Reid called … my new Pat plays.
Veach shared that with a smile on Thursday, and why not? The diabolical prospects of what Reid is concocting for NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes in his second year as a starter should accelerate pulse rates for Chiefs fans and send shudders around the NFL.
But thats hardly the only intriguing and energizing proposition the Chiefs are engaged in amid their offseason training program and preparation for the NFL draft next week.
Because all the Pat plays were only going to go so far if the Chiefs stood pat on defense.
And seldom has a team so tantalizingly close to the pinnacle made more profound changes in that pursuit.
With Mahomes now a known and infinitely promising commodity, the rejuvenating part of this offseason is how they went all-in on trying to maximize his potential. They purged defensive staff, with Steve Spagnuolo taking over for defensive coordinator Bob Sutton, churned out aging favorites Justin Houston and Eric Berry and ushered in a galvanizing force in safety Tyrann Mathieu.
The Chiefs will have at least five new defensive starters from seasons end and, in fact, just one (Chris Jones) who started the 2017 opener at New England.
Instead of tweaking or tinkering, Veach, in conjunction Reid and their staffs, absolutely is daring greatly, to borrow from Teddy Roosevelts Man in the Arena speech.
As in, If he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
As it should be.
Yes, on the surface, they were so close to a Super Bowl with the 37-31 overtime loss to New England in the AFC Championship Game.
Yet they were so far away considering the defense too often was a slapstick act, a trap door ever-looming that sprung loose spectacularly in the moment of truth.
Especially given Reids reluctance to fire Sutton a year earlier, the Chiefs might easily have taken refuge in the superficial fools gold in how it ended: by inches (a Dee Ford offside that negated a late Charvarius Ward interception of Tom Brady that likely would have sealed a win) and a coin toss (the one that doomed the Chiefs to being dissected by Brady in the decisive overtime drive.)
But the loss ultimately was about this: a woefully porous defense of stale strategies and schemes that depended on too many players who were too old, too young, injured or seemingly misfits for the fundamental change.
My own sense of this has, uh, evolved since some early skepticism about the sweeping changes. That initial feeling hinged too much on the so close part without adequately accounting for the so far truth and before the method to the madness beyond simply everything must go! was apparent.
