OPENING STATEMENT: “Alright, happy Juneteenth today. What a great day, man. The guys finished up today with a run and did a nice job with it. They’re in pretty good shape here. (Head Strength & Conditioning/Director of Sports Science) Ryan (Reynolds) has done a good job, along with the players and the rest of the strength staff of getting these guys in shape and it showed today. Also, happy last day to Adam (Teicher) – officially the last day. They gave you donuts and kicked your tail out the door (laughs), that’s how it goes. It’s been great though. Other than that, we’re back here (on) the 20th, 21st, depending on how you look at it. The players can check in on the 20th but really things don’t officially get started until the 21st there. I know the guys are looking to take a break here, but they’re also looking forward to ramping up for the season and training camp and that’s how they’ll approach that. Anyways, with that, the time’s yours.”
Q: Did you push for rookies and quarterbacks to have a little extra time this year?
REID: “Yeah, I did. We don’t have a ton of guys that we could bring there, so I didn’t feel like that was a valuable time. We got the rookies here with extra time, so we took advantage of that and (we have) done that throughout the whole offseason program so I thought we got accomplished what we needed to.”
Q: How do you see the season playing out for Travis Kelce in terms of playing time?
REID: “I’m not really feeling that. It’ll be similar to last year, I’d imagine, as it goes. He’s (Travis Kelce) in great shape right now so I think he’s looking forward to getting going.”
Q: No concessions in terms of Travis Kelce’s age?
REID: “Listen, I always watch him (Travis Kelce). I always keep an eye on him, I know he’s getting older. He doesn’t know he’s getting older, but I do. I can be the bad guy in some cases there, if needed. If I think it’s catching up to him a little bit, I’ll pull off and put him where he needs to be. Other than that, he hasn’t showed me any of that yet, he’s done really well with it.”
Q: Have you noticed the effects of him being in good shape?
REID: “I know he’s (Travis Kelce) told you that, but you can tell he’s worked out. He normally comes in in pretty good shape, so it’s not like he hasn’t been. You don’t survive as long as he has and play at the level he has if you’re not in good shape. His weight – he’s one of the guys you can fluctuate with his weight and he’s played very successfully at a higher weight and successful at a lower weight. Right now, he’s a little bit lower than what he was last year.”
Q: Do you anticipate Josh Simmons and Rashee Rice to be full goes at the beginning of training camp?
REID: “Yeah, I think they’re both (Josh Simmons and Rashee Rice) ready to go. They actually got great work in in these camps here.”
Q: What about Jared Wiley?
REID: “I think we’re going to be okay there. He (Jared Wiley) got some work here the last couple days, so I think we’ll be fine there.”
Q: Based on what you have seen from Josh Simmons, can you envision him as a starter this year?
REID: “Yeah, potentially, yes. Listen, you can see his (Josh Simmons) athletic ability, you can see his want to. He’s got (a) great attitude, he’s approached everything the right way, plus a little bit extra. You can tell – if you just want to look at his rehab, you can see that he had a mindset that ‘I’m going to get in there. It’s not going to be training camp. It’s going to be like now.’ He worked his tail off to get there, so you respect that part of it. He’s done a nice job in there. He’s worked well and we’ll just see. We’ll see what training camp does to him. It’s different when things are flying fast up there and you have full contact and pads on. We’ll see how he does.”
Q: What have you seen from Tyquan Thornton?
REID: “I like Tyquan (Thornton). I like the way he’s approached things. He has the quarterback’s trust, which is a positive thing. You have valuable reps in here. The other guys can see he’s a talented guy so, so far, so good. Again, I’d like to see him in a game situation (and) how he handles it. I’d anticipate he’d do a nice job. I want to see where we’re at with that.”
Q: Will you be able to decompress over the next few weeks and completely stay away?
REID: “You never completely stay away but what I do, I enjoy doing. Yeah, no, I’ll decompress.”
Q: Road trip with Adam Teicher?
REID: “Yeah, we’ll go to Colorado and enjoy life (smiles).”
Q: With so many young guys getting ready for the ramp up, do you guys set individual goals with them or is it more like a general improvement?
REID: “We talk to them about strengths and weaknesses and where we would like – these are the things we really need to work on, so we can add that into your game and into the repertoire of your actual game day and how you play. You have to practice those things and do it fast and make it to where it’s just second nature for you. So yeah, we talk about those types of things. Then, obviously, I think everybody right now is sitting there going, ‘Yeah, you want to win the Super Bowl. That’s what you want to do.’ We’re right there, that’s our primary goal is to put ourselves in the best position we can to win.”
Q: What’s the guidance for Patrick Mahomes over the next four-to-five weeks?
REID: “Pat (Patrick Mahomes) will go ahead and – I’m sure he’ll take a couple days off here then start ramping up from there (and) getting himself ready. I’m sure there will be a lot of golf in between there so that’s how he decompresses – that along with his family.”
Q: How has Mike Caliendo responded to the Super Bowl? What kind of offseason has he had?
REID: “He’s (Mike Caliendo) had a great one. (He’s) a great kid – very, very smart. (He’s) a hard worker, (and) he’s gotten better every year. For him to step in and do what he did this past year, he knows he can play at this level. We saw how (Commanders G Nick) Allegretti did it, and I’d tell you that he’s doing the same. He looks like the building blocks are kind of the same there.”
Q: Were you able to implement things this summer that you wouldn’t have been able to if you had a bunch of new receivers?