Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid Quotes
October 13, 2025
OPENING STATEMENT: “First of all, our fans were phenomenal. It was great to have an opportunity to come back to GEHA Field at Arrowhead (Stadium) and play in front of them (the fans). I appreciate their support. As far as the team went, I thought there were some really good things that took place. As far as Josh’s (Simmons) situation goes, it’s a personal issue. I’m not going to talk about that; I did a little bit last night (and) then leave it at that. But I thought Jaylon (Moore) stepped in and did a nice job there. As I mentioned it’s a tribute to (Offensive Line Coach) Andy Heck and the way he rotates all of his guys and makes sure that they can play, and Jaylon has played in a couple of different spots, both sides of the tackle, both sides at the guard so he’s busy during practice hitting all of these things. Offensively, again it was good to see Patrick (Mahomes) and (Travis) Kelce hook up for a few nice catches there and getting Hollywood (Brown) in the end zone. Hollywood is a good player. We just got a lot of guys, and we’re going to end here adding one with Rashee (Rice). So, it’s hard to get everybody going, but I thought Patrick did a nice job getting everyone involved and spreading things around. I thought (Offensive Coordinator) Matt Nagy had an unbelievable game plan for the guys, and they bought into it and he and (Pass Game Coordinator) Joe (Bleymaier) kind of worked that thing together and put this thing together and come up with stuff with Andy Heck and the rest of the guys. It was strong. Defensively, I loved the transition that (Defensive Coordinator Steve) Spags made there. We had a couple (of) drives at the beginning, and he worked through that and kept everybody together and made a couple of adjustments there and guys tightened up the back end and kind of some of those gaps inside. I thought his game plan was spot on. That’s an explosive offensive group. We knew that going in, and they’ve scored a ton of points in all of their games, and we knew it would be a big challenge, and I thought the guys handled that well. I thought the coaches that were involved there did a great job with it. (Linebackers Coach) Brendan Daly doesn’t get enough credit for working with the linebackers. He’s kind of stuck in the middle between the secondary and that d-line. (Nick) Bolton I thought played really well, got a ton of tackles in there, and made some big plays that could have been extended even though they had gained a little bit of yardage. They could’ve been even bigger than that, and he was able to snag them. And then special teams wise, I mentioned it was great to get (Harrison) Butker a field goal right there at the end, and he drilled that son of a gun which was great. And we only had one punt, so (Matt) Araiza didn’t have a very busy day there but did fine with it. Then I thought the return groups were good, Nikko (Remigio) again had a couple of nice returns there. Field position is always a big thing, especially against good teams and that includes all three phases, but special teams (has) got a lot of that responsibility.”
Q: What does Rashee Rice’s return to practice and the upcoming game look like?
REID: “Listen, I know he’s (Rashee Rice) been working like crazy. The rule states that we can’t work with him, but I know he’s been working out hard. And I think it’s just a matter of getting him back in the swing. I’ve got to see it to kind of work through it. I know he’s in good shape, that’s the one thing that I do know. I think that will be important, him coming back in there and getting with Patrick (Mahomes) and kind of getting on the same page and that whole deal. But we’ll just see how all that works out. We haven’t put the game plan in yet so we’re working through all of that now.”
Q: What impressed you most about Jaylon Moore’s performance?
REID: “I thought he was just solid. He (Jaylon Moore) did a nice job. He was going against an all-pro player 50% of the time, so that’s a tough ask without play time. But he handled it. I love the way he handles himself during the week and how he practices fast and aggressive during the week, and he never hangs his head that I’m not playing or this or that, he just gets in there and bears down. So, I think that paid off for him once this thing happened. He was solid in the run game too, run and pass. He had a productive day.”
Q: Do you anticipate when Josh Simmons will be back with the team?
REID: “Just to take care of business. That’s how those things work.”
Q: Were there any injuries that Travis Kelce was battling behind the scenes last year? Seems he is playing a few years younger this year.
REID: “No, not that I recall. We’ve been giving him (Travis Kelce) a lot of Geritol, and he really has progressed (laughs).”
Q: Were you surprised that the Lions elected to receive the ball first?
REID: “It’s not the first time. That was the third time they (Detroit Lions) had done that this year. We anticipated something like that possibly happening, and the guys were good with that. I don’t know if it was motivation or not, but our guys knew that they had done it before, so it wasn’t a big surprise.”
Q: How important was it to score at the end of the first half and then to open the second half with a score?
REID: “That was a positive, definitely. That’s huge, and you’re right, the stop before the half was also big. We ended up taking a knee there at the end with just a few seconds on the clock but that drive to be able to stop them there was big and then the drive before that where we were able to get a score was good. Obviously, coming out (in) the second half, you’re always striving for that (a touchdown) you try to come out with a purpose and the guys did a great job of executing and getting a score.”
Q: What does the amount of penalties say about this team after committing so many last week?
REID: “Yeah Nick (Jacobs), listen, I thought the officials let the guys play. I’m not saying I agreed with everything that went on, but I thought they were very fair how they did it. They could’ve called us on some, and they could’ve called them (Detroit Lions) on some and they just let it play out and let the teams really show off what they’ve got, which I think is good. I think it’s good for everybody, I think it’s good for the fans within reason and then we had to tighten some things up Nick. The calls, all 13 of those calls weren’t wrong, that’s not what I’m saying here. We had to tighten some things up and I thought our guys did that. They worked on it during the week and just making sure their fundamentals and technique were right and half of it is moving yourself into a position where you can execute. That comes down to footwork, speed and angles. You have to do that. Those are things that you can take charge of and work on.”
Q: What do you hope the offensive line and the running backs take away from going against a physical Lions team?
REID: “I thought Pop (Isiah Pacheco) ran hard. I thought he (Isiah Pacheco) was accurate with his reads and then when Kareem (Hunt) came in, I thought the same thing, powerful. It starts with the o-line. They’ve got to have things rolling up front, but they played physical. Our offensive line played physical against a good defensive line – a defensive front because those linebackers aren’t tiny guys either, they’re big ol’ guys back there and physical but I thought they played well. There are things what we can do better all the way around. There’s places that we need to tighten up and make it better than what we had, but overall, I’d tell you it was a pretty good job.”
Q: What have you seen from the wide receiver room and the chemistry they’ve built this season?
REID: “Yeah Jesse (Newell), I’d tell you that – this is what I meant by when I said after the game that having one (Xavier Worthy) come back into the fold there and be able to play and then Rashee (Rice) coming back in the building period, they kind of felt whole. And that’s because they like each other. They get along. They hang out together. They work together on their route combinations, and they’re always talking about stuff to get better there. And they’ve got a good friendship, which will be needed now because we have more guys and we only have one football. You want them to help support each other and I think that ends up being important. JuJu (Smith-Schuster) has a big part in that, he’s a uniter, and he’s still a tough guy and all that bit that goes with it and a good receiver and he has been around. I think he keeps it all together there.”
Q: On Harrison Butker’s missed extra point and if he needed more encouragement on that last field goal.
REID: “I’m a big Harrison Butker fan, so I think he’s a great great kicker and if not the best, one of the best clutch kickers in the National Football League. I know how that thing goes. I know that the swing (and) I understand all of that. Sometimes that ball looks nice and fat, and other times it looks a little tiny. The first one, he didn’t hit very good on the PAT, and then he came back and finished strong the rest of the night. And I thought getting a field goal in there, I think that’s big. Listen, we’re all human and a little pat on the back, you’re being nice on that – but a nice pat on the back was a positive.”
Q: Is there more that you’re looking from the running back group moving forward to help relieve Patrick Mahomes?
REID: “Yeah, Pat (Mahomes) had the 30 yards rushing. Listen, he’s (Patrick Mahomes) going to rush no matter what. He’s going to run the ball. There’s just times where something doesn’t look right or maybe there is a pressure here or there, and he’s going to take off and go and I get that. It’s important that he does like he did last night. He got down on the ground and not take the big hits with the exception on one run there. He was able to get down and try to limit the hits on him. I thought our guys ran the ball well. I thought they had a good night at that. There was a mix, so when you do this RPO game, you’re calling runs, but some of them turn into passes. That’s the beauty of the thing. Maybe your numbers are down just a little bit, but they end up increasing in the completions.”
Q: How excited are you to see the trio of Xavier Worthy, Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown on the field together in the regular season for the first time?