Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid Quotes
January 5, 2026
OPENING STATEMENT: “I don’t have anything to give you injury wise. I can tell you that the guys have all worked through their interviews with me and I had a chance to sit with them and just finished that up and some of them are still working on their exit physicals. I’ll get all of that information as we go here. As far as yesterday went, I don’t feel any different than I did after the game. There are bunch of things that we can learn from. It was good to get some of the young guys some playing time. Other than that, we didn’t play a great game for sure. But I feel like the future is bright. We’ve got a great nucleus of players coming back. We’ve got some injuries, but injuries that I think guys will come back strong from. We look forward to getting going here in this offseason and getting ourselves right for this upcoming season. Very positive thoughts on that. Anyways, with that (the) time is yours.”
Q: What parts of the offensive scheme are you evaluating most closely?
REID: “Yeah, we’ll go through Jesse (Newell), and we’ll look at everything from plays called to – which starts with me – then all the way through the personnel. Could we have put the guys in better position, could we have made plays. We look at every bit of it – run and pass game – and situationally all the different situations that you have whether it’s goal-line, short yardage, whether it’s third down, red zone, all those things, we try to knock out.”
Q: As you start the offseason review, how do you evaluate the coaching staff, and do you expect any changes to the position coaches?
REID: “Yeah, listen, I haven’t got that far. Literally Jesse (Newell), I just got through – it’s an obvious question though, but I just got through with these players and had a chance to meet with them and then I’ll step back here for a minute and kind of go from there.”
Q: On the surface, what caused struggles this season and what was the biggest lesson learned?
REID: “We had 10 or so games that were determined by seven points or less, you know one score and those were the seven we won last year. Why? You go back and look at penalties in crucial situations, turnovers in crucial situations, those things. You’ve got to really evaluate those and the why’s of that and dropped balls and long drives – including everybody – the end of game drives that you could’ve either scored on or were scored on or special teams put you in a position – you’ve got to look at all those things. So, that’s part of the evaluation process going into the offseason. Make sure we narrow that thing up and make sure we’re on the right end of it.”
Q: Do you feel the run game was impacting the passing game and what you saw from defenses this year?
REID: “Yeah so you always go to your play action game, Sam (McDowell) and you look at it and you check to see what kind of reaction you’re getting from the defense. Normally if you get a reaction, then you’re putting those guys in a recovery mode, which normally opens up the middle of the field in a decent way. So, we’re not getting enough reaction out of them. So however you take that, that could because of the run game, that could be because of the action that we’re showing. There wasn’t enough respect there that needs to be given. So, we’ve got to run the ball more efficiently, especially on first or second down on those run downs in those run situations just to stay positive with that. Somewhere you’d like to have a few bigger plays in that area. Not three (or) four yards, every once in a while, you need to hit on a few. So I would say that there’s a part of it for that, there’s part of it we can look at the action that we’re giving the guys and are we executing right, are we giving them the right things to execute and so on.”
Q: There are reports that Offensive Coordinator Matt Nagy has been requested to be interviewed for head coaching positions. Would you prioritize someone familiar or is there desire to look into something different if you do need to replace him?
REID: “I probably wouldn’t get into that right now, Sam (McDowell). Again, these are logical questions. I’ve got some great guys on the staff here – (Pass Game Coordinator) Joe Bleymaier – you name some of the guys. You can go down the list. We’ve got some qualified guys here. I know qualified guys out there too. I’ve got trust in both places. I haven’t got that far and neither has (Offensive Coordinator Matt Nagy) Nags. So, we’ll just see where all this goes and we’ve got a lot of time on that. They can’t even interview him in person until the 19th so I’m not rushing here.”
Q: What was the thought process on calling a timeout on that third down play?
REID: “Probably settled it down for you then put them in a different mode. That’s why I used it there.”
Q: Do you expect a major offseason reboot this offseason?
REID: “I don’t know about all of that Matt (Derrick). I didn’t hear that but I’m trusting you’re saying what they said. We’ll do what’s necessary to make ourselves better, which is what I can tell you. We’ll take every measure that we feel are right, we’ll take. We do that through intense evaluation and that’s how we’ve tried to address everything and we won’t change that as we go into it.”
Q: Have you and Travis Kelce had conversations on him retiring or a timeframe for conversations to take place?
REID: “Yeah, we’ll get to all of that Pete (Sweeney). Right now, knowing we’re finishing the season, but we have a little bit of time before all of that stuff really needs to take place. I’m not trying to avoid your question here but that’s what’s real right now. I know everybody wants the answer right this minute but it’s something that you’ve got to go through. There are a lot of variables there but we all love Trav (Kelce) so we know that. Trav can still play and I’m not questioning that part or any of it. I’m not trying to avoid your question, I just know there’s time. It’s a little bit the same way – last year I got asked kind of the same thing and you have got a little bit of time there to figure everything out. So does Trav, so it buys everybody a little bit of time.”
Q: On Patrick Mahomes’ offseason plan.
REID: “First of all he’s (Patrick Mahomes) doing great for just being three weeks out or so. He’ll go ahead and most likely stay up here the majority of the time rehabbing. He and (Assistant Athletic Trainer) Julie (Frymyer), she’s the person that does all of that – our PT. So, he has a lot of trust in her, and he’s been in there grinding and that’s what I can tell you. I think that will just continue until we get started again – not that he won’t take a break here or there but right now he’s in that early process where you got to really hit it hard and it’s not necessarily a fun thing to do every day. The important thing is that you show up Pete (Sweeney) and that you keep coming back for more and he’s been doing that.”
Q: Are there other coaches on your staff that organizations have reached out to, other than Matt Nagy?
REID: “No, I’m sure those guys will get plenty – I get it, that’s part of this. It’s a tribute to them (but) no I don’t have anything else to tell you.”
Q: Is Phase One in the offseason going to be different?
REID: “I probably need to explain that a little bit for you there Todd (Leabo) – I know you know but for the people listening. So, none of that is mandatory other than the mandatory minicamp and then the rookie minicamp that takes place after the draft. There’s one mandatory minicamp (and) the rest of it is voluntary. We will do Phase One and the players know that and they have the dates and so on they’ve got the calendar. Again, that’s a voluntary thing (and) that’s where we’re at with it.”
Q: Was there anything particular that you wanted to get across to the players during the exit interviews?
REID: “So, Vahe (Gregorian) I should probably tell you that we had a meeting – a team meeting before the interviews. I was able to get my points across to them there (and) tried to be as direct as I possibly could with them knowing that part of the room won’t be coming back but at the same time making sure that they understood expectations going forward. So we were able to talk about that then I could meet with them individually and talk about individual thoughts and also listen to what they have to say if they have any comments.”
Q: Is there anything specific that you wanted the team to take away after the team meeting?
REID: “I think I took away was a little bit of what I mentioned yesterday after the game and I’ve kind of sensed that as we’ve been going through this but those core veteran players and the core group – some of them are younger guys too that they are very focused on figuring out the problems and not excusing themselves from it, taking accountability and making sure we fix it to go forward.”
Q: What are you hoping to target in a veteran quarterback who will lead the offense through the offseason program?
REID: “So we had brought Gardner (Minshew) in to do that, and unfortunately, he got hurt early in that game, but we still have a ton of confidence that he can do that now. He was only here for a year and that was what his contract was. That type of player is what you want in that position and somebody that has won games in the league and at the same time understands his role and handles himself right in the room becomes an important thing.”
Q: Where do you think the pass rush game needs to improve moving forward?
REID: “We had a pretty good thing going before a young guy got banged up in there as far as him (Omarr Norman-Lott) coming on and being able to rush the passer. He gave us a little flexibility in there. We need a couple of the young guys to just continue to grow. I think we’ll have a chance to be pretty good in there. You’re always looking to improve in both lines and you want to make sure those are strong for you.”
Q: What was your message to the young guys in the exit interviews?
REID: “This class is the only class that really hasn’t had success, so they haven’t experienced that part of it. It’s important when they left here, that they understood Matt (McMullen), that what really needs to be taken care of and try to make that as crystal clear as you can to them and at the same time, to the coaches and the people that were in the room there and not that I haven’t talked to them about it before that I reinforce it that these are the expectations. This is the ceiling that we want to keep ourselves at and anything less isn’t acceptable. That’s what they can bring to the table as we go forward.”
Q: Do you consider the offseason the best time to modify the offense or is it more difficult in season?
REID: “No. I would tell you if you’re doing a wholesale change, I’d probably tell you that the offseason is better than during the season but if you’re just trying to better yourself you should be doing that throughout.”
Q: On the team trying to get better.
REID: “Yeah, I think so. I think putting people in the right position and making sure we stay relatively healthy there I think is important. Then don’t take things away from yourself whether it’s a play call that you give a guy – can you put him in a better position or second, are you taking something away from yourself, whether it’s a turnover or a penalty. It’s all of us looking at that but you’re still looking at an offense that was one of the top 10 offenses in the league if you take everything into consideration there. You’re not that far off, you have to get a couple things bouncing your way and make sure you take care of that.”
Chiefs Player Quotes
January 5, 2026
LB NICK BOLTON
Q: What are some of the things that you think didn’t go right for you this year?
BOLTON: “This year we just had some missed opportunities. Whether it be offense, defense or special teams as a whole (or) as a team, I just feel like we left some things out there that we could’ve executed on especially at the end of game situations. One of the big things, we were really good at end of game situations in all of my years prior and this year we just couldn’t get it done in those situations. Self-reflection on what we could do better internally, especially myself on getting guys lined up, executing and finding ways to win games but that was a big part of this year.”
Q: On having extra time this offseason.
BOLTON: “Absolutely, we get an extended offseason. We haven’t had one since I’ve been here. We get a couple months to rest, get away from it a little bit and spend some time working on some things that have been bugging you. We have some knicks and bruises, been playing football for quite a while now. That’s good to get ahead of some things. I know some guys that were banged up at the end of the year and needed that extra time to get their bodies right. You can do those things, also just spend time with family. Some things we haven’t had the time to do, especially me. I got my mom – my mom and my granny’s birthday (are) at the end of this month so I get to spend their birthday’s with them, so it’s just small stuff like that get your mind right, figure out why you play this game and why you love this game and get to spend some time with some loved ones.”
Q: What would you say about Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo as a potential head coach?