OPENING STATEMENT: “Alright, nice seeing everybody. Good to finish up here on a positive note. The guys ran today and did a nice job with that. They look like they’re - have a good foundation. They’ll come back and have an actual test, a conditioning test when they get back. They sure worked hard this offseason and they finished up again today. It’s been productive in particular for the young guys but also for some of the free agents that we brought in and/or the draft picks. So, they’ve done well. So, with that, and then we’ll take a little break here, coaches and players. Players normally take about a week off and then it’s ramp up time after that, so they’ve got to get themselves ready for training camp. Message is just make sure that you come back ready to go – (the message) to the players. With that, time’s yours.”
Q: Patrick Mahomes and Hollywood Brown seem to really have developed chemistry throughout OTAs. How do you see that learning and developing?
REID: “As a coach you look for the communication part. Are they willing to share what they’re thinking with one another? They’ve got a good connection with that part of it – they’re talking. Once Patrick (Mahomes) knows what Hollywood’s (Brown) thinking and Hollywood kind of knows where Patrick physically can get the ball to, location on the field, not as much depth as location on the field, then that’s a good thing.”
Q: Patrick Mahomes mentioned that you gave him a few lighthearted jabs about not settling for the check-down. Is that a point this year to take those deep shots?
REID: “Yeah well really in this camp – and I always explain this to the quarterbacks – is that this is the time to find out what you can get away with in the pass game. So there are going to be interceptions that take place but that’s ok. Right now, you’re testing things and then as you go through camp, as camp goes on then you start refining it and hopefully you have the opportunity to do it on every route. Now is that possible? Probably not but at least the ones that you haven’t done a lot of and so we’re always feeding Patrick (Mahomes) new things and that’s to help challenge him because he likes that, and it also makes us better. So, he gets in there and he’s trying to work with these new routes against all these different coverages that (Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) Spags is throwing at you. So, it’s a nice challenge there.”
Q: What are you seeing with the competition for left tackle between Wanya Morris and Kinglsey Suamataia?
REID: “Listen, they’ve both done a nice job. So, (I) like the production we’ve seen from both of them. Both of them are young guys. So, we’ll just see how it all finishes up through camp. It’s good competition. We’re going to end up playing the five best guys and we’ll go from there. We’ll just see how it all plays out.”
Q: With the ring ceremony tonight, how much do you use tonight to say it’s time to move on and focus on next season or do you think they’ve already moved on?
REID: “Yeah, I said that at the first minicamp or first OTA, whatever you want to call them. So, it goes by fast. Once you get through that parade, you’re kind of off and heading in the direction of the new season. It’s a night – I don’t want to slight tonight – because there’s a lot that goes into that and there’s a lot of hard work that’s gone into that and this is kind of the reward for it. But I think the guys know that it’s going to be nice to get the ring, but they’ve moved on.”
Q: What’s the plan for Joe Thuney when you get to training camp?
REID: “Joe’s (Thuney) working his tail off, getting better. We’ll just have to - we’ve got to see exactly how that thing works out. I’m not sure, we’ve got to get clearance from the doctor and that whole process that goes on as we go, but he’s made good progress. He’ll be one of those guys that’s kind of right on the border whether he can go or not go from the healing part of it.”
Q: Is it reasonable to expect that he could be ready to go for the regular season?
REID: “Yeah, yes. For the regular season, yeah. I think he should be ok unless there’s a setback somewhere.”
Q: Do you expect Xavier Worthy to also be ready to go for training camp?
REID: “Yeah, he should be able to. He’ll continue to get treatment here. He’s getting better. He’ll get treatment, and we’ll just see how he rehabs through that.”
Q: We’ve also seen Derrick Nnadi and Leo Chenal sitting out. Are they on track?
REID: “Yeah, elbow and back, yeah. They’re both doing good. Range of motion for (Derrick) Nnadi and then Leo’s (Chenal) close. He’s doing a nice job.”
Q: What exactly is Leo Chenal’s injury?
REID: “His back.”
Q: Patrick Mahomes seems hard wired to go for those deep shots. Do you find that you actually have to reel it in more than in the past?
REID: “No, he’s got a good feel for that. Right now, in the pass camp you’re challenging him to take the difficult throw. All’s we’re doing is throwing the ball, so you can check it down and the defense knows that, so you get deep drops. You can sit there and check it down all day, but you’re not getting work on those tight window throws. (It’s) a great opportunity to work those (tight window throws) here. So, it’s not going to be the guy that’s wide open necessarily. It’s going to be where you got to dot it. Helps you with your accuracy and velocity, timing – all those things.”
Q: It’s not like the mindset at the end of last season where you guys kind of contoured to playing with the defense knowing they could handle it?
REID: “Well we’ll see. You know, we’ll see, just see how it all rounds out. You’ve got a little bit more speed on the outside than maybe we did last year so you know if you can use it, you use it. If it’s available, take it. If not, you can work your progression.”
Q: What will you do for the break? Do you ever wear your Super Bowl rings?
REID: “You know, I don’t (wear my Super Bowl rings). Keep this one sacred (points to wedding ring), right (laughter). Right there. I don’t wear the others. She (Tammy Reid) wears them (laughter). Not sure that’s – but she likes to wear them. But, I’ll take a break here. I’ve got a place out west there. I’ll go veg for a minute but still keep my eye on things.”
Q: What did consume most of your self-scout during the offseason? We’ve seen you work on the deep passing game. Did that take up most of it?
REID: “Really, it’s getting that timing down with the new people and then what do the new people do well? So, let’s see what they can do. Now, with Xavier (Worthy) we weren’t able to do a whole lot of that because of the injury but you bring Mecole (Hardman) back in and then you’ve got Hollywood (Brown), you’ve got two fast guys so you can kind of work some things in there and see what they look like. We kind of know the game between (number) four (Rashee Rice) and (number) 87 (Travis Kelce) and how they work off of each other. I thought we were able to expand that too and give them a little bit more to work on. But I would tell you just how the pieces are going to fit was what we spent most of the time on.”
Q: Travis Kelce has said that Jared Wiley is ahead of where he was in terms of understanding the offense as a rookie. How important is that especially with you potentially backing off Travis’ workload?
REID: “Yeah, I don’t know how much we’re going to back off on his time. He wants to be worn out, and we can help him with that (laughter). Wiley, he’s got a good feel, but he’s also got two good guys there between Noah (Gray) and Trav (Kelce) that he can bounce things off of and (Tight Ends Coach) Tom’s (Melvin) been doing – we’re into the offense more than we were when Trav was coming up. Those guys help share it and Tom does a nice job teaching him and spending extra time with him. He comes from a passing offense, he’s had a couple different ones, but good passing offense. He’s got a nice feel for the game. He’s a big target, good player.”
Q: We were talking to your son Spencer Reid at Super Bowl LVIII. He said generally he will find you in the office writing plays in the offseason. How much time do you really take off?
REID: “I try to take the mornings and/or the evenings and just spend a little time with it every day. I enjoy doing it, but my grandkids occupy some time when I get this break - 13 of them, that’s a lot of juggling, right? So, you want to spend as much time as you can with them and you’re not thinking about football when you’re doing it, you’re thinking about them jumping off the cliff or doing something crazy (laughter) so you’ve got to keep a close eye on them.”
Q: How much does it help to bring back veteran players? How much does it help competition during this time?
REID: “Yeah, I think it’s great. They set the tempo on it (OTAs) and they create the competition, I think, that you’re talking about here. You hear them jabbing – I mean you’ve heard it, yesterday. We’re down right by you guys and you hear them challenging each other as much as they can in a non-contact environment here. But there’s good competition on both sides of the ball against each other and I think that’s healthy and important.”
Chiefs Player Quotes
June 13, 2024
QB PATRICK MAHOMES
Q: How was the run test?
MAHOMES: “I appreciate (the) coaches (have) kind of dialed it back from when I first got here so those guys are lucky. It was good and guys - I thought we did a great job and guys were in great shape.”
Q: On the Dallas Maverick’s NBA series.
MAHOMES: “They played hard. Obviously it didn’t end the way I wanted it to end. It’s kind of a tough series so far but I think (Dallas Maverick’s Guard/Forward) Luka (Dončić) said it best, ‘It’s not over till it’s over.’ I’m still going to be supporting those guys, it’s been a great season. I’m not going to be able to make game four or anything like that, but I’ll be watching.”
Q: Last year you said that the ring ceremony was the last night to celebrate the season before turning the page. Did you have a similar chat with the guys again today?
MAHOMES: “Yeah, for sure. I mean you’ve seen we’ve enjoyed – I mean guys have traveled around and have been able to do a lot of great things. At the same time I mean every year in this league – first off, I thought we had a great OTAs and minicamp to this point. Then, every year in this league you have to come in with that same mentality, you have to be hungry. It’s hard, you saw last year, you’ve seen it every year that I’ve been here, you have to battle in order to win that Super Bowl. Guys have to have that mentality and I think what (General Manager Brett) Veach and (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid do is they bring in a group of guys that are hungry and they fuse them with guys that have been here and it usually comes in with a great mix when you get to training camp.”
Q: Do you even mention the three-peat and what is the team’s approach to this?
MAHOMES: “There’s nothing you can be scared of but at the same time I mean that’s not – the mentality is it’s a brand-new season. I’ve dealt with it a couple times now and we know every week is going to be a big week. We start off with some great opponents early in the season, so you just have the mentality of getting yourself better. In order to win you have to get better and better every single year, that’s the mentality you have to have.”
Q: What is your schedule going to look like from now till training camp?
MAHOMES: “I’ll be traveling a little bit but a lot of working out. I mean it’s only four and a half weeks, it’s like my shortest second break that I’ve ever had. There’s not going to be a lot of off time, even if I’m on vacation or whatever it is, there’s going to be a lot of working out. I have a good plan that I have with (Trainer) Bobby (Stroupe) so we’ll make sure I come into camp ready to go.”
Q: Do you need to use this time to replenish and restore yourself?
MAHOMES: “It’s pretty simple, I’m not trying to do anything crazy. I go to sports games and stuff like that but other than that it’s just spending time with my family, playing golf and working out.”
Q: Is it important though to get some rest in?
MAHOMES: “I’m kind of one of those guys or people just in general that doesn’t like just sitting still so the golf course is my rest. I like to go out there and hit them and just have a good time out there and spend time with my family and chasing (my) kids around.”
Q: What leads you to say that the team had a good OTAs compared to seasons in the past?
MAHOMES: “I think it’s two things, I think one is just the confidence that the defense has just off the year they had this last year. You see that they’re trying to build on that. Then offensively, obviously, we felt like we didn’t play our best last year and even though we won, we knew we had a lot of places to improve. I think guys had that mentality coming into OTAs and minicamp. That’s something that I think has gotten the best out of everybody is that every single day y’all hear it – we’re talking trash but it’s in a good way then we go off, we talk about it after practice of what we can do better. It’s been a great OTAs and minicamp, one of the best that I think that I’ve ever been a part of.”
Q: How do you think the receiver’s room is shaping up?
MAHOMES: “I think it’s shaping up really well. I thought Hollywood (Brown) did a great coming in and being prepared and learning really fast and being able to go out there and make plays. I thought Rashee (Rice) did a great job, J (Justin) Wat (Watson), Skyy (Moore), all these guys really competed, and I think that’s a good thing to have. I’m excited to get (Xavier) Worthy out there more, I got to throw to him a couple times, but you want to get him out there kind of in some more team-based drills and let him work and learn on the fly. You saw him learning on the side and now it’s just about him getting ready to be at camp and being in shape and ready to roll there.”
Q: On Carson Wentz.
MAHOMES: “It’s been great honestly. A great dude and super talented, I think that’s the first thing I saw. I mean you see why he (Carson Wentz) was on pace to win the MVP, the guy can make every throw. He’s very smart, intelligent, asks a lot of great questions and he’s been in similar offenses before so it’s easy for him to pick it up I think. Like I said, he’s super talented, I think that’s the first thing I saw.”
Q: This far into your career, are you still learning new things about your game?
MAHOMES: “Yeah, I think this is probably the most comfortable I think I’ve felt of just being able to not let something I guess affect me. When you go against (Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) Spags, you’re not going to be right 100% of the time and there’s been times where I’ve lost on blitzes and Spags gets me with a new pressure that he’s working on. I think it’s just being able to (say), ‘Alright, let’s just the ball out of my hands, get it to the check-down or whatever that is and then live to play another play.’ I think that’s just something that I’ve felt more comfortable with. I think it’s been cool that we’ve been trying – (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid has gone back to my old days, he’s forcing me to push the ball down the field (and) if I don’t he throws little jabs at me like, ‘Oh, you want to throw the check-down here.’ I’m just like, ‘I got you Coach, we’re going to push it.’ It’s been fun, it’s been a great camp (and) like I said I love the competing, I think that has been the biggest thing, the competing on both sides of the ball, it’s been awesome.”
Q: What is going to be the difference between the performance this year and last year on the field?
MAHOMES: “It’s just a mindset. You have to come in knowing that we’re going to get everybody’s best shot, I think we know that. At the same, I think we were a young team last year and we kind of grew up as the season went on. I think this year you have to learn from those mistakes you made last year. I mean it’s just this close (small gesture), that’s how the NFL is. You look back at the season, I think there’s probably three or four games that if we would’ve came out with wins we would have been the one seed from the get-go. You just have to make sure that you capitalize on those opportunities, don’t make those mistakes and try to win those games that we lost last year.”
Q: How much has Hollywood Brown progressed thus far and what is your chemistry like with him?
MAHOMES: “He’s (Hollywood Brown) done a great job. It’s hard to learn this offense and I feel like he’s done a great job picking it up very fast. Obviously, you see the ability, he’s – I mean obviously I don’t know how he’s here in our place because of how talented he is. I can just see that it’s going to be a great season for him, just take pressure off of other guys and I think it’s going to help get Trav (Kelce) open, help get Rashee (Rice) open, going to help get all these guys open. You’re going to have that speed threat that can run routes and do all those different things so I’m very excited to get him out there in the regular season.”
Q: Yesterday at camp, you and Hollywood Brown had a play where he just started running long and trusted that you would throw the deep ball to him and you did. How is your guys’ chemistry building going?
MAHOMES: “I think it’s cool because it was very similar to a play that we had ran earlier in OTAs in a practice that y’all (the media) weren’t at where it was kind of a cover zero type blitz and I tried to throw it up early and it wasn’t necessarily the route that how it was supposed to be ran but I was like, ‘Hey if you see the pressure, you have to get over there. I’m going to put it up in the air and let you run underneath it.’ That was the thing, he picked that up in a week – that was probably two or three weeks ago, then he came back and we – same exact type of play, same pressure and he got over there. I threw the ball the same as I threw it last time and he catches it for a touchdown. That’s the stuff that I’m talking about, it’s not only the physical ability that he has but he’s a smart football player and I’m excited to get him out there and have a great training camp going up against (Defensive Coordinator Steve) Spags. You get to learn everything you can possibly learn and then you get into the regular season and get ready to roll.”
Q: Last year when you got your ring, you tweeted something that was directed at what other players had said. Do you have something planned this time?
MAHOMES: “I don’t think anyone said anything so I think I’m in the clear. I’ll think of a caption and try to come up with something that could go viral like that.”