FOXBORO, Mass. — It’s a widely-held belief that great NFL teams need great quarterback play, and there’s no better example than the New England Patriots, who have won four Super Bowls under the direction of Tom Brady.
As a head coach, Andy Reid hasn’t had a quarterback quite like Brady, who his Kansas City Chiefs will face Saturday in their AFC Divisional Round matchup. Yet Reid has enjoyed plenty of success over the years. So what’s his secret? A brief look at Reid’s coaching history shows the former gargantuan tight end might, in fact, be the “quarterback whisperer.”
Reid began his NFL coaching career as an offensive assistant for the Green Bay Packers in 1992, the same year a young gunslinger named Brett Favre joined the club via trade. Reid wasn’t solely responsible for Favre’s development but played a significant role, and after Reid was named Green Bay’s quarterbacks coach in 1997, Favre promptly went out and won league MVP.
Reid’s next stop was Philadelphia, where his first order of business with the Eagles was drafting Donovan McNabb second overall in the 1999 NFL draft. McNabb led the Eagles to five NFC championship games and a Super Bowl appearance, but Reid’s success wasn’t just tied to his star quarterback. After McNabb went down with an injury late in the 2006 season, Reid didn’t miss a beat, throwing Jeff Garcia into the fire and riding the journeyman signal-caller to five consecutive wins and a postseason triumph over the New York Giants in the wild-card round.
McNabb left town in 2010, but Reid once again was up for the challenge, leading the Eagles to a 10-6 record and another playoff berth behind Kevin Kolb and an aging Michael Vick, who posted a career-high 100.2 passer rating over 12 starts.
Reid’s tenure in Philly ended in 2012, but it appears the affable 57-year-old still hasn’t lost his touch.
Reid joined the Chiefs in 2013 along with Alex Smith, a former No. 1 overall pick who hadn’t been much more than average in his previous seven seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. So what did Smith do? Just make the Pro Bowl in 2013 and develop into a reliable — if not incredibly flashy — quarterback for a solid Chiefs team.
“He’s been in this system for three years,” Reid said of Smith on Tuesday. “He went through eight or nine coordinators in his career, some crazy number of offenses he was trying to learn. That’s tough on a quarterback, so I think just the stability of being in the same offense the last few years here has been good for him.”
That, and working under Reid. Smith’s QBR has improved every year since he came to Kansas City, jumping from 49.7 in 2014 to 55.0 in 2014 to a career-high 66.5 this season. While he hasn’t returned to the Pro Bowl, he’s done exactly what the Chiefs need him to do: Hold onto the ball and make plays when necessary.
It’s hard to tell exactly why Reid works so well with quarterbacks, but signal-callers apparently feel comfortable under the laid-back head coach’s tutelage. Given Smith’s play of late, that shows no sign of changing.
Thumbnail photo via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images
