With a whole week to think about what to ask (and what to say) about the Kansas City Chiefs’ 28-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 9, reporters met with head coach Andy Reid as he kicked off his team’s preparation for Sunday’s road game against the Denver Broncos.
One of the big topics of conversation since the game in Buffalo has been the team’s decision to cover running back Isiah Pacheco’s absence by elevating Clyde Edwards-Helaire from the practice squad — rather than making Elijah Mitchell
active for the first time this season.
For Reid, the decision came down to pass protection.
“We really like Elijah, obviously, or he wouldn’t be here,” he explained. “I think that makes a big statement there. But Clyde knows all the protections. Not only does he know it, but he’s done it. So we’ve seen him do it — and there’s a comfort there. It’s not that Elijah doesn’t — he’s a very sharp kid — but we’ve seen our guy do it. That was the only reason why.”
Since he hadn’t yet seen any of his players since they stepped out of the building for the bye — he is expecting them back on Tuesday — Reid was unsure about when his starting running back would return from the MCL sprain he suffered in the team’s 28-7 victory over the Washington Commanders.
“We’ll have to see,” was as far as he would go in estimating when Pacheco would return.
Reid was also vague on whether left tackle Josh Simmons would be able to play in Denver after missing four games due to a family situation. Until he’s seen the rookie on the practice field, Reid is comfortable with Jaylon Moore in Simmons’ spot.
“I think what we’ll do is just see where we’re at,” he said. “We know we’ve got a good player in there now — and we know what Josh is capable of. So we’ll just see where we’re at when they get back.”
Reid does believe, though, that right tackle Jawaan Taylor should be back in the mix for Sunday’s game after missing about a quarter of the Week 9 offensive snaps with an ankle injury.
“Taylor was feeling pretty good by the time he got back here,” recalled Reid. “I think we’ll probably be OK there.”
While he wouldn’t reveal any specifics about what they found, Reid said that he and his coaching staff have been busy with their usual bye-week routine: self-scouting.
“We did go back and look at some of the things we can do better — and some of the things that we’ve done well,” he noted. “We had a lot of good things come up to us in the past week — and there were some things there that we could definitely learn from the last game.”
But there’s one thing that he will not have to teach his players or coaches: understanding the urgency of the task now before them at 5-4.
“In this league, every game’s important,” he declared. “So you’ve got to stay focused on that. It doesn’t matter what you project or what’s happened before. You learn from your past and take care of what’s going on today. We’ll get the players back tomorrow — and we’re all in on Denver. That’s kind of where we’re at.
“Is there an urgency? There should be an urgency every week. That’s how this league is. There’s too much parity in this league not to have urgency every week.”
