Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is one of the greatest coaches of his time and possesses one of the more creative offensive minds the NFL has seen in the last 20 years. Like any coach, Reid has a set of rules and guidelines that he follows, and one that was revealed recently might shock you. Apparently, Reid doesn’t talk to rookies.
According to DeSean Jackson and LeSean “Shady” McCoy on a recent episode of I’m an athlete with Brandon Marshall and Adam “Pacman” Jones, that’s how Reid works. Even Marshall and Jones were blown away by McCoy’s quote and Jackson’s persuasion. The one who really caught the attention were the other two Pro Bowlers in the room who were surprised by this statement.
An NFL coach who doesn’t talk to rookies sounds very old. McCoy and Jackson said, “you have to earn it with him [Reid]. That seems to be the general mentality of the players towards the rookies, where they want the freshmen to come in, humble and ready to work and win a spot on the team regardless of their enlistment in the first round. any.
Bleacher Report did a piece on the NFL’s Unwritten Rules, and one of the main themes was that rookies should be seen and not heard. Former NFL player Eric Winston likens a player’s rookie NFL season to a college freshman’s season. You are starting from scratch.
“No matter who you were or what you were before the NFL, you have to go back to the beginning” Winston said. “You come from a place where you are the big man on campus,” explains Winston.
“Everybody in the NFL, even if you’re the sixth-round pick, you can still be one of the best, if not the best, players on your team.”
All are excellent points made by a 12-year NFL veteran. He’s seen it all and knows what he’s talking about. But it still seems a myth that a head coach wouldn’t converse with his rookies. In recognition of Reid’s merit, Jackson added that coach Reid loved his players to death, like a father.
We can’t really question Reid’s methods as he’s taken some rookies and developed them Pro Bowlers, All-Pros and the all-time greats. Among the rookies Reid coached who became outstanding players were Jackson, McCoy, Donovan McNabb, Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. All of those players have been selected for Pro Bowl multiple times under Reid. Whatever Reid does in Philadelphia and Kansas City works, and that’s what matters.
We often hear about coaches earning the respect of players when they enter a new situation or as head coach for the first time. Apparently, Reid has conducted business this way for years if Jackson and McCoy are reminiscing about it. The early part of their career with the Eagles was nearly a decade ago for McCoy and longer for Jackson.
Sometimes coaches who haven’t won Super Bowls are in bad shape because they’re too strict with their players or look at their day-to-day work in a particular way. Reid didn’t win the Super Bowl until the 2018-19 season for captain. Even though he hit one with the Eagles, he couldn’t get its first Lombardi franchise.
But you never actually heard any current or former Reid players say anything bad about he is besides Le’Veon Bell. But Reid won early enough in his coaching career with Philly to build equity with his players. During Andy’s first six years at Philly, his teams won 11 or more times five times.
One interesting thing about these comments about Reid and the rookies is that he has had two rookie midfielders stand out in the first round of his coaching career. McNabb was placed second overall in 1999 for the Eagles, while Mahomes was ranked 10th by the Troop Leader in 2017. McNabb has started six games of his rookie season, also a rookie year. of Reid as head coach, so I’m pretty sure that rule isn’t there. has not yet been established. At least not for QBs.
By the time Mahomes arrived in 2017, Reid was already established as one of the league’s elite coaches. Even though Mahomes only started and played in one game in 2017, I find it hard to believe that Reid and Mahomes had minimal interaction that season. The Chiefs traded to draft Mahomes as their franchise QB. So you have to think that rule is a bit different for QBs, especially since Reid is a former QB coach and offensive coordinator.
