Kansas City Chiefs: Can Andy Reid Get Over the Hump?

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has turned the franchise into contenders, but is he the right man to get them to the Super Bowl?

Andy Reid is a coach that deserves an incredible amount of respect. He has the 12th most wins (173) in the history of the NFL and his overall record has him with the 15th most games over .500 (59). To say he is a bad coach would be to completely ignore the impressive results he has created for the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs over 18 years as a head coach.

That regular season success has led to plenty of postseason berths for his teams. Reid has made the playoffs 12 times in 18 seasons. Few other coaches can boast that level of consistency. Three of the four seasons with the Chiefs have resulted in making the playoffs. Subsequently, Reid has the seventh most playoff games under his belt (23) among coaches all-time.

The success that Reid has created is the envy of many franchises. Only Bill Belichick has been better over such a long period of time. Ultimately, Reid represents stability and success in the NFL.

Yet the 18-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2016 Divisional Round to the playoffs highlights the key deficiency on Reid’s resume: playoff wins. With 2016’s loss, Reid is now 11-12 in the playoffs for his head coaching career. Among the 10 coaches with at least 20 playoff games in NFL history, only Reid and Bud Grant have a sub-.500 record in the postseason. When the games matter most and consistently winning matters most, Reid simply hasn’t gotten the job done. Over his four seasons with the Chiefs, Reid has one playoff win.

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Unlike Grant, though, Reid has only ever been to one Super Bowl (Grant famously went four times with the Minnesota Vikings without winning). Reid took the Eagles to the Super Bowl in 2004, now over a decade ago.

At this point, it’s fair to wonder if Reid can get his team over the hump.With just one playoff win dating back to 2009, the tough truth is that Reid’s teams just haven’t done enough to this point. There seems to be a barrier holding them back when the games matter most.

This, of course, is a luxurious conundrum for the Kansas City Chiefs. While other teams can’t even sniff the playoffs, they employ a coach who is capable of getting them to the postseason on an annual basis. Championships matter most in the NFL, though, and Reid hasn’t been able to deliver.

Toby Durant at Real Sport wonders if his inability to win the big one is the black mark that will keep him out of the company of the best—and that’s fair to question. More importantly to Chiefs fans, can he bring a franchise that hasn’t been to a Super Bowl since the 1960s back the pinnacle? There is plenty of admiration for Reid, but his value is measured in relation to the team he is coaching, not his personal resume at the end of the day.

After another loss, the questions come flying out again. Steven Ruiz at For The Win traces Reid’s inability to manage the clock effectively and places blame squarely on Reid’s shoulders. These concerns are generally magnified by Reid’s teams’ presence consistent presence in the playoffs.

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For now, Reid’s record makes him worth keeping around. He’s a proven winner and the Chiefs haven’t seen this kind of consistent regular season success since Marty Schottenheimer’s time in the 1990s. It’s worth wondering, though: Can Andy Reid get over the hump? Though we can’t predict the future, the answer after 2016 is still no. Thus, you have to wonder how long the Chiefs’ patience will last.

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