{"id":839655,"date":"2026-03-28T20:51:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T20:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/839655\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T20:51:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T20:51:25","slug":"chiefs-hc-andy-reid-has-had-a-lot-of-time-to-think-about-retooling-after-down-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/839655\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs HC Andy Reid has had ‘a lot of time to think’ about retooling after down season"},"content":{"rendered":"

No matter who is under center, the job should be made easier by the Chiefs’ marquee free-agent signing<\/a>, running back Kenneth Walker III<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kansas City struggled to find traction on the ground last season and finished 25th in rushing yards. Walker, the Super Bowl LX MVP<\/a>, ran for 1,027 yards in his final year as a Seahawk, barely less than Kareem Hunt<\/a> and Isiah Pacheco<\/a> combined (1,073). He has the potential to become the next great running back under Reid, who until recently had earned a reputation as a backfield kingmaker, coaching talents such as Brian Westbrook and Jamaal Charles to tremendous success.<\/p>\n

“He’s a good football player, and it won’t change. He’s not gonna change coming to us,” Reid said of Walker. “He’s still going to be a good football player. As long as he stays healthy and moves forward, good things can happen for you. We know that the run game’s important and we’ve got good offensive linemen in front of him, so that will be a plus for him. It should be a plus for our football team.”<\/p>\n

Outside of bringing in Walker and Fields, plus the return<\/a> of tight end Travis Kelce<\/a>, the Chiefs haven’t had a massive influx of big-name talent this offseason. In the secondary, particularly, there’s been somewhat of an exodus. Kansas City traded<\/a> cornerback Trent McDuffie<\/a> to the Los Angeles Rams, and another starting corner, Jaylen Watson<\/a>, ended up in L.A. through free agency.<\/p>\n

The 68-year-old Reid, who has been coaching in the NFL for half his life now — having first started on the Green Bay Packers’ staff in 1992 — is more than comfortable with rebuilding the secondary as he has before.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been in positions as a head coach where we’ve replenished the secondary,” Reid said. “At Green Bay, we replenished in the secondary. I’ve been through that and seen it be productive. Do you want to lose a (Trent) McDuffie? No, but that’s today’s football. That’s how this thing works today. So, you’ve got to stay flexible, and then you’ve got to put yourself in a position where you can replenish that. We drafted a good kid (Nohl Williams<\/a>) last year, so I know we’ll continue to work through that this year. I’m really not worried about it. I look forward to seeing who these people are that come in.”<\/p>\n

Regardless of any needs the Chiefs might have to fill, Reid projects calmness moving forward. He’s not worried about corners. He told Battista he won’t force an addition at edge rusher, and that Kansas City is “in a better position than most teams” at wide receiver.<\/p>\n

In roughly a month’s time, exactly what positions the Chiefs decide to bolster will become clear during the draft. So long a heavyweight, the Chiefs are in rare position to pick ninth overall. They also have the No. 29 pick thanks to the McDuffie trade.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Chiefs, already coming off a season so alien to the Mahomes era, are set to look different, but in the painful aftermath of going 6-11, Reid has become certain Kansas City can come back stronger.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had a lot of time to think about it,” he said. “This has been a long offseason, but it’s great to reflect, great to go back in and turn what in your mind is a negative, having the end of the season the way we did, into a positive by retooling. Making sure that you’re getting healthy — coaches and players — so, stay on top of that. And then go take advantage of it as you work into this next season.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No matter who is under center, the job should be made easier by the Chiefs’ marquee free-agent signing,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2063],"tags":[1227,346,7,118,110,2438,2437,21660,88,6,609,4267,499],"class_list":{"0":"post-839655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-around-the-nfl","9":"tag-chiefs","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-kansas-city","12":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","13":"tag-kansascity","14":"tag-kansascitychiefs","15":"tag-kenny-walker-iii","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-no-minute","19":"tag-offseason-news","20":"tag-patrick-mahomes"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116308782982935059","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}