Mutual admiration
Belichick, Reid heap praise
FOXBORO — The AFC Championship Game in Kansas City Sunday is one of the most fascinating matchups in recent history for many reasons.
Among them: The game pits the greatest defensive mind in modern football, and probably ever, against one of the league’s most innovative offensive coaches.
At his press conference yesterday, Bill Belichick said Andy Reid is “probably as good as any coach that I’ve seen” at incorporating new concepts into his offense.
“I’d say he’s very creative,” Belichick said. “He’s got a lot of new ideas, takes on new ideas, new concepts and develops them within the framework of his system to just create more problems for the defense and he does a great job of that. You see it every year and he continues to, even over the course of the year, from when we played them in October has come up with more things to create more of a problem.”
Reid has introduced the run-pass option (RPO) into his offense. With speedster Tyreek Hill on his roster, Reid has also utilized pre-snap jet motion quite a bit, forcing the defense to move horizontally.
On a conference call with the New England media, Reid repaid the compliment, noting Belichick’s ability to maximize the talent of his defense.
“They’ve mixed it up,” Reid said. “Their defensive coordinator (Brian Flores), now I mean, this is a good football coach and Bill’s a great football coach so you’re dealing with some pretty intense defensive minds there. They’re good and sharp and so they’re using their personnel to the best of their abilities and rolling.”
The mutual respect between Belichick and Reid has been well-documented. Both have been successful for a long time. The only difference: Belichick’s five rings to Reid’s none.
But Reid said he’s not worried about that right now.
“Yeah, it’s not about me,” the Chiefs coach said. “That’s first of all. We’re doing this as a team and every team’s different and I get kind of caught up in that part. You end up loving the guys you’re coaching and this is a unique group so I’m always pulling for them and whatever happens, happens. I’m good with that. I love doing what I’m doing.”
One that got away
Chiefs running back Damien Williams, who has turned into a breakout star ever since the team cut Kareem Hunt, could have been a Patriot.
The Pats hosted Williams on a free agent visit in 2017. The running back was a restricted free agent at the time.
The Patriots ended up signing another restricted free agent, then-Bills running back Mike Gillislee, instead of Williams.
After closely following Williams’ career, Belichick isn’t surprised to see his success with the Chiefs.
“He’s a good football player,” Belichick said. “Smart, versatile, can do a lot of different things. Run the ball, catch, pass protect. We had a good visit with him. He was a good guy to bring in to visit and get to know. Things didn’t really work out at that time but I’m not surprised to see him doing well at all.”
Williams rushed for 129 yards and a touchdown in the divisional round win over the Colts.
Brady’s bunch
As Tom Brady chases a sixth Super Bowl ring, his kids are now old enough to follow along.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Brady said. “It’s great for me. My daughter is 6. She’s a great cheerleader for us. My oldest son is into every play. My middle son is not into any play. It’s perfect. We get to talk about it on the way home. They’re understanding more and more.”
They’re not quite sold on the quarterback as their favorite player, though.
“But they’re still my kids, so they don’t care much about Dad,” Brady joked. “They’d rather hang with (Rob Gronkowski )and( Julian Edelman) and all of those other guys.”
Wise all alone
The Patriots listed only one player, defensive end Deatrich Wise, on the injury report.
Wise was a full participant despite an ankle issue that sidelined him in the divisional round.
For the Chiefs, linebacker Dorian O’Daniel was the only player who missed practice. Running back Spencer Ware and offensive guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif were limited.