Q. In reviewing the game in Baltimore during your news conference, you said, "I was really displeased with the two red zone touchdowns, for example, to the tight ends. It's just too late in the year to have guys running open like that." From the defense's perspective, how is that supposed to work – is there verbal communication as to who is supposed to cover whom, is it an automatic based on the defensive call and the offensive formation, or is it something else?
A. It's kind of all of the above. At this juncture of the season, per call you should be able to execute that without any level of communication. We should just be drilled enough where that gets handled fluidly. You reinforce it with verbal and non-verbal or hand signal communication, but that's just a reinforcement as things unfold prior to the snap, whether they're created by motion or shifts or otherwise. And so, it's really all of the above, and that's why I expressed it as disappointment. We should be drilled enough where we could do it without communication, and then we reinforce that with verbal and non-verbal, depending on the opportunity. And so they have all the tools at their disposal to get those route combinations covered.
Q. It would seem to me that down in that part of the field, in that situation you can't cover it man-to-man, so you have to be zoning it, right?
A. If you play top notch quarterbacks who have relationships with their eligibles, you're forced to play man. Zones lose in line-to-gain circumstances or in close quarters vs. cohesion, relationships, expertise. Like if you play zone against Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, it's like running routes on air for them. They're going to saw you up. And so you have to play man or relatable zones. And those require some adjustments, some communication, and that's the cat and mouse game that we play at this level. That's why I refer to it as chess, not checkers. Zones get you beat because of arm talent and relationships. Man-to-man requires a bunch of communication and coordination from defenders and the understanding that they operate as a collective.
Q. As of today, Pat Freiermuth has been targeted 62 times this season, and he has 53 catches for 524 yards, a 9.9 average, and 6 touchdowns. And in the 3 games George Pickens missed with his hamstring injury, Freiermuth caught 3 passes in each game. How would you characterize those numbers?
A. Sometimes (numbers) are reflective of a lot of things. You can play games with numbers. Sometimes there's a real conversation there. The lack of George Pickens creates schematic adjustments and focus on Pat Freiermuth. Or sometimes in a small sample size we didn't convert enough third downs, and so we didn't play enough snaps. Thus, you could describe the run game as not gaining traction, or any individual within a collective of not getting enough opportunity. And really the issue is just number of snaps, because you didn't win enough possession downs. And so on a small sample size, you could play a lot of games with numbers. The reality is, he is a major component of what we do, a central figure in terms of controlling the middle of the field, particularly in weighty moments – red zone, possession-down play – and sometimes his numbers are altered by a variety or a myriad of variables. And most of them interrelated, because these are complex discussions.
Q. On the Russell Wilson run to the goal line in the game against the Ravens, would you rather he slid instead of going for the end zone in that situation?
A. Based on the results? Yes. But the competitor in me and the competitor in him, we play and we play to win. I never want to take away the natural instincts of a man, and so I generally coach around it. We coach ball security and not competitiveness, or quelling competitiveness or judgment in weighty moments. I think the real answer there is in the fundamentals around ball security, and not whether or not he slid or went for the end zone.
Q. You just mentioned playing and playing to win. But are there instances when the winning play isn't necessarily the most aggressive?
A. No doubt. There are rules and axioms of the game that we live by. You never reach the ball for the goal line or the line to gain, unless it's a fourth down, for example. But those are born out of people playing and playing to win and negative things happening over the years. You learn, and you build rules based on experience, some of those experiences are yours, and some of them the experience of others from which you learn. The bottom line is there's a natural aggressiveness associated with the pursuit of victory. I never want to quell that. I want to manage that, and manage it prudently. And so, based on my experience or things that we learned from, we come up with rules that kind of put somewhat of a governor on it, but at the end of the day, these guys are race horses and you want them to run. You want them playing and playing to win and making aggressive split second-decisions, and generally, I'm in support of that.
Q. It seems to me that Chiefs coach Andy Reid is a lock for a Gold Jacket when he decides to retire from football, and you went against him twice when he was in Philadelphia and 8 times since he went to Kansas City. In terms of preparing for and competing against his teams, has he changed from when he was the Eagles coach to now being the Chiefs coach?
A. From a competitor's perspective, he's changed very little. I'm a Franklin Planner guy over the years. I'm an archivist in a lot of ways, and I can open up a Franklin Planner from 2002 and look at the NFC Championship Game, my NFC Championship Game notes. I was a secondary coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and it is amazing some of the things that captured my attention 22 years ago are still capturing my attention regarding minimizing his strategy and schematic approach to business. We're talking about a generation later. Now he has Patrick Mahomes. Then he had Donovan McNabb. The names and faces change, but a lot of the things remain the same. The unique relationship between the quarterback and tight end for instance. In Philadelphia, you had a guy named Chad Lewis, who was a major component of what they did in the very same way that Travis Kelce is a major component of what they do in Kansas City. It's eerily similar, but I think that's reflective of the gold jacket that you mentioned, because he has a mode of operation that is tried and tested. It's plug-and-play. That experience, that division of labor, that approach to business has won him a lot of games over the years, and he's just plugging in new bodies and evolving with the trends of the game. But it's still very much his core values that he believes in.
Q. Back in 2017, what was your take on a Texas Tech QB named Patrick Mahomes during your prep for that year's NFL Draft?
A. I remember specifically that Kevin Colbert was extremely high on him. You know, I was halfway paying attention, because we had Ben Roethlisberger kind of in his prime at that time, and so it was window shopping for me. I tended to focus my energy on other, more significant, or more immediate help. I remember specifically in that draft class, I was looking at the edge rushmen, because we got a guy by the name of T.J. Watt. But Kevin, I remember very specifically, he always did his due diligence, and he was sky high on Mahomes. And I just remember him specifically talking about his release points and the fact that he could throw the ball on the move and from a variety of angles and body positions. Kevin talked about his baseball background, the fact that his dad was a former MLB player. Kevin was on top of that one when he was extremely high on Pat Mahomes.
Q. In talking about Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow before your trip to Cincinnati a few weeks ago, you said it was important to have "enough defense" for him, not to run out of schematics come the fourth quarter. Does that also apply today for Mahomes?
A. No question. Any of the elite quarterbacks who have continuity within their system of offense, where they know where all their pieces are, and they have an understanding of what they're trying to get done, and they have time experience on the job, you better have enough defense. You better not run out of defense. And so certainly he falls into that category.
Q. What would you list as Mahomes' most underrated quality?
A. His general feel for the game. He can keep his eyes downfield and feel the rush, feel escape lanes, buy time. His ability to run parallel to the line of scrimmage at times, or release the ball just as he's scrambling to and beyond the line of scrimmage, his spatial relationship component, his feel for space, his feel for space in the pocket, whether it's the rush or where he is, all of that lends itself to the unique plays that he creates in those extended play moments.
Q. Tight end Travis Kelce is 35 years old and he leads the Chiefs in targets with 122, which is 33 more than the next highest-targeted receiver on that team. What makes him dangerous?
A. His unselfishness. You mentioned him in regard to his targets, but this guy plays the game without the ball in his hands. He is so aware of what's going on around him. He is an absolute zone killer. And man-to-man, he can win. He can beat his man, he can utilize himself and his man in an effort to rub for others. He just plays a well-rounded game, and he's also a guy who has been in the system for a long time, and understands it inside and out and his role in it. It is displayed in the quality of his play, and beyond targets and catches, he impacts the game in a lot of ways.
Q. In recent weeks, your team has gone against Jim Schwartz with Cleveland, Vic Fangio with Philadelphia, and Dean Pees with Baltimore. Today it's Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who is the only coordinator in NFL history to win Super Bowls with two different teams. What is the personality of a Steve Spagnuolo defense?
A. They're aggressive schematically. They're a pressure group. On first and second down they're seventh in the league in terms of the amount of pressure that they bring with five or more rushers. On third down or possession downs, they're No. 2 in the league in terms of the amount of pressure they bring. You couple those two scenarios together, and they are an elite, tip-top pressure group in terms of the amount of pressure that they bring. You couple that with another characteristic of Steve's defenses, which is that they're well-coordinated and good from a pre-snap disguise standpoint. That's what creates the havoc that has allowed him to win Super Bowls in multiple cities as you mentioned. The collective that we've gone through in recent weeks, that's a very experienced group. All of those guys have been in the league as long as I've been in the league. They're very good at what they do. It's no secret why they've been able to sustain, and that's why we've been in some challenging circumstances. But this time of year, those are the type of circumstances and stadiums that you want to be in. As the road gets narrow, you want to know that you're sharpening your sword. You know where you are, you're making the necessary adjustments, or you're winning in the ways that you need to win this time of year to prepare yourself for January football.
