Simmons’ Behavior Shows Why Bieniemy Was Hired

We rarely get a glimpse of the inner workings of the Kansas City Chiefs that isn’t some "we'll be fine" variation of rainbows and sunshine, but that changed dramatically this week with the reports on Sunday that left tackle Josh Simmons was ejected from an offensive meeting for putting his feet up by coach Andy Reid, with quarterback Patrick Mahomes backing up his coach on the move. 

Simmons later apologized to Reid and the team leaders, saying he could have handled things differently, but it was a shocking revelation about a player who’s apparently become a significant problem. Simmons had to leave the Chiefs in midseason last year to deal with a personal issue, and now it’s fair to wonder if that incident wasn’t at least indirectly related to what just happened. 

We really haven’t heard much about the details of what was behind the hiring of offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, other than it was about restoring discipline to a team that struggled with bad penalties and receivers dropping balls late in the season as the Chefs tried to salvage what became a 6-11 season. 

But it also raised questions about what else the Chiefs have been putting up with behind the scenes as all of this has played out. 

In defense of Simmons, he’s been suffering through what’s usually a horribly painful injury, but that certainly doesn’t justify what was basically insubordinate behavior. It also seems strange that Bieniemy wasn’t the one to ask Simmons to leave if he was running the meeting, although obviously we don’t know the exactly circumstances there and possibly never will. 

What we do know is that Simmons will now miss four more games, and he’s played in just eigtht of 22 games since he’s been with the Chiefs. 

The trade deadline will be coming between now and the next opportunity Simmons will have to take the field, and while moving Simmons would be a sell-low move, you have to wonder if Reid and the other established Chiefs veterans like Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce will want to put up with this kind of behavior with a possible title run at hand.  

We’ll hear more trickle out about this in the next few days, especially with a crucial division matchup coming up on the road for the Chiefs against the Denver Broncos. The Chiefs have rebounded nicely to go 5-0 heading into Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawk, but it’s starting to sound like Simmons might be a problem that needs to be solved.