Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid arrived in Arizona for the winter meetings, and he talked up new QB Justin Fields.
Coach Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs arrived at the NFL winter meetings in Arizona, and he had some surprising things to say about his quarterbacks, especially newly-acquired Justin Fields, in a story written by Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk.
Reid started with the obligatory update about Patrick Mahomes, saying that Mahomes looks great so far, but ““we’ll just see where it goes from there.” The Chiefs traded for Fields to give them a backup option, and that’s where Reid’s comments became surprising.
“Well, we snuck out and got a good quarterback to back him up,” Reid said, via Judy Battista of NFL Media. “So, if he doesn’t, you know, if he’s not able to make it for the beginning of the season, then we know we’ve got a legitimate backup there that can go win games for us.”
It’s hard to know what quarterback Reid has been watching in Fields’ games to date, but it’s not the one that the rest of us have been seeing. The Chiefs are the fourth team that has tried to unlock Fields’ potential, but the Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets haven’t had much luck.
Is this a “fourth time’s the charm” scenario? The Chiefs are hoping that Reid plus talent like tight end Travis Kelce, newly-signed running Back Kenneth Walker III and speedy receiver Xavier Worthy can help get Fields to look like a real NFL quarterback, but at this point in Fields’ career there’s very little tape to show that that can happen.
Meanwhile, there was nothing new in Reid’s comments about Mahomes, and it sounds like he may even have memorized his last round of quotes to avoid saying anything revealing.
“He spends a ton of time in the building,” Reid added in his comments to Battista from a different PFT piece written by Michael David Smith. “He’s in there for seven hours a day. It’s showing, the progress. Now, to tell you a timeline? I mean, I know what he’s striving for.”
That Week One start is still the goal, but the timeline is tight. The Chiefs may have to pump the brakes on Mahomes’ ambitions to make sure he’s healthy, and that’s why they went out and got Fields.
None of this is significant right now, but it will be in training camp. The Chiefs are making a significant offensive transition with Walker as their lead back, and they’re going to need a quarterback who can run the offense effectively this summer while Mahomes continues his rehab.