From a long-term perspective, things are going very well for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is on the verge of winning his second MVP award before his 28th birthday, there’s a ton of young, promising talent on Kansas City’s roster, and the team is competing in its fifth straight AFC Championship Game.
But there could be an abrupt change to the Chiefs if they win their second Super Bowl title in three seasons, and that change involves head coach Andy Reid.
ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler spoke with league executives around the NFL to come up with bold predictions for the offseason, and one executive believes Reid could retire from coaching if the Chiefs win their second Super Bowl title of the Andy Reid era.
“This one is hardly a slam dunk with Reid still dominating and Patrick Mahomes set to quarterback the Chiefs for the next decade,” Fowler wrote on January 24. “But it’s worth noting that when people involved in the coaching carousel talk about jobs, they often ask whether Reid will walk away at some point in the short term.”
Fowler also shared a comment from an AFC Scout he spoke with regarding Reid potentially retiring.
“I just think at some point he could make the life decision to walk away from the grind,” an AFC scout told Fowler. “I could at least see it.”
Could Andy Reid Actually Retire?
Kansas City’s 27-20 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional Round of the playoffs gave Reid 20 career playoff wins, making him the first coach in NFL history to win 10 playoff games with two teams, per ESPN. In 2021, Reid also became the first coach in NFL history to have won at least 100 regular season games with two teams.
Reid is fifth all-time in wins by an NFL head coach (147) and just 3 behind Tom Landry (150) for fourth all-time. He has led the Chiefs to at least the Conference Championships during the last 5 seasons (including this one) and has a superstar quarterback in the prime of his career.
Big Red is 64 years old, which makes him the third-oldest head coach in the NFL, behind Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick respectively (70). Yet Reid, despite being a head coach in the NFL for 24 seasons, has not shown any signs of slowing down, whether it’s with his coaching or how he addresses the idea of retirement.
“I still get to that Fourth of July, and the juices start going. You’re going, ‘Man, I can’t wait to get back [to football],'” Reid said in August of 2022 in an interview with Sirius XM.
The possibility of Reid retiring if he wins another Super Bowl this season does exist. But with so much momentum in his favor, it’s hard to imagine he will.
What to Know About Chiefs-Bengals Rematch
The AFC Championship rematch between the Bengals and Chiefs will take place on Sunday, January 29 at 5:30 p.m. Central Time at Arrowhead Stadium. The game will be available to watch on CBS, and Jim Nance and Tony Romo will be the broadcasters for that game, and Tracy Wolfson will be the sideline reporter.
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NFL Exec Predicts Chiefs’ Andy Reid Makes Abrupt Career Move