Why the Andy Reid coaching tree is still so prominent for the Chiefs and how it came to be

To the doubts of many 25 years ago last week, the Philadelphia Eagles hired a man who’d never been so much as an NFL coordinator or a head coach at any level to revive an organization that had gone 9-16-1 the previous two seasons.

Nevertheless, Andy Reid, who last had been the assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach of the Green Bay Packers, had distinguished himself in numerous ways in the interview process.

That included the contents of an enormous notebook that Reid lugged along. The tome was brimming with a stunning depth of detail on an array of topics but one that would prove particularly salient and pivotal then … and going forward.

What most struck Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and then-executive vice-president Joe Banner, Banner told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2020, was that Reid had created “literally … a draft board of coaches. He would have a wide receiver coach as the sixth-rated guy, and you’d ask him why he was No. 6, and the extent of detail and insight he showed in answering those questions was really stunning.”

All the more stunning is how prophetic Reid’s visions came to be:

Of the 11 men who worked for Reid for at least a full season and went on to become NFL head coaches, eight were on his first Eagles staff.

A ninth, Doug Pederson, played for Reid that year and joined him as an assistant a decade later.

From that group, Pederson and John Harbaugh went on to win Super Bowls — before Reid did with the Chiefs — and Ron Rivera guided Carolina to the Super Bowl in the 2015 season. Most to the point right now, this postseason is teeming with Reid proteges — including the head coaches of the three other remaining AFC teams as the Chiefs seek to return to the Super Bowl. Up next on Sunday is Buffalo, of course, coached by Sean McDermott.

Should the Chiefs prevail, they’d likely meet Harbaugh’s top-seeded Baltimore Ravens team. Or they could face the Houston Texans and coach DeMeco Ryans — who in a different iteration of the coaching tree played for Reid in Philly.

On the NFC side of the bracket entering the weekend is Tampa Bay with coach Todd Bowles, who also worked for Reid with the Eagles.

What all the familiarity with each other might mean in the grand scheme this time around remains to be seen.

But typically it’s gone something like this: “Challenging,” defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo recalled of facing Reid when Spagnuolo was head coach of the Rams in 2011. “Don’t tell Andy,” added Spagnuolo, an original Eagles assistant to Reid, playfully glancing to his side in case Reid was in earshot. “We had him beat, I thought.” Well, not quite.

The Rams scored on their first play from scrimmage but got blasted 31-13 on an injury-riddled day. As McDermott can more freshly and painfully attest, that wasn’t the only time a former Reid assistant might have thought he had him beat and didn’t.

In fact, Reid is 21-9 overall against his former assistants, including 4-0 in the postseason.

If you want to stretch a bit to count Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski, who as an Eagles training camp intern impressed then-Eagles assistant Brad Childress to earn his first job in Minnesota, Reid is 23-9 and 5-0 against the men who helped build his career, even as he made a pivotal difference in theirs. As much as Reid’s impact on the game will be remembered for his offensive innovation and mind-melding with Patrick Mahomes, it also can be measured by his influence in the coaching ranks. ‘SEEING ALMOST EVERYTHING THE HEAD COACH SEES’ Perhaps best illustrating Reid’s uncanny acumen in putting together that crucial first staff was the most inauspicious of those hires: McDermott, who had joined the Eagles as a scouting administrative assistant just before Reid was hired. As Reid assembled a vital inner circle, he saw something in McDermott he wanted to encourage and thought suited to the available role of … assistant to the head coach. If this sounds like a vague and unglamorous position, it is. But it’s also one of those jobs that looms as exactly what you make of it, and McDermott seized it. Future Chiefs general manager Brett Veach understood that a few years later, hustling through the drudgery that could include anything from picking up Reid’s laundry to figuring out late at night, from a Pittsburgh hotel, how to acquire a specific Sharpie pen Reid favors. (Longtime Ravens assistant James Urban also held that personal assistant role with Reid, as did current Chiefs assistant line coach Corey Matthaei and assistant running backs coach Porter Ellett.) In McDermott’s case, he told the Charlotte Observer in 2016, the gig featured picking up players at the airport for free-agent visits, sitting in on salary cap meetings and once changing a tire on the treacherous Schuylkill Expressway. Beyond the grunt work, though, the unique opportunity featured hours and hours spent with Reid. “You really get to see almost everything the head coach sees,” Reid said earlier this week. “And not that you’re making the decisions, but you at least have your eyes open to that.