PHILADELPHIA _ We should have seen this coming from Andy Reid, and we don't have to go back too far in time for the surest sign of what was ahead from him and the Kansas City Chiefs. We just have to go back to what was the best season that a Chiefs quarterback ever had.
It was 2017, the same year that the Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes, but Mahomes wasn't their starting quarterback yet. Alex Smith was, and he threw for 4,042 yards and 26 touchdowns, set a team record with his 67.5 completion percentage, and posted the lowest interception percentage in the NFL (1.0) while leading the league in yards per attempt (8.6) and passer rating (104.7).
There are a lot of teams and coaches who would have looked at Smith's performance that season and said, How can we ask for anything better than that? But here's the thing: Andy Reid's greatest skill as a coach and a football mind _ the skill that defines his career, from his time as an assistant under Mike Holmgren with the Green Bay Packers to his 14 years with the Eagles to his tenure with the Chiefs _ was that he didn't bother asking that question. He already had recognized that they could be better and, with Mahomes, they would be.
