Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid heads into a year of no small change on the special teams side of the ball thanks to the new kickoff rule changes. But if you were expecting Reid to decry the league’s decision to make these change, you may be surprised.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Reid said that while he acknowledges that the rule change makes things “different,” he’s not afraid of those changes. He said that he’s “fired up” to see how things go though also admitted that he’d prefer to see things go “in our direction” at Arrowhead Stadium.
“It’s different, I’m not afraid of changes, never really have been. This is different, it looks like it’s going to be exciting, I’m fired up to see how it looks — as long as it goes in our direction,” Reid said, via ProFootballTalk.
But the responsibility of preparing his players to work within these new rules is Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub, not Reid. Fortunately, Toub has “jumped right in with it” according to Reid.
“He’s worked with the guys,” Reid said. “We can only use bags, but at least you get an idea of angles, distances, what the kickers have to do. He jumped right in with it, it’s obviously going to take some time to learn and there’s no better time than right now.”
There are probably going to be some growing pains in 2024 with this new rule coming into effect and it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if one team or even a bunch of teams winds up getting totally ruined by these new rules at a crucial moment.
But like they say: Fail to prepare, then prepare to fail.