Arrowhead Pride
Matt Nagy, Steve Spagnuolo and Dave Toub were each asked which part of their season made them most proud.
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid fosters a collaborative atmosphere among his coaching staff. Each coordinator knows his unit better than anyone, making it interesting to hear which challenge of 2024 they were most proud to have overcome.
By season’s end — due to injury and otherwise — the Chiefs had created a deep wide receiver room. More than anything else in 2024, Kansas City offensive coordinator Matt Nagy liked that each player in the room has always been willing to accept his individual role to make the offense tick.
“It started out with the wideouts we had early in the season, then we get a couple of injuries,” said Nagy. “You have a rookie like Xavier learning how to play the game, and it’s a little fast for him, but then the game slows down. Then we bring in guys like JuJu [Smith-Schuster=, who comes in and has 100 yards, and [DeAndre Hopkins], who has to learn a brand new offense.
“Now we get to this point where we have Hollywood [Brown] back. So I think all of us as coaches being able to make sure these guys understand we’re working as a whole and not as individuals — that’s something I’m really proud of. Justin Watson — what a great piece to this offense — probably doesn’t get enough credit, but then he caught a two-point [conversion] last week [against the Bills] to make a big impact. So, just really proud of those guys for understanding their roles and how we’ve come together as a unit.”
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo responded by citing the original challenge of the 2024 season: finding a way to replace cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, who Kansas City traded to the Tennessee Titans in the offseason.
“I did feel like the loss of LJ was really important back and we kind of went back and forth there early,” said Spagnuolo. “Then Jaylen settled in, and he got hurt. I’m proud of the way — I don’t know if the secondary statistically was like it was a year ago — but we certainly played well enough back there to win, so we’re proud of that. But I’m always proud of the way the guys piece it together as the season goes.
“Other than that first Buffalo game — I mean, we would all like to have that back. The last Denver game didn’t count, but that was painful, you know, giving up 38 points. But other than that, I thought the guys did a great job of taking the game plan and executing it on game day.”
Special teams coordinator Dave Toub took pride in how the unit responded after injuries to key contributors.
“We had some guys go down,” said Toub. “Jack Cochrane was a big one,...
