Happy New Decade! Here’s hoping that the next 10 years contain immense amounts of Patrick Mahomes, decent baseball and 519 more editions of this column. Every week, I’ll take your questions via Twitter (@jbbrisco) and bring them together for a Friday Ask Me Anything. You ask it, I’ll answer it. Unless I don’t want to.
This is an excellent question. If we put it on a scale of 1-10, is it possible for him to be, like, a five and a nine without having to meet in the middle? Because he can’t be a seven.
Andy Reid would be my number one overall draft pick for “NFL head coaches who you could call ‘a cutting-edge wizard,’” but he also has some of the tendencies you can develop when you’ve been a head coach for 21 years.
Look at these two tweets and you’ll see my issue.
Those tell two fascinating (and very different) stories about Reid’s mindset this year. The Chiefs set the pace for passing on first down but lagged in the middle of the pack on fourth down aggressiveness. This is where the original question can be hard to answer.
I’d argue that it clears up significantly when you account for, y’know, everything else. Reid’s offensive innovations and consistency over his two decades in the league have been unmatched. I’ll give him an 8.5 on that scale.
The Chiefs’ first-round options are the Patriots, Texans and Bills. If I could choose their first-round opponent, I’d take the Bills. I would feel wonderful about the Steve Spagnuolo vs. Josh Allen matchup. Second would be Houston, narrowly ahead of New England. I think the Chiefs will beat any of those three teams, but even in their current form, I’m never going to be eager for the Chiefs to invite Bill Belichick over for the playoffs.
I think it’s going to happen, and I think it’s going to be fine. Reid has a remarkable track record of sending his offensive coordinators to head coaching jobs and then replacing them without much hullabaloo. Mike Kafka seemed to be the OC-in-waiting when Eric Bieniemy was going through his interview cycle last year, and I imagine that Reid has been preparing Kafka for the role. I’d be shocked if the Chiefs brought in anyone else.
Of all of the pre-my-existence movies that I haven’t seen, The Godfather is one of the few that I have some genuine shame about. I think I can make this happen. When it does, we’re absolutely doing a Josh Watched The Godfather podcast.
Triple-question tweet! My first (Almost) Entirely Sports-based resolution is to have more shows now that regular-season football has wrapped up. With that accomplished, I think my biggest goal is to continue the show’s evolution as we settle back into the every-night schedule. I’m excited for it.
I’ve gotten very close to writing and talking specifically about Brett Veach in these last few weeks. This has been a very good year for Veach, but it’s nearly impossible to judge a GM this early in his career. That being said, the 2019 draft and free agent class has been impactful, consistent, and improving. Plus, the quiet additions like Mike Pennel and Stefen Wisniewski have flourished in their roles.
The big remaining question is his highest-priced acquisition, Frank Clark. It’s hard to evaluate Veach until we can fully evaluate Clark, but if he justifies his contract and the draft picks the Chiefs gave up to get him, Veach will have a virtually perfect report card for 2019 after a rough 2018.
And I haven’t gotten Disney+ yet. I know, it’s shameful. I was waiting for The Mandalorian to wrap up so I can binge it on the free trial. My New Year’s resolution is to finally see Baby Yoda without actually paying for that joyous experience.