Andy Reid's Creative Play-Calling Fueling Chiefs' Playoff Push

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has always been a true West Coast guy, going all the way back to his days in Philadelphia with the short-to-intermediate route tree, the screen package and a nice mix of zone/power schemes in the run game.

While that’s still at the core of Reid’s playbook, the head coach has adjusted his game plan with packaged plays, the jet sweep and pre-snap movement to maximize the talent on Kansas City's roster.

Today, let’s break down the tape from the Chiefs’ 24-20 win over the Seattle Seahawks and discuss how Reid is creating opportunities for his players to produce despite the team’s lack of explosive ability outside of the numbers.

Rookie De’Anthony Thomas' Impact on the Game Plan 

The rookie running back/wide receiver out of Oregon is a wild card from the perspective of opposing defenses because of his versatility within Reid’s offense.

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Think of multiple alignments here, the screen game and the jet sweep that cater to his acceleration and open-field ability. This forces defenses to adjust in man coverage (travel with jet motion), tackle in space and correct against misdirection schemes in the run game.

On Sunday, Reid got Thomas involved early to set up opportunities for Jamaal Charles when he called a jet sweep on the fourth play of the game. Here’s a look at the scheme with Thomas coming in pre-snap motion. This allows the Chiefs to show the toss play to the closed (strong) side of the formation while utilizing a reach block on the edge.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

This is a quick way to produce a positive gain while forcing the defensive back in coverage (Earl Thomas) to travel with the motion, bubble over the formation and make a tackle in the open field.

The Chiefs also got the ball to Thomas on the tunnel screen and utilized the “ghost” motion (motion behind the running back) on the counter action. More importantly, that pre-snap movement from Thomas allowed Kansas City to widen the edge and take advantage of defensive pursuit to run the ball inside with Charles.

Here, the Chiefs dress up the inside trap (a basic scheme in every NFL playbook) with Thomas on the jet motion.

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The Seahawks have to adjust to the jet motion with the defensive back entering the front to the open side of the formation and the linebackers bumping down, but the second-level defenders get run out of the play on the trap (misdirection) scheme.

Getting Thomas involved early opened up a lot of doors for the Chiefs this past Sunday while challenging the Seahawks defense to fit up the run in the proper gaps and trust their eyes against pre-snap movement. That's smart game-planning from Reid, and it also takes some stress off an offensive line in Kansas City that isn’t in the discussion with the top units in the league.

Packaged Plays

Packaged plays continue to show up in Reid’s game plan, as they provide quarterback Alex Smith with multiple reads in the scheme to throw the slant, bubble/flat, hand off on the inside zone/power, keep on the zone read, etc.

Based on the pre-snap look and number of defenders in the box, Smith has a run/pass option to test the eye discipline and coverage of the defense.

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These packaged plays allow the Chiefs to utilize tight end Travis Kelce on the quick throw to the flat, target Dwayne Bowe on the slant, lean on the inside zone with Charles or pull the ball off the mesh point like we saw in Week 10 on Smith’s touchdown run versus the Bills.

This past Sunday, the Chiefs showed a variety of different looks on the packaged plays with the slip screen/tare route combination, the inside zone and the one-back power. Let’s start with the slip screen to Charles out of a 3-1 formation with Kansas City running the “tare” route (clear-out fade, stick-out, flat) to the closed side of the formation.

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With the Seahawks playing Cover 3, Smith looks frontside on the snap. That forces the two inside linebackers to slide with the quarterback while the linemen set up a screen to the open side of the formation. Get the linemen out in space, chop down the 'backer and let Charles push the ball up the field. That’s solid execution.

On Charles’ 47-yard run, which set up the game-winning score, the Chiefs showed the slant/flat (or bubble) combination to the open side of the formation while pulling the guard on the one-back power scheme.

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With the strong safety removed versus the open-side slot alignment, the Chiefs have the numbers inside to run the one-back power. They can wash the "Sam" linebacker up the field, fit on the "Mike" with the wide receiver and pull the guard up through the hole. 

The rest is all Charles, as he makes two ridiculous cuts in the open field to get past Earl Thomas and Byron Maxwell before the rookie helps him out with a block down the field.

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Packaged plays aren’t new in the NFL, and there are plenty of schemes on the Chiefs' tape that show up across the league. But adding them to the mix with the core West Coast route concepts (plus the zone/power run schemes) makes this offense more dynamic and tougher to prep for.

On Sunday, those packaged plays in Reid’s game plan produced positive results against Pete Carroll’s defense.

Can Chiefs Make a Playoff Push Without the Vertical Passing Game?

This is the question I have when looking at this Chiefs offense because of the lack of true vertical passing opportunities on the tape. You have to dig pretty deep in the film to find situations where Smith attacks the top of the secondary.

I do see Kelce as a matchup weapon for this offense, but outside of the numbers, is there a receiver who is going to scare opposing secondaries or force safeties to play with more depth over the top?

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On Sunday, Kelce’s reception on the three-level sail combination (corner route) was the only "deep" ball Smith completed, as he threw for just 108 yards. Is that enough to compete with the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers in the AFC West? And if the Chiefs do get in the postseason dance, can they make a run without a consistent vertical threat in the passing game?

I loved the game plan from Reid on Sunday. It was creative and allowed the key players on this offense to execute versus a quality opponent. And maybe that's the story here with Kansas City, as Reid gets the most out of his running backs while utilizing the tight ends and wide receivers to make just enough plays in the passing game. 

I like where this team is as we get closer to the point of the season when the playoff clubs start to separate from the rest of the league. They play good defense in Kansas City, they can flip the field on special teams, and Reid has done an excellent job putting together game plans that are tough to prep for. 

Seven-year NFL veteran Matt Bowen is an NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report.

Follow @MattBowen41