Andy Reid Limiting Chiefs by Relying More on Scheme Than Talent

The Arrowhead faithful are fully aware of the difference coaching can make. A talented Kansas City Chiefs team only won two games in 2012, but they were able to turn it around in 2013 under the leadership of head coach Andy Reid.

Reid’s schemes have also been a huge part of the turnaround in Kansas City over the past two seasons, but he also has a well-earned reputation for forgetting to use his best players. The only reasonable explanation is that Reid can come to rely too much on his own abilities and not enough on the talent at his disposal. It’s happened so much in 2014 that it’s limiting his team.

It makes sense to Reid because the scheme is something he can control. Reid can decide what players to use, what plays are called and if everyone does everything right there will usually be a positive result. Reid also wields a sizeable influence over quarterback Alex Smith, such as how he might change or adjust plays and whom he should target in certain situations.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with the way Reid operates, but scheme can only take a team so far. When his players are physically or mentally unable to do the things they need to do to make Reid’s schemes a success, Reid is the one that needs to be able to adjust.

At some point, Reid has to expect his star players to make a play for him. Reid can scheme to get running back Jamaal Charles in space, but it’s not as if Reid can design a play where Charles jukes five defenders and breaks two tackles.

Which brings us to Charles, the team’s best player and a player fans and media have criticized Reid for underutilizing. Charles is one of just five NFL players with over 3,000 yards from scrimmage over the last two seasons, but he’s averaging just 19.7 touches per game—more than two fewer carries than the other four running backs.

Player	G	Touch	Scrimmage YDS	Touch/G	YDS/G	YDS/Touch
Matt Forte	29	663	3511	22.9	121.1	5.3
LeSean McCoy	29	648	3325	22.3	114.7	5.1
DeMarco Murray	27	643	3469	23.8	128.5	5.4
Le'Veon Bell	26	602	3183	23.2	122.4	5.3
Jamaal Charles	27	533	3112	19.7	115.3	5.8

Charles makes up for the lack of touches with a ridiculous 5.8 yards per touch, but he’s still behind all but LeSean McCoy in yards per game. McCoy is also the only other back to have a slight downward trend in usage, but that makes sense because Darren Sproles is siphoning off a few opportunities.

McCoy’s downward usage trend also isn’t nearly as steep as Charles’ usage trend. Some game-to-game variance in usage is expected, but over the course of two seasons, an extremely productive player like Charles shouldn’t be seeing an overall decrease in work.

The notion that Charles is more productive because of a lighter workload also seems unfounded. Only one of the seven running backs other than Charles since the start of 2013 with fewer than 600 touches and more than 400 touches has been able to match those with 600-plus touches in yards per carry.

The fact that Charles has been able to produce at the clip he has over 533 touches suggests that a few more shouldn’t adversely affect his average. The truth is that Reid underutilizes Charles on average and the problem is getting worse.

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Charles had five games last season in which he touched the ball fewer than 20 times, but he’s already up to six such games in 2014, not including the game against the Denver Broncos when he got hurt. Last season, Charles averaged 21.9 touches per game. This season, he’s averaging just 18.3 touches per game and 19 per game since he had just 11 in Week 1.

One of the problems is that this problem is now extending to tight end Travis Kelce and offensive weapon De’Anthony Thomas. It’s also rubbing off on the defense in odd ways, such as the team’s insistence on playing nose tackle Dontari Poe every play because he’s the key to their 3-4 scheme, when giving him occasional rest might eliminate some of the negative plays and allow him to be more disruptive.  

Kelce is averaging 2.39 yards per route run, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required). That’s second only to Rob Gronkowski among tight ends and 12th among all qualified receivers and tight ends. Why then is Kelce 14th among tight ends with 63 targets?

Player	Targets	Receptions	Yards	YPRR	YAC/Rec.
Rob Gronkowski	108 (1)	73 (2)	997 (1)	2.66 (1)	5.8 (5)
Travis Kelce	63 (14)	51 (8)	688 (6)	2.39 (2)	7.8 (1)

It makes no sense given the Chiefs’ lack of offense not to design more plays for Kelce, who has already demonstrated his ability to make big plays. Kelce is averaging a full yard more after the catch than any other tight end and two more yards than Gronkowski.

Some of that is the design of the offense, but the point is he’s been able to turn short throws into big gains. For a quarterback like Smith, Kelce should be seeing more targets. There’s no good reason Dwayne Bowe should continue to get more looks than Kelce.

Then there’s Thomas, who has just 16 touches on the year, but who is averaging 7.7 yards per touch. Thomas should be seeing a minimum of five touches per game just to see if he can break a big one. Jason Avant has played two games with the Chiefs and he already has more touches than Thomas in the passing game.

Avant will surely be a help for the Chiefs in many ways, but if he siphons touches away from younger players, that’s ultimately a negative. Avant’s history with Reid and the last two games suggest he may get a disproportionate number of looks.

Defensively, why did it take 13 weeks before Vance Walker had a decent workload? Allen Bailey is good, but they could certainly create a better rotation with Walker and Jaye Howard. Walker played extremely well last week in Arizona and should continue to see opportunities.

If the Chiefs don’t feel confident in the 3-4 without Poe, there’s nothing wrong with the 4-3 defense on occasion. Kevin Vickerson and Walker have experience as defensive tackles, Bailey can play strong-side defensive end, and outside linebacker Justin Houston can play the Von Miller role with Tamba Hali putting his hand in the dirt at defensive end.

It’s time for Reid to let his talent shine on offense and defense. More opportunities for his best offensive weapons and more rest and a bigger impact for his top defensive weapons could do the Chiefs wonders. The Chiefs are more than capable of winning their final three games and making it back to the postseason, but only if Reid can get out of his own way.

Unless otherwise noted, all statistics via Pro-Football-Reference and Pro Football Focus (subscription required).