CHIEFS HEAD COACH ANDY REID
Opening Statement:"I'm going to just start right off, we did release Roy (Miller). We are just going to move on from that. I can't really talk about anything from a legal standpoint. I will just leave it at that. I understand if you have to ask questions, but you're going to get the same answer there.
"I will address the bye week. It was good to have an opportunity to step back and go back through and look at things offensively, defensively and special teams-wise. I was able to do that as the head coach, looking at all three phases and all of the games. There were some things we were doing well and some things we need to improve on. I am not going to detail that for you, that's for us to work on and, obviously, not to give out to an opponent or so on. But we will definitely attack the issues that need to be attacked and continue to get better at some of the things we are doing well. And then last, it was good for us to get some rest. For players and coaches to freshen up. You guys have mentioned it, but the schedule for those first nine games was unique. It was fun and interesting, but unique. Now we start on the second half here and we look forward to that collectively as a team. I let the guys run around a little bit today just to loosen up. It wasn't anything too formal, but just to get themselves back in the swing of things. And last, our thoughts go out to Ned Yost. I had a chance to reach out and talk to him. I am just glad he is on the mend here. That was quite a deal. He is lucky for cell phones and modern technology. With that, the time is yours."
Q:Are you going to have to sign another defensive lineman?
REID:"Yeah, there is a chance we do that. Brett is dealing with all that."
Q:If this stands, do you have a backup at the nose right now?
REID:"Well, we had (Rakeem Nunez-Roches) who did it last year and some this year. So we would be OK there. We probably need to look into that and I am sure that something would happen relatively quick."
Q:How is Allen Bailey doing?
REID:"He is making progress. I don't really have anything to report to you on injuries. Guys have been getting treatment and doing their thing. I can't tell you yay or nay either way."
Q:After watching the games, do you feel better or worse?
REID:"No, listen, we are sitting here 6-3. We are in good shape. We didn't finish up at the bye very well. We have all been sitting here, fans included, on a loss for a couple weeks. But, I like this team and I like their work ethic. I like the way they battled through the first nine games. But there is room for us as coaches and players to improve. To me, I get kind of fired up about that. That is where I am at. That is how I feel as I stand before you right now."
Q:Does having more time to prepare make the job more fun for you?
RIED:"Well, listen, I love every day of it. I come to work, I am fired up to coach in the National Football League. It is a privilege. And then to work for the Chiefs is a privilege and an honor. You can ask me that almost every day I am hanging with you, that I enjoy getting in here. If it is a loss, you want to get it fixed, and then it is a challenge. And if you are winning, it is still a challenge. You are still very critical of what you have done as a coach and trying to make yourself better as a team collectively."
Q:What do you think about the opportunity with the next seven games?
REID:"You put yourself in a position where you are within striking range of whatever it is. But we have room to improve and get better. You have to do that day-by-day and that is what we are going to focus on. I talked to the team about that. Just let's get right back into the things we know and grind and get better on a day-to-day basis. Let everything take care of itself from there."
Q:How do you keep your players focused with all the "Chiefs have the division sewn up" talk?
REID:"Well, if you have been in the NFL long enough, nothing is sewn up. I think we all understand that. The players know. It is man against man and anything can happen on any given day, Sunday in particular coming up here. We get it, but we have to take care of business Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. You have to do those things in order to play a decent game on game day, which for us is Sunday. We have a lot of things we have to get covered and make sure we get ourselves better and right now that is where the focus is, to make sure we get better as a football team."
Q:Did you guys take a look at Martellus Bennett?
REID:"We looked at that. It was a potential. He is in a good place, it worked out good for him."
Q:There was a report that if anyone claimed him but the Patriots, he would retire?
REID:"I never heard that."
Q: You guys played this strange schedule, now that you see it in hindsight did it have any effect?
REID: "I don't think so, that's why I addressed it. I think things have been said about it. It was an interesting schedule and I have never been through one quite like that. I thought our guys handled it well. I thought they came out and they had energy and did the things they needed to do to prepare themselves to win games. It was unique. That's all history. We're sitting in a good position, we just need to get better. We need to get better as coaches and players, that's really the bottom line. The bye week allowed us to dig in on some things and we need to attack those things. Anywhere where your mind goes besides that is wrong as a player and a coach. That's really what's real and where we're at."
Q: Kareem Hunt had a lot of success in that 5-0 start. How important is it to get him going again and to get your running game going better?
REID: "We need to do that. We need to get that better along with some other things. We have a couple other things that we have to do better too. It all works as a part of the whole. We can do a better job there all around."
Q: Have you been disappointed with what you've gotten out of your defensive line in the first nine games?
REID: "There are pluses and minuses in everything. The last game they held a pretty good running back under 100 yards, so you look at the positive there. Can we do better in areas? Yeah we can do better in some areas. It's important that we do that. I can probably go through and do that for each position as we go. We've all got a piece of this, so that's the way we are going to approach it."
Q: Do you typically expect four of your defensive lineman to consistently win in the pass rush against five offensive lineman?
REID: "You do, again there are some things that go into that. When you say four against five, there are games that you play, there are all different kinds of things that can go into that. Whether it's a fire zone or whatever it might be. So that mixture. If we're calling something for a pass rush I expect us to be able to win the majority of the time. You're not going to win every time, that's not feasible, but you're going to sure try to."
Q: What's the biggest area of growth you've seen in Jehu Chesson on offense?
REID: "I love his toughness. We knew coming out of Michigan that he was an aggressive player. Where you call a run he's going to bury himself down in there and go get it. He's a tremendous special teams player. Again, it's learning this system and he's attacked that. We've been able to get him in for a couple snaps this past game and he did okay. He's making progress. He's got a tough position to learn that first year and have a complete handle on, especially when you have some guys who have played a little bit there, but he's making progress."
Q: Without getting into the specifics of Roy's case and everything, the move that you made today, what message do you feel like that sends as far as this team's tolerance towards allegations of this nature?
REID: "I have no comment on that."
