Andy Reid is the Most Influential Innovator in the League

Andy Reid wanted to bring a new offense into the NFL. It all started when Michael Vick signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2009. Reid wanted Vick to take the spread offense that was in college and merge it with the traditional West Coast offense. Any offense who melded the two styles would be very tough to stop. It was until now, nearly 10 years later, that Reid’s pursuit of a new offense finally paid off, but it has, because it is the defining tactical feature of this NFL season. Now head coach in Kansas City, Reid brought the style to the Chiefs, who used it to beat the New England Patriots 42-27 in the first game of this year. During the game, the Chiefs unveiled a package of plays that looked like they were lifted from a college playbook. But then, the Patriots acknowledged borrowing the Chiefs’ plays the next week, and since then, the rest of the league has had similar thoughts.

Brady said on @WEEI this morning that the Patriots used the same play vs Saints that Chiefs used on Kareem Hunt’s 78 yard TD. Here is Hunt: pic.twitter.com/wIA7a7uNf9

— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) September 18, 2017

Another popular college concept getting rinsed and repeated in the NFL. Jet action with the RB seam route. Nice block. #spreadoffense #Rams pic.twitter.com/yQsUJS2p3f

— SpreadOffense.com (@SpreadOffense) October 2, 2017

Reid has long-believed that college was typically “five years ahead” of the pros and that we should expect more college influence to come into the pros. He is the only coach who invested this amount of work into investigating the idea of the spread.

Andy Reid and the #Chiefs bring the college game to the NFL better than anyone else! Always creative.

Here we have Speed Option off Jet action, with both Defensive Ends unblocked.

Alex Smith pitches to @Kareemhunt7 for a 24 yd gain.@ArrowheadPride #chiefskingdom pic.twitter.com/4Jq5JK8Vfk

— NFL Matchup on ESPN (@NFLMatchup) December 27, 2017