The innovation that’s kept Andy Reid, Chiefs ahead of NFL: ‘He could get my dad open’

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce watches the video on an iPhone in front of his locker, explaining how a few steps — even those barely ramping up to a jog — make all the difference.

The replay is from a fourth-quarter snap against Seattle on Christmas Eve, and as Kelce starts on the screen as the outside receiver and then motions in, he keeps his pace slow on purpose.

Here, he needs time to process the defenders across from him.

“You can see how they communicate and things like that, and just where their attention is, where their eyes are,” Kelce says while keeping his eyes on the replay. “And that helps me understand how to run my route.”

That ends up being critical, considering what happens next.

A defender didn’t follow Kelce down the line of scrimmage, indicating likely zone coverage. That triggered the subsequent chain of events, as Kelce said having that information and more led to him messing a bit with the defense.

Once he made it to the level of the linebackers, Kelce faked toward the middle of the field to get them to bite. That allowed him to get past when he broke off on a deep over, giving quarterback Patrick Mahomes a big window for a 52-yard gain.

There are not supposed to be secrets in the NFL, yet this play is an example of one the Chiefs still possess thanks to their ingenuity.

The Chiefs’ hidden weapon on offense is motion, with coach Andy Reid utilizing it differently than any other NFL team.

The real magic comes when KC targets its receivers that are moving pre-snap. In that setting — even among a league typically full of copycats — the Chiefs are three times more productive than the next-best team in the NFL, zooming their way around the field while scheming a deeper level of offense than their competition.

So how do the Chiefs do it? And what are the extra advantages they get over their rivals?

Here’s a peek behind the curtain of the NFL’s best offense — and the innovation that’s taken place to literally keep it a step ahead.

Lapping the NFL ... three times

Before getting to the specifics, let’s start with the more obvious.

Ask Mahomes about the benefits of motion, and he starts with one of its primary advantages: getting a man-zone ID.

It’s not perfect, but if an offensive player goes in motion and a defender follows him, it’s likely man coverage. Without that defensive reaction, it can indicate to the offense that instead, it’s facing zone.

Most motion-happy teams use it for this purpose. Getting that extra bit of information — before a play starts — can be vital for a quarterback and his teammates.

It’s also worth noting here that some of KC’s motion success comes from a specific play: the “pop” pass. Mecole Hardman scored on this, for example, against the San Francisco 49ers, going in motion before receiving a quick flip from Mahomes where the short pass essentially functions as a run play.

Those two usages, however, don’t explain the entirety of the Chiefs’ dominance with motion this season.

Sports Info Solutions provides the context, via its tracking of stats with a “target in motion.”

Here are a few of the highlights of the Chiefs’ offense:

• KC ranks first in the NFL in expected points added (EPA) on throws to “targets in motion” at 68.93. That’s three times more production than second-place Dallas at 21.91 and two-and-a-half times the Chiefs’ league-leading total from last year (27.04). Meanwhile, 12 teams have posted negative EPA on these throws this season.

• In terms of the highest EPA in a single game among NFL teams using targets in motion, the Chiefs occupy the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 spots by themselves. Shifting to passing yards on targets in motion in individual games, KC owns six of the top nine spots while gaining at least 83 passing yards in each of those contests.

• The Chiefs average 66.7 passing yards per game off targets in motion, nearly double the next-best team (New England, 34.9).

• Overall, when targeting a player in motion, KC completed 82% of its passes for an NFL-best 1,133 passing yards and 9.8 yards per attempt.

So what’s going on here? How have the Chiefs been able to lap the NFL with their production on this type of play?

Motion, it turns out, is good for more than just a snapshot ID marker.

It can create all sorts of opponent headaches by moving the defense too.

Chiefs get ‘rolling start’

Chiefs receiver Justin Watson has you go back to the start of the video clip, saying it’s important to focus on Chargers cornerback Asante Samuel.

In this Week 11 road game at Los Angeles — when Watson sprints in motion from the top of the screen toward the bottom — the defender’s motion becomes most significant.

Samuel begins the play with “inside leverage” on Watson, which means if the receiver wants to go inside, he’ll have to battle through Samuel’s body to get there.

The Chiefs’ movement changes that, though. After Watson runs toward the QB, Samuel stays toward the sideline to shift to “outside leverage,” meaning Watson has a clear pathway now for any in-breaking route.

Watson watches on a smartphone as it plays out just as the Chiefs hoped. He runs a few steps against the Chargers man coverage, then breaks in between the hashes unimpeded. Mahomes hits him in stride for 25 yards on third-and-17.

“This offensive staff is so smart. Anything they can do to give us an advantage, they’re going to take,” Watson says. “So I think that’s one of the many examples.”

Changing a defender’s leverage is just one way KC is re-imagining what motion can do.

Watson, for one, brings up the impact of getting a “rolling start.” Motion can get Chiefs players to full speed while defenders remain flat-footed, which has often contributed to explosive plays.

A few weeks later, this happens again ... for Watson. He uses motion to get to max speed quicker on a 67-yard bomb, giving the Chiefs their biggest play in the season finale against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster confirms another instance like this from earlier in the year. His pre-snap movement on a third-and-5 against Denver not only helped diagnose the defense — “Right here, I knew it was zone,” Smith-Schuster says with a video paused before the snap — but also got him moving in a direction away from Broncos defenders.

After Denver failed to properly pass off Smith-Schuster, his natural momentum created an even greater opening for a 10-yard conversion.

“I just kept running,” Smith-Schuster says. “I saw green grass and then (was) lucky Pat found me.”

Those advantages, though, aren’t the primary way KC’s coaches have schemed a way to help their best pass-catcher.

Because the NFL’s No. 1 receiver when getting targeted in motion this season? That would be Kelce with 418 receiving yards.

And it turns out motion hasn’t just helped him get going; it’s also ensured he never has to stop.

How Kelce runs free

NBC Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth says there have been times this season when he’s laughed while rewatching Kelce tape.

The All-Pro tight end seemingly continues to make play after play ... even when, at times, it appears he’s only moving at half-throttle.

“He’s probably running an 8-flat 40-yard dash at some of the speeds that he runs,” Collinsworth says, “but he’s like, I don’t know, Tom Glavine or somebody back into baseball days, that it’s chasing the change-up, because if you’re moving slower, you can make breaks faster.”

Collinsworth praises Kelce for his intellect. He says the tight end “probably reads defenses better than three-quarters of the quarterbacks in the league” — a skill needed to thrive at his position at 33 years of age.

However, all that wouldn’t matter as much if Kelce was constantly jammed at the line of scrimmage while unable to get up to speed.

It’s why Kelce says he’s thankful to be in Kansas City and playing for Reid. The Chiefs put in motions from Day 1 of installs of training camp, making it a staple — and not an added feature — of their offense.

And by changing his spot before the snap (while often stacking himself behind a teammate), Kelce can ensure he doesn’t get redirected by a defender.

“When a guy can get his hands on me early, when I don’t have any momentum, it can slow me down on my route,” Kelce says. “But if I can get a free release or get a release on the run, I can get guys moving faster. It helps me with the speed and the route.”

Mahomes notes that when receivers like Kelce aren’t jammed early, “the timing can be right” on planned routes and throws down the field.

Backup quarterback Chad Henne also believes the strategy helps unlock the best of Kelce, as he doesn’t have to worry about ever getting sandwiched between defenders.

“We try to get him out in space,” Henne says, “so he has freelance to do what he does.”

KC has ramped up Kelce’s motion usage in his 10th season. Last year, when targeted in motion, Kelce had 28 receptions for 282 yards with 4.62 expected points added; that EPA total ranked 36th.

This year, he’s becoming the undisputed king of the shift. He leads the NFL in targets-in-motion receptions (34), receiving yards (418) and EPA (15.7).

He’s not the only Chiefs player toward the top of that same NFL leaderboard. Hardman ranks fourth in target-in-motion EPA, while Watson is ninth. Running back Jerick McKinnon (19th) and Smith-Schuster (20th) also are in the top 20.

“I think if you have the ability and the language in your offense to move people around pre-snap to utilize it, it doesn’t hurt, as long as the guys are in tune and aware of how to do it,” Chiefs receivers coach Joe Bleymaier says. “And so we try to use that on as many plays as we can.”

What Reid has meant to Kelce

A few days before the Chiefs’ Week 18 against the Raiders, Kelce stood at a podium and was asked to reflect on his 10-year history in KC with Reid.

Kelce was honest. He said Reid had developed his game and had “been everything for me” since his third-round selection in the 2013 NFL Draft.

“He’s helped changed really the outlook,” Kelce says, “on what a tight end can be.”

This season has only solidified what the inventive Reid can do.

He’s used a traditional offensive tool unlike any other NFL team. He’s manipulated one-step-late defenses by running by them and shifting off them, then also accentuated the strengths of his future hall-of-fame tight end by giving him a primarily hands-free experience on offense.

It’s part of the reason why Kelce is smiling on this particular Thursday. The secret to his success isn’t just his work, but also attributable to a coach who never rests in the pursuit of giving his guys an edge.

“Everybody’s always asking how the heck I get so open, and I’m like, ‘Well, I got Andy Reid, baby,’” Kelce says with a smile. “You got Coach Reid ... he could get my dad open if he was out there.”

That final line, of course, might ultimately depend on one thing:

Whether Ed is able to go in motion.

The Star’s Pete Grathoff contributed to this story.