MIAMI — The two teams facing off in New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX a week from now have a ton of common threads, and most of them start with Andy Reid’s influence.
But if we were to create a theme for both organization’s rise to prominence it would be “never settle,” which is an error far too many franchises make, (cough, cough) including the one that resides in South Florida.
The Kansas City Chiefs have consistently dominated the NFL in both the regular season and the playoffs for the past seven years under Reid’s leadership.
But before that, Reid led the Eagles to nine playoff runs, five conference title games, and even a Super Bowl appearance in 2005 in 14 seasons as Philadelphia’s head coach.
Even with all his success with the Eagles, Reid was never able to win a Super Bowl and was fired from the team after a 4-12 season in 2012.
Coincidentally, the rudderless Chiefs in 2012 faced numerous struggles, only finishing with two wins by the end of the season.
Once Reid was free, Kansas City made quick work of that courtship and hired him as its next head coach and top executive hoping he could revitalize the organization.
In his first season as head coach, Reid led the Chiefs to an impressive 11-5 record after trading for San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith.
Meanwhile, Howie Roseman, who worked his way up the NFL ranks, goes from an intern with the Eagles, to Reid’s right hand man, and then becomes the team’s top guru.
Under his stewardship, which includes three separate head coaches, the Eagles advanced to the postseason seven of the last eight years, winning a Super Bowl in 2017 before losing it in 2022, and playing in it again at the conclusion of the 2024 season after making some major offseason moves.
If there is one lesson we can take from the rise of both franchises it’s to never settle on anything, especially when it comes to a quarterback.
Despite having a Pro Bowl caliber quarterback in the fold, the Chiefs moved up 17 spots in the 2017 draft to select Patrick Mahomes in the first round (10th overall) despite having Smith in the organization.
Kansas City gave up a 2018 first round pick, a 2017 third round pick, and pick No. 27 to put themselves in position to acquire a quarterback who would watch and learn behind Smith for one season, before eventually taking over the entire NFL, and ushering Kansas City to new heights.
The Eagles followed a similar path despite having an established franchise quarterback.
Carson Wentz had just signed a four-year, $128 million extension with the Eagles in 2019, a deal that was supposed to keep him with the franchise until 2024.
However, the team hedged their bets on the sport’s most important position by taking Jalen Hurts with the 53rd pick in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft.
When Wentz had only led the Eagles to three wins and a tie in his 12 starts in 2020, Hurts replaced him and played well enough to convince the franchise to fire the coach (Doug Pederson) who balked at Hurts’ elevation, and trade Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts the very next offseason.
Two seasons later he’d lead the Eagles to a 14-1 record that includes a Super Bowl loss.
And in his five seasons in the NFL Hurts owns a 46-20 record in the regular season, and is playing in yet another Super Bowl, with a chance to cement his legacy by dethroning the Chiefs, preventing the NFL’s first three-peat in the modern era.
The lesson we should take from this is that coaches like Reid don’t come available every decade.
And neither do executives like Roseman, who is a two-time winner of the Professional Football Writers of America Executive of the Year honor, and might be in line for his third honor because of this offseason’s addition of Saquon Barkley.
But these franchise’s unwavering commitment to upgrading the quarterback position, the desire to push their franchise forward by not being afraid to keep picking and investing in quarterbacks, is a lesson that every franchise that continues to fall short — for one reason or another — should take to heart.