CHIEFS HEAD COACH ANDY REID
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OPENING STATEMENT: **"Let me throw a few injuries at you. The guys that won't practice today are Allen Bailey, Allen had hurt his knee a few weeks back. He's doing okay, it's precautionary right now so we're going to rest him today. Mitch Morse won't practice today, he sprained his foot. He was the one who came out of the game, but we're evaluating him and just seeing, it's a day-to-day thing. Dee Ford is still day-to-day with the back. Then Eric Murray is making progress with his ankle, but still not there. Before I get on to talking about Oakland I was asked about Marcus Peters, and I've done a lot of thinking and have come to the conclusion that I'm going to suspend him for this game. He'll be back the following week and I'm not going to get into detail on it. I did have an opportunity to talk to Marcus and some of the players and I've got a good locker room, I fully trust them that we'll be okay there. That's where we're at and I know you guys had asked and I feel that I needed to give you a heads up on that. But I can't get into detail. With that we look forward to the challenge of playing Oakland. We know they're a good football team. We've already played them this year, so we know. Our guys are ready to have a good week of practice, focus in and get their scheme down and our scheme down that we're going to go against them with and perfect that and get ready to play a good game at home at Arrowhead. It will be good to be back at Arrowhead."
Q: Was this just the final straw? For a couple of years you've dealt with some things with Marcus and you felt like 'I've just given him too much rope and this is it I've got to stand strong'?
REID: "I'm not going to get into the details. This was something that Marcus and I discussed and I'd leave it at that. I'm not going to get into it other than I had a chance to talk to Marcus and I felt that this was the right thing to do at this time. Not make it any more than that. That's where I'm at."
Q: Just to clarify, from your perspective you've kind of let it go for a couple of years with a lot of incidents and that's enough?
REID: "I made it off of the thing that happened on Sunday, that was it."
Q: Just to clarify, he's going to continue to practice, it's just for the game?
REID: "No, when you're suspended you can't be here to practice."
Q: How did Marcus take the news?
REID: "Listen, I'm going to leave all of that stuff with Marcus and I. I'm not going to get into the details. That's not the way I roll with these things. I deal with the player man-to-man and we talk about it and discuss it and inevitably he'll come back and we'll move on from there."
Q: I think you alluded that you heard from his teammates, you talked to some of the other players. What was the input or what did they say about it?
REID: "Again, you know how I do with that. I keep that in-house. I had chance to talk with some of the players on my committee."
Q: Before the decision?
REID: "No, it was today to give them a heads up on it."
Q: Would you call this a difficult decision? Was this a difficult thing for you to do?
REID: "Yeah, I like Marcus Peters so that's a difficult thing to do. Any time you have to do one of these type of things that's not the best part of the job. But again, I've always told you I'm going to do what I feel is best for this organization for that time. I try to sit back, I try to evaluate and that's what I did with this. This is the conclusion that I came down with."
Q: Just a point of clarification, was it for throwing the flag into the stands?
REID: "I'm not getting into all that."
Q: Where have you seen the biggest area of development with Tyreek Hill?
REID: "We all know he can run down the field and catch balls. I think the place he's improved the most are the intermediate routes. Playing in space, I think he's done a nice job there. Knowing how to use his body against different leverages – what he can get away with there. He's learned the coverages. The variety of coverages that you see and be able to roll with all the different routes that you have, he's gotten a tremendous amount better in that area."
Q: Not to compare him to Desean Jackson, but do you see the same similarities or what kind of special characteristics?
REID: "It's more than just running fast. We have a lot of fast players in the National Football League, but it's more than that. It's his ability to track the ball, set things up when the ball is in the air, to maintain your speed. Other guys when the ball is in the air that inside arm drops, it cuts their speed down three quarters and defensive backs can catch back up and roll. He's able to maintain his speed through these routes and it's not always on the ultimate angle that we're asking him to do it on so he's really got to drive the chin to the shoulder, keep the arm at the square and run fast. All those things, those fundamentals, he's very good at that."
Q: What's your challenge to him?
REID: "Just that. We have a variety of routes that we're asking him to do. It takes time to do that, work and time. And he's willing to do the work part of it and then it's just a matter of the reps, getting more and more looks at it. Against all the different coverages."
Q: How do you make sure your messages are still getting to the players?
REID:"I would probably tell you knowing your locker room and having a good locker room and communication I think is probably the important thing. I think it's a people business, so communicate."
Q: Do you anticipate (Darrelle) Revis will get some kind of limit on Sunday?
REID: "I'm just going to see how it plays out. We'll see how he does today and we'll go from there. Right now with him it's just getting him back in the swing, day to day and communicating with him. He's a veteran player, and he's a good communicator so we'll just talk with him as we go forward here."
Q: When you have such an extreme turn, do you feel like you need to do anything different, like reset?
REID: "I think you go back and if you haven't been focusing on the fundamentals, the hard work, all those things, then you got to make sure that you start there. I told you I look in the mirror first, so I do that. And then go through and then we work it from there. So I don't think you change the whole thing that has been successful and is time tested, I don't think that's what you do. There's subtle little things that need to be fixed and we've got to fix them. That's really the reality of it."
Q: How much do you put stock in this game as a make or break?
REID: "I mean it's the National Football League. It's that time of the year you've got to come out, you've got to play well. You'd like to say it's week to week, but it really is. We say it but this league is so competitive and every week is an important week. No different than this week here. Very, very important."
Q: When you have a turn like this, which player do you look to, to be that leader?
REID:"I've got good leadership. It's not just one guy. We've got a group of guys that are veteran players that have been around and are good leaders. I obviously bank on those guys. We've got a good influx. We've got a pretty good locker room, that's the positive. That's how I feel. You bank on that."
Q: (Tanoh) Kpassagnon had the most playing time last Sunday, what have you seen from him lately?
REID: "We've been giving him a little bit more and a little bit more each week. He's long, he's working on his pass rush. He's working on the run game. We moved him to outside linebacker, which is kind of a new thing for him. But again I think he's one of these guys, he's another one, a young guy that's getting better every chance he has to play. We've obviously liked what we've seen because we keep putting him back in and giving him opportunities."
Q: Decision on Dadi Nicolas?
REID: "We'll play it out here this week and just see. See how it rolls. Brett Veach is more involved with that then I am."
Q: Who are some of the guys you lean on to help hold others accountable?
REID: "I'm not going to pick out individual guys. You guys know who the leaders are on the team and the veteran leadership that we have is tremendous. They do a good job of that. You guys know who they are. I don't need to point out who the leaders are on the team."
