The Kansas City Chiefs announced eight changes to their coaching staff back at the beginning of April.
Speaking to the media for the first time since the 2021 staff was announced, Chiefs HC Andy Reid explained his decisions behind the various promotions, additions and reassignments.
“We’ve also had a few coaching changes take place,” Reid began. “There wasn’t a lot of changeover in the staff, so I want guys to continue to have that opportunity to grow.”
Reid provided some important context behind one of the most interesting decisions — wide receivers coach Greg Lewis shifting to coach the running backs. His expertise has been the wide receiver position, where he played back when he was an NFL player. This is uncharted territory for him, but according to Reid, he asked for the job.
“Greg Lewis is going to have the opportunity to move over to running backs,” Reid said. “Greg actually came to me about wanting the challenge of coaching the running backs. And as you guys know about how I feel about Greg, he’s very, very intelligent, has a great feel for the game, did a phenomenal job with the wide receivers, and now he’s able to learn that other side—the protection side and all that goes into coaching the running backs and the run game, and still give them tips in the pass game to make them even better than what they are now.”
Taking over in place of Lewis is Joe Bleymaier, who has held a number of different positions with the Chiefs over the years. Most recently he served as the pass-game analyst and assistant quarterbacks coach.
“Joe Bleymaier who I’ve also mentioned before has an opportunity to coach the wide receivers,” Reid said. “He’s been the assistant wide receivers coach for a couple of years and then he moved back to quarterbacks and now he’s back in the wide receiver room as a full-time coach.”
The Chiefs also have a few assistants who are jumping from one spot to another.
“David Girardi will take Joe’s spot as the pass game analyst/assistant quarterbacks coach. Connor Embree who was working as a defensive assistant now moves over to the offensive side. You remember he played wide receiver at Kansas—he moves over to the offensive side as an offensive quality control coach.”
Reid also went over the three new additions to the staff, beginning with former Youngstown State Defensive Coordinator Donald D’Alesio, who will become a defensive assistant in Kansas City.
“Donald D’Alesio is our defensive assistant, he takes the place of Connor Embree and comes from the college ranks back to us here in Kansas City, and he’ll do a nice job. He’s got a nice defensive background to him and he’ll be a nice addition in there.”
The team has a new strength and conditioning assistant, Tyler Judkins, who comes over from the Los Angeles Chargers.
“Then, Tyler Judkins replaces Travis Crittenden who took a job working internationally in the Caribbean, one of the islands there—Turks and Caicos. So, it gives him an opportunity to develop future Olympians and then Tyler Judkins gets to replace him here. I was hesitant to tell you Turks and Caicos. In case you’re there, go ahead and look him up. Small island, look him up and maybe get a free meal from him. So Tyler, again, he’ll become our assistant strength and conditioning coach.”
Finally, the biggest addition for the Chiefs was to bring in former Philadelphia Eagles linebacker coach Ken Flajole. He brings over two decades of NFL coaching experience to Kansas City. He also goes way back with Reid to their earliest days of coaching.
“I hired Ken Flajole on the defensive side to coach the outside linebackers,” Reid concluded. “Ken and I go way back to our time at El Paso, the University of Missouri, the Green Bay Packers and now back here. So, Ken’s got a long list of great accomplishments in this profession.”
There wasn’t much in the way of coaching turnover this year, but certainly plenty of changes. Hopefully, those decisions will only help the Chiefs in their pursuit of a third consecutive Super Bowl appearance.
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