Kansas City Chiefs center Austin Reiter is going into his first season in the NFL as the established starter. A former seventh-round pick by the Washington Football Team, Reiter bounced around for his first few seasons in the league. It wasn’t until the Chiefs claimed him off waivers in 2018 that he’d find some consistency.
Reiter stuck with Kansas City throughout the 2018 season, primarily working as an extra blocker on jumbo packages. It wasn’t until Week 8 when starting center Mitch Morse was injured that Reiter would get his first opportunity to start in Kansas City. His performance in those four games led to a contract extension in December. The Chiefs had found their center of the future, at least for the next two seasons.
“It’s been pretty unique,” Reiter told reporters on Saturday. “Coming in as a seventh-round pick, practice squad guy and over the years just working myself up, working up my confidence to where I’m at now, night and day to when I entered this league. I credit that to probably all the coaches, all the organizations and people that believe in me and obviously the hard work. It takes thousands of reps to get there and confidence honestly, but I’m still trying to improve. There’s no complacency.”
As Reiter attempts to make improvements for the 2020 season, he’s faced with the challenge of getting chemistry down with a new teammate. He’s played next to new starting RG Andrew Wylie before, but he’s working on getting chemistry down with new starting LG Kelechi Osemele.
“Definitely a sense of urgency there,” Reiter said. “Kelechi’s (Osemele) come into a new system, but he’s a veteran guy, he knows how to play football and it’s kind of bringing up people when you got new guys, but for him, even though he’s played a lot of football, it’s really that communication part it. It’s speaking our language, knowing where the footwork is going to be, certain blocks, how we do things a little different. I think he’s picking it up very well. Credit to the coaching staff. I think we keep things very consistent. We’re specific in how we want them which honestly helps.”
Osemele is picking up the offense and doing a good job with it, but at the end of the day, it’ll take a lot of repetitions together for the chemistry and communication between the two players to grow. Reiter credits the coaching staff for getting guys ready to play and preparing them for different positions and situations.
“Lots of reps in practice, talking in meetings, making sure everyone’s on the same page,” Reiter explained. “Coach (Andy) Heck and the coaching staff does a great job with being able to plug and play guys when needed. The practice part of it especially with guard and center, kind of learning each other’s footwork, not tripping over each other, knowing on singles and all sorts of combination blocks, where guys are going to be, but I think it’s going very well. I think our system allows people to kind of plug and play as you will.”
No matter who ends up playing next to Reiter throughout the course of the season, he’ll feel comfortable and confident because of the way the offensive line room prepares. Even in this unique offseason, with a lot of new pieces, the learning aspect has remained the same. That’ll allow for consistent play along the offensive line and growth from its established players like Reiter and its newcomers like Osemele.
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