Clark Hunt Backs Andy Reid As 'Special,' Outlines Expectations for 2026 Chiefs

Whenever a professional sports organization enters a season with championship aspirations and falls short of even making the playoffs, it's always a gigantic letdown. For the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that flat-out expected to compete for and win a Super Bowl, the 2025-26 campaign was an abject disaster.

A 6-11 effort was mired by injuries, inconsistency and an unrecognizable display of incompetence in clutch moments. A team that thrived in one-score outings the year prior came crashing back down to earth.

Struggles on the offensive side of the ball led some fans to call for head coach Andy Reid to no longer lead the franchise into its potential rebound season in 2026-27. It's caused a divide on social media and within the Chiefs Kingdom, although the team itself is unified in its stance.

Team Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt is ignoring any doubters and believes Reid can still deliver tremendous coaching for Kansas City this coming season. Speaking to the media following Thursday's training camp practice, Hunt gave his head coach a ringing endorsement.

"Obviously, last year was disappointing for all of us, but sometimes that happens," Hunt said. "Sometimes injuries happen, and you've got to be able to bounce back. We had a year early in Andy's tenure where we didn't make the playoffs, and it was disappointing.

"There was a lot of concern at the end of that season and some questions about whether Andy should continue to be the coach of the Chiefs. Fortunately, we made the decision that we thought he had a bright future, and he's certainly lived up to that."

The Reid-era Chiefs have missed the postseason just once: a 9-7 showing in 2014. It was Reid's second year in town, which started with a 2-3 record, although a 7-4 stretch after the bye wasn't quite enough to get into the big dance. K.C. lost four of its last six games that season.

Aside from this past year, all of Reid's Chiefs teams won double-digit games and made the playoffs. Three of them won Super Bowls, two of them appeared in another, and another pair lost in the AFC Championship Game. All of those deep runs came with quarterback Patrick Mahomes at the helm.

This offseason brought plenty of change on the coaching front, including offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy returning for his second stint in the role. Despite some turnover, Hunt believes Reid has made the correct adjustments and general manager Brett Veach has constructed a team worthy of contention for the next handful of months.

The efforts of the last few months will pay off in due time. For now, Hunt says it's time to keep building sweat equity at camp with Reid leading the charge.

"I just think Andy's a special coach," Hunt said. "He's a Hall of Fame coach. He has an incredible staff — we got to hear from Spags (defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) today, who's one of the best in the business. I'm very optimistic that the team's going to bounce back, but there's a lot that goes into it. It starts here at training camp.

"It's about getting better every day. You can't think about what happened last year, and you can't look ahead. You've got to be focused on winning the day. That was part of my message to the team last night; we've got to focus on the present."

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