New Chiefs coach Andy Reid was formally introduced in Kansas City today, and it didn’t take long for him to be asked about finding a quarterback.
Reid didn’t offer any specific opinions about the quarterbacks currently on the Chiefs’ roster -- Matt Cassel, Brady Quinn and Ricky Stanzi -- but he did acknowledge that the team needs to have a franchise quarterback. Reid referenced former Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson, the Hall of Famer who played for the franchise from 1962 to 1975 and was the MVP of Super Bowl IV.
“I have looked at the roster and there are some good football players on this football team,” Reid said. “The quarterback position, I’m going to dig in and look at that and we’ll build that thing. We’ll see how that whole thing builds out. I need to spend some time working at it, though. I’ve got to find that next Len Dawson, doggone it. It might be right here, it might not.”
Realistically, the next Len Dawson is probably not currently in Kansas City: Cassel, Quinn and Stanzi haven’t exactly shown Hall of Fame potential. So the big question for Reid is whether the Chiefs can find a franchise quarterback in free agency or in this year’s draft, where Kansas City owns the first overall pick.
“We’ve been blessed with the No. 1 pick in the draft,” Reid said. “You want to make sure you do the right thing and pick the right guy for that. Not necessarily a quarterback -- it doesn’t have to be a quarterback. It has to be the right thing. You don’t want to force anything at that point. People that do that get themselves in trouble.”
Reid would surely prefer not to play musical chairs at quarterback in Kansas City the way he did at the end of his tenure in Philadelphia, when he went from Donovan McNabb to Kevin Kolb to Michael Vick to Nick Foles. But there may not be a “next Len Dawson” available for Reid in Kansas City.