Chiefs team chairman says he’ll stick with Andy Reid, John Dorsey for 2016

When Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt spoke with reporters at the team’s annual kickoff luncheon a few days before the season opener, he declined to predict how many games his team would win.

He did, however, make it clear that his expectations were high and that he expected coach Andy Reid and general manager John Dorsey to build on their first two years, when the team went 11-5 and 9-7.

Two months later, Hunt again talked to reporters, this time at Wembley Stadium before his team’s International Series “home” game against the Detroit Lions. And with his Chiefs sitting with a disappointing 2-5 record, Hunt was asked if he has considered — or will consider — making any front-office or coaching changes during the season.

“Any decisions on the coaching staff are coach Reid’s decisions, not mine, and I have full confidence in Andy and John Dorsey,” Hunt said. “I think they’re the right people to lead our football team. They’re as disappointed as I am, but I think they’re the right guys to lead us, not only this year, but going forward.”

So he’d stay with them, even if the Chiefs — who are on pace to win six games — ended up with a top-five or top-10 pick?

“I would, I would,” Hunt said. “They’re both extremely talented, they do a great job, they have very good staffs, they do a very good job of leading their staffs, so they’re the right guys for the Kansas City Chiefs.”

Hunt, however, made it clear that he was disappointed with the start, though he was encouraged by the team’s 23-13 win on Oct. 25 over the Steelers that snapped their five-game losing streak.

“Clearly during the five-game losing streak, we were all very disappointed,” Hunt said. “It’s not what any of us expected going into the season. I was glad to see the guys get it turned around last week and play a solid four quarters of football. And the challenge for us now is to do that two weeks in a row and build from there.”

Hunt was then asked for the best explanation he received from his football people about their poor start.

“I don’t think there was a good explanation for it, and there wasn’t one thing — we lost as a team,” Hunt said. “Until last week, when we played better across all three phases of the game and played the full four quarters, we just hadn’t done what we need to to win a football game.”

The schedule has not helped. In addition to facing three of the league’s best teams — Green Bay, Denver and Cincinnati, who are a combined 18-0 — in successive weeks, the Chiefs’ next game at Arrowhead isn’t until Nov. 29, and they have only played three home games.

Part of the reason for the unusual schedule was the team’s decision to ask the NFL for road games the weekend of the American Royal, as well as the weekend of a fall NASCAR race and the weekend of a Missouri-BYU college football game at Arrowhead.

“It’s a balancing act every year, and this was an unusual year in terms of the number of other significant events we hosted at the stadium,” Hunt said. “We’re cognizant of the impact on the schedule, and as we said, it’s just a balancing act, trying to figure out how to make it work, particularly with the Royals — I guess we can now count on the Royals being in the postseason every year, so we have to take that into consideration.”

Hunt anticipates the schedule being different next year.

“I sure would hope it’s not as (road) heavy next year,” Hunt said. “In every year, we make a point of asking the league for as many home games in September and October as they can give us. (The London game) was one issue that kind of clogged things up.

“They’ll listen to us, and I think the fact that we had such an unusual year this year where we’ve played so few games, really, until mid-November, I do think they might take that into consideration and help us with that issue,” Reid said.

Hunt, who is the chairman of the league’s international committee, also spent a significant amount of time discussing the league’s growing international agenda, and how that can affect the Chiefs. In many ways, he was in lockstep with several things team president Mark Donovan told The Star last week.

For instance, Hunt — like Donovan — shot down the possibility of surrendering another home game to play overseas for the near future.

“I don’t foresee us playing another home game in the near future,” Hunt said. “It would be much more likely we would play an away game before we would play another home game.

“Having said that, the league is going to expand the International Series. Beginning in 2018, there will be four games here, and the league is already looking at other markets like Mexico, Canada, Germany, Brazil, maybe one day somewhere in Asia. So I think the series is going to expand. But certainly, I don’t want to give up another home game in the near future.”

However, Hunt — like Donovan — did not rule out the possibility of playing overseas again, albeit as a road team.

“It could be as soon as next year,” Hunt said, “but I certainly would expect it to happen in the next three or four years.”

Hunt said owners still have the option to decline to give up a home game. But most, he said, understand what the league is doing in terms of growing the International Series and are willing to do it.

“There’s no longer the significant concerns from the football standpoint that I think existed seven or eight years ago when the series started,” Hunt said. “So as a practical matter, I’d be surprised to see too many teams say hey, we’re not going to do it.”

Hunt added that in the near future, the NFL might play as many as eight international games in a given year.

“I think, five years from now, we’ll look back and there will be significantly more that have given up a home game,” Hunt said.

But on Sunday, it was the Chiefs’ turn. And when asked if he had any regrets about surrendering the home game against the Lions, Hunt said he did not.

“No, none whatsoever,” Hunt said. “It’s been a great experience for the organization. I know we have fans who are disappointed that this game is not at Arrowhead today, and I understand that, but I think it was the right things for us to do for the Chiefs and for the National Football League.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Chiefs team chairman says he’ll stick with Andy Reid, John Dorsey for 2016."