‘Jet Chip Wasp’ was a moment that will last forever, but also speaks to Chiefs’ future
For 50 years, the most iconic play in Chiefs history was 65 Toss Power Trap. Its stature was assured as much by the then-novelty of mic’d-up coach Hank Stram sending in the call (thanks to NFL Films) as the pure impact of Mike Garrett’s 5-yard touchdown run on the way to a 23-7 victory over Minnesota in Super Bowl IV.
On the eve of a new era in pro football with the NFL-AFL merger, the moment will forever retain its historical significance.
But even as we try to account for recency bias, another play now stands on a pedestal above it all in Chiefs lore.
And the play that always will be linked to the question “do we have time …?” might stand the test of time as the most fabled in franchise history even if there arguably were more momentous ones on the way to either Super Bowl win.
The play that wasn’t even as spectacular as others in Patrick Mahomes’ burgeoning highlight collection ... but resounds most because it came at the crux of the crucible of the most watched event on Earth on behalf of a fan base seeking to purge five decades of exasperation.
The play that encapsulated the resilience in the Chiefs’ 31-20 rally over San Francisco in Super Bowl LIV (and entire postseason) and stood for the imagination and possibilities that made that team so thrilling … and conjures images of more to come.
“It kind of encompassed a lot of stuff”
“Jet Chip Wasp” already is immortalized on T-shirts and in the Madden video game franchise. One day, it will be commemorated in the Pro Football Hall of Fame either in and of itself or as part of an Andy Reid showcase. Or in a Mahomes montage.
Or some kind of combo homage to the mind-melded dynamic duo.
Because the play abruptly paved the way to the franchise’s first Super Bowl triumph in half a century.
With the Chiefs trailing 20-10 midway through the fourth quarter facing third-and-15 at their 35-yard-line, Mahomes’ off-balance fling to Tyreek Hill was good for 44 yards.
Seconds after defeat had appeared imminent, victory seemed almost inevitable.
Abracadabra. It felt like magic. Or looked like fortune.
But the intricate choreography, including the protection and a crucial decoy pattern by Sammy Watkins, reflected repetition after repetition at the very core of the fusion of Reid’s creativity and Mahomes’ transcendent talents.
“It kind of encompassed a lot of stuff,” Mahomes said, “that we had run the entire season.”
And done the entire season: On plays of third and 15 or more, Mahomes completed 13 of 17 passes for 299 yards. His pass to Hill covered 57.1 yards in the air, the farthest he threw for a completion all season .. and a pass that will remain aloft in Chiefs annals.
Insect-inspired plays
By now, most Chiefs fans have either heard or read of the Mahomes mic’d up bit (thanks again to NFL Films) when he asks offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, “Do we have time to run Wasp?”
Some took that to mean time left in the game, others that it was Mahomes essentially calling the play.
What it really was, though, was an extension of thinking that started with the drafting of Mahomes in 2017. And furthered with the creation of the basic concept installed in the last two years by the man known to give plays such colorful names (and schemes) as the “Hungry Pig” series.
When I suggested in an interview with Reid I thought I remembered something about him creating plays with comic book or Star Trek-type names to them, he didn’t want to elaborate much. But he did allow as how he nicknamed Watkins “Starship 14,” and thus that he’s “got his own set of plays that relate to space.”
As for Wasp?
“We have some insect-(inspired) plays; this one kind of evolved off of that,” Reid said, noting he uses “buzzwords here or there” to simplify a wordy offense. “So we’ll cut things down, and we’ll tie something into one word the best we can. And so ‘Wasp’ was what we named this one.”
With a smile, he added, “Some of these insects are like stinger plays where they get you — they’re a little deeper to sting the defense.”
“We still have this in the holster”
Ever close to the vest, Reid hesitatingly acknowledged the Chiefs had run the play against the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game the year before, a pass good for 42 yards to Hill.
But when I asked if they had used it much beyond that, he laughed and said, “We might have run it before.”
Mahomes has said they ran Wasp against the Chargers and the Falcons in the 2018 preseason, a game memorable for that 69-yard touchdown pass to Hill that was an early portent of what Mahomes could do in the NFL.
And they ran a different iteration of it earlier in the Super Bowl. From the same formation, with Watkins split left and Hill and Travis Kelce aligned inside him, Hill ran directly at safety Jimmie Ward in the middle of the field.
That effectively set a trap for when the Chiefs needed it most against a defense that, per NFL Films, entered the game having given up only eight completions of 20 yards or more.
While Reid had considered returning to it earlier in the game, the element of Hill cutting to the corner was a time-consuming factor against a voracious pass rush.
“Protection early was a bit of an issue,” Reid said.
They spoke about it again on the sideline before the Chiefs went out for that series, with Reid at one point telling Mahomes “we still have this in the holster.”
After Hill’s apparent catch on second and 15 was ruled incomplete, the situation bordered on dire with 7 minutes 13 seconds left down 10.
Time to see if they had time for Jet Chip Wasp.
Before the play, Mahomes implored Hill to “do something special.” And to keep running … even as he reckoned he’d have to keep running himself to buy time.
“He took like nine steps to throw the thing, and we don’t have one of those in the playbook,” Reid said. “Not straight back at least.”
But even before Mahomes stepped up to throw with San Francisco’s DeForest Buckner closing and Hill not yet into his cut and still some 20 yards from where the ball would arrive, the Chiefs knew they had what they wanted.
Cornerback Emmanuel Moseley, who evidently had deep third responsibility, was lured to the middle by Watkins’ square-in route while Ward anticipated Hill coming into the middle third.
“It was a real route, but Sammy on his end break sold that son of a gun with his eyes and shoulders and everything ...,” Reid said. “The corner was in conflict. … Not that he did a bad job, but he was the one that was in conflict.”
And the 49ers then were in distress, unraveling in the final moments.
Route trees as art
While creating conflict is at the heart of his route designs, the work also seems a matter of his harmony with Mahomes and within a man whose parents stood at an intersection of science and art.
When it was submitted that those early influences helped shape his work, Reid smiled but stopped short of agreeing.
“That’s complicated; I don’t know that,” he said. “I know I love doing what I’m doing.”
One way or another, though, the creativity seems hard-wired.
At the Super Bowl, Reid’s son Britt, the Chiefs’ linebackers coach, marveled at his father’s ability to draw caricatures and the thousands of notecards he continues to sketch plays on.
“It’s all about lines,” Britt Reid said. “When you draw those (passing) route trees, you’re drawing art, really.”
As he thinks back, Reid first remembers scrawling plays when he was growing up in Los Angeles and playing football at John Marshall High. His coach ran a Veer offense, predicated on deception in the running game. That stoked Reid’s interest.
“I used to love looking at the different spots and the reads that the quarterbacks had,” he said. “So during meetings … I kind of messed around with drawing things up and experimenting with it.
“But I was a lineman at that time, so people weren’t asking me a whole lot about what I liked and didn’t like.”
He became more and more attached to play design at Glendale (California) Community College and Brigham Young under LaVell Edwards. And from his NFL start with the Green Bay Packers through taking over in Philadelphia before coming to Kansas City, it ultimately became among his hallmarks.
“It’s a good time to be an offensive football coach in today’s football world. But, likewise defensively. The creativity, one stems from the other. And really kind of nurtures thought for the other. …,” he said. “So that challenge, that’s the part I like the best: the opportunity of that chess match.”
Toward that, there seems no limit to the sources of Reid’s reservoir, which he is quick to say is cultivated through cooperation with all in the offensive room.
The process is so collaborative, Reid said, that he can’t tell you when exactly the play in question was created. There’s no born-on date, no byline, in the archives.
Speaking more generally, he said, “I guess I’ve got 51 percent of it, but I don’t care. If it’s somebody else’s, if it’s good, let’s go.”
That includes some literal signature input from Mahomes, who has drawn up some plays in the Chiefs offense.
A vast canvas
It all makes for a vast canvas, from concept to development to fruition. “To trick people’s eyes,” as Watkins once put it.
With utterly innovative thinking … including the respect for history and open-mindedness to draw from the past.
For an idea of the range in play, consider “Rose Bowl Right Parade” and four men spinning in unison in the backfield to set up a direct snap to Damien Williams for a key red-zone run earlier in the Super Bowl.
The play was inspired by one Reid saw in a tape of the 1948 Rose Bowl between Michigan and USC.
“My brother’s high school coach was actually in that game for USC,” Reid said the morning after the Super Bowl. “I had a little bit of that tape. We went back through and pulled that out. We actually have a whole package of it, so you’ll have to wait until next year to see the rest. There’s some good stuff.”
As we spoke about how much time he spends trying to concoct more “good stuff,” Reid playfully turned his camera toward a stack of index cards of new plays he’d summoned in the offseason.
“You’ve got to keep ‘em coming,” he said, smiling. “Because there will be a couple people who work on the ol’ Wasp.”
Even as others will always have time to celebrate it.
This story was originally published September 6, 2020 at 5:00 AM.