KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Less than 24 hours after euthanizing a 6-11 season, Andy Reid stood in front of his team one last time on Monday morning.

The future Hall of Fame head coach, who confirmed last week he isn’t considering retirement and plans to return as long as Clark Hunt will have him, had some important messages after a uniquely dismal year.

It was the first losing season for both Reid and the Chiefs since 2012, the year before the two parties united, drafted Travis Kelce and proceeded to win three Super Bowls.

To the rookies

Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith and Nick Bolton joined the Chiefs in 2021 and promptly advanced to four consecutive AFC championship games. Trent McDuffie and George Karlaftis entered the fold in 2022 and went to three Super Bowls in their first three seasons.

But all the current rookies know is what they experienced in 2025. And Reid made sure Monday that his youngest players know what’s expected.

“This class is the only class that hasn’t really had success,” Reid said on a season-ending conference call Monday afternoon, “and so they haven’t experienced that part of it. And so it’s important that they, when they left here, that they understood really what needs to be taken care of. You try to make that as crystal clear as you can to them and, at the same time, to the coaches and the people that were in the room there.

“Not that we haven’t talked to them about it before, or I haven’t talked to them about it before, but that you reinforce it, that these are the expectations. It’s a ceiling that we want to keep ourselves at, and anything less is unacceptable. So, that’s what they can bring to the table here as we go forward.”

To the veterans

The culture Reid has established in Kansas City rivals any locker room in the league, but character didn’t win more than six games in 2025.

Speaking ultimately to the players under contract for next season – 21 Chiefs veterans are eligible for unrestricted free agency in two months – Reid told his leaders they need to plug the leaks.

“I’ve kind of sensed that as we’ve been going through this,” Reid said, “that our core players — those core veteran players, the core group, some of them are younger guys, too — that they were very focused on figuring out the problems and not excusing themselves from it, taking accountability. And, then we have to make sure we fix it to go forward.”