Chiefs Will Have a Better Game Plan to Block Haason Reddick Than the 49ers Did
PHILADELPHIA – Andy Reid is no Kyle Shanahan.
The Kansas City Chiefs head coach knows the ability Haason Reddick has to destroy a game single-handedly. You know he won’t try to block him with a backup tight or a wide receiver, questionable tactics that the San Francisco 49ers head coach tried to do in the NFC Championship Game.
Like a steak dinner, Reddick feasted on Shanahan’s faulty blocking scheme, strip-sacking Brock Purdy from the game with an elbow injury.
The fallout has been a bunch of whining from the Bay Area, from Niners players such as Brandon Aiyuk to Christian McCaffrey to Deebo Samuel. Bunch of sore losers.
Reddick has 19.5 sacks this season, counting the playoffs. Maybe Shanahan didn’t get the memo.
His favorite sack he said was the one on Purdy, which happened in the first quarter.
“That’s my favorite one,” Reddick said on Wednesday. “Not to toot my own horn, but a lot of people said it. It felt like one of those plays that kind of sealed the game. To be able to do that for my team, I mean I would’ve loved it if it was anybody.
"It could’ve been BG (Brandon Graham) or (Josh) Sweat, anybody, but to seal the victory to get to this point right here, how could it not be?”
Reid will have a better plan for Reddick in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday.
The Chiefs’ Hall of Fame head coach will try Andrew Wylie on Reddick and maybe give him help if the task is too big. Reid doesn’t think it will be for Wylie, a former undrafted free agent from Eastern Michigan.
“He’s really a tough kid,” said Reid on Wednesday. “Not everything’s pretty, but it doesn’t have to be. He’s going to fight you and that’s important.”
At least Wylie, at 6-6, 310, is a bonafide right tackle, not a tight end or wide receiver.
Reddick is a notorious studier of film on players he lines up across from, and he has seen plenty of Wylie.
“I have a game plan,” he said. “He’s a bigger body. He likes to use his hands, so it’s going to be a great matchup. I can’t wait to get out there in front of him and see how the matchup goes.”
Wylie is friends with Las Vegas Raiders star rusher Maxx Crosby, who also attended Eastern Michigan, and the Chiefs RT called Crosby the best pass rusher he’s played against.
Like Reddick, Wylie, too is eager for the matchup.
“He’s had a great year and has had a lot of production,” said Wylie of Reddick. “He’s real quick-twitch off the ball and he can bend the corner real well. He has a lot of moves in his bag, so it’s going to take a lot to shut him down, but we’re ready for it.”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
