Initially, the Kansas City Chiefs’ coaching overhaul looked like a much-needed offseason reset after a 6–11 finish and their first missed playoff appearance in a decade. But now that the NFLPA’s 2026 report card is out to the public, it all reads more like a response to internal evaluations that exposed where the organization was slipping, particularly on one side of the ball.

The leaked report card handed the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator a C+, a mark that aligned with the franchise’s most significant offseason decision after missing the playoffs. Kansas City moved on from Matt Nagy and brought back Eric Bieniemy, signaling that the offensive dip wasn’t going to be brushed aside.

For all the stability the Kansas City Chiefs pride themselves on, the NFLPA grades quietly exposed a clear imbalance inside the building. Matt Nagy’s C+ stood as the lowest mark among the team’s three primary coordinators, trailing Steve Spagnuolo, who earned an A, and Dave Toub, who landed a B.

That gap only sharpened the scrutiny around Nagy’s role, especially in a report where the Chiefs were hit even harder elsewhere.

With team travel graded a D- and the locker room receiving an F, the problems extended beyond scheme and play-calling. Kansas City also slipped from 26th to 27th overall in the league-wide NFLPA rankings year over year, highlighting that the regression wasn’t limited to wins and losses.

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Wide receivers coach Connor Embree, who had been with the Chiefs since 2019, was let go. He was replaced by Chad O’Shea, who is a three-time Super Bowl champion with the Patriots.

Running backs coach Todd Pinkston was also replaced by DeMarco Murray. The former running back steps into his first NFL coaching role after six seasons coaching running backs at the University of Oklahoma.

Beyond the offensive staff, assistant defensive line coach Alex Whittingham also departed. Whittingham left to join the University of Michigan under his father, Kyle Whittingham. Taking his place on Reid’s defensive staff is Joe Cullen.

Notably, the offensive coordinator grade was part of a newly tracked category in this year’s survey, alongside separate grades for position coaches (C+), general manager (B+), and home game field (A-), offering a more detailed look at how players view the football operation.

Andy Reid is clearly trying to rebuild this team from the ground up and get the Chiefs back to where they belong. To do that, the franchise had to be honest about where it fell short, and the offense was at the top of that list.

KC finished the season ranked 21st in points per game and 20th in yards. They ended the campaign with a 6-11 record and missed the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. The offensive decline has not been sudden. It has been a slow slide that makes the coaching overhaul feel long overdue.

In 2024, the Chiefs ranked 15th in points and 16th in yards. In 2023, when KC won the Super Bowl, the offense ranked 15th in points and 9th in yards. But go back to 2022, and the picture is completely different.

The Chiefs were the number one offense in the league in major categories and walked away with the Super Bowl that year as well. The drop from elite to below average over just three seasons is stark, which is another major reason why bringing Bieniemy could make sense. 

During his first stint as offensive coordinator from 2018 to 2022, Kansas City led the NFL in points per game (30.1), total touchdowns (296), third-down efficiency (49%), and total yards per game (406.2), a stretch that coincided with two Super Bowl titles.

Bieniemy returns after coordinating Washington in 2023, spending 2024 at UCLA, and coaching running backs for the Chicago Bears in 2025, where his unit averaged 144.5 rushing yards per game, third-best in the league, highlighted by D’Andre Swift’s career-high 1,087 rushing yards.

That is exactly where Reid is trying to return this franchise. But here is where the story gets uncomfortable for Chiefs Kingdom because not everything has been fixed.

Andy Reid’s rebuild has a blind spot, and the players know it

The Chiefs’ locker room was graded the worst in the league, earning a flat F in this year’s report card. Players have been voicing their discontent about facility conditions for some years now. The NFLPA report paints a picture that is not pretty.

“Kansas City Chiefs: The Union said Players ‘continue to express the need for renovation and upgrades to the locker room’ and criticized the home game hotel as the ‘lowest in the league,’ remarking that it is ‘outdated,’ the beds are ‘uncomfortable,’ and the floors are ‘dirty and sticky,’” the NFLPA report card findings cited in media reports.

This is not a new problem. The Chiefs received a D- in the locker room category in 2025 and an F in 2024. And the players have tried to push for change.

The Chiefs were reportedly set to renovate their locker room after the 2023 season, but that renovation never materialized. Team owner Clark Hunt (who received a C+ grade himself in this year’s report card) publicly dismissed claims that a renovation was ever promised.

“I have spoken to some of our veteran players about that, and they’ve confirmed to me that it was miscommunication,” Hunt said in 2024. “Certainly, I personally never said anything to them about a renovation of the locker room. It was a misunderstanding.”

The Chiefs also ranked D- in team travel, C in the treatment of families, and C+ in the food and dining area. Team travel represented the steepest year-over-year drop, falling from a B to a D-, a slide that came during a season in which Kansas City went 1-7 on the road.

Even amid an arbitration ruling that temporarily barred the NFLPA from formally publishing the survey results, the grades still surfaced through media reports, reinforcing Reid’s own long-standing point that in this league, very little stays internal for long.

Looking at the star power Kansas City carries on its roster, those grades feel more than a little disappointing. They also make it clear that Reid’s rebuilding effort will have to extend beyond reshuffling coaches if the franchise wants to correct what players themselves have flagged.