While the Kansas City Chiefs prepare for the final week of the 2024 NFL season and look ahead to the postseason, there are other looming questions about the team could soon arise.
The Chiefs have been very fortunate during the past two seasons to not really lose any of their coordinators or assistant coaches to other teams with head-coaching vacancies. Could this be the season where the team actually does see some departures from their coaching staff?
Once the regular season ends on Monday, Jan. 6, NFL franchises with head-coaching vacancies will have the ability to request interviews with candidates employed by the Chiefs. If granted approval, members of the Kansas City coaching staff can be interviewed virtually before the end of the divisional round.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid discussed the coaches on his staff who merit head-coaching opportunities. He pointed to the usual suspects but also included an underrated coach who teams could consider.
“I mean, you could take all the coordinators there and put them right in that mix, for sure,” Reid said. “I mean, both of the offensive (Matt Nagy), defensive guys (Steve Spagnuolo) are phenomenal. (Dave) Toub does a great job. I know the two names that normally come up are the offensive, defensive coordinators, both those two warrant that, for sure.”
Toub, 62, has been the special teams coordinator in Kansas City since 2013. He added assistant head coach to his title ahead of the 2018 NFL season. In the few instances where Chiefs HC Andy Reid has been absent over the years, it’s Toub who has run the show.
The 2024 NFL season has thrown some curveballs at Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub. First, Chiefs K Harrison Butker suffered a knee injury that saw him land on injured reserve. They signed K Spencer Shrader from the New York Jets practice squad, and he was looking like a gem before suffering his own injury that saw him wind up on the injured reserve. The Chiefs signed a third kicker, Matthew Wright, to kick for the team for a few weeks, and he, too, saw success as the team’s starting kicker. He earned AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors in Week 14 and was released the following week upon Butker’s return. In the end, the Chiefs became the first team in NFL history to have three different kickers (Harrison Butker, Spencer Shrader, and Matthew Wright) make game-winning field goals as time expires in a single season.
That might be the most notable of Toub’s successes, but how about coaching up Matt Araiza to be one of the league’s best punters in his first full year in the league? What about the meticulous attempts at blocking a field goal, resulting in Leo Chenal’s game-winning field goal block in Week 12 against the Denver Broncos? How about identifying Nikko Remigio as one of the team’s best return specialists, only for him to be signed from the practice squad midseason and replace an injured Mecole Hardman? Toub has proven his chops this year and should absolutely get equal consideration in the NFL head-coaching carousel compared to the likes of Matt Nagy and Steve Spagnuolo.
