Andy Reid wants Alex Smith to be a coach with Chiefs?

Lat year's Comeback Player of the Year Alex Smith surprised some in the football community when he announced on Monday that he has decided to retire after returning to the field from a gruesome leg injury with the Washington Football Team last fall. 

The 36-year-old spent five seasons playing under Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who told reporters that the signal-caller can return to the organization if he wants to pursue a coaching career. 

"You guys know what I feel about him," Reid said, per Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk. "He’s just a heck of a person. He had a great career. He played so many years here with different teams, and everywhere he went, he made them better. I texted him a while back if he gets into coaching I get first dibs on him, which I doubt he will, but if he decides to go that route, he’d be a guy that you’d love to have on your staff. He is really a special person. He’ll go down as one of my all-time favorites there." 

Super Bowl LIV Most Valuable Player Patrick Mahomes, who replaced Smith as Kansas City's starting quarterback in 2018, added that his former teammate is "just a tremendous guy, obviously a great player." 

Mahomes continued: "Dealt with adversity throughout his career and always seemed to come out on top and be better from it. He’s dealt with different coaches. He’s dealt with different systems, and he’s always had success and obviously with the injury that he had, been able to come back and lead his team to the playoffs. It shows the type of man that he is, the type of team player that he is, and I’m just grateful for the time that I had with him that really developed me to be the quarterback I am today."