KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- With the foundation of his team suddenly reduced to quicksand amid its hyper-localized epidemic of the pandemic, standing in a state of flux and churning uncertainty, Chiefs Coach Andy Reid opened a midweek news conference with his typical name-rank-serial number formula.
"All right, well, listen, everybody that was here practiced, so we had a good day today," he said with a wry smile. "Obviously, we have a little bit of the covid thing going around, and some guys are in the protocol there for that. ...
"We look forward to the challenge of playing Pittsburgh ... So, we'll get ourselves ready this week and prepared to play again against a good team. With that, time's yours."
Not much to see here, then, was the message.
Not even with nine players (down from 13 earlier this week) stranded on the reserve/covid-19 list ... and no way to know how many would be available for their game this week ... or if others would soon join them ... or even know for sure that the game against Pittsburgh scheduled for today at Arrowhead Stadium would proceed as arranged.
Reid amplified the "what, me worry?" bit with the disarming humor that he wields sparingly, at least in his public persona, but so deftly.
"We might have to pull you off the IR list and get you out there," he joked with one reporter. "No, we're OK. Listen, we've got plenty of bodies and guys that want to play, so that's how nothing has really changed. We just plug the next person in, and here we go. That's kind of how we're rolling right now."
But don't mistake this understatement as denial. Reid obviously appreciates that he's dealing with what he called "a crazy thing that's in motion," a circumstance that threatens to hinder if not sabotage the seven-game winning streak that has propelled the Chiefs (10-4) from a distressing 3-4 start to a tentative grip on the top seed in the AFC with three regular-season games to play.
It's just that Reid knows that panic not only isn't an option but also that he can't show that face even if it's something bubbling inside him.
"Rock solid," defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo called Reid, noting how his demeanor steadies all in the face of sudden change and sudden challenges.
If he's going to get the most out of those "plenty of bodies," which may even require calling on Elliott Fry (who has attempted and made one NFL field goal, from 23 yards) with kicker Harrison Butker in covid limbo, Reid has to instill faith by exuding his "next man up" mantra.
That stay-the-course trait has served Reid well along the way to becoming the fifth-winningest coach in NFL history.
That's such a part of him, though, that it also obscures something else essential to his success.
Something that will loom large over how the Chiefs navigate this week and contend with this heightened X-factor in the weeks to come.
As much as Reid will downplay how much the Chiefs have to adjust everything both all week and in real time, presumably still today, let's remember that his career has been profoundly fashioned by the innovation you see every week in his offense and the adaptability that fuels that.
And while Reid and even Patrick Mahomes will insist the Chiefs "haven't really changed much," as Mahomes put, there's no doubt that in game-planning alone they'll have to account fundamentally for the possibility, even likelihood, that Travis Kelce won't be back this week.
It's also worth noting that a key reason the Steelers are 22nd in the NFL in points allowed a game (23.9) is that they are 31st in the league in rush yards allowed (143.9 a game). So the Chiefs might well emphasize that as a path of least resistance.
One way or another, you can bet the Chiefs will seek to adapt not just to what the Steelers present, but to what they have to work with themselves. More likely than not, they'll do it astutely as a reflection of Reid's wisdom, wiles and wit.
It might seem unrelated, but it bears mention that one way to understand Reid's ability to recalibrate is in his nimble deployment of humor -- from the quick-hitters ("If I could jump," he said after the overtime win over the Chargers, "I'd jump") to the observational to the self-deprecating.
In another life, he might have been an improv act in himself.
Through the years, Reid has reaffirmed those lessons, including by demonstrating a willingness to change both in the crucible of the moment and in the broader sense.
That's what happened in Philadelphia, where he was the de facto general manager for much of his time before realizing, perhaps not as soon as he might have, that it was too much.
Recognizing that played into the beginning of this renaissance in Kansas City with John Dorsey as general manager and now with GM Brett Veach, with whom Reid has a remarkable mutual trust that has helped stake the Chiefs to back-to-back Super Bowls and made them contenders again this season.
Even now as they face a different sort of challenge.
But even as Reid firmly maintains his reassuring presence, perhaps the most reassuring part of his persona right now is what he's surely engineering behind the scenes to meet the moment ... and greet the weeks to come.