Josh Simmons told to leave Chiefs meeting by Andy Reid, report says

Pete Grathoff, The Kansas City Star on Oct 25, 2026

Published in Football

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An ESPN report claims there was a dust-up between injured left tackle Josh Simmons and coach Andy Reid on Wednesday at the Kansas City Chiefs facility.

Simmons, who has yet to play this season because of a back injury, had returned to practice this past week. The altercation started because Simmons had his feet up in the offense’s meeting room. That’s when “Reid asked him to put his feet down, according to multiple sources who witnessed the interaction,” the ESPN story said.

Simmons allegedly told Reid his feet were up because his back and hips were aching, to which Reid told Simmons to see an athletic trainer if he was in pain. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes ended up intervening, the story said.

“The exchange continued and disrupted the meeting, sources said, until Mahomes echoed Reid’s sentiment for Simmons to leave the room and go get treatment,” wrote Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport. “A perturbed Simmons left the room but did not leave the building. Later in the day, Simmons apologized to Reid and team leadership by saying he could have handled the situation better.”

Simmons, who was the Chiefs’ first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft, had been working his way back from a herniated disk, but a day after the exchange, he was put on injured reserve.

Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder told reporters Thursday that Simmons had “plateaued in the rehab process,” which led to the decision to put him on IR. Simmons’ injury happened at training camp in St. Joseph.

“When you’re dealing with backs, that’s a little different animal,” Reid told reporters Friday at a news conference. “And that can go either way and I thought Rick and his crew have handled it well, and so has Josh. He’s been here every day doing his rehab, so sometimes those things work and sometimes they don’t. We’ll just give him time to see how it goes.”

Reid said at the news conference he hoped Simmons being put on IR would end the questions.

“I hope this isn’t asked to me every week,” Reid said. ”Just put this to rest. ... This isn’t that big of a story, let’s focus on the football team and guys who are playing.”

Simmons, who is 6-foot-5 and 310 pounds, started eight games last season as a rookie.

____