Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce credits the team’s statistical analysis coordinator, Mike Frazier, for how well prepared the players were for playoff overtime.
Super Bowl LVIII was the first overtime playoff game since the NFL adopted the new rule guaranteeing both teams a possession even if the team that receives the overtime kickoff scores a touchdown. That rule introduces a whole new set of strategies to overtime, and Kelce says Frazier is well respected among the players in Kansas City and was the reason the Chiefs’ players were ready.
“My guy Mike Frazier,” Kelce said on his New Heights podcast. “He’s the one that goes through all these scenarios, all these big-time situations, end of half, end of game, rule changes, he comes up and stands in front of the team, and when he comes in front of the team everyone yells, ‘Fraaaaz!’”
Kelce said head coach Andy Reid gives Frazier plenty of time in team meetings to review the strategies.
“He goes over these kinds of situations. I’m pretty sure we went over the overtime rules three times, four times in a two-week span,” Kelce said. “Every single week we talked about overtime rules in the playoffs and Frazier was up front, giving what we would do in all these scenarios. So everybody on the team, we knew exactly what the best situation was, how we were going to handle it, how we were going to attack it. And a guy like that, man, you don’t realize how big of a job it is to do that kind of stuff.”
Kelce’s brother and podcast co-host Jason Kelce also praised Frazier, who served as the Eagles’ statistical analysis coordinator during Jason Kelce’s first two seasons in Philadelphia. Both Kelce brothers indicated that the players appreciate Frazier because he understands the rules, strategies and analytics and can explain them on the level that the players need to understand.
“It’s Frazier coming up big,” Travis Kelce said. “They’ve got to get a Frazier in San Fran.”