Reid: Geno Smith In Play For No. 1 Pick

PHOENIX — When the Chiefs traded for  Alex Smith, the conversation about Geno Smith being taken  with the No. 1 pick in this April’s draft was shut down.

Andy Reid opened it back up on Tuesday at the AFC coaches breakfast.

“That doesn’t mean Geno is out of the water,” said Reid, surrounded by a group of Philadelphia reporters during the second day of the owners meetings. “I’m going to keep my eyes open on everybody. I think Geno is a good quarterback. We’ll just see how it all goes, get this workout thing going.”

It could very well be that Reid is simply not ready to show his hand yet. Asked how many players he is considering for the top pick, Reid said between eight and 10. That is a really high number at this stage of the process, even if  he is being thorough.

“You can’t force a pick there. You can’t say, ‘I need this position’ or you’re going to miss a good football player, and that’s what you want to get from that position right there,” said the former Eagles coach, who was celebrating his 55th birthday Tuesday. “So we’re going to work everybody out and see what’s available.”

Some other takeaways:

— Reid was asked about the level of interest he had in trading for Nick Foles.

“I had my eyes on Alex really when I took the job there. I wanted to make sure I evaluated the guys on campus and checked them out,” he said. “I really liked Matt Cassell. Sometimes I just think change can be good.”

— On his decisions to speak with Chip Kelly during the Eagles’ coaching search.

“Jeffrey [Lurie] asked me if I would do that when I left, and I had no problem doing that. Jeffrey was very good to me. And then, really as a coach you want your players to be taken care of, you want them to have a good coach. Those are all kids we recruited there, drafted there, brought there, so  you want them to have something positive. I think Chip is a good football coach and it will work out great for him.”

— On Kelly in the NFL:

“He’s got different innovative and creative ideas. He has a great relationship with Phil Knight, so he’s on the cutting edge of all their technology. I think he’ll bring that into the league. I think most of what he does will work at this level. I think he is going to blend it. He brought Pat Shurmur on, and I think he’ll blend the pro style with what he does with the spread, and I think the tempo stuff will translate that he uses.”

— Reid said he didn’t talk to Kelly about hiring Shurmur, shooting down the theory that Reid had influenced that decision.