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Clark Hunt's confidence in Andy Reid, John Dorsey never faltered

In retrospect, the words of Chiefs owner Clark Hunt appear prescient. He voiced support for his general manager John Dorsey and head coach Andy Reid, despite his team headed toward what appeared to be a hopeless season.

And yet, before they played their Week 8 tilt against the Lions in London -- with his team strapped to a 2-5 record after being buried by a five-game losing streak -- Hunt expressed "full confidence in Andy and John Dorsey," before adding nothing would change his opinion.

Since then, they've won four straight for a total of five and put themselves in the playoff race. Asked earlier in the week during the Dallas league meetings about those comments, Hunt told NFL.com that regardless of how the season turned out, he would still have the same positive thoughts on his top two football people.

"I just feel very, very good about both of them and the job that they've done in the three years they've been with us," Hunt said, "and I would've had confidence had the season gone south at that point that they would've been able to turn it around in the offseason. That's why I made the comments. Obviously I'm very excited that things have turned around and we'd beaten Pittsburgh the week before and we beat Detroit that day, so we were at the beginning stages of getting better. But even without that, I fully support them."

His support was justified with the Chiefs' 45-10 thumping of Detroit before handing a couple of beat-downs to the Broncos and Chargers. Heading into Sunday's showdown with the Raiders, Hunt credited the team for "battling back. We're right in the thick of it, which is exciting."

Hunt, who rarely speaks during the season and broke that silence first to support Reid and Dorsey in London, was asked if his comments altered the mindset of his team's leaders.

"I really don't think it had crossed their mind that I might not be in their corner," Hunt said, "because I talk with them and meet with them on a frequent basis and they know where I stand."

They made the playoffs in Dorsey and Reid's first year, missed last year at 9-7, and are in the mix again this year. Even when it seemed the season would spiral out of control, Hunt said he judged their performance based on the entire resume. In today's day and age, the patience is paying off.

"It was the job they've done since being with us in 2013," he continued. "That's what it was. I wasn't making a decision based on, at that point, 6-7 games. I was making a decision based on the almost 40 games that they'd coached or been the GM. It was really the body of work I felt very positive about it."

Follow Ian Rapoport on Twitter @RapSheet.

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