Kansas City, Mo. ? With minicamp over, the Chiefs are set to experience two major firsts when the team reports for training camp in late July.

The upcoming season marks the first time in 12 years the Chiefs have the same coaching staff for a third straight year.

“Continuity is a big thing,” coach Andy Reid said. “Dorse (general manager John Dorsey) has done a good job keeping players around here, too, so that helps.

“But we all kind of know as a coaching staff where we’re going, what direction we’re going in and I think that’s important.”

Continuity also applies to quarterback Alex Smith, who for the first time in his 11-year career has the same head coach, offensive coordinator (Doug Pederson) and quarterbacks coach (Matt Nagy) in three straight seasons.

That stability has made a difference for Smith, who hasn’t been in a consistent environment in consecutive years since his college career at Utah.

“You’re just so comfortable, you know what to expect coming into work,” Smith said. “But then on the field, it’s hard to quantify. I think all the little details add up over those couple of years that you’ve kind of memory banked, and then you’re out on the field and it’s not just you that’s further along, I think the reality is you have a bunch of guys around you that it’s the same case. All of sudden, they’re in their third year of the system and that’s a rarity in the NFL.”

Smith understands the scarcity after experiencing a head-spinning carousel of four head coaches, seven offensive coordinators and six quarterback coaches in eight seasons with the San Francisco 49ers before being traded to Kansas City in 2013.

The former first overall pick of the 2005 draft had his career stall in San Francisco, a period that didn’t go unnoticed to Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, who coached Smith at Utah.

“I think especially for a player like Alex, he’s a very cerebral guy that once he figures it out, in my opinion, there’s no stopping him,” Meyer said during a telephone interview.

“The problem is — the obvious — if you change coordinators and systems, and then all of sudden they were also going through a little bit of a talent issue there where they just weren’t very good on either side of the ball, and the first guy to take a hit is the quarterback.

“I was getting asked a lot of questions about that, ‘Why is Alex struggling?'” Meyer added. “And I kept thinking to myself, if Alex Smith can’t play quarterback in the NFL, then I will never have one. He’s a prototypical quarterback, great intelligence, arm delivery and the way he manages and leads a team.”