At a time when the Kansas City Chiefs want to be sprinting to the finish line, quarterback Patrick Mahomes fears the physical toll of playing three games in a span of 11 days will derail the two-time Super Bowl champions.
“You never want to play this amount of games in this short of time. It’s not great for your body,” said Mahomes of Kansas City’s upcoming Sunday-Saturday-Christmas Day (Wednesday) schedule combination. “But at the end of the day, it’s your job, your profession, you have to come to work and do it.”
The Chiefs begin the gauntlet of games Sunday in a Week 15 matchup at Cleveland. They return for a short week of preparation and a Saturday home game against the AFC South-leading Houston Texans, then play the Steelers at Pittsburgh on Christmas Day in the first scheduled NFL game on a Wednesday since 2012.
“It’s a unique situation,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who shared that he told the team to take one day at a time through the unprecedented stretch.
“The main thing is you get guys ready for the game. Give them a chance to get ready for the game. (Players are) going to do whatever you present to them. You try to help them out with that. Right now, we have a normal week right here. We have to take care of business here.”
When the season ends, the Chiefs will have played a regular-season game every day of the week except Tuesday. Kansas City beat the Las Vegas Raiders on Black Friday.
Injuries have caused havoc for the Chiefs this season. Current left tackle DJ Humphries (hamstring) was hurt Sunday night and required an MRI exam. He did not practice Wednesday.
Kansas City’s top two wide receivers Hollywood Brown (shoulder) and Rashee Rice (knee) have been out most of the season. Brown, Reid said Wednesday, is “getting close” to returning from a training camp injury. Top running back Isiah Pacheco missed Weeks 3-12 with a broken fibula.
Houston had a bye in Week 14 to rest for the daunting finishing stretch and largely the same scheduling challenges as the Chiefs. Houston hosts the Miami Dolphins on Sunday before the trek to play Kansas City six days later. The Texans are home on Christmas Day to play Baltimore.
Texans GM Nick Caserio broke down the logistics with a focus on limited practice time after the typical week of preparation for Miami.
“Then you kind of lose a day. We’re playing Saturday night. Then after that game, then you basically don’t practice. You have walk through in preparation. So, I think the focus for the players and coaches, especially early, will be Miami. We have other people and other resources allocated staff-wise kind of preparing, kind of looking ahead a little bit to provide the information to the coaches.
“All we can do is focus on Miami. And then when we get through the Miami game, then we kind of turn the page to the next – look, these are good football teams we’re playing. The next four games, good football teams. We’re either going to earn it, or we’re not. Not to oversimplify it, but that’s the truth.”
The Ravens (8-5) began the season at Kansas City and had a unique December bye in Week 14 before taking on a similarly unique challenge with a trip Sunday to play the Giants, then a Saturday afternoon (Dec. 21) rematch with division rival Pittsburgh in Baltimore. On Christmas Day, the Ravens draw a playoff rematch with the Texans.
From the time the Ravens kick off against the Giants in New Jersey, Baltimore will play two more times with 10 days.
“It’s a Sunday right now,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said of the upcoming stretch. “This is the season; it kind of begins now. The season is important to determine the important outcomes for the rest of the way – that’s what we’re focused on. We’ll be focusing on this game, putting everything we’ve got into it, and then we’ll go from there.”
The Steelers and Ravens had a 2020 regular-season game postponed multiple days to Wednesday during the COVID-19 pandemic.
