Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is not in favor of his team playing the Vikings in the preseason finale. He believes it would be better for them to practice against other opponents and get ready for Week One. The Chiefs are currently tied with the Vikings at 1-1 with one game left to play.
Getty Prior to the AFC Divisional playoff game against the Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Anthony Hitchens is introduced.
On Friday, Aug. 27, at 7 p.m. CDT, the Kansas City Chiefs will face the Minnesota Vikings in their preseason finale. The game is the last chance for both clubs to examine their rosters of 80 players and determine which 27 will have to be released before the regular season starts.
Because of the preseason’s changes this year — one game was eliminated and just three were played in total — each game is a unique experience for those watching, since we don’t know how much playing time each unit will get. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, on the other hand, offered us some insight into how much we can expect to see his starters play on Friday night at Arrowhead Stadium’s newly-designed GEHA Field.
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The First Half Will Be Played by the Starters
During his Wednesday news conference, Reid said of the preseason finale, “What we’ll do with this game is we’ll play the ones for the first half and then we’ll see what happens after that and go from there.” “Then the other men will step in and fill in,” says the narrator.
Patrick Mahomes, the great quarterback, is and will always be the anomaly in this scenario. Mahomes just played four snaps in the preseason opener against the San Francisco 49ers. He did, however, play 32 plays against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2. We knew Kansas City’s coaching staff wanted Mahomes to receive repetitions with his rebuilt offensive line going into the preseason. However, given the disparity in reps between the first and second games, we’re not sure how many snaps Mahomes will get versus the Vikings.
In the preseason finale, Reid was questioned about Mahomes’ playing time, but he refused to say how much the former MVP will play.
“We’ll see how it goes,” says the narrator. Reid stated, “He got a lot of snaps last game, maybe 33 snaps.” “That was a lengthy first half,” says the narrator. I didn’t expect 45 plays, but that’s OK. We needed the job, and he delivered.”
What Can We Anticipate?
Given Mahomes’ importance to the franchise, it’s safe to assume we won’t see him for the whole first half on Friday night. If he fails, like he did against the Cardinals, many drives — at most two — may be in his future. If, on the other hand, he comes out and is unable to move the offense down the field and score points, Mahomes may find himself on the bench after just one drive.
The starting offensive line, on the other hand, will most likely see a full half of football. Even if Mahomes isn’t in the game, Reid wants them to get repetitions with backup quarterback Chad Henne, who should see plenty of action this season if the Chiefs score as many points as we anticipate during the regular season and playoffs.
Reid mentioned a few things he’ll be looking for in the final preseason game at his Monday news conference this week.
Reid said, “There are always things to improve on.” “I didn’t believe we did a great job of staying on track. With the first group, we leapt a few of times, which is something you don’t want to do. Then there are the little details of your game that you can constantly improve—each individual player and coach, including me. We can all take a step forward and make things better.”
