The Kansas City Chiefs, under the guidance of Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, have been regular visitors to the NFL playoffs, making at least the AFC Championship game every year Patrick has been a starter.
That makes it six straight seasons of making the playoffs, and now seven, with the Chiefs again claiming the No. 1 seed and having home-field advantage for the postseason.
But this time of year isn’t for everyone. Players get tight and tense with the enormity of what is on the line proving to be too much sometimes, and that might be the case for some of the younger players on the Chiefs’ roster.
However, Reid has detailed how his veterans are helping navigate what will again be a pressure-packed playoff assault. And he also revealed a major change in the way KC is going about its practice business.
First, to the vets issue …
“The experience helps, especially with some of the younger guys to be able to talk to them and tell them about the urgency of this thing,” Reid said. “It is single elimination, that’s easier said than putting that in your brain and getting yourself right for every snap. You have to practice hard and aggressive, so you just got to make sure you really you stay focused and don’t let distractions in there the best you can.”
And to the practice sneak peak?
“We put the 1’s out there against each other, they really get competitive,” Reid said. “That’s kind of a fun thing to be a part of. It’s good for the guys. It’s good to get caught up like that on the speed part of it.”
So the 1’s against the 1’s … as happens in training camp but not otherwise normally.
Until now.
Reid’s tournament-related logic? “It is single elimination,” he said. “That’s easier said than putting that in your brain and getting yourself right for every snap that you have at practice to practice hard and aggressive with. You’ve just gotta make sure you really stay focused and don’t let distractions in there the best you can.”
With a few younger players not having tasted playoff football, they will need to lean on the host of veterans who have been here before.
There is no substitute for experience, and that is the one thing that the majority of this Kansas City team has in spades, and no doubt, that will be yet another advantage for Reid’s roster along with home-field advantage plus having a week of rest, too.
If Reid’s younger players are struggling to cope with the pressure of playoff football, they don’t have to look too far for help and guidance because the majority of the roster has been here before—and has been super successful.
