{"id":18919,"date":"2025-01-13T07:31:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T07:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=18919"},"modified":"2025-01-13T07:31:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T07:31:59","slug":"breaking-chiefs-announce-unexpected-change-ahead-of-nfl-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=18919","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING : Chiefs Announce Unexpected Change Ahead of NFL Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"l-article__header\"><\/header>\n<div class=\"l-article__meta\">\n<div class=\"l-article__meta-item l-article__meta-item--dates\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"l-article__content\">\n<div class=\"c-content entry-content\">\n<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption \">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2182037535-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2182037535-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2182037535-1.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-2182037535-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-img-load-time=\"1388\" data-dom-ready-time=\"1850\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-post-image-caption-text\">Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has made an unusual change as the team prepares for the NFL playoffs.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs\u00a0are enjoying a well-deserved bye week, which they earned by snagging the\u00a0top seed in the AFC\u00a0ahead of the playoffs. Of course, the guys aren\u2019t sitting around, streaming shows and eating donuts during their week off. They\u2019re focused on the playoffs and getting to the Super Bowl once again.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, January 10,\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid spoke to the press about how he changed the team\u2019s practice on Friday to help get ready for the NFL playoffs.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Kansas City Chiefs Coach Andy Reid Makes Change<\/h2>\n<p>During the team\u2019s Friday press conference, Reid made a change that doesn\u2019t happen often during the regular season by having his No. 1 offense, guys like\u00a0Patrick Mahomes\u00a0and\u00a0Travis Kelce, compete against his No. 1 defense. Usually, during the season, the team has their starting offense and defense practice compete with backup players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are all competitive guys, but put the 1s out there against each other, they really get competitive,\u201d\u00a0Reid said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of a fun thing to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"AdThrive_Content_1_desktop\" class=\"adthrive-ad adthrive-content adthrive-content-1 adthrive-ad-cls\" data-google-query-id=\"\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/18190176,25816858\/AdThrive_Content_1\/5ad7479721520f50ab7da88e_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"google-ad-manager-fallback-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>So, why did Reid make this unusual change? He says that the upcoming games are obviously make or break, so he wants to keep his players as primed as possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s good for the guys,\u201d Reid said of putting his top players against each other. \u201cIt\u2019s good to get caught up like that on the speed part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that, \u201cYou have to make sure your game\u2019s at the peak each time you play.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"AdThrive_Content_2_desktop\" class=\"adthrive-ad adthrive-content adthrive-content-2 adthrive-ad-cls\" data-google-query-id=\"\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/18190176,25816858\/AdThrive_Content_2\/5ad7479721520f50ab7da88e_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"google-ad-manager-fallback-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As for the kind of motivating talks Reid is giving to his players, he said that he\u2019ll be talking to them about staying focused and knowing what\u2019s at stake, which is especially important for younger players who haven\u2019t been in these kinds of playoff situations before.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>\u2018Make Sure You Really Stay Focused,\u2019 Chiefs\u2019 Reid Says<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt is single elimination,\u201d Reid added about the playoffs. \u201cThat\u2019s 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\u2019ve just got to make sure you really stay focused and don\u2019t let distractions in there the best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Kansas City Chiefs will take on one of four possible opponents for their first playoff game this season: the\u00a0Los Angeles Chargers,\u00a0Houston Texans,\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0and\u00a0Denver Broncos. The lowest-remaining seed of those teams will compete against the Chiefs on either January 18 or 19 in the AFC\u2019s Divisional Round at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. In addition to their bye week, the Chiefs also scored home playoff games, thanks to being\u00a0No. 1 in the AFC, so they won\u2019t have to hit the road.<\/p>\n<div id=\"AdThrive_Content_3_desktop\" class=\"adthrive-ad adthrive-content adthrive-content-3 adthrive-ad-cls\" data-google-query-id=\"\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/18190176,25816858\/AdThrive_Content_3\/5ad7479721520f50ab7da88e_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"google-ad-manager-fallback-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>What\u2019s cool for the Chiefs is that they\u2019ve already played all the teams in the playoffs, which Reid pointed out on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, you got to go back though, (and) you can\u2019t be content with that, so the four teams that we have a chance to potentially play in a couple weeks,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to hammer those out, and we\u2019re going to continue to do that until we find out what the results are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid Press Conference | JANUARY 10, 2025\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5D6pzoKi-AM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"AdThrive_Content_4_desktop\" class=\"adthrive-ad adthrive-content adthrive-content-4 adthrive-ad-cls\" data-google-query-id=\"\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/18190176,25816858\/AdThrive_Content_4\/5ad7479721520f50ab7da88e_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"google-ad-manager-fallback-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-youtube-com\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-content entry-content\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"l-article__author-bio\">\n<p><strong>Anne Erickson<\/strong>\u00a0Anne Erickson is an award-winning reporter covering the NFL and college football for Heavy.com. Erickson has years of experience covering the NFL and additional sports, and her work has been published via ESPN, Fox Sports and more. She has interviewed some of the biggest names in sports, including Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff. Erickson also hosts several podcasts and is a Detroit-based radio host.\u00a0More about Anne Erickson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Getty Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has made an unusual change as the team prepares for the NFL playoffs. The\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs\u00a0are enjoying a&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-news","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING : Chiefs Announce Unexpected Change Ahead of NFL Playoffs - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=18919\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING : Chiefs Announce Unexpected Change Ahead of NFL Playoffs - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Getty Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has made an unusual change as the team prepares for the NFL playoffs. 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