Things are different in Kansas City.
For the first time in over two years, the Chiefs aren’t heading into the season as defending champs.
While much of offseason discourse surrounding Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Andy Reid has been about how they will respond to the thrashing put on them by the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, another important topic has been discussed.
The 18-game NFL schedule that is surely coming down the pipe, sooner rather than later.
Spoiler alert, the league’s best player isn’t a fan.
In an interview with CNBC Sport, Mahomes made his feelings clear on adding one more game to the schedule, while offering up a solution if that happens.
“I think that you’d have to find a way to have more bye weeks, more time spread out,” Mahomes told Alex Sherman of CNBC.
“Because, I mean, you’ve seen the amount of injuries that have kind of piled up there at the end of seasons, and you want to have the best players playing in the biggest games.
“And so if there were a way to get to 18 games, I’m not — I’m not a big fan of it. But if there were a way, I think you got to add some bye weeks in there to give more time for guys’ bodies.”
Cincinnati Bengals star quarterback Joe Burrow has also suggested a double-bye in the past, if the NFL were to add an additional game.
The season is long and hard enough as it is on the players’ bodies, so adding an 18th game will surely have to come with a second bye week.
It only makes sense.
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Meanwhile, Reid has sent a message to his team as the 2025 season approaches, specifically to the offense and wanting to kick it into high-gear right away. Just ask wide receiver Xavier Worthy.
“Coach Reid told us during OTAs Phase 1, ‘When you come back, get your hamstrings ready,’ ” Worthy told Kay Adams during an appearance on FanDuel TV’s “Up and Adams” show.
“So, we kind of knew that we were going to be going a little deep during practice. We kind of got our bodies and our minds ready for what we’re going to be doing in practice.
Reid wants to get that sour taste from last year’s ending out of their mouths, and he’s ready to start fast, and Worthy will be a big piece to that, with an expected jump in responsibility and production as he heads into Year 2.
“I feel like they started using me a lot underneath,” Worthy said, “and I can get started over the top because me and Pat are building that rapport together.
“We’re going to build it in training camp. We got it going at the end of the Super Bowl a little bit, so that was a great feeling to be able to connect deep towards the end of the year.”
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Worthy knows what his quarterback wants out of him.
“He really just wants you to get open,” Worthy said of Mahomes.
“But it’s really about understanding the route and what freedom you have in the route. Sometimes, you have a route that you don’t have freedom, and you have to run as is.
“Or, you have a little bit of freedom, but you have to stay on a little bit of timing.”
For the first time in what feels like forever, the Chiefs aren’t heading into the season as the hunted.
And that thought should terrify the rest of the league.
